Embracing the Wolf

by Felicity Heaton

  Kat pushed Amon away, twirling out of his grasp. He stumbled back a few paces, his look one of incredulity. She panted hard to catch her breath and clawed back control. Her hands shook as she ran them over her hair. She had been so close.

  Amon’s look was pure anger as he stared at her with dark eyes. When he tilted his chin up, moonlight bathed his skin. His eyes turned golden. They frightened her. She reached for her other gun, drawing it in the space of a heartbeat and aiming at him. She had almost given in. He had almost convinced her.

  “Kat... you’ve matured,” he whispered huskily.

  “So you said,” she countered and tightened her grip on the gun. “But it hasn’t changed a thing. I’m not an animal.”

  He looked as though he wanted to smile at that declaration. Did her fear amuse him? She wasn’t an animal and she certainly wasn’t going to become one by surrendering to the creature locked inside her body.

  “It has, Kat. You look barely a year older than when I last saw you.”

  Her heart pounded and, without thinking, she touched her face. It was true. She had stopped aging when she had matured.

  “It’s only a matter of time before someone notices, Kat.” He took a step towards her, his fluid and graceful movements reminding her more of a panther than a wolf. There was something deeply sensual and arousing about the way he moved when he wanted her. It made her feel as though she was the only woman in existence. The only one for him.

  The gold drained from his irises, leaving them black in the strong moonlight. He extended a hand to her. Her throat turned dry at the sight of him standing before her, his masculine beauty speaking to her as it always had, making her want him. She had never seen anyone as handsome as him, and had never believed someone so good looking could want someone like her.

  His fingertips shifted in a wave, a silent command for her to take his hand. God, she wanted to. She ground her teeth and locked her elbows, focussing on her gun. No. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t accept the beast inside her. Not even for Amon.

  Her heart clenched when his expression changed to show a trace of hurt, his dark eyes shining with sorrow.

  “I love you, Kat.”

  Damn him and those four words. She gritted her teeth and tried to shake away the impact they had on her. The warm hazy feel lingered in the depths of her heart and soul.

  He reached out to her again.

  “I need you now more than ever,” he whispered with a pained look. “I need you more than they do. I can’t live without you anymore, and I know you feel the same. I know you love me.”

  She struggled to form a denial and failed. Staring at him, she trembled from head to toe, still dizzy from his kisses and his declaration of love.

  There was a flicker of anger across his face and then it changed to anguish. He backed away a step, his dark eyebrows furrowing. His eyes brightened into pure gold.

  He pressed a hand to his chest, fingertips digging in as though he was trying to grab something. A feral growl escaped him and he sneered with it, curling his lip to reveal extending canines. Instinct screamed at her to run. She backed off and straight into the tomb behind her. Her eyes locked with his and she couldn’t look away. Pain and fear mixed with hunger and violence in them. With an anguished cry, he screwed his eyes shut and clawed at the sides of his head.

  Her heart missed a beat when she realised that he was fighting the change. Her eyes darted about, checking their surroundings. If he changed out here, she would have no choice but to kill him. They were too close to the busy main streets of the city. She couldn’t let him run free.

  Leyton’s words came back to her.

  Would she kill him?

  Or would she save him?

  The gun felt heavy in her hand. She stared at Amon, unable to look away while he struggled against his beast, fighting for control. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t decide.

  “Kat,” he whispered through clenched teeth. The sound of her name spoken with such desperation wrenched at her heart. She took a step towards him, wanting to comfort him, and then stopped herself.

  She couldn’t find her voice to tell him that she was with him. Fear stole it along with her ability to breathe normally. Her rough breaths filled her ears, mingling with his low growls and whimpers of pain.

  “Kat,” he muttered again and gradually straightened. The colour came back to his face and his hands fell to his side.

  “Amon?” she whispered and ventured another step in his direction.

  He turned away and hung his head forwards.

  “It will happen to you too.” He sounded so resigned to his fate that she reached out to him with her free hand, lowering the gun to her side. “In a few years, you’ll no longer be able to control yourself.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her, deep brown eyes full of hurt that cut her to the core.

  “It isn’t just my life on the line, Kat.”

  The breeze shifted and he was gone. She wanted to go after him but couldn’t. She had never mastered the speed thing. It was something that required her to accept her beast and use the strength that it gave her.

  She stared into the darkness.

  He could have drawn her beast out. She had given in to him completely and long enough for him to ensure that she surrendered to her beast. Why hadn’t he? She knew she would have. If he had changed then she would have changed right along with him. There was no way that she could have held it back. Her hunger and need for him would have made her change.

  They could have mated.

  Both of them would have been safe.

  His words rung in her ears. The image of him so concerned branded itself on her mind.

  He was right.

  It wasn’t just his life on the line.

  If he turned, she would follow him into the darkness.

  ****

  Chapter 3

  Amon paced the cage, mulling over tonight’s events. She hadn’t been surprised to hear that Leyton had told him. It had been a surprise for him to come out of his cage only to smell a female. A familiar female. When Leyton had told him that Kat had been there and she had seen him, his strength had left him. He had collapsed to his knees, singing mercy to the gods.

  Then Leyton had said that she was gone and that he feared she would decide to kill him.

  Amon’s heart had sunk and ached, but not because of the thought of death. If he couldn’t have Kat, if she had turned her back on him forever and no longer loved him, he would surrender the fight. He would willingly embrace the violence in his soul and go into the darkness to face death. It was preferable to the thought of being alone.

  But the thought of Kat being alone pained him and pulled him back from the brink. She was his lifeblood, his air, and his everything. Every instinct he had screamed to protect her. He would fight legions of werewolf hunters to keep her safe. Not even the insanity of turning would stop his need to defend Kat. He loved her more than his own life.

  He loved her down to the marrow of his bones and the core of his soul. The darkest night and most violent storm wouldn’t change that. He would weather the tempest if only to give her a chance at survival. Kat was his mate. For her he would do anything. He would bare his chest for her bullets if she chose to kill him. He would die for her.

  Amon paced back across the cage, his guts twisting with the thought of death. If he died, if she killed him, who would save her?

  In a handful of years, she would follow him into death’s welcoming embrace. Regardless of the fact that she refused to change, the need to mate would arise in her. She could deny the change but she couldn’t deny her nature. If he died, who would protect her and save her from this terrible fate of their species? Ice-cold needles stabbed his heart at the thought of her being alone and hunted. He rubbed the spot over his heart on his chest to soothe the pain.

  The violent darkness would consume Kat if she killed him.

  Unless she found a mate.

  That idea tore him apart insi
de. His fingers tensed and curled into tight fists at the thought of another male touching her, touching what was his.

  Running his hands over his hair, Amon held it back, clasping both sides of his head. He stared at the floor and his bare feet, and crossed back to the other side of the cage, his pacing relentless. There had to be a way to make her see that without her mate she would turn too. He had to make her realise that she needed him and him alone. He wouldn’t let another have her.

  Kat was his heart, his reason for living. Kat was his.

  Amon brought his hands down and rubbed his jaw. He paused and closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. His skin still smelt of her and her warm sweet taste lingered in his mouth. The unique scent of her brought back so many memories of happier times when things had been simple and wonderful. His honesty had complicated things more than he had imagined it would.

  He shouldn’t have waited so long to tell her, not when he had known from their first meeting that werewolf blood ran in her veins. The rich scent had been all over her.

  He had intended to tell her shortly after they had met but she had changed the game. She had kissed him. Things had snowballed after that, and he had done everything wrong.

  It was his fault that Kat could accept him as a werewolf but not herself.

  In all their times together, those two years of bliss, he had never changed in front of her. She had only ever seen him in his human form. When she had been with him, he had been careful to protect her from his true nature and his pack.

  Amon sighed and dragged his fingers over his hair.

  If he hadn’t coddled her so much, she might have been more comfortable with herself. He had protected her from himself but he couldn’t protect her from herself. He couldn’t hide her true nature from her.

  But all he had wanted was time with her. If he had realised the damage he was doing, he wouldn’t have protected her so much. He would have let her see him in his true form and would have let her interact with his pack. She was so precious though. The thought of exposing her to such things had made fire boil the blood in his veins. He wanted to protect her. That was all he had ever wanted. Nothing had changed.

  Fear had made him wait. Fear that she would leave if she knew. Fear that she would hate him. All fear that was now justified. He had been selfish and had paid the price.

  When she had grown close to maturing, he had told her in the gentlest way possible. He had done it so she could find her strength and embrace her true nature, and they could be together.

  He hadn’t expected her to run.

  Then again, he hadn’t expected her to do everything that she had done tonight. He had been sure that she would shoot him. He had been prepared for the pain of silver tearing through his flesh. The instant her guard had dropped and her eyes had changed to hold a flicker of an invite, he had felt compelled to have her. His attraction to her had only grown stronger over their years apart. She had only become more beautiful. He needed her more now than ever. Craved her body and mouth against his. Hungered to be inside her.

  His body responded, hard in an instant, pushing against the fly of his jeans.

  “Get a grip,” he muttered under his breath and sat down, wincing as tight black denim bit into his erection.

  He shifted so he was more comfortable and leaned back into the bars of the cage, the back of his head hitting them hard. He stretched one leg out in front of him and brought his other up, resting his elbow on his knee and letting his hand dangle limply. He stared blankly ahead. There had to be way to convince her to return to him and accept who she was. He had sensed the conflict inside her tonight. She was torn between acceptance and rejection, between defiance and surrender. He needed her to surrender to him.

  He had to save her from the madness that he had endured these past four years.

  He couldn’t let her suffer as he had.

  Lying down, he curled up on his side. The cold bars of the bottom of his cage pressed into him, increasing his hunger for the warm softness of Kat’s body. He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. Inside, he growled and ached. Something gnawed at his soul. It was close. He was running out of time to save her.

  ***

  Amon rolled his eyes closed, his breath leaving him on a sigh. He shoved his hands underneath the pillow below his head and clutched at it. Every muscle in his body tensed as he fought to restrain himself. Kat’s soft breath tickled his stomach between each wet open-mouthed kiss that marked her path across his flesh.

  Her exploration of his body was a slow steady torture, stirring need deep within him. Fingernails grazed his stomach and he sucked it in, evading her. She bit just above his hip, light and teasing, wrenching a growl from his throat.

  He brought his elbows together above his head, forcing the soft pillow against his ears. It muffled the sound of her movement. The only thing he could hear was his own ragged breathing as he struggled to keep control.

  Kat’s hands snaked over his chest, grazing his nipples, caressing his skin into flames. Amon swallowed hard and focussed wholly on her, following the feel of her moving ever downwards.

  The fact that he couldn’t see or hear her only heightened how good everything felt. Every touch was a searing caress. Every kiss branded his flesh as hers. Every warm breath on his skin drove him out of his mind.

  His breathing quickened when Kat reached his navel and paused there a moment. He was tempted to open his eyes to see what she was doing, but forced himself to keep them closed. She would move soon enough. She would put him out of his misery.

  She did.

  She pressed a wet kiss to the spot below his navel and then made a beeline for his jeans. Her fingers were swift and confident as she unbuckled his belt and then ripped his jeans open, popping every button in an instant. He groaned and his hips bucked up, his aching erection hungry for her attention.

  He gasped and tensed when she lightly ran her fingers along his hard length and then he slowly melted into the bed. She brushed the sensitive head with her hair, leaning over him, the light touch maddening him. Her breasts grazed his jeans-clad thigh and he longed to be naked with her, to feel her breasts against his chest. He longed to be inside her.

  The temptation to release the pillow and grab her instead was overwhelming. He couldn’t move though. It wasn’t how the dream went. He had been in control last time. Tonight, she was in command.

  His teeth sunk deep into his lower lip when she wrapped her warm mouth around his shaft. Her heat was incredible. He shuddered and moaned under her ministrations. Heaven. Absolute heaven.

  He arched his back and groaned when her hands pressed into his hips, holding him down. The sense of restraint made him burn hotter than the sun. He changed his mind. This was heaven. This moment of sheer dominance by her.

  She sucked him slow, still intent on torturing him. He tried to thrust into her mouth but her hands shoved him harder against the bed. He moaned each time that she took him into her mouth and trembled when she sucked back up to the sensitive tip of his shaft, swirling her tongue around it.

  He couldn’t take such divine torment.

  Tensing, he jerked off the bed and growled as he climaxed. Kat moaned with her lips still wrapped around him. Amon sighed and slowly sunk back into the mattress.

  In the wake of the warm rush came pain, searing and white-hot, so strong that he lost control.

  Amon woke with it wracking his body. He stumbled to his feet, blind with pain and trembling. Grabbing the bars of his prison, he screwed his eyes shut and fought the darkness rising inside of him. The blackness crowded in at the edge of his mind and control slipped through his fingers.