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“Yes, Nathan. I want you.”
I stretch up to kiss him as he pulls his hips back, ready to thrust deep. As my lips meet his and I kiss him hard, I feel a sharp prick against my tongue and taste blood. Jerking my head back, I fling my eyes open, staring at him, startled. His teeth are down, glistening canines peeking out from underneath his top lip.
In a split second, it dawns on me what’s going on. Nathan moves his mouth toward my neck as he plunges his cock deep inside me. The feeling is incredible, and I cry out involuntarily, curling up off the bed as he fills me completely and my body sings with pleasure. I feel so full and my body grips him tight.
The panic that floods my system completely overshadows the moment, though.
“No, stop!” I scream, pulling one knee up, wedging it between us so that he can’t lean any closer. His eyes flash to mine, full of confusion and hurt, and he pulls his upper body back slightly to see what’s wrong. That gives me enough room to plant my foot firmly in the middle of his chest and kick, sending him flying off the bed and landing hard on the floor. He slides backward, landing in a crumpled heap against the wall, his head hitting it with a thud as he comes to a stop.
“What the fuck?!” He rubs his head and struggles to sit up. “What was that?”
“What was that?!” I scream in disbelief, standing naked in the middle of his massive bed. “You were going to bite me!”
I point a finger accusingly at him as he rolls over onto his knees and swipes a hand over the back of his scalp, his hand coming away red and bloodied. I feel bad he’s hurt, but I’m too freaked out to pay attention to that right now.
He struggles to his feet, looking unsteady but determined to get back to the bed and to me. I step back as he approaches, one hand out, telling him to stay where he is, determined to keep some distance while I try to think.
“Of course I was. You’re my mate!”
I freeze, and the blood in my veins turns cold. He’s serious. I can see it in his eyes and the way he’s squinting at me, utter shock on his face at this turn of events. It’s about to get a lot worse.
“No, you’re not.”
I say it so quietly the words are barely audible, but they hang in the air between us. Nathan looks at me with utter devastation as my words sink in and he tries to comprehend what I'm saying.
The silence stretches on and I’m suddenly conscious of my nakedness. Wrapping an arm across my breasts, I step down off the bed and hurriedly rummage around on the floor for my clothes. Nathan watches, saying nothing, his face twisted in agony at my denial.
“Nathan, I’m sorry. When I saw your teeth… I…”
I try to stammer out a poor explanation, but he’s not listening. He moves suddenly, turning on his heel and storming out the door, slamming it hard behind him. Leaving me to find my own way out.
The telltale cracks and pops of a shift echo in the next room as he transforms into his wolf and bounds down the stairs of the pack house, his sharp claws tapping on the wood as he runs. His pain is palpable. Much as I want to follow Nathan and speak to him, now isn’t the right time. He needs to calm down and I need time to process what just happened.
Damn it, that was so close. He was about to mark me and claim me as his. Forever. I ignore the hint of warm fuzzy feeling that gives me.
I kick the sheets in frustration as I sink onto the mattress and hide my face in my hands. This is a disaster. I don’t want to hurt him, and maybe I did overreact, but I couldn’t let him mark me.
Nathan can’t be my mate. Can he?
The low keening howl of misery I hear from the distant forest tells me he thinks he is.
CHAPTER 8
MAYA
My chest aches as I think about the pain I have inflicted on Nathan. Physically and emotionally, and potentially unnecessarily, if what he says is true. But surely,I’d know?
My brother warned me endlessly before I left to keep my wits about me. Dean worried that after being kept sheltered in my pack, ambitious males looking for a prized alpha female might see me as an easy target. They might incorrectly assume I’d be naïve and easily impressed.
I don’t normally share his paranoid nature, but I won’t allow myself to be marked by someone I barely know in the heat of the moment. I can’t take as gospel the words of a man I only just met, no matter how gorgeous and sexy he is. It doesn’t make this any less of a shitshow. Suddenly the next few months in the Grey Ridge pack seem a less fun prospect.
Thumping on the door disrupts my thoughts and I lift my head right before the door bursts open. Rex rushes straight into the bedroom, where I’m still sitting on the edge of the bed. Scenting the air, he freezes and glances first at the bed and then at the spot on the wall where Nathan struck his head. He can smell the blood and sex in the air.
“Where is he?”
Rex’s voice is calm, but lethal. Anger radiates from him, and I’d be stupid to try to hide anything from him when he’s in protective alpha mode. He can sense his brother’s distress, or maybe Nathan already told him what happened. When Leila stayed with our pack, she told me a little of what happened between Rex and his first mate, Stacey, when he chose not to be alpha. She rejected him, and it took a big toll on him. Eventually, he left the pack to get some space to recover. Since meeting Leah, his second chance mate, he is a new man, but she said the experience left him short-tempered and unpredictable. Not a person I want to piss off by lying.
“He shifted and ran. I don’t know where.” I sigh and get to my feet, walking over to the window, half hoping to see him outside. I rest my fingers against the cool glass as I look out at the trees. I need to talk to him.
