Nick.
His name fractured something within me.
Heat surged from my wrist, shooting through my veins with the heat and strength of a wildfire. The mark blazed, its burn delicious and somehow alive. My body ached with it, every nerve attuned to him. His scent deepened, wrapping tighter around us until I could taste it on my tongue.
Don’t you dare,I warned myself, but the thought came and went with the wind.
My fingers dug into his wrist, grounding me in the moment’s fragile edge. My voice came out rough. “Why were you following me?”
His eyes flickered, voice a low rasp. “I—I don’t know.” Shame and confusion threaded through his words. “Something inside me just… took over. Then I was there. Watching you.” His chest rose and fell, then he whispered, “He was… called to you.”
The space between us pulled taut, humming with instinct.
That warmth I’d been fighting at my wrist coiled low, molten and alive. My gaze betrayed me, caught on the stubble on his jaw, the damp hair sticking to his forehead, the curve of his throat as it bobbed. The urge to lean down, totaste, burned through me. His pupils dilated, lips parting, breath mixing with mine.
“Is this… normal?” His voice was soft, unsteady. “Does this happen to all of you?”
That one word,you, snapped something inside me. Did he really think he wasn’t part of us now?
His cock pressed against my thigh, the heat of it searing my skin, and my breath caught. My wolf took that moment to flood my mind with visions of tangled limbs, grass beneath bare skin, and the scrape of bark against my back. My thighs trembled, my exhale shaky as I tried to get a grip on myself. Every muscle in my body coiled tight, ready to spring.
"Sometimes.” I gulped. “It's normal for us wolves to let our instincts help make our decisions, to lead us to the right outcome." The words came out steady even though my nails were digging crescents into the earth. I bit back the truth. I didn't want to tell him that I'd never lost control before, not when it felt like I was about to lose it now.
My arms trembled. Sweat beaded at my temples. In the back of my mind, my wolf's voice rose to a howl.Take him. Now. Here.
"It's just instinct?” The desperation in his question had me tilting my head before he added, “Something that doesn't mean anything else?"
His gaze dropped to my bare chest, lingering there. His tongue darted across his bottom lip, there and gone in a heartbeat. Between us, his cock twitched, and I realized what he meant.Ahhhh. So, he has a hard time sifting through his wants versus his wolf’s.
“No,” I said, wanting to see what he would do if I gave him an out. “It doesn't need to mean anything beyond what it is."
?*The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. I could practically feel my wolf rolling her eyes at me.
My chest tightened, ribs constricting around lungs that suddenly couldn't get enough air. Everything in me knew whatever happened next would change things, but the blood thundering in my ears drowned out the warning.
His jaw worked. His fingers flexed at his sides, curling and uncurling. The tendons in his neck stood out like cords.
I had started to pull back, not into being with someone who didn’t want it, when I heard him growl, "Fuck it."
His hand shot behind my neck, fingers threading through my hair, then he yanked me down hard and fast. Our lips crashed together, opposing waves in the ocean, violent and unyielding.
He tasted like desperation, longing, and something darker I couldn't quite put my finger on. Whatever it was, I devoured it. Pressing closer, I tried to swallow what haunted him and replaceit with the heat building between us. My wolf surged forward, clawing its way through my control.
I ground my hips against him, already slick and aching for more. A growl rumbled up from his chest, vibrating through my mouth and straight down my spine. My eyes fluttered as I swallowed it, keeping it for myself.
My wrist pulsed, sharp, insistent, demanding my attention. Just as I was going to look, he slipped his hand between us, gripping himself before dragging the head of his cock across my clit. Slow. Deliberate.
More.The thought exploded through me.All of him. I want it. I need it.
Nick's hands clamped onto my ass, lifted me up before I had a second thought, and slammed me down onto his cock.
Stars burst behind my eyelids. My spine arched, head thrown back. The stretch burned, pleasure and pain twisting together until I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
A phantom ache from last night flared. Zeth's name flickered through my mind, and I could sense the pesky feelings of pain and hurt flaring up. Before any feelings could settle, Nick thrust up, rough fingers finding my clit, slamming all those feelings back into the box that held them.
His hoarse voice barked out, "Don't think of anything else but me. It's my dick you're on."
The words scraped out of him, raw and possessive. Zeth's image sank back into my memory, and I focused on the warmth blooming in my chest, unfamiliar and… terrifying.
