Page 40 of Hunted

He’d only made her want him more. She traced his muscles, the curve of his ass, his powerful thighs. She wanted to touch all his skin, soft on top of hard muscles, like velvet over steel. He had new scars, ones she didn’t recognize, and she wondered what stories they told.

What pain they signified, that still needed to be healed.

She kissed each one of them. His mouth moved over her body, finding her new scars, kissing them in his turn.

Acknowledging the pain they’d missed and the pain they’d caused.

Finally, when she was desperate with wanting him, he pulled her on top of him, already hard again. His hands on her hips, watching her face intently, he rubbed the length of his dick between her legs, over her slick core, teasing her with the pressure and friction when she wanted him inside her.

And all the while, his wolf rumbled with pleasure.

Finally, finally, he gave in to her silent demands, lifting her up and letting her guide him inside her. She heard herself make a sound between a moan and a howl, that made his eyes go gold.

“Fuck me,” he rasped. “I need you.”

She braced her hands against his chest, raising and lowering herself slowly, feeling him fill her until she gasped, and then pulling back slowly so she could do it again.

He snarled with willing frustration, letting her tease him, stoke the fire higher and higher until he couldn’t stand it. He tightened his grip, immobilizing her so he could thrust into her, hot and hard and deep. She threw her head back, reveling in every stroke, and then he pulled her down against his chest, one hand wrapped around the back of her neck, fingers in her hair, the other still pressed against the small of her back.

“I missed you so much,” she whispered. “For so long.”

That pushed him over the edge. A few more thrusts and then he exploded inside her, pushing her into another climax more intense than the first, his teeth on the skin of her neck, just a hair away from biting in.

She held her breath, not knowing if she wanted him to bite her, to claim her, or not. The bite turned to a kiss, more kisses, and the shuddering turned to a floating bliss.

Chapter 18

Gunn lay with Mikey in his bed, his feeling of peace turning slowly to terror and despair.

She was his mate. He knew it for sure now—there was no more fooling himself. He’d nearly claimed her, right here right now, binding her to him without even asking her.

That’s how much he wanted her. Needed her. But she wasn’t safe.

Every moment she stayed here, she was in more danger. He had to get her out.

His wolf howled inside him, and the place in his chest that had been bleeding for so long and had just started to heal threatened to tear itself open again.

Stronger together, his wolf said.

That can’t happen. How the hell could it happen?

And yet, how could they be apart, and not be two broken souls? If there was such a thing as fate, how could it make them mates, and then put them in such an impossible situation?

Mikey stirred in the dark, putting a hand on his chest, over his heart. “What’s wrong?” she whispered sleepily.

She knew. She could feel his emotions. That alone was a sign that they were too close, that the ties that bound them together were starting to wrap around them even stronger than before.

But he could also feel the pack, outside the walls of this room. Their anger, their resentment, their fear. They were afraid of Mikey and what she could do to them.

“I have to get you out of here,” he told her. “The longer you stay, the more danger you’re in.”

She was silent for a moment. Then she said, “You can’t come, can you.” The fact that it was a statement rather than a question broke his heart.

For a moment, he could almost taste the freedom. The two of them, together, taking on the world. Having her next to him every night, at his back every day.

But life just didn’t get that good.

“No.” He kissed her to soften the word, although he knew there was no way he could. “I—” Shit. “I can’t leave the pack, not right now. Maybe someday…”