Hunter backed up a few steps, and I followed, as if tethered to his energy. I was helpless to fight the swirling dominance that surrounded him, which should terrify me.
I was still an omega, but there was no will within me to fight his control.
Giving him all the power.
When the door closed behind me, I jumped about a foot in the air, and his hands were there to hold me steady. “Tell me everything that happened today, Emmeline.”
Oh fuck. He’d full-named me.
“N-nothing happened.”
Hunter broke my brain, and I hated how I always looked like a bumbling fool in front of him. Drawing in a deep breath and near drowning in his addictive scent, I forced a mental image of my mom and her alphas.
Forced myself to remember what they’d taken from her.
It was a sobering memory which gave me the mental fortitude to stiffen my resolve and pull myself together. Stepping out of Hunter’s hold, I cleared my throat. “Work was fine. Bradley’s an asshole, there’s no denying that, but he didn’t do anything inappropriate.”
Hunter looked unimpressed as he crossed his arms. “Being an asshole is inappropriate.”
“For a shifter, it’s almost par for the course.” Not completely true now that I’d met actual decent shifters in this city.
“Why were you crying, then?” His voice grew deeper, his gaze probing in a way that left me in tatters.
There was no good reason to reveal how vulnerable that hug made me. “Even shifters cry,” I said flippantly. “It’s not a big deal.”
Hunter closed the distance between us, and I’d never felt as small in my life as I did in his shadow. “I’ll accept a lot of bratty behavior from you, little omega. But don’t ever lie to me.”
Goddess save me. His rumbled command had my legs weakening, but I refused to reveal that to the alpha. He could never know how my body capitulated under his control.
Resisting the urge to run from the predator, who’d be on me in seconds, I shored up my fortitude and met his piercing gaze. “Are we done with this conversation?”
Hunter rubbed his right hand across his face, and in my panic over being here I realized I’d forgotten to do my usual stalking of his bandage. Whichwas gone, and in its place he bore a new tattoo.
I felt the scrunch of my eyebrows as I tried to comprehend what I saw.
Four dark letters marked his skin:MINE.Below this cursive script was a detailed open jaw of a wolf, fangs visible as if it lunged for an attack. The word and wolf’s jaw were angled in a way that followed the curve of his thumb to his pointer finger.
In my fascinated confusion, I’d failed to notice Hunter sliding his hand up and around my throat, fingers flexing against the sides as he collared me. Using that hold, he drew me toward a mirror on the entrance wall, to show me exactly what he’d done.
ThatMINE, while backwards in the mirror, would be clear to everyone else when his hand collared my throat, and with the open mouth of the wolf, positioned like a claiming mate bite, there’d be no doubt who I belonged to.
My legs weakened, and I barely held on to a cry, as my body reacted. Hunter dragged me against him, and my nipples felt as hard as glass rubbing against my shirt. Oh fuck. Fucking fuck. A moan sat on the edge of my tongue, but I kept it from spilling free.
“You told me you needed a collar with my claim on it, little omega,” he drawled, applying just enough pressure that I groaned. “I quite enjoy the idea of everyone knowing who you belong to.”
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.
My pussy fluttered as my senses spasmed, and my head filled with strobe lights. He did nothing except grip my throat, but it felt like he touched meeverywhere.
This dominant claiming called to the parts of me that desperately craved a pack and mates. It called to the part that found my mates the four hottest alphas in existence, each of them terrifyingly different in their perfection.
Through my tightly pressed lips, a sound escaped, and I knew it was a moan. Unlike before, I couldn’t keep it contained, and just as I hoped Hunter wouldn’t notice, his eyes darkened, the gold expanding into shimmering starlight.
“Tell me what happened at work.” His fingers flexed on my throat.
“No!” I rasped, clawing to keep the sliver of control I still retained. “I’m not your puppet to command, Alpha Hurricane. I’m. Not. Yours.”
Liar.Such a fucking liar, but I had to at least try. When death came calling, I could say I did everything in my power to fight fate.
