by Emilia Rose
In Roman’s mind, attacking Kylo’s pack while he was gone to celebrate the Wolf Moon seemed to be the only way to get the advantage because Kylo was clearly stronger than Roman.
“You’re not going to miss a chance to meet the divine wolves or the Moon Goddess just because of Kylo and Roman’s war,” Raj said. “You’re going. I’ll take care of the Lycans while you’re gone.”
I guessed it was settled. I was going to attend.
My wolf purred. We’re going to see Kylo.
Chapter 9
Roman
When Isabella had walked into my office earlier, she’d had a profuse pine fragrance all over her body, drifting around the room like a fucking ghost taunting me. At the time, my wolf had been so overcome with anger and fear that I couldn’t think straight.
Pulling out thick black rope that I kept in our closet to tie Isabella up, I tossed it on the bed and cut my eyes to the door as she walked into the room with her lips curled into a small smile.
Now that I’d had time to sit in our room without her, I knew whose scent it was.
“Take off your clothes and get onto the bed, Isabella.”
She walked toward the bed and hopped up onto it, kicking her legs back and forth. “No.”
“No?” I asked, voice strained. I stepped toward her, trying hard to calm my wolf because all he wanted to do was devour every inch of her, prove to her that he was enough, leave her so satisfied that she couldn’t physically stand for weeks.
With that bratty mouth, she smirked. “No.”
I wrapped my hand around her throat, pulled her to her feet, turned her around, and pushed her against our bedroom door, my chest against her back. Taking a deep breath, I inhaled that fucking asshole’s scent and growled, “Yes.”
After tearing her shirt at the seams, I looped my fingers around the band of her bra and did the same thing, watching her breasts bounce under the dim moonlight shining through the window.
“No.” She struggled against me, but I could just feel her perky ass tighten.
“You do as I say, my dear Isabella.” I strummed my fingers against her fragile neck. “No defying me.” I yanked down her pants and released her just enough so she could move. “Now, grab the fucking rope and hand it over to me.”
“No.”
She was testing my damn patience tonight. More than I fucking wanted her to.
“Do you want me to be hard on you?” I asked through my canines.
“Hard on me?” She rolled her eyes, fucking knowing that it’d piss me off. “You never go hard on me.”
Once I threw her onto the bed, I snatched the rope and her left thigh. I tied the thick cord around her ankle, then that same rope to her wrist, and then to the bed post, so every part of her cunt was spread open for me to take how I wanted.
Struggling some more, she pushed me away when I grabbed her other ankle. I slapped my bare palm against her pussy and watched her body jerk up in surprise. I seized her ankle and wrist, tying them to the other post.
Callous fingers gliding up her smooth thighs, I pulled her ass off the bed and let my spit drip from my lips onto her clit. The spit rolled down her mound to her entrance and then ever lower to her tight asshole.
I rubbed the wetness around her clit. “Look at this pussy glisten.”
She squirmed in my hands, legs slowly starting to tremble.
“This pussy is mine.” I stared up at her, letting my wolf take control of me. I trailed my nose up her inner thigh, inhaling the scent of her untainted cunt. At least this didn’t smell like Kylo too. I growled against her folds, “Tell me it’s mine, Isabella.”
She shook her head, defying me yet again. “No.”
I slapped her across the pussy again. “Tell me it’s fucking mine.”
“No.”
Another smack, this time harder. “I’m not going to ask you again.”
“No.”
Again, I slapped her pussy, making it bright red.
Entire body jerking into the air, she furrowed her brows in a lustful stare. I smacked her again.
“Mine,” I growled, sitting up and positioning my cock right at her entrance. “Tell me you’re fucking mine.”
“I’m yours, Roman! All fucking yours,” she screamed out.
Unable to hold back, I shoved my cock into her sopping pussy until she was gripping me so desperately. Grabbing the backs of her thighs, I held them even further apart as I thrust in and out of her.
After placing an openmouthed kiss on her lips, I marked her body by leaving blotchy red hickeys down her chest and breasts. She arched her back, and I rammed myself harder into her until she was tugging on the restraints.
“Please, Roman! I’m going to come. Please, let me come.”
“Don’t fucking come,” I said, driving my cock into her pussy.
Every time I pulled it out, she tightened just a bit more, squeezing my cock like she wanted me to pump my entire load of cum into her.
Suddenly, her pussy quivered, and she got quiet.
I pulled myself all the way out of her and slapped her across the pink pussy again. “I said”—smack—“not to”—smack—“come.” I wrapped my hand around her throat and pulled her up a few inches.
She grabbed the ropes in her hands and tugged on them. “Please, Roman. Please, I need it. Put your cum inside of me and fill me up. I’m so desperate for it.”
I grunted and buried myself deep into her. “Fucking come for me, Isabella.”
She cried out, her pussy pulsing around my cock and swallowing my cum. I brushed my fingers across her collarbone and frowned down at my mate, hurting at the thought of her not telling me about meeting the man I hated the most.
Since the moment I’d turned eighteen and laid my eyes on her, I had fallen in love.
When Mom and Dad had been murdered in the middle of my freshman year, I had to be the ruthless alpha that my father had been, had to be cruel and heartless, had to kill without mercy and protect without thought. But when Isabella had shown up to one of my practices to watch the warriors fight, I’d vowed to protect her from everything.
Now … now, she was willingly putting herself in harm’s way and hiding it from me.
She glanced out the window and toward the woods. So, I had to get rid of him sooner rather than later. I couldn’t wait for Kylo to snatch up my mate one day.
Avoiding eye contact, I undid her restraints, pulled on some clothes, and grabbed my phone. “Next time you meet with Kylo behind my back, remember the way you beg for my cock, Isabella.”
I stormed out of the room before I lost complete control of my wolf and dialed Cayden’s number. “Tell me you have information on the Wolf’s Flower.”
Chapter 10
Isabella
All the ecstasy running through my body evaporated when Roman stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. I stared wide-eyed at the moonflowers sparkling on our windowsill until tears filled my eyes. The hurt in Roman’s voice and the guilt I felt about my wolf’s connection to Kylo slowly ravaged my heart.
How could I explain something like this to Roman? I could tell him the truth—that I had gone out on a run and Kylo found me. But he’d want to know why I hadn’t told him as soon as I saw him.
Moon Goddess, I’d wanted to tell him the truth more than anything, but I didn’t know how to explain my connection with the man he hated the most. If Roman found out about it, he’d run into another battle, blind with rage.
My heart ached, my wolf whimpering. I tugged on some clothes and pushed the sudden tears from my eyes, hesitantly opening the hallway door to see Roman pacing back and forth down the hall with his phone pressed to his ear.
“It could kill Isabella?” he asked, not seeing me yet.
With my arms crossed over my chest, I stepped closer to him and cleared my throat. “Roman, can we talk?” I asked even though it killed me on the inside.
I hated confrontation. We had been through so much already, and I just wanted
a peaceful life.
Roman held up a single finger. “Wait.”
I walked closer to him, trying to listen in on his phone call.
“You think he has the fucking the flower? How do you know for sure?” Roman asked, brows furrowed, putting the phone on speaker. “Who told you?”
“Scarlett,” Cayden said.
“Why are you talking to Scarlett?” I asked, balling my hands into fists.
She wasn’t in our pack, and I didn’t like her trying to get close again to Roman. She had been all fucking over him at the Lycans’ alpha meeting the other day.
“She was hanging in The Night Raider’s Café earlier this evening. Some of our warriors overheard her talking about the flower,” Cayden said. He paused for two beats. “I think that Kylo has taken the Wolf’s Flower from Scarlett. She apparently kept saying that he stole it from her. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth or trying to stir up trouble. Chaos has seemed to overtaken her pack. The alpha was killed shortly after the meeting yesterday, and people are fighting for power.”
“What’s the Wolf’s Flower?” I asked.
Roman sighed with annoyance through his nose and pressed his lips together, only making me angrier.
I growled, “Don’t keep important things from me, Roman. I need to know.”
Roman growled back at me, “You kept your little meeting with Kylo from me.”
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. It sounded like we were in the fifth grade with all this jealousy between us, but I knew that this was my fault. Roman was reacting this way because of me.
“It’s a scientifically modified flower,” Cayden interrupted. “It was made to weaken those born under the Wolf’s Moon if they drink or eat part of it. Basically, it’s a poison that could kill a Wolf Moon wolf within moments.”
Roman clenched his fists, his jaw twitching. “Scarlett took the Wolf’s Flower from my family when my parents died. I have been trying to get it back ever since. My mother had kept it in her possession because she knew that if it fell into the wrong hands, it would be turned into a weapon against the strongest wolves on earth.”
“Who modified the flower, and why?”
“It was produced over hundreds of years ago by someone named Dolus,” Cayden said through the phone. “Legend says he was a werewolf hunter, but I don’t know if that’s true. He created it to wipe out all wolves like you.”
“Now, Kylo fucking has it.”
“You think he’s going to use it on me?” I asked, my wolf slowly starting to anger.
“Of course he would!” Roman snapped at me, eyes flickering gold. “He’s deceptive, and you’re blindly falling into the little traps he’s set for you to get you to trust him, like you sneaking out at night to see him.”
Cayden cleared his throat. “I’ll call you back later.” The line went dead.
Roman stuffed his phone back into his pocket, staring at me with eyes filled with rage and heartbreak—the same expression I had seen when I told him that I would leave him for a year to become a Lycan.
“All I wanted was to go for a run. He must’ve followed me out there. I didn’t intentionally meet him. I told him to stay away from us and from me, that we’re mates and that nothing will come between us.”
“I’m trying to fucking protect you, Isabella.”
“Well, let me protect you for once, Roman. I stopped Kylo from killing you, and you are still upset about it. All I told him was to not get in the way of our relationship again.”
“He could’ve killed you if he had that damn flower when you talked to him,” he said. Roman blew an angry breath out of his nose, pushed a hand through his hair, and asked, “What is Kylo to you?”
I stared at Roman, surprised at the mere question, and shook my head. “Nothing.”
“What is he?” he repeated, this time tense.
“Nothing,” I said, but my wolf was quiet. So desperately quiet.
“Then, you won’t mind if I take the Wolf’s Flower from him and kill him with it, right?” Roman asked.
My canines ripped through my gums, and my wolf let out a ferocious and possessive growl. It happened so quickly and so explosively that it scared me. I forced myself to sprint right out of the house before she could hurt Roman because I felt like she was about to foam at the teeth from the mere mention of killing Kylo.
Chapter 11
Isabella
Calm down, I demanded my wolf.
She pushed me to run faster and faster until I found myself standing outside Vanessa’s secluded cabin on the outskirts of Roman’s property. I needed someone to talk to about this, preferably female because I wasn’t sure if Derek would understand.
After knocking, I waited a few moments. She appeared in a skimpy set of red lingerie with a bottle of wine in her hand and a huge grin on her face. “Lindsey, you’re—” she started. When she caught sight of me, she stopped and widened her eyes. “Oh, Isabella.” She gazed down at my naked body, her cheeks flushing pink. “Come in.”
“I’m not bothering you, am I?”
She handed me a silky black robe from her faux velvet couch, and I pulled it on to cover my body. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t have any plans for tonight.” She set her wine down on the table, sent a quick text, and grabbed another robe from her room to cover herself. “What’s wrong?”
“I need someone to talk to,” I said.
My whole world felt like it was falling apart. Not only was my wolf hung up on Kylo for some ungodly reason, but also all I could feel was Roman’s pain when I sprinted away from him. I loved him with my entire heart, and I didn’t want to lose him over this senseless feeling inside of me.
“Come on,” she said, nodding to the other room.
I followed her to the kitchen, gazing around her small, cozy home. For someone who had made my life in high school absolute hell, I hadn’t expected her house to be so … homey.
A vanilla candle burned on the counter as she popped the cork on the wine. She had cute little moonflowers on her windowsill, just like I did at home. And there were a variety of pictures on her refrigerator.
I ambled over to it, gazing at each one as she poured us wine. There was a picture of her and Jane hugging each other in their pink pajamas and one of her training with the warriors, and near the top of the fridge was a picture of her and me on the night that I’d become leader of the Lycans.
“This is so cute.” I smiled at the picture, feeling warm on the inside.
After handing me a glass of wine, she tied the robe tighter around her tiny waist and shifted back and forth on her feet. “That was the best night of my life.”
“That night was the best night of your life?” I asked. “We had been chased by hordes of rogues.”
She grinned at me, looped her arm around mine, and rested her head on my shoulder. “But I had the chance to work with you for the first time.” She brushed her thumb against the image. “It was the first night that I felt like you appreciated me and looked at me differently.” She frowned and turned toward me. “Isabella, I never told you this, but I’m sorry for making your life hell in high school.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
Our relationship was much better now despite everything.
She shook her blonde hair. “No, it’s not. I made your life literal hell.”
I let out a laugh, which felt good after what had happened back at the pack house. “Yeah, you did, but the past is the past. We’re good now.”
Light from the candle flickered against her tan face as she smiled and tugged me to the living room, where we collapsed onto the couch. She nudged me. “Tell me what happened. What’s wrong?”
My lips parted and quivered. I placed the wine down on the coffee table and curled my knees to my chest. “Roman,” I croaked out. My heart ached so damn bad at the thought of hurting him and at the thought of him killing Kylo.
A tree branch hit the window, and I pressed a hand to my chest.
Vanessa frowned at
me and pushed some hair from my face, enveloping me into a hug. “It’s just the wind. Go on.”
My body trembled as I curled up next to her. “I love him. I love him so fucking much that it hurts to hurt him,” I whispered. “But my wolf is drawn to another wolf. She can’t help herself when it comes to him. She feels so connected for some reason.”
Vanessa tensed for a moment and then stroked my hair. She parted her lips to say something but then snapped them shut. I didn’t expect her to say anything because if I were her, I wouldn’t know what to say either.
Instead, she let me cry some more in her arms and nudged me when I calmed down. “Let’s take your mind off of Roman for a couple hours. We can watch my favorite show.”
I pushed away my last tear and arched a brow. “And what’s that?”
“Murder Mystery.”
I curled my arm around hers. “Of course it is.”
Sunlight blazed through the sheer orange curtains. I woke up on the couch with an aching back and a sore neck. Vanessa was lying on top of me, her eyes closed peacefully and her head on my stomach.
My lips curled into a small smile. I didn’t feel better, but I was glad that I had a friend. These past few weeks had been so lonely. So many people depended on me, and so many people only talked to me because they needed something from me. I hadn’t hung out with Derek at all because our schedules didn’t line up. So … I blew out a deep breath … I’d needed this.
Careful not to wake Vanessa, I slid off the couch and ran to The Night Raider’s Café to pick up her favorite chocolate strudel. After placing it on her coffee table and leaving a thank-you note, I ran to the Lycans’ property to find Raj.
So much had happened last night that I needed to tell him about.
Sitting in my office with one ankle propped up on his knee, he tapped his fingers to a beat on my desk. “Morning, killer.”
“I have information.”