by Erica Woods
Disgusted, kicked at the nearest tree.
The thick trunk fractured, tilting to the side with a groan, then thundering into the earth with a devastating crack.
Can’t even control your temper.
No wonder she feared me.
A howl of challenge pierced through the thick night. I veered to the right. Stopped. Tipped my head to the side. Listened.
Another howl.
A sliver of moonlight peeked from behind stormy clouds, casting shadows off the gnarled oak trees separating me from a good fight.
Throwing my head back, I roared a challenge of my own.
The forest went utterly quiet, critters hiding and insects reeling.
I spun around and headed back the direction I’d come, knocking down smaller trees and using my claw-tipped fingers to destroy any obstacles in my way.
Hope’s teary eyes flashed through my mind.
I slashed at a nearby tree.
The urge to go to her, to soothe her, crashed against my fury like unrelenting waves of thunder.
Lightning sparked, and my jaw elongated to make room for all the big, sharp teeth shooting from my gums.
Have to go to her!
Can’t. She doesn’t trust you. Doesn’t want you there.
When I finally spotted the wolf who dared challenge me, I didn’t hesitate. I ripped off my clothes while the ground sped closer, changing shapes as easily as I changed a shirt.
Once I was down on all fours, standing on paws instead of feet, I bared my teeth at the wolf facing me.
His lips peeled back, a snarl tearing through the small space between.
It was all I needed.
I threw myself at him, catching a tuft of gray and brown fur between my teeth.
He danced away. I followed. He turned. I lunged.
Teeth and claws flashed. Dark growls and furious snarls rent the air. Speckles of bright-red blood glinted in the few beams of moonlight penetrating the thick canopy of leaves above us.
After several minutes, we broke apart. Circled.
Jason’s ears lay flat against his skull, offering no tell to reveal his next move.
I watched. Waited. There. A slight tension in his hind-leg.
Got you.
I turned, prepared for the attack. We collided with a boom of sound. Would’ve been deafening if my ears hadn’t been pounding with the roar of savage rage.
Jason dared attack me. Dared challenge me for what was mine?
A savage snarl ripped loose, and I threw my whole body forward. His jaw snapped closed, inches from my throat, and I saw red.
Seconds later, I had him pinned on his back, my jaws clamped around his neck.
A searing pain in my side told me his back claws had found purchase against my ribs.
I gave him a violent shake. He lost his grip. I squeezed harder. He whined.
The fight was over.
Too damned fast!
I shook with unleashed violence, barely able to pry my jaws apart long enough to let him go. While he stumbled away—shaking his head and sneezing twice—I changed back into my human skin and waited for him to do the same.
Not patiently. Seething.
“You shithead,” Jason snarled. He’d clamped a hand over the bleeding in his neck. “Do you know what you did?”
Instead of making me angry, his accusation slumped my shoulders. “Doesn’t trust me, Jason. Won’t tell me anything.”
“So you break her heart?” he yelled.
My eyes narrowed. “Break her heart?”
Jason lifted his hand, cursed at the blood still flowing, and glared at me. “Telling her you are done with her has that effect,” he snapped.
I stilled. “What?”
He shot me a suspicious glare. “You told her you were done. She’s crying her eyes out right now. Grieving.” He began pacing. “Probably wondering what this means with her position with the rest of us.”
While I tried to digest that ridiculous claim—Jason pointed a shaking finger at me, ignoring the blood pouring from his wound. “If she leaves because of this, I will follow her.”
My temper ignited. “Leave?” I hissed. My hand shot out, grabbed Jason by the neck, and squeezed. “Explain.”
Even though I was cutting off his air supply, the pup had the nerve to frown at me. “You dumped her, Ruarc. She thinks you are over.”
Suddenly my world went red. My vision swam, no longer gray but bathed in the color of warm, wet blood.
Done with her? She thinks we are over?
I threw Jason to the ground.
Twisted rage prodded at my beast. It came, ready to battle, but there was no one to fight.
Nothing made sense. Everything burned. Burned with a white hot rage. Burned with a soul-tearing pain.
Not only didn’t she trust me, she didn’t want to be with me?
She wants to leave?
“Tough shit,” I snarled and stalked away.
Jason’s strangled voice yelled something, but I was too far gone to make sense of the words.
I ignored the agony piercing my heart and focused on the anger. She thought she could get rid of me?
Never!
Once I got my hands on her she would never doubt she belonged to anyone but me ever again.
HOPE
After I finally pulled myself back together, I became acutely aware of where I was sitting.
“Uhm, Ash?”
“Mhm?”
“You can let me up now.”
Ash captured me with his gaze, and I . . . I froze. The look in his intense, blue eyes stopped my heart between one beat and the next. Fear and heat mixed in my chest like the finest powder, leaving me unable to tell one from the other.
I had no words for the cold intellect watching me from Ash’s eyes. It was him, but still . . . not.
Lethal.
Violent.
Inflexible.
I knew then that I was seeing the part of him he kept locked away from the world. The part that was responsible for the tightly reined control, the leashed danger, the deceptive stillness that always accompanying the quiet male.
Terror beat against my chest while the coldly calculating predator looked down at me. The fear was as old as time itself; instinctual and immediate. But the attraction flaring to life inside me was anything but.
It was like that deadly presence spoke to the monster inside me, stroked its hide in a way I could feel. As though we were one.
And as quickly as that ancient power had appeared, it vanished. And only Ash remained.
I shuddered, flashes of heat and ice stroking up my sides.
Ash didn’t seem to notice. “Yes.” He shook his head and flashed a wry smile. “I apologize.”
The change from terrifying predator to quiet, serious man would have been hard enough, but when you threw in a smile as well?
I couldn’t look away. When he smiled he seemed so much younger. Freer. Like whatever heavy burdens he carried were brushed off and just floated away.
He caught me staring and my cheeks heated under his scrutiny, those piercing eyes seeing too much.
“You don’t have to apologize,” I murmured, using my hair to shield my face from his assessing gaze. “You were wonderful. And I repaid you by crying all over your nice shirt.”
Ash rose and helped me to my feet. “Any time, banajaanh,” he said, the endearment sweeping through me like a warm summer breeze. “Although I should hope you have no more occasions to cry.”
“Me too.” But if I couldn’t fix things with Ruarc, I knew I would be crying my eyes out for days to come.
You have to tell him. Ruarc deserves to know. He deserves to have your trust.
There was no longer any choice. I couldn’t let him believe those terrible things. Couldn’t let him think he was anything like his father when he was the most affectionate, gentle, furiously protective man I’d ever known.
And I’d already lost him. He would stay lost unless he knew the truth.
<
br /> And probably once he does, too, but what choice do I have?
It wasn’t as though I could lose him twice.
“Hope!” A bellow so loud it vibrated beneath my feet.
My eyes widened with shock—and maybe a hint of fear—and darted to Ash. “But . . .” What was I trying to say?
Ash glanced from the door to my face. “I think it is time for you and Ruarc to have that talk.” His eyes darkened until they resembled the stormy blue of a tempest sea. “If he scares you tell him to back off. If you need help, call out. One of us will be there.”
Then he left.
A few seconds later, the door flew open and bounced against the wall with a loud crack.
“Hope.” A growl, a warning, a snarl—all rolled up into one, ominous admonishment.
He stalked across the room. The glow in his silver eyes turned nearly incandescent. Flecks of red dust, almost like paint, flaked off his arms and drifted to the floor. His chest was bare, a solid wall of muscle, of smooth flesh marred only by a few raised scars.
My mouth went dry.
A creak sounded in the hall, and Ruarc spun around and threw himself at the door, closing it with so much force a piece of wood splintered off.
I stared at the sliver of wood, unable to tear my eyes away. In the back of my mind I was aware of Ruarc’s raging presence, his fury like a cape billowing behind his body as he moved. But that sliver of wood . . .
It reminded me of the feeling I’d gotten when Ruarc had dumped me. Only instead of a sliver, it had felt like half my heart had fallen away.
While I was blinking down at the stupid piece of ruined door, my feet left the floor, and the woodsy smell of pine cones and warm, angry male surrounded me. Strong hands were wrapped around my ribs, holding me effortlessly in the air and reminding me once again how very strong Ruarc was. His furious, silver eyes bored into me, black slashing brows lowered in an impressive scowl.
I understood his anger. I’d been wrong to hide from him, to withhold my trust. My only excuse was fear.
Fear of seeing caring turn to contempt.
Fear of seeing desire turn to disgust.
Fear of seeing my reflection in his eyes and knowing he hated me as much as I hated myself.
I wanted him back, and to have any hope of achieving that, maybe I had to trust him enough to believe he wouldn’t go charging into the Hunters’ lair half-cocked, but instead listen to me when I told him it couldn’t be done. Not by him—never by him, never by any of them, if I had anything to say about it.
And if he doesn’t listen, I’ll just not tell him where they are. Or what they call themselves.
Hoping confessing my secrets would bring him back to me, I opened my mouth. “Ruarc, I—”
“Not another word,” he interrupted in a voice made of gravel and rough leather.
His head shot forward and his lips captured mine in a desperate kiss. No, not a kiss, a mash of lips, teeth and tongue. A war where victory came hard won, pleasure the ultimate price.
I moaned, dragging an answering groan from Ruarc’s chest.
Liquid fire flowed through my veins. Burning.
My toes curled.
Rough, so rough, he grabbed my hair and dragged my head back, exposing the long line of my neck to his mercy.
A nest of fluttering birds danced in my stomach, batting their wings and making me soar. My sex clenched in response to the delicious waves of heat rushing from my neck down my chest, swirling in my belly before traveling down my inner thighs.
No thoughts crossed my mind save the feelings he tore from me with his frantic assault.
Whisker rubbed over my skin. Teeth nipped at warm flesh. His mouth found mine, our tongues battling.
I grabbed his shoulders and dug my nails into hard muscle.
When he walked us backward and fell down on the bed, twisting in the air so I landed on his chest, nothing but pleasure flooded my body. When his hot mouth moved to my chin, his tongue darting lower to lick over my pulse, I felt like I was coming out of my skin.
I writhed above him, wild with the frenzy building in my core.
A sharp pain woke my drugged mind. I noted the achy spot between my neck and shoulder, the slight sting where his teeth had marked me. But as soon as his tongue came out to soothe the abused flesh, dazed pleasure swamped my senses and left my brain muddled.
“My Hope, mo chridhe, my heart,” he growled, the possessive sound muffled against my neck. With a quick twist I was beneath him. The soft mattress cradled my back while Ruarc hovered above me, using his elbows to hold most of his weight.
My arms snaked around his neck, pulling him down so I could taste his lips again. I wanted more of his drugging kisses. More of the ferocious need I could feel clawing at my skin.
I needed.
I ached.
I burned.
And his taste . . . warm, spicy, male.
Angry. Fiery. Possessive.
Another groan tore from his throat, this time accompanied by a growl that sounded half feral. He attacked my lips with renewed vigor, until every nerve in my body was on fire. Every muscle tense with anticipation, with want.
“Mine,” he growled and bit the other side of my neck.
This time there was no pain, only a soaring elation that swept through my soul, soothing ragged wounds and plugging the holes that had been cut out by past trauma.
Something inside me perked up. A whispering, dark voice floating through my head, purring words like ‘mate’ and ‘worthy male’ and ‘want. Always want.
My lower body arched up, a whimper leaving me as I felt the hard, hot length of him against my center.
Ruarc tore his mouth away, silver eyes flashing. “Too soon.” The statement was a hoarse, growl, dragging over my skin in a fervent caress.
Too soon?
The words made no sense to my befuddled mind. I had waited so long for this. For a male like Ruarc.
Shaking my head, I arched my spine and rubbed myself against the delicious hardness in his pants.
A feverish snarl reverberated in my skull, and the Ruarc’s big palm cupped my sex. “This what you want?” he growled. He firmed his hold, pressing the heel of his palm against me, branding me with his touch.
My voice deserted me. All I could do was nod as I stared up at him.
Ruarc. My Ruarc.
The possessive thoughts must have shown in my eyes—Ruarc’s gaze darkened and his lips drew back in a feral smile. “Mine!” He stared me into submission, then used his claws to rip my shirt, to tear my pants and underwear. Leaving me bare.
This time there was no shame. His eyes remained locked on mine, never dipping down to glance at the vulnerable flesh he’d exposed.
I couldn’t look away. His face was a stark mask of need, of want, a furious, barren landscape where the only softness was his lips.
They trailed down my body. Teeth nipped at the lower curve of my breast.
I gasped.
A dark growl, his tongue curling around my nipple. Licking. Sucking. Creating a burning line of pleasure that shot from the hardened tip down to my core.
His teeth scraped over it.
My breath got trapped in the vicinity of my throat.
Every tug, every lick, every bite caused an answering spasm between my legs, until I felt lightheaded from the delicious sensations.
He left my breasts and dragged the bristles on his jaw down my body. His tongue dipped into the indentation of my navel, startling a breathless giggle out of me.
His head shot up with a darkly satisfied expression.
That image burned into my soul; the beauty of my wild, untamed Ruarc—his shoulder-length black hair falling around his face like a dark, fallen angel, teeth bared in a feral grimace of want and need, looking so handsome and possessive and wild.
A moan slipped between my parted lips, and Ruarc answered with a sound I’d never heard before; part snarl, part groan—dark and violent and so arousing I squirmed.
; He moved, mouth fastening on the flesh right above my pelvis.
“Oh!” My hips jerked off the bed. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t exist a second longer without Ruarc’s hard body sliding against me.
I wanted to ask him what he was doing—why his mouth was so close to there—but before I could, his hand was back on my naked sex, cupping, his thumb spreading the lips and—
My mind went blank.
“So hot,” he growled, feral need ablaze in an ocean of silver.
I couldn’t answer.
“Gonna taste you. Not stopping until you scream for me.”
The muscles in my thighs tried to squeeze together, but Ruarc was between them.
All I could do was feel. Feel as he moved his hands under my thighs. Feel as he spread my legs and leaned in, warm breath making me moan. Feel as he pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to the most private part of me.
My stomach contracted with shock and pleasure, his tongue sweeping across my aching flesh. My world shrank and the edges of my vision swam as Ruarc ignited a firestorm of dark, insatiable need.
My hands shot forward of their own volition, grabbing two chunks of Ruarc’s silky hair.
At my touch, a savage growl erupted from the big male, the vibrations against my core twisting me until I thought I would implode.
“Mine!” he snarled, then his lips closed around a hard pebble of flesh—flesh I’d never been aware of before this moment—and I almost shot off the bed. He tongued the hard nub, used his lips around it, on it, everywhere.
I grabbed on to his shoulders, raking my nails down the hard muscle, catching at his biceps.
It was too much. His mouth . . . dear god, his mouth . . .
He devoured me.
There was no finesse to his attack, no carefully constructed plan. He licked, sucked and nibbled on every part of me, hungrily attacking my core with a desperate savagery that was beautiful in its own way. One moment he licked around the center, teasing that hard pebble that suddenly ruled my universe. The next, he sucked one of my inner lips all the way into his mouth, groaning when my body clenched around the finger he used to tease my opening. The finger plunged deeper inside, hitting a spot that made me see stars.