Page 106 of Reckless: Collision

Ice slides down my spine. “Is that what this is? A warning?”

“It’s a promise.” The words come out soft, deadly, sliding down my spine like ice even as his proximity burns. He stalks forward, all contained power and lethal grace, until I’m backed against the wall. His scent shifts, cedar turning sharp as winter frost, the notes deepening into something ancient and primal. “You run? You hurt them?”

He plants both hands on either side of my head, caging me in with his body. This close, I can see the alpha red bleeding into his steel-gray eyes, feel the barely controlled violence in every line of his body. My heart hammers so hard I’m sure he can hear it, smell the adrenaline flooding my system.

“I will cut you off completely.” His voice drops to a whisper that feels like a physical touch. “I will hunt you down myself, use every bond you’ve created against you, make it so they never find you, never sense you—” He leans closer, his breath fanning hot against my ear, making me shiver. “Never have to face the fact that you chose to leave them.”

“You’d do that to your own pack?” The words come out breathy, betraying me. Because I’ve seen how they move together, how they orbit each other like planets around his sun. How even now, with threat rolling off him in waves, my body arches toward his heat like it’s forgotten how to be afraid.

His laugh is dark, sensual despite its cruelty. One hand drops to my throat, not squeezing, just resting there—a reminder of power, of control, of everything he holds back. “To protect them?” His thumb traces my thundering pulse, the gentle touch at odds with his words. “From someone who won’t choose them back?”

His eyes lock with mine, and the hunger there wars with something harder, colder. His scent spikes with a possessive note that makes my knees weak, even as his words promise destruction. “In a heartbeat.”

The contrast shorts out my brain—his gentle touch and violent promises, the way his body shields even as his words threaten, how every alpha instinct in him screams protect while he swears to hunt me down. I’m caught between fight and flight, between pulling him closer and shoving him away.

“And what about you?” I challenge, tilting my head back to meet his gaze despite the way it bares my throat to him. “Could you really cut off your own scent bond?”

The growl that rumbles through his chest vibrates straight through me, setting every nerve ending on fire. “Try me.” His hand slides from my throat to cup my jaw, the touch possessive even as he promises to let me go. “Run, and find out just how far I’ll go to protect what’s mine.”

Theminehangs between us, heavy with double meaning. Because I’m not his—not really, not yet. But the way his body crowds mine, the way his scent marks the air, the way his touch brands my skin... everything in him claims otherwise.

The USB drive feels like it’s burning a hole in my conscience. Because he’s right—I am hiding things. Am planning contingencies. Am keeping one foot out the door.

“They love you,” he says, and the words fall like stones in the quiet room. “They didn’t get a choice in that. But you do. You get to choose whether to stay, to be pack, to let yourself belong. Just know that if you choose wrong?” He moves to the door, pausing with his hand on the knob. “I won’t let you destroy them.”

He leaves me there, surrounded by my unpacked bags and unspoken secrets, with a choice that suddenly feels a lot more permanent than I ever intended.

“Wait!” I catch him in the hallway, my bare feet silent on the hardwood. “What about you?”

He stops but doesn’t turn. “What about me?”

“My scent.” The words escape before I can stop them, hanging in the charged air between us. My heart pounds so hard I wonder if his alpha hearing can pick up every betraying beat. “Am I a match for you too?”

His shoulders go rigid, the muscle in his jaw ticking. For a moment, the silence stretches so tight I think it might shatter.Then he turns, and the raw hunger in his eyes hits me like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs.

“Yes.” The word comes out like gravel over silk, rough and smooth at once. His pupils dilate, darkening those steel-gray eyes until they’re almost black. “From the moment you walked into that conference room.” He takes a step closer, and my body responds like he’s already touched me, every nerve ending sparking to life. “Your scent cut through everything else—all my control, all my plans, every fucking wall I’ve built.”

Another step, and now I can feel the heat radiating off him, see the way his hands flex at his sides like he’s physically restraining himself from reaching for me. His cedar scent thickens, gaining a smoky edge that makes my knees weak and my mouth dry.

“You want to know why I fought it?” He braces one hand on the wall beside my head, and I swear I can feel the imprint of it like a brand against my skin, even without contact. “Because the moment I caught your scent, all I could think about was claiming you. Marking you. Making youmine.” His voice drops to a growl on the last word, sending shivers down my spine. “And that? That terrified me more than any threat we’ve faced.”

I can’t look away from his mouth as he speaks, from the way his canines seem sharper, more pronounced. My whole body thrums with awareness, caught between the urge to run and the desperate need to close the distance between us.

“It still does.” The confession rasps out of him, his control visibly fraying. I watch his nostrils flare as he catches my scent—excitement and fear and arousal all tangled together. “Because you’re right to keep those bags packed. Right to plan your escape.” His free hand comes up, hovering near my face without touching, and even that almost-contact feels electric. “The smart thing would be to let you run. To protect my pack by keeping you far away from us.”

“Then why don’t you?” I barely recognize my own voice, breathless and wanting.

His laugh is dark, almost pained. “Because I’m not that strong.” His eyes lock with mine, and the naked hunger there makes me gasp. “No matter how hard I fight it, no matter how many reasons I list, no matter how dangerous you are to everything I’ve built...” His hand finally makes contact, fingers trailing down my cheek with a touch so light it burns. “I still want you. God help me, but I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

“But you fought it.” Not like Jinx’s immediate acceptance or Theo’s quiet claiming.

“Because one of us had to.” His jaw clenches. “One of us had to stay clear-headed enough to protect them. All of them.”

“And Finn?” Because this has been nagging at me. “He’s a beta. He can’t?—”

“He’s pack-bonded.” Ryker cuts me off. “He feels what we feel. What we want.” A bitter smile twists his lips. “And right now? We all want you.”

The weight of that statement hits me hard. “I don’t understand how this works. How any of this works.”

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