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My husband's mouth covered mine. My wolf shoved hard. She wanted out. She wanted to play with this beast who understood me perfectly.

Gunnar released me. "Run."

He didn't need to tell me twice. I took off across the lawn. Cold air hit my skin. My feet left the heels. Bare soles pounded against the ground. Behind me came nothing.

No footsteps. No sound. No pursuit.

My wolf strained against me. I gave her control. The world exploded. My body shifted and dropped, paws striking earth where feet had been a moment before. And suddenly⁠—

I could see.

Moonlight spilled across the grounds. The world snapped into focus. Trees rose ahead of me in dark columns, but now I could see every ridge in their bark, every individual leaf trembling in the breeze, every silver thread of a spiderweb stretched between two branches. Blades of grass stood separately beneath my paws, jeweled with beads of dew. A moth fluttered twenty yards away; the powdery scales on its wings were visible when it landed against a tree trunk.

The manor glowed behind me. Not a shapeless block of light, but stone and mortar, windows and ironwork. I could make out the individual panes of glass, the ivy gripping the walls, even the tiny cracks running through the stone.

This is what my wolf gave me.

Edges. Distance. Detail.

A world that didn't blur when I tried to look directly at it.

And Gunnar⁠—

I looked back. He stood beside the car. Watching me. Waiting.

He grinned. Those fucking dimples.

I saw them perfectly now, carved deep into a face made of strong, uncompromising lines. The tiny creases at the corners of his eyes. The crooked bridge of his nose. The proud jut of his chin. The individual dark hairs of the stubble shadowing his jaw.

My husband had the face of a man built to intimidate, battered and brutal and undeniably handsome. And he was all mine.

I ran faster. Away from him. Putting as much distance as I could between us.

The woods swallowed me. Branches blurred past. Dirt flew beneath my paws. My lungs expanded with the cold night air as I pushed harder. Faster.

A branch snapped. Too close. I surged forward. My wolf thrilled. He was coming.

Another sound to my left. I veered right. Movement flashed between the trees.

Gunnar.

He could have caught me. Instead, his fingers brushed my flank. I yelped and twisted away. He let me go.

Bastard.

I raced deeper into the trees. Another flash of movement. Then nothing.

He was circling me. Herding me. Letting me believe I had escaped before reminding me that there was no way around him.

My pulse pounded harder. This was what he'd done in the bedroom. Bring me close. Back away. Make me ask. Give me what I wanted and then show me there was more. Only now my entire body was involved in the game.

Run.

Almost caught.

Free.

Run harder.