Page 126 of Never Submit

He narrows in on the sound of my voice and snaps his teeth. Then he lifts his head to the sky and lets out a baying howl. The sound ripples along my skin and I shiver.

“Dax, if you do nothing else, you selfish asshole, listen to me now. If you don’t change back, you’re going to ruin everything,” I add, keeping my voice low and steady despite the prickle of unease along my spine. “Do you get it?”

There’s a tug in my consciousness. The sensation grows and zaps down my spine.

I thrust out my arms. “Goddamn it, no. Ren, stop!”

Then she’s there as though conjured, pushing through the crowd to get to us.

“Baby, stay away,” I warn her. “It’s too dangerous.”

She glances at me, then toward the wild golden wolf pacing restlessly, drool dripping from his maw. “No.”

I know what she’s trying to do. Something only Mathis has been able to do until now. She’s going to try to get Dax to change.

He’ll turn on her. It’s a given at this point. Dax will turn and hurt her and then there will be no choice. I’ll have to follow her into death.

I’m not ready to lose her, and I’m not ready to die. Panic steals my breath. It makes every heartbeat last millennia.

My eyes widen, stretching to their limits before narrowing into thin slits as Ren steps between the two of us. Standing with her back toward Dax. Protectinghim. Not me.

“Ren.” I say her name, but she just looks at me with her chin jutted out and her expression screwed up in good old-fashioned stubbornness.

“I’m not going to let you hurt each other,” she insists. “Whatever happened out there, it stops now.”

Me hurt him? He’s not the one bleeding. Why would she… Confusion and shock war inside of me. Ren ismymate.

“From where I’m standing, it seems you’re more concerned with me hurting thatthingthan you are about your own mate.”

I don’t want to sound like the bitter asshole here, even though I definitely feel it.

Ren stands with her arms out to the sides, crouched slightly forward in a power position.

Dax whines, pressing closer to her, rubbing his head onher leg. Lewd. Suggestive. Like he has a right to touch her that way.

I’m going to fucking kill him, even if he is in the middle of an episode.

“Ren, step away from him.” I hold out my hand, waiting for her to choose. “He lost it out there. Hearing things. He kept going on and on about some song…”

I need her to really choose between us, because her next step will prove to me that our mate bond is real. And that I deserve it.

Ren stares at my hand, then at me. “I need to make sure you’re not going to hurt each other.”

Stubborn woman. Pride wars with fear in my chest.

“Sounds a lot like you don’t trust me,” I murmur.

I want to plead with her. To beg her to step away from him and into the safety of my arms, before it’s too late. Before I do something I’ll really regret and jeopardize her in the process.

Ren sees all of it. Every fucked-up thought in my head, she feels through our mate connection. Her own sense of betrayal, of worry, of guilt rip through me like a bolt of pure electricity and I move toward her, intending to grab her.

The world around us slows down. The sensations coming through the mate bond are intense, too unpredictable for me to give much thought to why. Ren stands there as a human woman.

And as time ticks by, as everything slows and everyone with it, her body bends forward, lurching until she is on her hands and knees. Her skin ripples and the bones and muscle underneath shift. Thicken, lengthen.

Pure, bright-white fur erupts along every inch of her and her face contorts so that her jaw lengthens and fangs sprout where human teeth used to reside. I’m stunned. I canonly watch as she wolfs out and suddenly there is a giant beast crouched between me and Dax, snarling.

Right at me.

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