Mine.
All mine.
I yanked at the chains. Frothed at the mouth. Needed to get to him. Had to claim him with my teeth, with the weight of me caging him. Needed to bury myself inside him.
Needed.
Him.
Mine.
My mate.
Fear flashed across Elijah’s face. I wanted to break free from these chains. Comfort him. He needed me as badly as I needed him. I thrashed again. Howled into the room.
He cocked his head. Took a step closer. The color was quickly returning to his face. He was growing more courageous. More curious.
He held a hand out. I wanted it in mine. Against me. I wanted him. I yanked at the chains. The anchors on the wall creaked at the strain. A little bit more, and I’d be free.
I’d be able to have him.
Want him.
Need him.
Fuck him.
Devour him.
Love him.
I howled again. I wanted him to understand me, but hejust stood there, his hands balled up into tight fists at his side. I had to stop.
No.
Had to get to him.
Eli raised his arm. I snarled. Spittle flew through the air. The wall cracked behind me. I was desperate to get to him. To my mate. He was my one. My only. He?—
He tossed the purple bag down at my feet. It popped open. The sickly sweet smell of wolfsbane and vervain blocked out the intoxicating scent of my fated mate.
Then, moments later, darkness erased everything else.
My mouth tasted like iron.I licked my chapped lips. My tongue ran over my sharp, elongated canines. My hands and ankles were still bound to the wall. The chains clinked and dragged as I stretched, my body reawakening to its human side while still in the partial grips of my primal side.
Sunlight crept in through the window. It was the light blue haze of early morning. Memories of last night started to crystallize. Seeing Eli’s initial fear at my were form and watching him as the fear dissipated, like a puddle of water evaporating on a hot summer day. He’d grown curious, had come closer, had nearly…
The blanket on the daybed rustled. He was still here.
Of course he was still here.
He rolled over and slowly opened his eyes. They found mine and fluttered wide open. “You’re awake. And back to normal… kind of?” Eli said as he sat up, the blanket falling off him, revealing he had fallen asleep shirtless. Seeing the toned lines of his muscular chest made my insatiable hunger roar to life.
He was right. I wasn’t fully back to being a human. That would come in a few hours. For now, my body was still being ruled by the moon. My ears were pointed, my teeth were sharper, my face more angular, and the irises of my eyes tinged scarlet red. My hands ended in claws that could slice a throat open with the flick of my wrist. There was black hair across my chest, down my stomach, and my frame was even more muscular than usual.
Eli took it all in, but his gaze settled between my legs, on the evidence of how feral I still felt.
My cock ached. Badly. I pushed my hips forward and dropped my head back against the wall, chains clinking. I couldn’t even answer him, only groan. The mornings after a full moon shift were always intensely charged with sexual energy. Lust didn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling. My balls felt full to bursting, precum already leaking and dripping onto the floor.
