Page 35 of Rabid
“I did all of those things,” I admit, hating the heat that I know is gleaming in my gaze. “But I’d love for you to point out where I begged you toclaimme. Where I demanded that you mark me hard and fast while you made me scream?” My blood is starting to boil, my tone seething with it.
I can feel I’m close. Close to that side of me that shuns logic and instead lives for the fight, for the blood, for the kill. Yet just like before, this male seems to eat it up, like it’s his favorite dessert instead of a sign of a severely unhealthy wolf.
“You didn’t need to ask for those things, and I didn’t need to ask to take them. You were out running during a claiming hunt. That’s all the permission I need.”
His stare is a molten challenge, and I press into him even closer, outraged. “I’m not in your pack. I was trying to get away, not join in on some fucked up past time.”
His pupils dilate as his eyes drop to my lips, like he wants to lean in and lick up the heated vitriol flying out of my mouth. “Tell yourself whatever you want. Your wolf wasn’t trying to go anywhere except under me. She wanted my wolf to fuck her. Needed it as badly as you needed your...outlet.”
With a screech of anger, I lift my hands to push him away from me. I hate that he’s right, butI’mright too.Iam not my wolf. I didn’t understand until it was too late, and I couldn’t grapple back control. Despite the hit I try to land, my angry palms never meet his chest. The force I fill my arms with is never released, because as fast as a snake bite, I’m shoved between him and the wood of the cabin behind me. He has my arms pinned behind my back with a punishing grip as a deep growl vibrates through me, moving from his chest into mine.
He leans in close, the stubble I was curious about a hair’s breadth away from my cheek. “Listen closely,Vicious, because it’s the only time I’m going to tell you this before I start showing you what happens if you try to fight me.” His tone is screaming that he’s not fucking around anymore as he presses harder into me. “You can hide from the truth all you want, bury yourself in whatever delusions that make you feel better, but you’remarked, and you’remine,and there’s not shit you can do to change that.”
Rage engulfs me at his words. My wounded glare doesn’t stray from the hard conviction I see in his face. I hate how trapped I feel, but even more, I hate how a part of melovesit.
I’m being destroyed by the baser nature of my wolf. Her needs are chipping away at who I am at my core, and I feel fragmented in a terrifying way. How can I ever be at peace when the very pieces of my soul are at war?
A large, calloused hand traces softly down my side, and he drops his nose to my shoulder, pulling my scent deeply into his lungs as if he’s savoring it. His fingers skim a path across my stomach before dropping lower and lower, until he’s playing with the short hair at the apex of my thighs.
Need pools low in my stomach, and a satisfied growl rumbles through him as though he can smell my pussy growing wet for him. I close my eyes, trying not to like the way his body feels against mine, trying not to beg for his hand to drop lower so he can dip his large fingers inside of me. Like he’s determined to make me give in to my lust, he nips at my jaw and runs his fingers over the seam between my thighs, making a noise get caught in my throat.
Both of us start to breathe heavy as desire fills the almost nonexistent space between us. I tip my head back, scolding myself for my reactions and demanding that my body doesn’t play into this. I will not roll my hips against his featherlight touch. I will not bite his shoulder, no matter how much my wolf is riding me to. I refuse to rub my cheek against his so I can feel what his stubble is like against my skin.
I gasp as his mouth drops to his bite, and he sucks on the tender skin there. To my horrifying embarrassment, I feel an orgasm starting to build in me from just these simple touches. Try as I might to suppress it, a small moan works its way from my parted lips.
But my small, sensual noise is drowned out by a long haunting howl that bursts through the air all around us. He growls frustratedly, pulling his mouth from his mark, clear irritation at being interrupted shining in his gaze. He nips at the side of my neck once more and then drops his forehead to my other shoulder as though the mark on the opposite side is more temptation than he can bear.
With great effort, I try to calm my breathing, thankful that this was cut short before I caved and jumped him. Out of nowhere, his fangs sink into my skin, and I jump, whimpering at the pain that suddenly consumes me. He releases me as fast as he bit me, hips grinding against me once before he backs up, putting distance between us.
I look at my other shoulder to see the bite he’s left there too, and I shut down my wolf’s smug satisfaction and focus only on my resentment. Warm blood trickles from the new mark, but before I can so much as push off the wall with a snarl, he’s whipping his shirt over his head and shoving it over mine.
He tugs at the hem until it’s pulled down all the way, dressing me like a child who couldn’t manage the task myself. My relief at being covered again battles with my need to want to rip this male open and tear his scent-soaked shirt from my body. But I also can’t help from running my greedy eyes over his shirtless form. I knew he was hot last night, but in the day? He’s evenbetter. Tanned skin like he lives and breathes the outdoors, sculpted muscles that curve over every glorious inch of him. This asshole is fuck-me candy that I have the sudden urge to suck on.
One side of his mouth twitches as if he knows what I’m thinking, and I glower at him to keep the blush from my cheeks. “Come on, the alpha has called a meeting,” he declares before grabbing my hand and pulling me behind him. His deceptively soft shirt hangs mid-thigh, and the blood from my bite is already dotting the fabric.
I’m dragged behind him as we pass the back of cabins with gardens and playhouses for pups. It’s all so quaint and normal looking and doesn’t fit at all with the image I’ve always had of the Ruin Falls pack. I try to dig my heels in and stop his forward momentum, but he’s too strong. Even with my wolf’s help, I don’t stand a chance. Nerves and worry flash through me as it looks as though this male is aiming for the front of the pack like he’s eager for a good seat, or maybe to turn me in.
I’m glad to be covered, but not stoked about the fact that I’m bleeding, especially not right now when I’ll be seeing the alpha for the first time. I know he’s ruthless and formidable, as savage as they come. The last thing I want when the alpha sees me for the first time is to be bleeding like I’m prey he should take interest in.
I’m tugged to a stop just as we reach the front of the pack, and I almost let out an anxious sigh but stop myself. I don’t know what’s going on or what my place in all of it is, but as I look around me, I don’t see any worry or tension in the faces or body language of the surrounding wolves. Next to me, the infuriating male who was just playing my body like his favorite game drops my hand. I’m both relieved by it and equally annoyed, which just serves to anger me even more at the divide happening inside of me.
I keep my eyes diverted from him, focusing instead on the front of the pack house we’re all gathered around. It’s elevated slightly, a deck and wood balcony positioned perfectly for the alpha to stand above the gathered wolves in a position of power, making whatever decrees he sees fit.
Everyone seems to quiet just before the pack house door opens, and out walks a large man with blond hair and brown eyes. He strides confidently down the flight of stairs that leads from the front door to the deck. He’s younger than I thought he’d be, and his face is kinder than I expected. As feral and vicious as this pack’s reputation has grown to be, it’s only been that way since this new alpha took power about ten years ago.
Alpha Tyran was young when he bested this pack’s former alpha, which marked the beginning of his legendary notoriety. It didn’t take him long to become the most feared and despised alpha in power, and that’s saying a lot when so many packs are led by wolves like Burke and worse.
The blond male grows more and more somber as he closes the distance, and even though I do get a sense of power radiating off of him, it’s nowhere near what I thought it would be, given his renown. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone start to climb the stairs that lead up to the deck. I pull my eyes from the alpha and look over to see that it’s my male, his coppery brown eyes fixed on the blond guy as they both reach the deck landing at the same time.
I look to my right as though I expect the male who was just standing next to me to still be there. Sure enough though, I’ve been abandoned once again, because he’s standing up there with Tyran.
Heat fills my face as I realize he must be a high standing beta. Worry fills me that he’s up there to announce our mating, and apprehension moves through me at the thought of the whole pack’s eyes turning to take me in. I’m a mess. I’m also still divided on how I feel about all of this, and I don’t know what happens to me if that’s written all over my face when he announces it. I shift my weight anxiously. For fuck’s sake, I still have his dried cum on my thigh.
I look up as the two males nod at one another, and then the blond moves to the side as my male steps forward. His dark brown hair dusts his squared shoulders, and his head is held high as he places his hands on the railing.
“Ruin Falls,” he calls out, his voice booming, and the wolves all around me are dead silent as though they’re hanging on his every word. “I’ve called you here today because the way of our pack has been violated. As your alpha, I call for a reckoning.”
Tawny brown eyes drop to mine, and horror rushes through me like a tsunami. My heart goes wild inside my chest as though it too is nothing more than a rabid being raging and rioting until it can escape its confines. Dread consumes my every cell as understanding rips through me like a first shift.
