Page 30 of Pistols & Peonies

“Yeah,” I reply dryly. “My wolf’s been torturing me for days.”

Kane stares back at me for a long moment, brow furrowing, his expression twisting with something I can’t quite read.

I break the spell before it can turn sentimental. “I’ll bet it’s the bond,” I say, lifting my chin. “Like some kind of immune rejection. Maybe when it’s forced, it poisons both people from the inside.”

He just grunts in response, shifting his gaze toward the windows.

The silence that follows is oppressive, the air so thick with tension it’s almost hard to breathe. My wolf paces in my skull relentlessly, Kane’s presence fueling her like a battery charger. I’m suddenly buzzing with chaotic energy, unable to sit still for the first time in days.

“Fuck this,” I breathe, shoving to my feet. “I won’t be complicit in this lie. The pack deserves the truth.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Kane warns, bristling.

I let out a sharp, hollow laugh. “Why not? What’s the worst Alpha can do, put me down?”

“Yes,” he deadpans.

“Well maybe that’s preferable to this.” I go to stomp past him, angling for a dramatic exit, but he captures my wrist and reels me in.

“You don’t mean that,” he growls, eyes rimmed gold.

“Maybe I do,” I fire back, wrenching my wrist free of his grip. “It beats being a walking PR stunt for a tyrant.”

Kane glowers at me, jaw ticking, wolf riding close to the surface. Mine shoves forward in response, answering the challenge with an illicit surge of heat that snaps through the air between us.

He’s still perched on the arm of the sofa, but the man’s so damn tall that it puts us at eye level with one another. He tilts his head slowly, considering me for a long moment.

“Are you done now?” he asks, calm to the point of condescension.

That patronizing tone scrapes down my spine and sets my teeth on edge.

“Not even close,” I grit out, closing the last sliver of distance between us and getting right up in his face. “We may be mated, but you don’t own me, Commander Kane. I’ll do what I want, when I want, and if that means shouting from the rooftops that Alpha’s a liar–”

His hands lock around my hips, cutting me off mid-sentence as he yanks me flush against him.

“You won’t,” he growls.

The words aren’t loud. They don’t need to be. His stare pins me in place, so charged that my inner wolf goes feral.

My lips part, but nothing comes out– just a soft hitch of breath as the heat of his grip sears through the thin fabric of my sweats. My thoughts scatter, instinct taking over as my hands land on his chest, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt.

Not to push him away.

To pull him closer.

My heart slams against my ribs, our breaths tangling in the narrow space between us. He smells like citrus and spice, the scent wrapping around me like a drug as he leans in just enough that the tip of his nose brushes mine. So close that my wolf fucking swoons.

For one suspended breath, I think he’s going to kiss me.

Bite me.

Break me.

And for one terrifying moment, I realize I might actually want him to.

The bond pulses between us, but there’s something else threaded through it. Something dangerous and a hell of a lot more potent.

“What is this?” I whisper, pulse pounding so hard that it’s making me lightheaded.