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“Why would I want to? Come on, it’s not like we have to turn her over in perfect condition. Who cares if she’s been ridden hard before we sell her? She’ll get more of the same. Consider it a primer. We’ll just be warming her up.” That same rasping laughter came.
I clenched my jaw, swallowing the growls that rose in my throat. I hadn’t thought they were going to be nice to Lorraine if they found her, but this was next level. They were talking about sex—sleeping with her and then selling her so others could do the same.
These guys weren’t just assholes who had made a girl’s life hell. They were miscreant pieces of shit who didn’t deserve to live and breathe. If they so much as touched a hair on her head…
I saw red. My anger rushed to the surface, my blood suddenly boiling hot.
Mine.
I took a step forward, my body moving on its own before I realized what I was doing. I wanted to rip their heads off. I wanted to slash their skin and make them bleed. I wanted to hurt them and hurt them for a long, long time before finally putting them out of their misery.
Men like that deserved to die a slow and painful death after they went through what they put others through.
They were fucking with the wrong woman. They were fucking with my?—
I pulled myself up short and stepped back, away from the men.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Lorraine wasn’t mine. She was just a human woman I’d plucked from the forest to save her from these animals.
The possessiveness that had flared up inside me caught me off guard. I wanted to kill them to save her. I was pissed off they wanted to take what was mine. And that worried me, because she wasn’t mine.
What did I care what happened to her?
But that was the problem—I cared very much. She was mine. I’d found her first, and if anyone else touched her…
I shook my head and turned away from the men, walking through the trees back to the vale where my tree stood. They were far enough that we didn’t have to worry about them finding us right now—and the cabin was hidden beyond the veil of magic.
Lorraine was nothing to me, and it had to stay that way. I had to stop thinking about her as mine. I had to stop letting my magic run rampant when I was around her. It was only going to get me in trouble. Something about her drew me in a way I’d never been drawn before, and if I gave in to that, I was going to do something that would complicate the hell out of my life.
And hers, too.
Not that what happened to her should matter to me at all, I reminded myself again. She wasn’t my problem.
You made it your problem.
I should have listened to the others and not gotten involved. The least I could do now was listen to Artemis and not let this go any further.
Dammit, I had to go see Hecate. I had to find a way to become something else, something that wasn’t so drawn to humans. I had a weakness—I’d been cursed with the gift of seduction, and all it had done was bring me sorrow.
I wanted to be something that didn’t know how to feel.
Later, when the sun was out and the night was a distant memory, I walked to the cabin. I wanted to check on Lorraine.
I’d waited until now because the night was filled with all kinds of magic and it was better to see her in the light of day. It lessened the temptation. It pushed the magic away.
During the day, I could be just a man.
I stepped onto the porch and put my hand on the doorknob. I took a deep breath, composing myself, steeling myself against her charms, and opened the door.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of food. I frowned and stepped into the cabin.
Lorraine came to the door, her eyes wide. Her face broke into a smile when she saw me, and it was like the sunrise, lighting her up. She was wearing the same huntress dress as yesterday, and she’d twisted her long blond hair into a knotted thing behind her head. Strands of hair had escaped, softening her features. She was a vision, with long legs and milky skin.
She was sexy as fuck, and I wanted to taste her.
I was in trouble. My cock twitched in my pants.
