"Watch me."
"I'm not one of your wolves! I don't follow orders because you're big and scary and—"
He grabs my shoulders. Hands huge, pinning me against the bark. Every wolf in this territory is about to—
My mouth keeps going—
"—you think you can just GRAB me whenever you—"
"Shut up."
"Don't tell me to shut—"
His mouth on mine.
Hard. Not tentative. Not asking.
I freeze for one heartbeat. Just one. Then my hands are in his hair and I'm pulling him closer, not pushing him away, and everything in me that was still shaking from the fight redirects straight into his mouth.
His lips part mine. His tongue finds mine. A sound I don't recognize comes out of my throat and he swallows it, his hand sliding from my shoulder up to cup the back of my neck, holding me where he wants me.
I let him.
I'm shaking. Adrenaline and cold and something else. All of it pouring out of me into him and he's drinking it down like he's been waiting years for me to spill.
"Keer—"
"Don't." Against my mouth. His other hand finds my waist. "Not right now."
"I'm not—"
"Good."
He kisses me again. Slower this time. Deeper. His beard rough against my jaw, the coppery taste of blood between us—mine, his, I can't tell—and my body is melting into his, into the tree at my back, into the heat of him after all that cold.
His hand at my waist slides lower. Finds the hem of his own shirt I'm still wearing. Slips underneath it.
His palm on my bare ribs.
"Oh." I don't mean to make the sound.
"That's it." His mouth moves to my throat. Teeth scraping. "Make that sound again."
Already making it. His hand traveling up, thumb skimming the underside of my breast, and my spine arches off the bark and pushes me into his palm. He breathes out rough against my neck.
"I'm going to touch you now."
It isn't a question.
"Everywhere I've been thinking about. You're going to let me. You're going to stand here against this tree and you're going to take it. Do you understand?"
"Keer—"
"Do you understand, Melori."
"Yes. Yes, I—"
His hand closes fully over my breast. Squeezes. His thumb drags across my nipple through the thin fabric and my whole body jolts and my knees try to give.
