Page 77 of Hunted

“I do not snore.”

He smirked. “You want to bet on that? Pretty sure I’ve got a recording on my phone somewhere. Cute little baby dragon snores.”

“Why do I even like you?”

“Oh c’mon. I said cute baby dragon snores.”

I poked him in the chest. “Find me a greeting card anywhere where that is romantic.”

He caught me, pulling me onto his lap on the bed. Slowly, he unzipped my hoodie, drawing it down my arms to leave me in only my tank. “It’s like with the soup.” He traced a single finger up my bare arm to the edge of my collarbone, drawing a shiver. “Or when you let that gorgeous mane of hair down. I told you before. I crave intimacy with you. Not the things my gift steals from your mind. The little parts of Ellie Crowe that only I get to see.”

“Well, when you put it that way.”

His expression darkened.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“You told me how important it is that I not hide from you, how much it hurt you in the past when people you loved did that. But River, you’re a fortress of walls upon walls that no one can breach. You hear every thought that goes through my mind. And sometimes I think I’ll never be able to see inside yours.”

“I scarred you by erasing your memory. My enemies are hunting you. It would be better for you if I just stayed the hell away. I’m a dark stain in the back of your mind that you’ll never be rid of.”

“That isn’t true. You know I don’t feel that way.”

“Except it is. And eventually, everyone connected with me gets hurt.” He lifted my bandaged arm and carefully examined it. “I should have been there. Rossi never should have gotten to you.”

“I’m okay.” I hesitated. “How long will it take for the blood sample to come back?”

“I don’t know. Probably twenty-four hours at least.” He held my gaze. “It’s good that the doctors at the hospital did the workup, but the statistical likelihood of the blood sample they took coming back positive is close to none. You’re outside the transmission window. If Rossi or Quinn is carrying enough of a viral load to infect you, say they’re an outlier case like Dallas was, we’re still talking a very small amount of lycan virus in your blood. Plus, females always carry a lower viral load than males and don’t always test positive at all which is why there’s never been a case of a female shapeshifter infecting a human.”

“So why even test female patients for lycan virus if the incidence of false negatives is so high?”

“Exactly.”

“I know there’s nothing I can do and I need to just wait and see if symptoms develop.” I rubbed my arms. “Unfortunately that’s not the way my anxiety works.”

River kissed the top of my head. “It can take an entire month for symptoms to fully develop.”

“My sister noticed her eyes change color within the first week. She spiked a fever the first night. I think she began shifting into a wolf at the two week point after infection, but I would have to ask her. I’m not sure.”

River’s thumbs rubbed slow circles at the small of my back. “The timeline is different for everyone, but you see symptoms develop gradually over the first moon cycle after infection, with the person fully changed from a human into a Bitten wolf by the next full moon.” He hesitated. “Your team has been developing the vaccine. Is it at a point where you could—”

“No. We have early prototypes, but nothing I would ever inject into my arm. If I change, I change.”

River took my fingers. “You know I’ll be with you every step of the way. I know you’re afraid of going feral. That’s not going to happen. You’ll have me and my entire family there supporting you.”

“There’s something I need.”

“Anything. You know that.” He kissed my bare shoulder. I pushed him back onto the bed and slid into his lap so that I was straddling him.

“If I change this month at the full moon, I need to know that it could have been you.” I traced the scar from his teeth at my throat. River groaned softly and I felt him go hard between my legs. “I want it to be you who makes me into a wolf, not Rossi. I want you to make love to me. I’m on the pill. I’m safe. But I want you to come inside me tonight, mark me as yours.”

“Ellie,” he said hoarsely.

His lips found the underside of my jaw where his claiming mark burned like a brand against my skin. I arched my head back. River’s hands mapped my body hungrily, thumbs circling at the front of my hipbones. He sucked very softly at his claiming mark and my body came alive. Liquid heat seared along the length of my spine to pool between my hips, a hot, pulsing ache fluttering between my parted thighs, pleading for relief.

River growled, warm hands sliding beneath my tank. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I bit his bottom lip. He lifted my tank top just enough for his thumbs to skim the undersides of my breasts. I squirmed in his lap, wet and aching.