Wild Wolf Chasing

by Rhyannon Byrd

  “So?” He lifted his head, locking his heavy-lidded gaze in hard and tight with hers, the blue of his eyes burning with that fiery inner light that never failed to steal her breath. “I hate that you got hurt, but your blood doesn’t turn me off. Not in the slightest.”

  “No?”

  “Hell no.” He lifted a hand to her flushed cheek, those blue, blue eyes heavy with possession as he used his other hand to push her hair back from her face. “When it comes to sex with you, it seems that for the first time in my life, I’m more beast than man.” Lowering his head again, he nuzzled his way under the wide collar of her shirt and ran his tongue over the top of her shoulder. “That means I love the taste of your skin, your sweat, your blood. Every animal part of you just calls to the animal part of me. And. I. Can’t. Get. Enough. Of. It. Baby.” He licked and nipped at her, working his way up the side of her throat. “I won’t ever be able to get enough.”

  “N-neither will I,” she moaned, gripping on to his broad shoulders. “I just want to keep you with me forever. I don’t ever want to let you go.”

  Max sensed just how huge an admission that was for a woman as guarded and private as Vivian, and he planned on rewarding her gift with as much pleasure as she could take. Fisting a hand in her silky hair, he held her still as he took her mouth in another hungry, eating kiss, the eager way she kissed him back making him so hot he was surprised he wasn’t steaming in the cold winter air.

  “I want to fuck you, and I want to make love to you,” he growled against the plush cushion of her lips, her taste like warm honey on his tongue. “I want it all at the same time, Viv. I want to blow your fucking mind.”

  “I want that too.”

  “Thank Christ.” Lifting his head, he ripped his shirt off, then hers, and quickly unhooked her bra, tossing it aside. His hands framed her ribcage as he lifted her up, her back arching sharply the second he leaned over and took one of her tight, pink nipples into his mouth. He feasted on her lush breasts, unable to get enough of the way they felt and tasted against his tongue. With one hand gripping the back of her hair, he slid the other between her legs, tugging aside the crotch of her underwear so that he could touch the endlessly soft, even pinker flesh beneath. She was already slippery and hot, and as he pushed two big fingers up inside her, her cushiony inner muscles tightened around him, sucking him in, and he knew he wasn’t going to last. He needed to be inside her. Needed to be inside her now.

  “Oh, shit. Shit!” he cursed, as realization swiftly slammed into him. “I meant to buy more condoms before we left town.”

  Cupping his bearded jaw in her hands, she leaned forward and nipped his bottom lip. “It’s okay, Max.”

  He froze, pulse roaring in his ears, while his wolf literally howled with hunger inside his head, like the savage animal it was. “Viv?”

  “I’m on the pill. Not that I need to be. I haven’t… It’s just that…it’s been a long time for me, before you. I was busy, and kinda lost interest in the whole dating thing,” she explained with an embarrassed roll of her shoulder. “But I never went off my birth control.”

  Max tried to blink, but not even his freaking eyelids would work, the air in his lungs burning like a bitch.

  “And you don’t have to worry about…you know, the other stuff,” she added, flushing so pink she looked like she’d been sitting out in the summer sun. “Even though I was on the pill, I’ve never… I’ve always made the guy use something.”

  He growled so low it vibrated his chest, and his muscles finally loosened with the need to wrap around her, his long arms holding her close. “I don’t want to hear about that. Not because I’m judging you, because I’m not. We both have pasts that happened before we found each other. But I can’t help the fact that hearing you talk about other guys makes me want to track them down and kick their asses for ever even looking at you.”

  “Hmm. I feel the same way about your exes.”

  “I don’t have any exes.”

  Her brows slowly lifted, light-blue eyes shining and bright. “But I bet there’s a lot of broken hearts up on that mountain of yours.”

  “I don’t remember any of them,” he told her, rubbing his thumb over her full bottom lip. “You’ve burned every last one of them from my mind.”

  “Good.” She reached down, wrapping her soft hand around his cock again, and guided him to her entrance as she shifted over him.

  “You sure about this?” he panted with excitement, unable to look away from where they were about to join, her pink flesh looking impossibly tender against the ruddy head of his cock.

  “Yes.” She kissed his lips, then pulled back and waited for him to lift his gaze to her shimmering one before she softly said, “I trust you, Max. I trust you with every part of me.”

  Emotion slammed through him so hard that he jerked, the cab filled with their shocked gasps as the movement caused him to penetrate her with the broad, swollen crown.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned, trembling, her hands braced on his hard shoulders as she bit her lip and sank down a little deeper, taking in another thick inch, the slick, snug heat of her body nearly making his eyes roll back in his head.

  “Just you and me, Viv.” He held her face in his shaking hands, watching the way her expression changed as she carefully moved up and down, slowly taking him deeper each time, driving him out of his goddamn mind. When he couldn’t take the exquisite torture a second more, he grasped her hips and jerked her down his thick shaft in one decisive move, going so deep it made her cry out. So deep she was hugging every throbbing, molten inch of him. Gripping him. Milking him.

  “Fuck,” he growled. “Fuck! This is…insane.”

  “In a good way?” she whispered, repeating the same question she’d asked him the night before.

  His words came hard and fast and raw. “In an I’m about to fill you up, and I’m not ready for that yet way. Damn it, I want this to last. I need it to last.”

  “Me too,” she whispered, their faces so close their noses were nearly touching, the warm, wet heat of her so lush it was unreal.

  “You ready?” he husked, needing to move so badly it was killing him.

  She answered with a soft smile and a roll of her hips that had him cursing from how perfect it felt. He’d never been so hard or so big in his entire life, and as he gripped her hips and lifted her up, then pulled her back down at the exact moment he thrust up into her, her fist-tight little pussy struggled to take him even though she was as wet as an ocean.

  “You okay?” He searched her beautiful, passion-flushed face as she pulled in a shaky breath and nodded, and then they were suddenly off and running, words impossible as their need for each other took over, their eager bodies moving together like they’d been made for this one flawless, breathtaking moment. Crackling veins of light began shining beneath her skin, golden and bright, her eyes shimmering like the surface of a violet, sun-dappled sea, and he knew that whatever creature was hiding within her was being drawn closer to the surface, pulled there by the intensity of their joining. Their mating.

  He knew the instant his own eyes changed too, bleeding into the fiery blue of the wolf, because hers went wide with surprise, and he quickly squeezed them shut.

  “No,” she whispered. “Open them.”

  “Don’t want to scare you,” he forced out through his gritted teeth, using every ounce of strength he possessed to keep his fangs from dropping, his gums swelling from the pressure.

  “You don’t.” She pressed a kiss to the bridge of his nose that felt as intimate as the sweet, slick clasp of her hot little sex on his dick. “Don’t hide from me. I want it all. Every incredible part of you.”

  Her words made him dizzy with blinding lust and blistering emotion, and before he could stop her, she’d slipped her sweet tongue inside his mouth again, the taste of her only ratcheting up his hunger until he could feel the beast punching against his insides, his fingertips tingling as he struggled to hold back his claws. Panic had him gasping against
her kiss-swollen lips, his heart thundering in his chest as their bodies continued fucking hard and fast—but just as he was about to grab her shoulders and force her away, she turned the tables on him.

  Turned his entire world on its head.

  One second she was kissing him, and in the next, Max felt the sharp sting of his lip catching on something sharp. But it wasn’t his own fang that had cut him—it was hers. He knew the exact moment she realized what had happened, her body stiffening with fear, but he curled a hand around the back of her neck, holding her mouth against his as he said, “Shh. It’s okay. Don’t be scared.”

  She shivered, a low moan on her lips as her hips jerked faster against him and she pushed both hands into his hair, his own beast quickly quieting, drugged from the devastating pleasure as she started to suck on his torn lip. She was feeding from him, taking his blood into her belly, and he thought it was the hottest fucking thing in the world.

  “Mmm, I love this,” she cried against his mouth, both of them dragging in deep, ragged breaths. “Is this wrong?”

  “Nothing we do together is wrong,” he growled. “Not a single goddamn thing.”

  She started sucking on his lip again before the last word had even left his mouth, and Max knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold back much longer. Heat swept up his legs and down his spine, his cock shooting as hard as a damn diamond, his release bearing down on him with the mass and speed of a freight train. Reaching between them, he pressed his thumb to the wet heat of her clit, her body jerking as he rubbed the tiny bundle of nerves, while his other hand dug into her hip, grinding her against him as he thrust up into her tight hold, determined to set her off. And then she crashed over that sharp edge, soaking his bare shaft with her hot, slippery orgasm as she sobbed against his open mouth, the moment so achingly intimate it was like a dream. The wet pulses of her snug sheath made him burn until he was dripping with sweat, his heart thundering against his ribcage so hard it should have ruptured.

  “That’s it,” he groaned against her parted lips. “Just like that, Viv. God, don’t stop. I want you to keep coming all over me.”

  “It’s too good!” she cried, just as he erupted in a hot, liquid rush, the violence of his release throwing her into another screaming climax, while he kept thrusting inside her. He lost all sense of time, just lost in her, drowning in the thrashing waves of pleasure until he no longer even knew if he was breathing. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was a part of her. That she was with him, clinging to him, holding him like she never meant to let go.

  Tell her, the beast whispered through his head, making him stiffen. Tell her who she is to you. Tell her before it’s too late.

  The cold blast of fear that swept through him at the animal’s words made him flinch, and Max silently warned him to shut the hell up, unwilling to let anything—including his goddamn cowardice—ruin this moment for them.

  Her head rested on his shoulder, her breaths warm against the side of his throat as she gave a soft, satisfied sigh. “That was so awesome, I think it might have killed me. But now we have a logistics problem, because when I move, I’m going to drip all over you.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched as he hugged her against him. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  She lifted her head, giving him a laughing, curious look. “You seriously don’t mind?”

  “Why would I mind?” He lifted a hand to push her hair back from her rosy face, still a little stunned at how good it felt to be so close to her. To be so connected. “Call me a caveman, but I think it’s hot as fuck.”

  “Yeah?” she whispered, smiling back at him.

  “Hell yeah.” His eyes got heavy and his voice went low. “I think you should be like this always,” he husked, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her flushed cheek. “Full of me. So wet with me it’s slipping down your perfect little thighs.”

  She moaned as she kissed him again, her arms thrown around his neck, nipples like hard berries pressed against his chest, and Max wanted nothing more than to stay right there, exactly like they were, for the rest of the goddamn day. But he knew they needed to be back on the road as soon as possible. Knew he couldn’t lose himself in her again until he had her safely tucked away behind sturdy walls and a locked door, no matter how desperate he was to do exactly that.

  “I hate to say it, but we’ve got to go, babe.”

  “I know,” she sighed, giving him another small smile, this one full of understanding. Her smooth skin still had a soft golden sheen to it, her eyes nowhere near human, but she’d never looked more beautiful to him. He knew she was still terrified by what she was becoming—of the unknown that stretched out before them—but no matter what answers they found, it wouldn’t change the way he felt. He didn’t give a damn what she was—only that she was his. That she was with him. Beside him.

  And then it hit him, and Max suddenly realized that he’d never really known true fear until that moment.

  But he did now.

  Because he was falling in love with her.

  And if some madman didn’t destroy everything they’d found, Max was terrified he’d find a way to do it himself.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Best Christmas Present Ever

  For three days, Max and Vivian had hidden out at the cozy lakeside cabin that Arra had given them permission to use, and now they were spending Christmas Day there. It carried that same lemons-and-cinnamon scent and sat on the bank of a lake, but unlike that first Reapers’ safe house, this one wasn’t located in the middle of an unsettling forest. Instead, it’d been built on the very edge of a lush, comforting one that Max knew would be safe to go into at night. Not that they had. At night, he and Vivian were too wrapped around each other in the master bedroom’s king-size bed to go out for a midnight walk through the woods.

  In fact, the place was so nice, Max had a strong suspicion that it wasn’t a safe house at all, but Arra’s private residence, and he knew he owed the biker, or whatever the hell she really was, one hell of a debt.

  The only downside had been the text he’d gotten from Vivian’s mom early that morning, wishing them both a Merry Christmas, and warning them that a gorgeous blond was looking for them. When she added that the guy had looked like Thor, he knew exactly who she was talking about: Fucking Lev Slivkoff. Despite what Max had told Elliot, the mercs were obviously looking for him and Vivian, and he didn’t like it. They’d been getting along great, living in a cabin-shaped cocoon, avoiding the real world entirely, and enjoying the hell out of it. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that their dreamy little vacation was about to take a nosedive straight into harsh reality.

  Still, it was Christmas Day, and he wasn’t going to waste it brooding. Not when he and Vivian were cuddled up on the long sofa, watching old Community episodes, kissing and stealing touches more than they were actually taking in the shows. Every breath he pulled into his system screamed that she was his—his woman, his lover, his mate—and he wondered for what had to be the hundredth time, since that life-changing encounter between them in the truck, if he should just bite the bullet and tell her. Tell her everything. But just like every other time the idea had crept into his head, he knocked it aside.

  I always knew Elliot had more balls than you, his beast grumbled, same as it’d been doing ever since he’d received a new message from Elliot a few days ago, this one telling him the news that his partner and Skye had bonded. Max was happy as hell for the guy, and yet, there was no denying that the announcement had set him on edge, because he still didn’t know what he wanted when it came to the connection he shared with Vivian.

  Oh, you know, his wolf muttered. You just don’t want to admit it.

  He frowned, wishing the damn animal would shut the hell up. Thankfully, Vivian was caught up in her favorite episode at the moment, so she hadn’t noticed that he’d slipped into his head. Rubbing a silky chunk of her hair between his thumb and forefinger, he worked the whole thing over in his mind, again
and again, until he wanted to roar with frustration.

  Christ, could he do it? Bite her and claim her, tying another to his world so completely? Because while he might not have an out from the Lycan world he now lived in, that didn’t mean that Vivian had to be trapped in it right along with him. And that’s exactly what would happen if he made a blood bond with her.

  But if the answer was no, and he couldn’t claim her, then where did that leave them? Could their relationship survive the strain? And if she decided that she wanted to be with him, but live somewhere else, could he abandon his life in the Alley for her and start somewhere new?

  No. Hell no. He’d never forgive himself for turning his back on his family, friends and partner if he did. But he also couldn’t let Vivian go. All of which meant he was completely fucked.

  Damn it, why couldn’t he just be a normal guy having a normal relationship? Why did everything have to tie back to this—to what he was now…and what he’d lost all those years ago?

  She isn’t human, the beast muttered with frustration. Jesus, dude. You know this!

  True. But as fiercely as Max wanted that to make a difference—to mean he got a free pass—it didn’t. The human in him still roared that it was wrong. That it would all blow up in his face and destroy them both.

  Still, regardless of what happened with their life-mate connection, Max knew they couldn’t keep hiding out forever, especially with Lev closing in on them. He’d even broached the subject with her their first night in the cabin, after they’d survived the shitstorm at the garage, and she’d later admitted to him why she blamed herself for catching the wargs’ attention, which she believed had led to the assholes coming after her and Skye. But the conversation hadn’t exactly gone the way he’d hoped. Looking at him like he was crazy when he’d first brought it up, she’d asked, “Why would you want to bring trouble there?”