Page 19 of Wild Wolf

Ethan growled against my clit, licking and kissing me, making my heart thrash with want as pleasure began to build within me.

Sin made no move to join us, simply watching with a heated expression, his jaw ticking as I turned my head and met his dark eyes.

“Easy there, kitten,” he murmured, taking a step closer and reaching out for me across the counter.

I let him take my hand, steadying myself with his strength while Ethan’s tongue sank into me before riding up and over my clit.

My body was alight with tension, this coiled ball of anxiety demanding release but even with Ethan working miracles between my thighs, his mouth hot and demanding against me, I couldn’t break through that wall.

My breaths came harder, my throat thickening and my grip on Sin’s hand tightening so much that it had to hurt.

“That’s enough,” Sin growled. “Let go, wild girl.”

My body hummed in anticipation, bliss lingering just out of reach but as I looked into Sin’s dark gaze, I found my own eyes burning, tears blurring my vision.

“Fuck,” I cursed, shoving Ethan back and stumbling away from him. “I can’t do this,” I panted, my chest rising and falling heavily, panic racing through my veins as I stumbled back again. “I can’t. I just…I need…”

“Roary,” Ethan finished for me, pushing to his feet and I burst into tears which felt so powerful that I was certain I’d be consumed by them entirely.

I tried to bolt but the two of them were there before I could take so much as a step, strong arms wrapping around me, holding me close and murmuring low agreements in my ears.

“A few more hours, love,” Ethan said. “Just few little hours and we can head after him. I don’t care what’s standing between us and him because whatever it is won’t be enough to keep us away. We’re a pack. And tonight we’ll be reunited come hell or high water.”

“Fuck yes to that,” Sin agreed.

And as my sobs fell still and my tears ran dry in their arms, I found myself believing in those words at last. We were a pack and we were one member down, but tonight that was all going to change.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Idragged my thumb over my right fang, then my left, a chill sweeping through me at the sensation. It didn’t feel like my body anymore. I had no problem with Vampires, but their Order didn’t belong with me. I ached for my Lion, longed for it in a way that fractured my soul. This wasn’t me. My body had been taken hostage, forced to bear the wants and needs of another being. It was unnatural, and I refrained from flexing the gifts of this new form as I sat in my cell, my back to the wall where I sat, head bowed and breaths uneven.

My mind always found Rosa when I fell into the darkest pits of despair, her keen brown eyes and sharp tongue urging me to hold on. But for what? Even if I could escape this place and return to her, I would do so altered and with a vital part of myself missing. She wouldn’t judge me, I knew that, but I was living in a false layer of flesh that sat upon my bones like an ugly lie. I didn’t want to return to her like this.

I scored a hand over my hair, missing the thickness of my mane between my fingers since it had been cut off. Nothing about me looked like the Lion I had once been, and my chest tightened as I pictured my brother’s face, Leon’s fear, his horror at what had been stripped from me.

My mothers would weep, my father would…well, he had disowned me already. If he discovered what I’d become now, he would likely refuse to acknowledge my existence at all. But that was assuming I ever got out of here and managed to return to the people I loved to face their anguish over what I was now. That was the best case scenario. Or perhaps it wasn’t. Perhaps it would be better if I rotted away in here so that none of my loved ones ever had to endure the knowledge of what had been done to me.

A hissing noise captured my attention and I glanced up at the narrow vents at the top of the walls. With a surge of energy, I shoved to my feet, moving too fast again and finding it disorienting. I didn’t even bother to pull my shirt up over my nose as some gas was pumped into my cell. There was no escaping it. At first, I suspected Order Suppressant, but my eyelids began to lower and the heavy call of sleep rushed over me. My knees hit the floor and as my eyes shuttered, I saw a fine set of boots walking toward me from the open door.

“Sleep, precious one,” Roland’s voice followed me into the dark. “Fate is calling.”

The first thing I felt was motion. The floor was swaying from side to side and my stomach churned as the sleeping gas wore off at last. I had no idea how long it had been. Hours? Days? The only clue was the small measure of moonlight filtering through my eyelashes. Night had fallen, that was all I could be certain of.

I blinked and took in the cage I was contained in, the bars stretching overhead and pressing into my back where I lay. Just beyond them, a small, circular window let in the silver light of the moon, reminding me of my Rosa. She had such a connection with that celestial being, her power one of mystery and beauty. I’d always admired it, but now that I thought about it, maybe I’d never told her that. There were so many things I hadn’t said. Too many words trapped in my heart, never to find their way to her. I hoped upon that moon and every star surrounding it that she wasn’t dwelling on the loss of me. But it was a foolish thought. She had come for me in the depths of hell and had come so close to freeing me from the grasp of my chains, but she’d failed. And to her, that would be unacceptable. She would beat herself up and seek me out to the edges of the world to try to reclaim me, and of course I fucking loved her for that. Her strength was deeper than magic, it was a pure power of the soul. She would fight for me just as I would fight for her-

I frowned as that thought stalled me, my gaze falling to the full moon mate mark on my left wrist. She wasn’t giving up, so why the fuck was I? I may not have been her Lion any longer, but I was still marked as her mate. She still deserved to have me do everything in my power to return to her.

A growl spilled from my lips as my new Order awakened, my fangs lengthening and that strange hunger stirring in my throat. I needed blood, and I’d gladly take it from any sorry asshole I found.

I pushed to my feet, that incessant rocking finally making sense as I got a better look out of the window. I was in a boat on the sea and from the feel of it, we had either recently docked or hadn’t yet set off to wherever we were headed.

With the magic-blocking cuffs on my wrists, I still had no access to my power, but I did have this foreign Order to work with. I took hold of two bars of my cage, gripping firmly and trying to yank them apart. The Vampire in me awakened further, my strength increasing and the bars groaned then bent, wrenching wide enough for me to force my way through. I squeezed out and a burst of unexpected speed sent me crashing into the far wall. I cursed as I knocked over a stack of empty wooden crates, the sound sure to alert anyone close by.

“What was that?” a male voice barked up on deck.

“Check the cargo,” a woman clipped and I was pretty sure I recognised Angie’s voice.

I moved to the door, pressing myself to the wall beside it in the shadows and waiting for someone to open it.

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