I can't deny how much her desperation turns me on, but I pull my hand out from between her thighs as she moans in protest and grab her wrists to pin her arms over her head.
Grinding my hips into her, she moans with pleasure as the friction works her clothed womanhood, heat rising between her thighs as she stains the front of my pants with her slick through her panties. With both her wrists secured in one hand, I grab her panties and rip the flimsy fabric, tearing it off her in one swift motion that has her breaking the kiss and gasping for air.
Just as I'm about to plunge a finger through her depths and reclaim her lips, I notice how much darker her eyes have become, like raven-black pits that seize me and hold me still. Where I'm clutching her wrists, a pulse of energy shoots through my fingertips, but it's unlike the energy of the mate bond I've felt countless times before.
Frowning, I step back, and Delilah glares at me with rage on her face, her eyes wildly sinister.
“What are you doing?!” she roars, her voice sounding different, darker and menacing, the tone pulsing deeper and higher as if it's not her own. “Why did you stop?!”
“Delilah, calm down,” I try appealing to her, but when she takes a step into the light, I notice a bolt of black coursing through the vein in her neck.
“Don't tell me what to do!” she bellows, her eyes appearing like dark, hellish pits, as if the black vein is running behind her optic nerves and turning her irises black.
“Delilah, something is wrong. Please, you have to—”
A treacherous snarl rips through Delilah's throat just as she leaps forward and attacks me, her wolf claws distending from her fingers as she knocks me onto the ground and crashes into me. She's crouching over me, raising her hands with her claws out, swiping and slashing at me.
Intercepting every incoming lash, I dodge her claws, my head snapping from side to side.
“Delilah! Stop!” I try pleading, but to no avail when she responds with a merciless growl, her arms flailing as she tries to strike me.
My natural defenses kick in, and my wolf claws protrude from my fingers when my inner wolf senses the danger. I try hanging on to the fact that this woman who's attacking me is my mate, my wife, but she doesn't seem to care. Wild and rabid, she's slicing through the air, saliva flying out from the corners of her mouth like an untamed animal.
“Delilah! Stop!” I muster up my courage with caution as I fight back, grabbing one wrist to stop her. Just as I manage to get upright, her free hand comes flying in from the left. I raise myhand to stop her, but she grazes her arm on my sharp claws and whimpers.
Her tension subsides, and her body turns limp as she's about to fall back. I catch her in my arms just before she hits the ground, her right arm hanging out to the side as she bleeds from where my claws tore her flesh.
My eyes widen with horror when I notice her blood isn't red as it should be, but as black and gruesome as the vein in her neck had been. That vein clears now, her eyes returning to their usual warm glow of hazel as she bleeds out the dark energy that consumed her. She takes a deep breath as if she'd just come back from the dead, meeting my eyes with tears filling hers.
“Hunter…?” she murmurs fearfully, grabbing my collar with desperation. “What—what happened?”
She turns her face to the side and notices the pool of black, grimy mass she'd bled out, and gasps.
Pulling her securely into my arms, I breathe a sigh of relief as I hold her close, tightly, just grateful that she’s herself again.
“It's fine,” I reassure her, planting a long kiss at the top of her head. “All that matters is that I got you back to me,” I say with utter relief as I lift the arm that had been cut, my heart aching from hurting her.
I lift her arm and press a kiss to the gash, brows furrowing as I stare at her face that has now turned soft again.
“I'm sorry that I did this,” I apologize, and Delilah bursts into a soft, heart-wrenching sob.
“I-I remember what happened…” she whimpers. “I'm sorry for attacking you.”
“It's not your fault,” I assure her as I pull her closer and press a kiss to her forehead. “It's not your fault.”
Chapter 23 - Delilah
“It wasn't Delilah's fault,” Hunter repeats to our friends, sitting forward with his elbows propped on his thighs as he glances at me. “Something took over her, possessed her, and turned her rabid in that moment.”
“Dark magic,” I whisper as I drop my gaze to my palms, feeling the imaginary remnants of the dark magic in my veins.
Since bleeding it out last night, I haven't felt the darkness. All that remains is the bandage tied around my arm to cover the wound where Hunter accidentally cut me with his wolf claws.
If I hadn't bled out the dark energy, I don't know what I would have done to him. I might have done something I would have regretted for the rest of my life.
“If Hunter wasn't there, Goddess knows what would have happened,” I sigh, only gaining the courage to look up at our friends when Hunter takes my hand and laces his fingers with mine.
I toss him a sheepish smile before looking at the rest of the room, eyes staring back at me with deep concern.
