Page 120 of Never Submit

She’s close enough for me to grab, and I grip her hipshard, grinding my cock against her. Moaning at the delicious friction of her body. She doesn’t resist and rests her hands on my shoulders.

“What are you going to do?”

She sounds husky, her body going warm and pliant in my arms. Holy fuck, her scent. It’s like being shot up with something delicious and dark. She’s in my veins, in my nerves, bringing everything into sharp relief.

I drop my nose to the side of her neck and trail my tongue over her velvet skin. “You worried about me, Red?” I bite down, not hard enough to mark her, but intentionally leaving deep grooves.

It’s not just about fucking her to bother Noble. Not anymore—although I’m sure it will get under his skin if I have her now, and then take off with him. What a torment to scent his mate on me in an intimate way.

My smile grows.

But no. Iwanther. She’s an ache, physical and constantly present. There is something about this woman that threatens to undo the last bit of my hard-won sanity. I’ll gladly go mad for her.

“I guess I’m always worried about you,” she admits, scanning my face. “You give me a lot of anxiety.”

“Orgasms,” I correct hotly. “Not anxiety.”

What the hell would I ever do if I lost her? Even the mate bond isn’t going to stand in my way. I know that.

Her head tilts to the side. Her hands are still on my shoulders. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

“Always,” I whisper. “Off to go fight the demons for you, Red.”

But if Red got hurt…if I can’t find Andras and stop him…

Focus on the sex. Focus onthe physical need rather than the emotions drowning me. Rather than the way my gut tightens, but the pain is shocking, splintering, so different from anything I’m used to.

My head splits open and my chest constricts.

I’ve lost everything before. Or have I?

Where did that thought come from?

The migraine attacks without warning and bows my body sharply.

There’s screaming in my head. Screaming, and music, a faint tinkling of a long-forgotten melody, twined together. I drop my gaze from Red’s, focusing on breathing when my lungs don’t want to hold air. There’s nothing but agony, yelling, and someone calling my name.

There are hands on my head.

“Oh my god, Dax, you’re burning up. What’s going on? Is this some kind of panic attack?” Red sounds panicked herself. “Have you had this happen before?”

She’s here, I remind myself. She’s here and I’m touching her. I’m not lost. I’m not an empty monster.

Nothing is ever going to happen to her again. The alphas will be behind at camp to watch her. Mathis is her mate. Torin might be useless but he’s got some kind of schoolboy crush on her too, and it comes out as mean.

He’d fuck her too, if he could. Not just some blow job to tide him over.

I suck fresh air into my lungs and I gradually come back to myself.I feel nothing. It’s safer to feel nothing. Awareness of my surroundings trickles back to me in the wake of whatever the attack was. The emotions that crashed down so instantly recede and there’s Red, touching me, her pulse pounding.

“Has this happened before?” she repeats, breathlessly.

“The episodes?”

Did I say that out loud?

Red fists her hands in my hair and yanks my head back to force me to look at her this time. And the small biting sensation is nothing compared to the ache already cracking my skull into pieces.

“What do you need from me? What can I do to help you, Dax?” She searches my face. “Do you need me to come with you and mediate between you and Noble?”

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