“Clearly,” he said.
Something shifted between us in that instant. The easy camaraderie we’d always had was gone, replaced by a tension so thick I could feel it brushing against my skin.
I swallowed hard, achingly aware of the marks on my body, the five matching sets of teeth prints that were now a permanent part of my skin.
And suddenly, I was achingly aware of him.
He was just as muddy as I was. His clothes were streaked with it. His hair was a mess, and there was a cut on his cheekbone that was already healing.
I glanced down.
I’d seen him in all states of disarray over the years, but I’d never seen him quite like this.
He washard.
I could see it through the fabric of his trousers, an unmistakable ridge that he made no attempt to hide. My stomach tightened as I stared. I couldn’t look away.
Then I made the mistake of looking back up.
His gaze was hot. Unwavering. And focused entirely on me.
It wasn’t the look of a guardian.
It wasn’t the look of a friend.
It was the look of a wolf who had found what he’d been hunting.
His mate.
He took a step toward me, then reached out and his fingers brushed my jaw in a touch so light it was almost a question. Then they wrapped around the back of my neck, possessive and firm. His thumb stroked over my pulse point, right over one of the bite marks left on me. It might have been his. I wasn’t sure.
My body tightened in a response that was immediate and undeniable. My nipples hardened, pebbling into tight points that felt suddenly too sensitive against the cool air. A deeper, more insistent heat bloomed between my legs, a slick, welcome throb that made my hips ache to move.
His gaze flicked down, watching me react, watching the flush spread across my chest. A slow smile touched his mouth, and his eyes turned ravenously dark.
“The scent of your arousal is quite strong,” he mused, “for me being a beta bitch.”
My face burned hot, a mortified blush rising so fast it made my head swim. I brought my hands up and instinctively tried to cover myself, trying to hide the evidence of how he affected me.
Then I stopped.
I let them fall.
A strange sense of calm descended over me, a shift inside me as absolute and decisive as the shift from wolf to human. I looked at him, at the hard ridge in his trousers, at the primal hunger in his eyes that he no longer bothered to conceal.
I lifted my chin.
“So it is,” I said, my voice low and steady. A smile touched my own lips, like his, but sharper, like a scythe. “And your cock is quite hard, for a man who’s supposed to be watching over me.”
He stared at me for a long second. Then a rough laugh broke from his chest.
“Fair enough.”
His other hand came up to grip my waist, pulling me flush against him. The fabric of his pants was rough on my bare skin, and the solid press of his erection against my belly sent a jolt straight through me. He was so much bigger than me, a wall of heat and muscle, and the scent of him—earth, sweat, and something that was just… distinctly Griff filled my lungs.
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” he murmured, his thumb stroking the mark on my neck, sending sparks skittering down my spine.
“I think I’m starting to get a picture,” I breathed, pulling my lower lip between my teeth.
