The silence stretching between us is thick like glue, binding us together.
My mouth is dry. He takes another step toward me, closing the distance between us again, and he’s so tall and strong. My heart slams about inside my chest like a frightened little bird.
“You’re torn,” he finally says. “Torn between trusting me and fearing me. And it makes your scent ever more enticing. BecauseI am a wolf and some danger and uncertainty thrown into the mix always goes down a treat.”
“I…” I lick my lips. “I don’t…”
“You went through things in your childhood,” he says, “you still don’t know how to process. Let me tell you what you should do now. I’m your enemy. Your nightmare. Hit me. Punch me. Kick me. Take your revenge on me.”
“I can’t. It wasn’t you. It wasn’t?—”
“I am a wolf. The wolf. I will make you punish me, take out that rage and fear on me.” He opens his clawed hands. His eyes are turning flat and wide. Wolf eyes. “I’m yours to hurt and humiliate. I offer myself.”
“I don’t want it!”
“But I do. I want you to do it. Do it!”
“No.”
“Then,” he says, his voice growing raspier, “I’ll chase you until you have no choice but to lash out and stop me. I’ll recreate your nightmare until you scratch and lance that wound, clear out the infection.”
“Valen—”
“Are you ready, little human? You annoyed me enough to warrant a little chase. You aroused me way too much. Broke my discipline in a way I’ve never experienced before. I need this. This isn’t only for you. It’s for me, too.”
I gulp. “You’re making no sense.”
“Maybe I want to be punished. To be hurt by you. Make up for what my people did to you. Maybe I want the edge of pain to take off the edge of arousal before I go insane with it.”
“Valen...”
“Or maybe I need to hunt you and pin you down. Hurt you sweetly. So run, my lady. Run now before I lose control and actually harm you.”
“You wouldn’t.”
He snarls, his jaw lengthening. “I’m one step away from pushing you belly-down in the dirt and biting into your neck, before spreading your legs and tasting you. Before showing you what you do to me. Before leaving, because otherwise I’ll truly hurt you, and it would kill me. So you see... running is your best option. And my only salvation.”
He’s not making sense, but when he takes a heavy step toward me, his eyes going fully wolf, his mouth opening wide with sharp teeth, I turn and run.
“Good girl,” he says. “Faster. Run, little mouse, run as fast as you can. I’ll give you a head start, for all the good it will do. I am a wolf, after all, and I’ll catch you wherever you go.”
PART II
WOLFBOUND
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
ROSAMUND
I’m running.
A wolf is after me. My worst nightmare, since I was taken by the wolves. Werewolves, dark fae, shifters. And so is the wolf after me. A dark fae who can shift into a beastly form.
He’s coming after me. And he’s the one who told me to run. Something about pain, fear, and desire, about the chase, the hunt, about pushing me facedown into the dirt and sinking his teeth into my neck.
The thought is terrifying, but Gods above, it’s also exciting. I don’t know why, why the thought of him chasing me, grabbing me and throwing me down, pinning me with his muscular body and taking control of me is so arousing. I swear I’m sopping wet, and I throb between my legs, I throb so deep it hurts.
I’m afraid to be caught. Even more afraid not to. I want him to catch me, but I’m running as fast as my feet can take me and every rustle in the grass, every noise from the grove I’m heading toward, has me gasping and panicking.
