He moved so fast she barely saw it, his hands gripping her upper arms, pulling her close until they were chest to chest. His eyes blazed gold, his wolf rising to the surface. "My wolf has claimed you as mate. From the moment I caught your scent on the dock, it's been howling for you. Every instinct I have screams to throw you down and mount you and knot you until you can't remember your own name."
Her breath caught. Her body flooded with heat, with need, with the desperate urge to bare her throat and submit.
"That’s what I want.”
She whimpered.
“But my wolf has been wrong before," he continued, his grip tightening.
He released her so suddenly she stumbled. By the time she caught her balance, he was already at the door.
"Your heat will hit tomorrow, maybe sooner. You are going nowhere. There is not escape from it or from me.”
“But you said...”
He cut her off. “I'll chain myself in the hold. Gris will take care of you." A pause. "But stay away from the forbidden door.Whatever it whispers to you, whatever it promises, don't listen. It's the only way you survive this heat without me."
Then he was gone, the door slamming behind him.
Jeanne stood in the middle of the cabin, shaking, her body screaming for him while her mind reeled. Mate. His wolf had claimed her as mate. That was why she responded to him so intensely, why every fiber of her being wanted to submit.
He loved us,the dead brides whispered in the back of her mind.He tried to save us. Look how that ended.
She pressed her hands over her ears, but the voices were inside her head. There was no blocking them out.
THAT NIGHT, THE DEADbrides were louder this time, their voices overlapping, weaving together into something almost like a song.
Jeanne,they called.Jeanne, come see. He called us mate too. But love is the trap, Jeanne. Love is the curse.
She walked toward the door. She didn't want to walk toward it, but her legs moved anyway, drawn by the pull in her chest. The light grew brighter as she approached, warm and inviting and wrong.
The handle was cool beneath her fingers.
Open it,Marguerite whispered.Open it and see. See what love did to us. See what it will do to you.
Her hand turned the handle.
She woke gasping, drenched in sweat. Her skin was on fire, too hot, feverish.
The pre-heat symptoms were worse than yesterday. Worse than this morning. Her nightgown was soaked through, clinging to her body, and between her thighs she was slick and aching.
The pull in her chest was stronger too. A chain now instead of a rope, dragging her toward the lowest deck. She could feel the door waiting for her, patient and certain.
Chapter Five
