In fact, I’m craving it. Her power on me, her fist on my face—the pain would be a great distraction from the torment of her presence.
She tilts her chin, always so fucking stubborn. “Or what, Alpha?”
I put my mouth to her ear so she can’t miss a single word, and she stills at the movement. “Or I’m going to take you over my knee and spank you like the obstinate brat you are.”
Meryn shoves me hard and draws back quickly, her lush pink lips popping open in surprise. It takes all of me not to stick a finger in her mouth and see how she’d react, if she’d close her wet heat around it or bite me viciously.
Several obvious emotions cross her face in quick succession: insult, outrage, and then wrath.
But her cheeks are flushed, eyes glazed with clear arousal.
Interesting.
Before I can provoke more from her with just words, she finally acts. Snarling, she flashes a hand in my direction, unleashing an impelling blast.
I dodge it, but the blow still hits my shoulder. My savagery rises to answer, my own power coiling like a predator inside me. I take a few steps back and lift my arms, giving her a moment to brace before my magic slams into her.
Her magic rises up to meet mine. The shadows from her shadebending power form a wall in front of her—acting on their own in response to her fury, I suspect. Our power collides, two waves of force impacting each other and crushing everything between them.
Her shadows explode outward, hissing up toward the treetops and streaking along the verdant forest floor.
Meryn’s lips curl into a menacing smile that lights me on fire. The shadows gather for another blow, and without hesitation, I lash out again and again.
The second blow is harder. The third, harder still.
Vibrations shake the trees around us, leaves and pine needles falling in a shower of green.
We circle each other, feet moving, stances ever changing. We attack from different angles, catching each other’s power and pushing back. The song we dance to is the pounding drum of our furious heartbeats, resounding in our ears.
The pulse is escalating, getting faster and faster with each clash until it’s a relentless onslaught of my magic slamming outward, hers meeting it blow for blow.
There’s a change in her face the moment before she pulls a dagger, darting toward me.
She winks in and out as she approaches, rifting like a Kryptos. I let go of my grip on my power and pull my own knife, waiting for her to step in close.
Meryn ducks under my last impelling wave and darts in. Her slash comes close to me, but I’m already spinning to the side. My body lights up with wicked satisfaction.
We both drop into fighting stances, just like in our hours upon hours of training in my office. Even as I relish the fight, some part of me catalogs her stance, her angles. Noting for later what she still needs to work on, how to guide her and make her better.
She slashes forward, and I bring my knife up against hers. Metal screeches on metal, glinting in the dappled forest light.
My body, my mind, is tuned to her. She’s so busy that she’s lowering her walls, and the mate bond connection from our wolves is seeping through. I sense her need for more, and I come at her with a flurry of blows.
She responds with a menacing grin. This beautiful, feral woman will either be the end of me or the start of a beginning that I don’t know how to face.
Our limbs meet, our daggers slash. I don’t hold back. She doesn’twantme to hold back. The sensation is electric.
We fight until we’re drenched in sweat and struggling through blows. I disarm her, dagger spinning from her hand, but in the same breath she draws another knife from her hip and strikes at me again.
I hiss as the blade skitters along my side, drawing a line of blood.
She hesitates, wondering if she’s hurt me. Taking advantage of it, I whip back toward her.
We exchange blow for blow, each of us landing one or two, dodging and blocking the rest.
Eventually, I have her on the back foot and get inside her guard. I disarm her again and press forward, aiming another blow. But I’m not anticipating her dirty tricks.
She hits me with an impelling blast from the back. It knocks me in the shins, and I stumble.
