Page 30 of Hunted

She closed her eyes. “I kind of wish I didn’t know that.”

“Vlad should never have said what he did to you back on campus.”

“This isn’t Vlad’s fault.”

“He’s leader of an entire goddamn vampire rebellion. He should know better than to go running his mouth.”

“You think I don’t picture it? That I don’t look for the exits in every room I enter? I’m the one being hunted. Rossi wants me dead, will do anything to stop my research.” She held my eyes. “Why do you think he has it out for me? What is it about me that makes this personal to him?”

“I don’t know. But he won’t get to you. I won’t let him.” I cleared my throat. “We need to talk about what you asked me to do before.” When she frowned, I clarified. “Biting you.”

“Oh.” She flushed, and I wanted to kiss every last freckle on the tip of her nose. “Maybe we should just forget about that.”

I caught her waist, pulling her into me so that she was straddling my thigh. “You have no idea how often I think about biting you, about marking you, about leaving my cum on you and inside you so that every male you come in contact with will scent me on your skin and know to back off. That you’re mine.”

Ellie blinked, her lips forming a silent oh. She licked her lips, letting the warm pressure of my hand at the small of her back guide her higher up my thigh so that she was practically up on her toes in those tiny track shorts, arched like a freshly strung bow as she sought friction.

“But you know why we can’t,” I said softly. “Why it’s too dangerous.” I spread my fingers, spanning her ribcage as I languidly memorized the shape of her body from the soft curve beneath her firm small breasts down to the dip of her waist.

“But, if you were going to bite me, hypothetically speaking, how would you do it?” She bit her lip, eyes fluttering closed as I bent to slip the strap of her tank top down her shoulder, exposing the pale pink tip of one breast to the cool air of the kitchen.

My fingers slipped into the front of her shorts where she was rubbing up against me, unsurprised to find how wet she was. This wouldn’t take long. Fingertip gently circling her swollen clit, I feathered kisses down the hollow of her throat, speaking directly into her mind.

It would be at the full moon. My wolf would be wild for you, the beast within me feral with the need to mate. There would be no way I would be able to keep my hands off you even for a second once I got into your bedroom, saw you splayed out on your bed, wet like you are right now, so tight and aching for my cock.

Ellie made a little mewling sound in the back of her throat as I pinched her nipple and tugged the tip into a taut, rosy point, applying just enough pressure to sting.

Again, she demanded, and I pushed my fingers inside her tight, slick heat. She shuddered, starting to ride them as I teased fluttery circles around her clit. Tight little pulses radiated through her hips with every brush of the pad of my thumb. It wouldn’t be long now. If you can’t bite me, I want to imagine your lips are your teeth when I come.

Fuck me.

I growled, cock heavy and aching. No way was I lowering my fly. I didn’t trust myself not to lose control.

I would mount you right away, I said into her mind. Neither one of us would be able to wait. You would be raking your fingernails down my back, half-feral with moonlust, the call to mate driving us both wild. Shifter mating isn’t pretty. It isn’t some teen vampire novel with a few kisses and a love nip on the neck. It gets rough. You would probably bite me half a dozen times before we got through the first round. And I would blow the end off my dick the first time I felt your teeth on my neck, I’d be so turned on by how much you needed me.

I slipped the second strap off her shoulder, pinching her other nipple. Ellie’s head fell back, and I felt her begin to come around my fingers.

I would enter you from behind, and just as you started to come, I would mark you. When two shifters bond during sex, the submissive’s heartbeat and breathing temporarily slaves to that of the dominant wolf. They experience physical sensations reflected back through each other’s wolf skins for hours after claiming each other. It’s one of the most intimate parts of the mating bond.

She finished coming and slumped against me, boneless. Her fingers curled into the fabric of my t-shirt, her breathing slowly evening out. I cradled her in my arms, drinking in the sweet tang of strawberry shampoo mixed with the smell of her arousal and the darkening musk of my own scent. My wolf rattled the cage of my bones, desperate to mark her, to claim her as our mate.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Why did I keep allowing myself to pretend? This was wrong. I couldn’t keep lying to myself, couldn’t keep pretending that Ellie Crowe and I could have some sort of twisted future. She was better off the farther I stayed away from her, and the sooner I got that through my head, the better.