Menace groaned, low and primal, as though he could sense my surrender. His grip softened, pulling me closer, his hands moving to my waist, my hips, branding me in new ways. I arched into him, craving more, craving everything.
His breath was hot against my neck, his lips tracing a line down my throat.
“Savannah.” My name sounded different when he said it. Less like a threat, more like a promise.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t hold on to anything but the press of his body and the demand of his touch. “Bridger,” I gasped, the name almost a plea.
We staggered together, a messy tangle of limbs and lust, neither willing to let go. I pulled him to me with every bit of strength I had, afraid that if I let go I’d lose myself completely.
And I wanted that. Wanted the reckless abandon that only he could give me. Wanted to forget who I was and remember only who I was with him.
He pushed me harder into the wall, harder into the truth of what we were. The intensity was a live thing between us, coiling and twisting, and the heat of it burned away the last of my doubts.
We kissed like it was the only thing keeping us alive. Like every breathless moment was borrowed from the chaos that surrounded us.
My anger melted, consumed by something much more dangerous. I wrapped myself around him, pulled him impossibly closer, wanting the risk of it, the edge of it, more than I’d ever wanted safety.
Menace. His name thrummed in my veins, in my bones, in every part of me that had been empty for too long.
I didn’t care that I was living with him now. Didn’t care that he made the decision for me. I didn’t care because he was right. I wasn’t safe on my own, not with Declan’s reach longer than I ever imagined.
But here, pressed between him and the wall, claimed by the fierceness of his desire, I felt untouchable. I felt wild.
And more than anything, I felt his.
Chapter 8
Menace
Athread of madness licked the edges of my thoughts as I claimed her mouth again, each breath between kisses a desperate oath. “Savannah,” I whispered against her lips, “tell me you’re mine.” Her hands dug into my back, pulling me tighter, daring me to swallow her whole. Her body said yes in a hundred frantic ways, but I needed more. I stopped. Hauled myself back to sanity and made her say it, the words like broken glass. “Tell. Me. You’re. Mine.”
Her voice was a flame, scorching my doubts. “Yours,” she said. “Now and always.”
Her confession curled around me like smoke, choking what little restraint I had left. The fire in her words seared my need to possess her. I lifted her from the floor and pressed her against the wall, felt her pulse like gunfire beneath my lips. She was mine in ways I never thought possible, her body moving with mine, every shiver and sigh a language I’d almost forgotten how to speak.
“You’re so goddamn beautiful,” I rasped. “Say it again. I can’t hear it enough. This feels like a fucking dream.”
Her wolf flared beneath her skin. I could feel it calling to mine, setting my own wild instincts loose. It was there in the ragged edges of her breathing, in that tremor that wasn’t fear but longing.My teeth grazed her neck, the temptation of a claiming bite so strong I had to tear myself away.
“You’re not dreaming,” she gasped, her hands everywhere, fanning the heat between us. I was so fucking close to losing control.
“You need to understand that Bronc might be the Alpha of this pack. But I’m the Alpha of this house. Of our home. I won’t be gentle with you.” I growled, pressing harder into her.
The fight in her bled into something else, a complete and willing surrender. She arched toward me, her head falling back, exposing the line of her throat like an offering. “Menace,” she whispered, and my name was all I needed.
“Tell me it’s what you want.” My grip was fierce on her hips, and I had to dig deep for the strength to wait.
Her lashes fluttered, those wild green eyes boring into mine. The submission in her gaze did things to me I didn’t know I could feel. “Everything,” she said, and the words wrapped around my wolf like chains, binding and freeing me in the same instant. “I submit to you. Take me. Make me yours.”
Everything but the two of us disappeared. The looming threat of her father, pack intrigue and problems. There was only this: the feel of my body on hers, the taste of her skin, the unbreakable claim I’d stake. My lips moved over hers again, and my voice was an oath that went deeper than words.
“Once I start, I won’t stop,” I said, a promise as much to myself as to her.
The way she clung to me told me she’d never want me to.
The world blurred as I carried her, nothing more than shadow and pulse and frantic need. Our bodies fit together in a rhythm too wild to be real. Her lips traced patterns across my neck as I took the stairs two at a time. “Now,” I groaned, “Savannah, I can’t wait.” Her laughter was a sweet curse, and I knew I was doomed. The bedroom door slammed against the wall. I set her down and simply stared at her. She was the most beautiful woman I’d everlaid my eyes on. Dark auburn hair hung in loose curls almost to her waist. Lightly freckled porcelain skin faintly pebbled under my touch.
“I need those clothes off. Now.” I told her. More of a command than a request, but she followed immediately by unbuttoning her top. I noticed her hands shaking, so I took them in mine as she fussed with a button.
