Page 17 of The Wild Wolf's Rejected Mate

She doesn’t react. She just shakes, fear rolling off her in waves.

How do I make it stop?

“I know where I can get chocolate.” It’ll cost me, but Diantha has a stash, and she’ll probably trade me for a nice shank steak. I hope I can get an elk so late in the season. The more I run my mouth, the more I’ve got riding on this bull I haven’t even bagged yet.

Annie doesn’t answer. She must be worn out. I stop running my mouth and focus on holding her and soaking in the amazing feeling of my knot pulsing against her warm, spongy walls.

As time ticks by, I become aware of the bond in my chest. It’s a strange sensation that burns more than I thought it would, but I probably just need to get accustomed to it. Max never mentions his. He doesn’t seem to notice it at all except when he wants to check and make sure that Elspeth is close to the dens. Then, he’ll give it a yank and grunt when he’s reassured that she’s where she always is.

I can’t wait to take Annie home and fuck her again when there aren’t so many worries buzzing around in my brain. If her wolf has enough stamina, we can make it to the camp by tomorrow evening, and we can do this as many times as we want, in a warm, safe nest.Inside.

I’ll feed her, and I’ll show her off to the worthy males, and I’ll find some excuse to fight a few of the unworthy ones, so she knows that I’m the strongest in the pack.

Maybe there is a pup taking root in her now. Warmth spreads through my chest. I don’t care that I’m kneeling in the dirt far from home, freezing cold and baring my naked ass to anyone in Quarry Pack who happens along. This is everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

Too soon, my knot slips free. Cooling seed seeps out of Annie’s pussy and drips onto my thighs. I sigh. I don’t want to let her go, but we need to go.

I open my mouth to say so.

She heaves herself away from me, scrabbles onto her back, and crab crawls out of the nest, scattering leaves in her wake.

“Get away from me!” she shouts, staggering to her feet.

I keep very still, painfully aware of my size and how wild my long hair and beard must look after so long in my fur. I must look frighteningly different from the Quarry Pack males with my tattoos and wolf-tipped ears and canines. I’d smooth them into human ears and teeth, but I’ve never bothered to before, and it’s too late in this moment to figure it out now.

Her scent has taken on an acrid note, and her eyes are wild, the pupils hardly even pinpricks. I slowly raise my hands in the air.

“Stay away.” She raises her palms to fend me off, even though I’m standing stock-still. She glances wildly over her shoulder at the river. “Don’t come any closer.”

Her gaze careens left and right. She’s searching for the best way out. She’s going to run. The intention blares through the bond.

“Don’t run,” I warn her. If she runs, my wolf will take our body and chase her. Normally, I could keep him reined in, no problem, but the mating exhausted me too, and honestly, it’s a fifty-fifty chance whether I could stop him from taking our skin. I don’t want to know what Annie will smell like if my wolf runs her to ground.

Shit. Isthatthe burning feeling in the bond? Her fear? I need to make it stop.

“My wolf won’t hurt you,” I tell her, just in case it comes down to it, and she does bolt, and my wolf goes after her. He’ll tackle her, and he might bite her to hold her still, but he won’t maul her or anything. “I won’t either,” I add.

She should know that, but clearly, she doesn’t. She’s acting like she’s been attacked.

“Get away from me! Now!” Her voice is stronger than I’ve heard it yet.

I rise to my feet and take a small step backward. I’m not going anywhere, but I need her to breathe. My wolf is working himself up into a lather, priming himself to attack whatever’s frightening our mate, and it doesn’t even occur to him that it’s me.

“Annie, please. Calm down.”

She bolts, breaking right. My wolf surges forward to take our skin. I race to intercept her, and at the same time, I wrestle thewolf back, somehow navigating through inner and outer space in the same split second.

My head spins as my arms wrap around my mate. Her heel cracks against my shinbone. Her arms turn into windmills. She’s silent as the grave while her fists and elbows drive into my shoulders and side and chest, anywhere she can land a blow. The back of her skull clunks against my jaw. I grunt. I can’t stop her without hurting her. I have to let her go.

I drop her as gently as I can, but she’s fighting so hard, she staggers and falls on her butt. I immediately sink to my knees and reach out my hands. Gasping in terror, shecrawlsfrom me. On all fours. In her human form. She’s only got her shirt on. Her dirt-caked knees are cut. They’rebleeding.

“Please stop,” I beg. “What are you doing?”

In her panic, she’s heading toward the river bank. Is she going to jump? Am I such a terrible mate that she would risk death to escape me?

“What’swrong?” If she’d only explain, I could fix it.

“You’rewrong,” she cries, scrambling to her feet. “Thisis wrong.” She waves her hands wildly between us. “I don’t want this. Why won’t you go away? Just leave me alone. You got what you wanted.”

---