by C. D. Gorri
He took so long answering, I assumed he was going to ignore the question and move on. But then he spoke in a low voice. “It’s nothing and everything. Your pulse, your speech patterns. The way a person holds their head or touches their face. If someone is very nervous, I can smell their sweat. There are many signs. Some people are harder to read than others.”
“What about me?” As soon as I said it, I regretted asking. Maybe I didn’t want to know if I was a good liar. In my psychiatric rotation in med school, the resident director said lying with ease was a symptom of numerous mental disorders. I didn’t think I was crazy. Then again, I sat inches away from an alpha in a cave in the Alterlands.
What did that say about my mental state?
Rurik didn’t reply. He just continued staring, his forehead wrinkled as though he pondered some internal question. Perhaps he wanted to be polite.
Although, politeness seemed an improbable trait for an alpha—especially this one. More likely, he didn’t want to reveal my “tells.” Assuming I had any.
My hair had fallen heavy around my shoulders again, and I pushed it back.
He tracked my movements, his gaze lingering on the dark strands.
I lowered my arms. Was he analyzing me even now? Picking up hints and signs I wasn’t aware of?
Without warning, the mood shifted. He surged to his feet and loomed over me, all softness gone from his face. “You’re the same as any norm. Careless with your words and actions.”
The sudden accusation threw me off. God, did the man always run so hot and cold? I had to crane my neck to look at him. “I’m not careless.”
“You came to the Alterlands smelling of lust, and you’ve defied me at every turn.”
My jaw dropped. “Defied you?”
“That’s what I said, female. Or is your hearing as deficient as your nose?”
I stood in a scramble that made my stomach pitch. I ignored it, tipping my chin up and planting my fists on my hips. “There’s nothing wrong with my hearing. In fact, your asinine commands are all I seem to hear!”
His fangs flashed. “That’s interesting, since you don’t follow them unless you’re disciplined first.”
“Is that what you call it?” My voice rose. “It’s not discipline, it’s assault.”
“It wouldn’t be necessary if you didn’t question my orders!” His volume matched mine, his shout bouncing off the cave’s walls.
“I question them because you never explain anything! You just growl like an animal and—”
He seized me in a brutal grip and yanked me against him so hard the impact forced a soft grunt from my lungs. His eyes blazed bright gold as he snarled a hair’s breadth from my face. “Never call me that.”
My chest heaved, fear and fury swirling in a potent mix. His fangs had lengthened, the serrated edges on full display. The gold in his eyes was bright enough to cast a shadow. He was beautiful and terrible—a creature that was only supposed to exist in fairy tales. But he was very real, and he could rip me apart with one slash of his fangs.
I stood frozen, blood rushing in my ears.
He plunged his face to my neck.
My breath caught. Oh God. I squeezed my eyes shut, prepared for the hot spray of my own blood.
Instead, he dragged in a deep breath. “That scent,” he muttered, his tone almost plaintive.
My eyes flew open. What was he doing?
He swept his mouth down the pulse thundering in my neck, then nuzzled under my ear.
Shivers coursed a hot path down my back. My lips parted, a soft gasp escaping. My mind whirled with confusion, but my body wasn’t confused at all. It softened, the tension fleeing my muscles as I fought to stifle a groan.
His fingers tightened, and he pulled back, his brow furrowed. His gaze searched mine. “What are you doing to make me—” He cut himself off. His frown deepened, and he gave me a small shake. “You’re doing something,” he accused. “Stop it.”
“What?” He was crazy. “I’m not doing anything.”
He looked like he might say more, but then he clamped his jaw shut and glowered at me. His fingers bit deeper, and he stared like he was trying to see through to my soul.
Finally, I had enough. “You’re hurting me.”
He dropped his hands.
Immediately, I stepped back.
“Watch the fire,” he barked, his gaze darting to a spot behind me.
I stopped but didn’t dare take my eyes off him. My insides trembled, and my knees felt weak. I rubbed at my arms.
His gaze dipped there, and his jaw tightened. He opened his mouth—then clamped it shut. His brows pinched together.
I returned his stare. If he wanted defiance, he could have it.
Just when our standoff grew unbearable, he muttered, “Go to sleep. We leave before dawn.” He turned and walked away.
That was it? He was leaving with no explanation for his insane behavior?
I clenched my fists. “Is that an order?” It came out louder than I intended, and my words echoed around the cave.
He stopped in a shaft of moonlight but didn’t turn around.
Apprehension zipped down my spine. The last time we had an exchange like this, he made it clear I wouldn’t like his response.
His shoulders filled my vision. Somehow, he seemed even bigger at a distance.
I held my breath. Any second, he would spin and hit me with a command or another round of angry bellowing.
But when his voice floated back to me, it was so faint I had to strain to hear it.
“It’s advice, Eden. Get some rest. You’re going to need it.”
He walked through the cave’s opening and into the night. It was only after he was out of sight that I realized he used my name.
Chapter Six
I slept fitfully, tossing and turning while snatches of my encounter with Rurik played through my head. In my dreams, he transformed into a hulking beast with red fangs that dripped blood. When I tried to run away, they sank into my shoulder and ripped away a chunk of flesh, which the beast hurled into a fire made of golden flames.
I clapped a hand over the wound.
“Doctor Bradley.” Someone shook me.
I shrank away from the touch. The beast reached for me again, and I tried to scream.
“Doctor Bradley!”
My eyes popped open.
Soren knelt beside me, his brown hair damp and brushed back from his forehead. Purple light stained the cave’s entrance, and the air was cool.
I sat up. There was no beast. My shoulder was intact. But I was drenched in sweat, and my temples throbbed.
So much for sleeping off the headache.
“We’re leaving,” Soren said. “Do you have something to eat?”
My stomach lurched. There was no chance of me keeping anything down. I waved a hand. “I’m fine.”
He set a canteen next to me. “Be outside in ten minutes.”
He was gone before I could protest. Ten minutes. I knew without asking that was a firm deadline—and I definitely didn’t want Rurik coming to fetch me. Gritting my teeth, I stood and stretched. The muscles in my neck were knotted from sleeping on the pack, and my damp T-shirt stuck to my back.
But there was no time to change. I pulled a vial of serum from the pack, snapped it in half, and downed it. Seconds later, the burn scalded my throat like lightning striking one of the old power lines that sometimes drooped over abandoned neighborhoods. Nausea rocked me in waves.
I didn’t have time for that, either.
After a few deep breaths, I straightened my clothes and finger combed my hair. When I got back to St. Louis, I was giving Michael a piece of my mind about leaving me without a hairbrush.
I had a toothbrush, though, and I dug it from the pack and brushed my teeth with water from the canteen. The water hitting my throat was ambrosia. Nothing had ever tasted so good. I didn’t even stop to spit out my toothpaste. I just gulped until the canteen was dry. Then I lowered it and frowned. I still
had no urge to pee, which meant I was seriously dehydrated.
It was all the motivation I needed to get outside, where I could ask for more water. Slinging the pack over my shoulder, I went to the cave’s entrance and stepped into the predawn light. Soren and Cain stood atop the ridge.
Rurik waited at the base, his gaze landing on me as soon as I appeared. As our eyes met, images from the night before flashed through my head. His hands pulling my hair away from my face. His golden eyes narrowed in anger. His hot breath tickling my ear as he murmured into my neck. His fangs flashing as he threatened me.
At every turn, he flipped from calm to enraged. I couldn’t figure him out, and it wasn’t worth trying.
Get to Black Rock. That was all I had to do.
“Give me the pack,” he said. “There are others about, and we need to move quickly.”
Others? I darted a glance up the ridge.
He came to me and took the pack. “We need to move.” He wrapped a hand around my arm and urged me up the ridge. When I stumbled and might have slid back down, he lifted me one-handed and tossed me up. Soren caught me at the top and steadied me.
“Let’s go,” Rurik said, already moving past us. Soren and Cain took their usual positions, leaving me in the middle. The plain stretched in all directions, with nothing in sight but rocks and shriveled trees. Still, Rurik set a grueling pace that carried us swiftly over the cracked earth. It didn’t take long until I was sweating. My throat was sticky with thirst, and the serum was a tight, burning ball in my stomach. Even without the pack, my shoulders ached. Stinging sweat dripped into my eyes. As I wiped it away, my hand shook. I glanced between Soren and Cain, but they were busy scanning the scenery on either side of us.
We kept going, and my legs seemed to weigh more with every step. The headache pounded in sync with my heartbeat, pulsing in my temples like the beat of a drum. My head went fuzzy, my thoughts coming and going like wisps of smoke. The serum burned hotter. I slung an arm over my stomach, a whimper building in my chest.
As the first rays of yellow sunlight spread over the land, I focused on Rurik’s back. It tapered to lean hips, where his cargo pants rode low before hugging his ass.
Out of nowhere, a wave of desire rolled through me. My nipples hardened, and my sex clenched.
What the hell? I dropped my gaze to the dirt and walked faster.
Big mistake.
The crotch seam of my pants rubbed against my most sensitive areas, ratcheting my need higher. Dampness gathered between my legs. My sex throbbed.
A bolt of pain shot through my head. I stumbled and caught myself.
The ball of fire in my stomach dropped to my sex. Desire undulated though me in a thick, hard wave, the intensity snatching my breath.
This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening. I kept walking. I had to. But heat built and built between my legs, my clit throbbing so hard it hurt. There was only one thing that could cause this type of reaction.
I was in a Lykos-D heat.
But that was impossible.
Another wave hit me, followed by a slash of fire in my skull. I clutched at my forehead.
Cain jerked his gaze toward me. His eyes went wide.
Need struck like a whip, taking me to my knees in the dirt. I curled over my stomach, my head spinning. My breasts ached. A drum pounded between my legs. Moisture flooded me.
No, no, no. At some point, I became aware I chanted aloud.
Male voices rose all around me—shouts and snarls that made me curl up tighter. A big hand touched my back, and the lick of fire between my legs raged hotter.
My forehead touched the ground, and I sobbed.
Unbearable.
“Eden!” A deep voice—his voice. My body recognized it. Rough hands grasped my shoulders and forced me upright. He was a blurry outline, big and demanding. The fingers on my shoulders weren’t enough.
Need.
Want.
I needed those fingers on my body. Inside me.
I arched into him, thrusting my chest forward.
His face waved in and out of focus, the tendons in his neck straining as his mouth moved. He must have shouted, but his voice seemed to come from far away.
“Did you take serum this morning?” His eyes were wide and intense, with white showing around the gold. The question was important, and I had the answer but I couldn’t catch it. It whirled around my brain like a leaf tossed in the wind.
Fire danced under my skin. Need drenched my sex, wetting my thighs.
His nostrils flared. His lips peeled off his fangs, and his growl was a low hum that went straight to my clit. It buzzed hard, scraping and stinging like a thousand bees.
A scream ripped from my chest. The taste of copper filled my mouth.
More male voices—angry, urgent shouting. The golden eyes loomed, and a hard palm covered my mouth.
His growl wrapped around me, commands snapping against my skin like rubber bands. “You must be quiet.”
Then I was up, lifted and tucked against an unforgiving chest. Wind whipped through my hair, and I was jolted up and down. Feet pounded. There were others beside us.
They weren’t important.
My world shrank to the chest at my back and the writhing, burning need between my legs. The world flew past, giving me snatches of bleached sky and rolling clouds. He carried me—the one whose voice stroked over my clit like a firm hand. I pressed harder against his chest, need consuming me.
Something struck us hard.
He stumbled. I flew.
The ground reared up, and pain exploded in my shoulder. Dirt filled my mouth as I rolled. The impact knocked the cloudiness from my head, throwing the world into focus again. My senses blazed back to life. Shouts and growls roared in my ears. Unrelenting need blazed in my sex, the desire stoking so high it tripped the edge from pleasure to pain. Agony suffused me, the pain like knives twisting between my legs. But I had to move. I needed to see.
Sweating and panting, I rolled to my side.
My heart seized in my chest.
Rurik grappled with a strange feral. Soren and Cain took on a second. They moved in a flurry of dirt and flying limbs, white fangs bared as they threw punches. The blunt sound of fists connecting with flesh filled the air, making my stomach turn.
The newcomers were huge and dressed in all black, their arms covered in intricate tattoos. Their eyes glowed, and bloodstained fangs flashed as they snapped at their opponents, hissing and striking like snakes.
They’re here for me. Another blast of lust rocked me, making fresh sweat break out across my skin. I pulled my knees to my chest, my sex clenching over and over. Wet flooded my lower half, the scent of my arousal thick in my lungs. My nipples were two hard, aching points. Every breath pressed them harder against my bra.
I needed serum. It was the only way to stop a full-blown heat from taking hold. Gritting my teeth against the need throbbing between my legs, I dug in my pocket—
—and touched broken glass.
Panic scrabbled down my spine. I dug some more. Pain zipped through my fingers, and I yanked my hand out. My fingertips were bloody.
The glass was crushed. The serum was gone.
My clit pulsed, hungry and needing. I squeezed my thighs together.
The males continued fighting as I panted on the ground.
A tremor started deep in my core and worked its way out, until my whole body shook and a low whine wound its way up from my chest. Sweat dripped into my eyes, mingling with tears that streaked down my face to the dirt.
Rurik shoved his feral away, then backhanded the male across the face, snapping his head around. The male landed hard, sending up rocks and dust. Eyes shimmering with swirling gold, Rurik bent, grabbed the male’s head, and wrenched it sideways. A loud crack split the air, and the male went limp. Rurik reared above him, then stretched his mouth wide and released a roar that shook the ground.
I squeezed myself into a tighter ball.
Cain punched the oth
er feral, who stumbled back. Soren attacked from the side, slamming a brutal fist into the other male’s ribs. Before he could recover, Cain struck again. Together, they took the black-clad feral down. Cain plunged his head to the other male’s throat. The male screamed, the sound spiraling up until it soared out of human range. Cain shook his head like a dog with a bone, then turned and spat something wet and bloody onto the ground. Bright red arterial blood pumped from the feral’s neck, arcing through the air like someone turned on a spigot.
I stared, helpless to do anything but lie there as the knives in my sex twisted deeper. My skull throbbed and my bones ached. Shivers coursed up and down my body even as sweat coated my skin.
Rurik swung his head toward me.
Golden eyes burned into mine. His face was different, the bones sharper and more defined. Every muscle was flexed, and his big hands were curled into massive fists. He was a predator—a monster who just snapped a feral’s neck.
And now I had his full attention.
A wave of lust crashed through me, bowing my back as damp gushed between my legs.
He was on me before I could blink, sweeping me off the ground and into his arms. The world flashed by again, but there were no others this time. His arms were iron bands anchoring my body to his. I had a vague sense of pounding feet and blinding speed. His heart thundered under my ear, the beat throbbing in sync with the desire pulsing between my legs.
Suddenly, we dropped straight down. He leaned back, pinning me harder to his chest as he rode us down a hill of rocks and dirt. Dust filled my lungs and coated my throat.
We were back at the cave—only this time we were alone. There could be just one reason for that.
He was going to mate me.
Chapter Seven
This can’t happen.
This won’t happen.
If I mated Rurik, I would never be free of him. A metaphysical bond would connect us, causing us pain whenever we separated.
But lust seared my veins and flooded my sex. My inner muscles clenched over and over.