Neither of us says a word. He flips over, settling his body over mine, and takes my mouth with his. I groan into his mouth as all of him presses into me. I’m still just in his sweatpants, and with him just in his underwear, I can feel him quickly getting hard between my legs.
His mouth moves from mine to my jaw and then down to my neck as I run my hands along his back.
“I need you,” I whisper into the dark. “I—I still love you.”
He pushes up onto his elbows, his glowing eyes finding mine. “I love you, too. I do. But I can’t?—”
“I’m not afraid of you, Emmett. I don’t care what you are.”
“It’s not just that. I…” He sighs, setting his forehead against my collarbone for a second before lifting it again. “I can’t seem to get turned on without shifting. I can’t get angry or hurt or impatient or anything else, but at least with those things, I’m not likely to be on top of you. Or inside you. Or… It doesn’t matter. But we can’t be intimate. At all.”
I reach my hands up and frame his face. “What is it like for you in there? You’re still aware of everything? You communicated with me.”
He nods. “I’m still me in every way but my body. I mean, some of my instincts are a little different. I don’t exactly havethe urge to sit and read a book when I’m a wolf. And I haven’t figured out quite how to make my mouth form actual words. But I’m conscious and aware.”
“And horny.”
His brow furrows. “What?”
“Earlier, when you shifted, your dick was?—”
He pushes up onto his knees. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
I sit up, like I’m trying somehow to stay close to him. “You didn’t. It was… I don’t know, interesting, I guess. Do you… have the urge to mate, when you’re like that?”
His eyes glow brighter, so bright that if I didn’t already know what he was, this would be the dead giveaway. “Yes,” he growls. “It makes me want to mate.”
I hum. “Then maybe you should.” I reach down and unbutton the top few buttons on the flannel I’m wearing. “Maybe it’s time to lean in, Emmett.”
His eyes fall to my hands, and when I tug the flannel open, he growls low in his chest. “Brynne,” he says, like a warning.
“Emmett,” I say back. An invitation. I’m surprised by my lack of hesitation. I’ve always been comfortable with my sexuality, and if there was anyone I could fully be myself with in bed, it was Emmett.
But now I’m basically asking him to fuck me… as a wolf. And I have no idea whether or not I’m crossing a line.
Emmett bares his teeth at me, and I watch as they get sharper. “You better be sure, Brynne.”
I bite my lip to hold back a smile. “I’m sure.”
His eyes glow once, brighter than ever. “Then you better run.”
Chapter 8
If Emmettever gave me a command like that outside of the bedroom, I’d be in his face in a second.
But when he commands me to run as he’s shifting, and I know what’s going to happen, I don’t hesitate. I take off.
I don’t know anything about the woods outside of Emmett’s cabin, but I feel confident that if it wasn’t safe, he wouldn’t have told me to run.
I throw open the back door of the cabin and take off into the night, my shirt half-unbuttoned and my feet bare. It’s cold, but not cold enough to be alarming, and after a few minutes of running through the mud, I’m halfway to sweating already.
I hear a snarl behind me and feel fear spike through me. I know I’m safe, but it’s not like I’ve ever been in this situation before, being chased through the woods by anyone, much less my husband who is now, apparently, a werewolf.
I run faster, even though I know there’s no way I can outrun him. His massive paws are barreling toward me. I can hear him coming up fast, and my stomach flips over just before Emmett leaps over me.
When he lands on the soft, wet earth in front of me, I gasp. His eyes are like lanterns in the night, two glowing gems thatfocus on me as he snarls. He paces toward me, and all I can think about are those nights with Emmett in our apartment back in New York. The way he would take me apart and put me back together, fuck me until I was a blathering mess.
I want that back. I want my husband back.
