Last Wolf Hunting

by Rhyannon Byrd

  In that moment, he was completely undone by her—by every precious, exquisite detail, from her mind-drugging scent to the soft, silken feel of her body beneath his hands as he explored the feminine curve of her shoulder, the delicate line of her spine. But more than anything, he’d been undone by those three little words on her lips. Words he felt as if he’d waited a lifetime to hear.

  There was so much he needed to say in return, so much he needed to explain, but first, he needed to make sure she understood exactly where they went from here. That he was in this for keeps…for forever. That he didn’t want a night…but an endless eternity. “There isn’t going to be any Mate Hunt—ever—because I’m going to be the last wolf hunting you down, Jillian. I’m not letting you run from me anymore.”

  * * *

  “That’s good, because I’m done running,” Jillian whispered, while her head spun with a sweet, dizzying swirl of excitement. He watched her with a predatory expression of searing, savage sensuality, of barely restrained animal need, that made her painfully aware of every inch of her body, her skin tingling and warm. Stroking her fingertips across the sensual perfection of his mouth, his softly panting breath warm against her skin, she said, “I realized today that we could have lost everything without ever having given it a chance, and I can’t live with that. I’ve been so afraid of losing you someday that I almost let you get away forever. I’m not going to let that happen, Jeremy. I can’t. I need you too much.”

  He breathed deeply as their stare lengthened into a tangible, physical thing, the air between them swollen with lust and love, thick in her lungs, and he said, “You’re trembling.”

  “I’m nervous,” she admitted breathlessly.

  He lifted one big, warm hand, and cradled her jaw. “You don’t have to be afraid with me, Jillian.”

  “It’s not that,” she told him. “I just want you so badly. I feel as if I’m going to scream.”

  A low, husky chuckle rumbled in his chest. Lifting his other hand, he cupped her face in his palms once again, and in a ragged, groaning rush, he said, “God, I thought I had lost you tonight, sweetheart. Never again. I can’t go through that again.”

  He held her tear-drenched stare, and she sensed that there was something more he wanted to tell her. “What? What is it?”

  “Sayre came to see me today,” he confessed in a quiet rasp.

  “I know,” she whispered, and she could sense his relief when she gave him a watery smile. “I’m so sorry, Jeremy. I should have told you myself, about the way of a witch and her heart, but I wasn’t brave enough.”

  A rough sound burst from his throat, his green eyes glittering beneath the heavy weight of amber lashes. “I wish I could have made you understand how much you meant to me all those years ago. I wish I’d had the guts to tell you before how much I love you, because I do, Jillian. I love you. So much that it’s terrified me for years, thinking we might never get this chance to make things right.”

  She gave a glad, shivery cry, and turned her face to press a tender kiss against the heat of his palm. Then, taking a deep breath for courage, she said, “Before we do this, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  He caught a teardrop with his thumb, his own eyes damp as he asked, “What is it, angel?”

  “I’ve never…that is, I mean…” She drew in another trembling breath, and forced the embarrassing words out. “I’ve never done this before.”

  “Done what?” he murmured, his glowing eyes blistering a greedy trail of possession over her face, her breasts, her belly…then lower.

  “I’m still a virgin,” she blurted out in a rush.

  His gaze jerked instantly back to her face, green eyes wide with shock. “You’re…what?” he asked thickly, his voice hoarse…strained.

  “You heard me,” she murmured, grinning at his stunned expression. “I only ever wanted you, Jeremy. No one else has ever touched me.”

  His cheekbones went dark with a hot rush of color, chest heaving as he drew in a deep, ragged gulp of air, before groaning a certain coarse four letter word.

  When his powerful body began to tremble, she said, “Are you okay?”

  “Of course I’m not okay,” he said between his clenched teeth, running both hands back through his hair, the golden strands sifting between his long, tanned fingers. “How the hell am I going to control this? I have ten years’ worth of hunger stored up, ready to unleash on you, and you—”

  “Want the same thing,” she cut in, wanting him to lose his control…to lose himself in their mating.

  “How would you know what you want? You’re a virgin,” he groaned with a raspy sound of awe, the deep, velvet-rough timbre of his voice vibrating with emotion. If she hadn’t already known she loved him, Jillian knew she would have tumbled at that sweet, shivery sound.

  Hoping to soothe him, to put him at ease, she said, “I know you, Jeremy. I’m not afraid of you losing control. I don’t have to get inside your head to know that I trust you, with my body and my heart. I’m sorry it took me so long, but if you’re willing to give me the chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you.”

  * * *

  “Proving it to me?” Jeremy stared down at the woman who owned his heart, his very soul, and prayed for the strength to make this right—to make this good for her. “Christ, Jillian. You don’t need to prove anything to me, sweetheart.”

  A fresh wave of tears glistened in her eyes as she stared up at him, and he felt her love move through him like a wondrous, awe-inspiring miracle, nearly bringing him to his knees.

  “Are you sure you’re strong enough for this right now?” he asked, his concern obvious in the huskily spoken words, as well as his hunger.

  “More than strong enough,” she told him. “Sayre boosted my energy—and your touch doesn’t weaken me. It makes me feel powerful, Jeremy. Makes me feel as if I could take on the world.”

  Wondering how he was going to hold himself together, he lifted her hands to his mouth and pressed a tender kiss to her delicate knuckles. “Then come to bed with me,” he rasped in a dark, lust-thickened voice. “Let me show you how much you mean to me. Let me prove to you that I can’t go on without you. I need you to breathe, Jillian. I need you to make me feel alive.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a shy smile. Sweeping her up into his arms, Jeremy carried her to his unmade bed, where he laid her out over the soft sheets, his throat tight with a deep, shattering wave of emotion at the sight of her lying in his bed. Finally, after all these years, she was in his bed, and he planned on keeping her there forever.

  Half-terrified that he was moving too quickly for her, he struggled to keep the beast within him under tight control, but the sharp, cutting edge of craving was too much. And knowing she was all his—damn, he could barely take it. Too hungry to wait, his breath panting, pulse roaring in his ears, he tore off the borrowed shirt and moved over her, straddling her hips. Growling low in his throat, he cradled her breasts in his hands, so cool and soft and perfect, and then he was taking her into his mouth, desperate for every sweet, silken discovery. Her nipples, so pink and swollen, were exquisitely soft against the flat of his tongue, like ripe, succulent berries. Jeremy closed his mouth around one lush, delicate tip, suckling at its velvety thickness, a dark, primitive groan rumbling deep in his chest.

  When he heard her cry out in passion, he lost it. Cursing the clinging denim of his jeans, Jeremy rolled to the side and fought them down his legs, then moved back over her, settling between her shyly parted thighs. A quick glance up at her face revealed eyes so dark, they looked midnight black beneath the shadowed veil of her lashes, her pale hair floating around her face, spread out across his pillow like a shimmering wave of summer sunshine. Her lips were parted, damp, her cheeks flushed with the rosy heat of desire.

  A slow, wicked smile curled over his mouth, and Jeremy held her stare as he smoothed his hands up the petal-soft skin of her thighs, pressing them farther apart. Then he leaned forwa
rd and put his mouth on that most intimate, exquisite part of her.

  She made a stunned sound in her throat, her white teeth sinking into the plump swell of her lower lip, and Jeremy kissed her deeper, the intoxicating taste of her rushing through his system with the scorching intensity of a flame, burning him alive. He opened her with his thumbs and lowered his gaze, while a harsh, erotic slide of words fell from his lips, the vision before him the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Moaning, he put his mouth to her again—and this time he kissed the damp, pink beauty of her sex hungrily, greedily…pushing his tongue into the silken depths of her body with a slow, rasping thrust.

  “Jeremy,” she sobbed, arching against him as he made love to her with his mouth. His eyes stung from where she pulled his hair, but he didn’t care. He loved her like this, so open and yielding before him. Her limbs trembled, restless with energy and need, her soft hands stroking him wherever she could reach, bathing his body with such a sweet, searing pleasure that his breath caught, his own need raging past the bounds of his control. He wanted to be everywhere at once. Wanted his mouth on her, his hands. Wanted his body buried deep inside her, their flesh sealed together, heart against heart. But most of all he wanted to give her pleasure. The most earth-shattering pleasure she’d ever known—and he wanted her to take it now.

  * * *

  Poised on the edge of something explosive, Jillian tangled her hands back in the cool silk of Jeremy’s hair; his mouth hungry and hot and relentless between her thighs. One second she was climbing…and climbing, everything in her body pulling exquisitely tight, and then she was crashing over the edge, the orgasm melting through her in a shivering, incandescent rush of warm, liquid light, setting her on fire.

  And just like the time in the forest, her power escaped in a violent burst of energy, shuddering through the room like a dizzying maelstrom. A picture fell off the far wall, the newspaper on his dresser scattering through the air in a flurry of pages. She didn’t know how much time passed, how long she lay there trembling while the endless waves of ecstasy roared through her, but suddenly she was aware of drawing in deep, panting breaths of air, and Jeremy was whispering to her…his voice urgent and soft.

  “You came so hard I thought you were going to pass out,” he breathed against the tear-drenched corner of her eye, his powerful body shaking. “So beautiful,” he murmured, smiling at her as she lifted the heavy weight of her lashes. “God, you should see your eyes, Jillian. They’re like fire. You look like you’re lit up inside.”

  She blinked at him lazily, her body boneless, muscles like candy that’d been left out in the summer sun. “I feel as if I’m melting.”

  “Mmm, you are,” he moaned, reaching between her legs and slipping one thick finger into her. “Like sweet, sticky taffy, all honeyed and soft. I can’t get enough of you.”

  His finger thrust deeper, hitting that tender sweet spot that set her ablaze, pushing her relentlessly toward another overwhelming burst of chaos before she’d even found her way back from the first one. Then he added a second finger, working them into her body, and she knew he was stretching her because she was small…and he wasn’t.

  “Jeremy,” she gasped, her body buzzing, alive with another shocking current of pleasure. She was hot and slick and slippery, soaking his hand, years’ worth of lust and hunger and craving rushing through her, unstoppable and overwhelming. “I can’t think…”

  “Good,” he growled against the sensitive shell of her ear. “I don’t want you thinking. I only want you feeling. I don’t want anything in your head except what it feels like to have my hands on you, pushing you over the edge. What it feels like to have my body moving inside of yours, making you scream because it feels so damn good.”

  And then his strong, work-roughened hands were holding her face, and he was kissing her mouth in a tender, breathless, coaxing caress, pulling the emotion from her, until her cheeks were damp, her throat shaking, and at the same time she felt that hard, huge part of him pushing into her.

  Jillian cried out in shock, arching beneath him. He held her down, anchoring her with his strength, and drove himself into her, heavy and strong, going deeper…deeper, working himself into her until she didn’t think she could take any more of him. “Too much,” she gasped, staring up at him in dazed amazement, shocked at the feel of him inside her, so thick and hot and deliciously hard.

  A low, wicked rumble of laughter vibrated in his chest as he lowered his mouth back to hers. He nipped her bottom lip in an act that was as provocative as it was possessive, then licked away the sting, the heat between their bodies burning and damp. “Take all of me,” he groaned, his eyes glowing golden as he held her stare, the smoky green completely eclipsed by the visceral sexuality of his beast. She shifted beneath him, spreading her legs wider, and he sank deeper into her, shuddering. “Jillian, I can feel it,” he confessed in a dark, savage rasp. Threading their fingers together, his body a strong, beautiful shelter, he watched her through eyes that were bright with emotion. “All of it…”

  He was struggling to explain, but she knew. He didn’t have to say what he was feeling with words. She could see everything, every thought and emotion written on his beautiful face, carved into the intensity of his expression. The tendons in his neck were rigid with strain, the sharp points of his fangs glittering beneath the sensual curve of his upper lip.

  He pressed his face into the hollow of her throat, his teeth scraping across her skin in a carnal act that only made her burn hotter, before returning to her lips, kissing her tongue-to-tongue. Taking her throaty cries into his mouth, he began moving over her, inside of her, the powerful muscles beneath his hot, slick skin flexing as he drove the pleasure up into her until it was impossible to breathe…to think…to hold it inside. All she could do was surrender to his body’s relentless, breathtaking demand, and let the white-hot bliss sweep her away.

  * * *

  Grinding his jaw against the indescribable heaven of Jillian clenching around him in an endless, heart-stopping climax that once again sent chaos crashing through the room, Jeremy took her fragile wrists in his hands and pulled them over her head, stretching her out beneath him. He closed his eyes as sensations almost too good to bear poured through him, and struggled against the blistering need to come. He didn’t want it to end too quickly. He wanted to drag it out, make it last forever, but it was too good. Good? Hell, it was blowing his goddamn mind.

  He’d never lost himself in a woman—until now. Until this moment—until this woman who was everything to him. Always before, he’d held a part of himself back. He’d shared pieces of himself as he chose, but never his emotions. Sex had been a physical release, and though he could say with confidence that his past had left him damn good at it, nothing in his experience had prepared him for this—for being with Jillian. It left him feeling shaken and powerful all in the same breath; a constant, whirring explosion of ecstasy and hunger and tenderness.

  With Jillian, everything slid into that perfect focus. He lost himself in his little witch, hyperaware of her slender body beneath his, so fragile and yet capable of so much strength. He opened his eyes to stare at her in wonder, the power she carried inside of her shimmering beneath her skin, lighting her up, her beauty so intense it almost hurt his eyes. He felt each breath she drew in, the way those breaths hitched when he pulled back and stroked back into her, thrusting his body harder, shafting her, stretching her deep inside. Felt the damp heat of her silken skin, his head hazy with the intoxicating scent of her flesh, her arousal, watching as the pleasure burned in her gaze like a hot, smoldering glow.

  And most of all, he felt the love that burned inside of her. It rushed through him like a warm, gusting breeze, and his beast seethed with the need to stake its claim by sinking its teeth into her throat and making the bond that would join them forever. His gums burned from the heat of his fangs, his muscles cramping, needing to make that connection and cement the claim he was making on her body.

  But not yet. Not thi
s first time. This first time he wanted it to be about nothing but what burned between them, about the love that tied their hearts and lives and souls together for all eternity.

  “I love you, Jillian,” he gasped in a rough, shaken voice. He buried his face in the curve of her throat, his words hot against the silk of her skin. “I’ve always loved you. Always.”

  “I love you, too,” she cried out softly, tangling her hands in his hair and pulling him to her, so that she could press kiss after kiss against his chin, his eyes, his throat.

  He stiffened above her then, his body held hard and tight, buried deep inside of her, and Jillian felt the dark energy and restless power of him blast through her as he came, beautiful and raging. His eyes burned, the intensity of his stare holding her so that she couldn’t look away. “Only you,” he groaned, pressing his mouth to hers, spilling into her in a jaw-grinding climax that went on…and on…and on. “No one but you.”

  And as she followed him over, she knew that he meant every word.

  * * *

  With the soft warmth of sunlight on her face, Jillian opened her eyes to the sweetest feeling she’d ever known, as if everything bright and wonderful was hers for the taking, just waiting for her to stretch her arms and grab it. She pressed her fingertips to the bite marks in the side of her throat, evidence of the blood bond Jeremy had made with her during the beautiful, provocative, passion-drenched hours of the night, feeling so happy she didn’t know how she held it all inside. Butterflies filled her stomach, her heart pounding a wild, wonderful cadence. She’d never imagined that making love could be so overwhelming and earth shattering, endlessly beautiful and intimate.

  She longed to hold him in her arms, but remembered him pressing a lingering kiss to her lips when he’d climbed from bed, whispering for her to keep resting, explaining that Mason had called and he’d be back as soon as he could.

  After borrowing his toothbrush, she washed her face, combed her hair with her fingers and slipped back into her clothes. She’d hung them up over the shower rod, so at least they were dry and warm, though she planned on sending him up to her house as soon as possible to get some of her clothes and makeup.