Dammit.
"What the fuck are you doing? Why do you never listen? Why are you such a pain in my ass?" Zilo’s rant goes on and on for several seconds as I blink up at him.
If he would so kindly remove his big fucking paw, I’d explain.
But he doesn’t.
Instead, the beast of a man grips my hips and tosses me roughly. I land against his shoulder with a heavy jostle and a hard thump that knocks the air from my lungs. He hauls me just a few feet before I react swiftly with fight or flight.
And you guessed it: my elbow jars into the back of his head, sending him forward just enough for my right knee to slam into his face. A grunt and a curse growl out of him before he shoves me off of him.
My feet barely skid against the brick before finding the balance I so desperately need, and then his hands are on me once more. He grips my wrists, but I twist away from him in a huff of rage.
“Fucking stop manhandling me!” My hair flings into my face as I glare up at him.
He reaches for me again. “Get inside before you get yourself killed.”
My foot lifts with my knee intent on jarring against his stomach, but he catches my thigh in the blink of an eye. I’m pressed so intimately against his hard frame we probably look more like dance partners than enemies.
A deadly smirk twitches at his lips.
He’s good.
Very good indeed.
A shiver of excitement and power courses through my veins, but I barely have a second to consider it. Because he pulls at my leg until I’m forced off my feet. But instead of falling to my ass, I leap.
And he catches me. My other leg wraps around his smooth, lean hips, and he surprisingly holds onto my thighs as my hands curl around his neck.
My nails dig in as I squeeze ever so lightly. His chin lifts to look up at me like I’m a goddess he’s always worshipped but never spoken of. It’s like he never dared to whisper how sacred his faith was for fear that others might want to bask in my divine attention.
“Iwasgoing inside, you feral fuck!”
The smirk on his lips grows, and it’s a heart-pounding appearance of beauty. My fingers twitch against soft locks to feel his beard against my palm. I almost don’t want to strangle the life out of him in this moment...
Almost.
A spark of sweet caressing magic singes between us where my skin meets his. Moonlight haloes us. His gaze slips slowly to my lips. Lust is alive in thrilling adrenaline like I’ve never felt.
Zilo is different.
He ignites lust and anger and happiness and fury all at once within me, and it feels like too much. It’s too terrifying.
So to balance it all back out, I fling my head forward and slam my skull against his.
"Fuck!" he roars.
Then I’m slammed to the ground. My back hits so hard, I feel the spreading pain everywhere. He’s on top of me at once, his arms grappling with mine. The roughness of his hands around my shoulders, my biceps, my wrists, and every other flailing part of me surges rage all through my body. The snapping, crawling sensation of something else not quite myself tears through me until I feel the fangs of a beast within snarling at my lips.
My wolf.
No. Not my wolf . . .
My beast.
That beast lashes out at Zilo with more strength than I’ve ever felt rippling through my muscles. Zilo heaves, and his grip on me falters as I shove right back at him, claws growing where fine filed nails once were
The aggression and frustration in my friend’s eyes shift in a matter of half a second when those talons sink into the meaty flesh of his shoulders. His fingers loosen around my wrists, and the hesitancy in his deep green eyes is the closest to fear that I’ve ever seen in him.
