Page 6 of Dane's War

“If you’re going to eat me, just do it already. If not, then let me be,” I mutter and turn away. I shift to myknees once again, and before I can stumble to my feet, the wolf is there, but not as a wolf, but as a man.

“If I wanted to eat you, I would at least wait until you weren’t beaten and hurting. I only eat for pleasure, not pain,” the man says, scooping me gently into his arms. I have to say he’s the most beautiful man, shifter, God, I’ve ever seen. Beauty doesn’t exactly describe the hotness that is him, with a full beard surrounding kissable lips. His eyes, now that of a greenish blue rather than the golden hazel he had as a shifter. I found that strange, as I thought when you shifted, your eyes stayed the same. Weird. I’ll have to ask my mom about it. His hair was slicked back, and he was wearing a white tee beneath a black leather jacket. His patches were on the jacket, confirming he’s a Spiked Raider.

I glance down at the name on one side, reading what it says. My blood drains from my body quickly.

This was Dane.

This beautiful man who rescued me was Dane. Unless there was more than one Dane in the Spiked Raiders MC, this is Sloane’s Dane—the one who hurt her.

How in the hell did I allow myself to be put in such a predicament?

It’s my last thought before passing out from the pain radiating through my body.

Chapter Five

Dane

Looking down at the woman, I take in her battered face. With one look in her eyes as she stared at my wolf, I knew who she was to me. I wanted to deny it, but my wolf is refusing to do so. He wants her.

He wants his mate, but that’s not something I can allow.

I don’t need nor do I want a mate right now.

But she’s ours. The wolf grows in my head, clawing at my insides.You cannot deny what fate gives only to us.

Fate my ass.

If that were true, fate wanted me to have someone as beautiful as this one here. She wouldn’t have fucked me up over the years.

My wolf growls again inside my head.

“Knock it the fuck off,” I snarl aloud.

Turning to the trees, I start to walk in the direction, only to pause. How the fuck am I going to explain this to my brothers. Hell, even from here, I could still hear the noise of the party going on. I’m surprised none of them had heard this. Then again, they were all probably focused on other activities.

I glance back at the woman in my arms, and I take in her battered face. Her lip was busted. Her eyes were now swelling. Bruises and blood were coloring her skin. I grit my teeth together to keep from looking down farther to where her shirt was cut open.

Those men seemed to know her. They threatened her. I should have shredded them where they stood. But we have a rule not to kill the humans without cause. I’m sure I had justified cause to take them out for what they did to her, but a part of me that knows there are more wants to find out why they dared touch her, to beat on her the way they had.

“Fuck, she’s my mate,” I say to myself. Speaking that for the first time, something happened inside me I’d never felt before. The two halves of me, beast and man, click together as they never have before. A shout out, my voice grated and harsh. The sound grave to my own ears. I clutch the woman who ismine to my chest and hold her, feeling her chest rising and falling.

I fall to my knees, just holding her. My entire body shakes as I focus on her. Accepting what my wolf realized first. What I wanted to deny. I still want to, but it’s a battle I can’t win. Not when man and beast become one.

It is how it was always meant to be. Never one or the other. We are one. Together, we will love her. Protect her. Give our mate everything she will ever want.

We will. I will. She will never desire for anything.

I clutch her body and stand. It would be faster for me to shift, but I can’t hold her and do that. What I need to do is call Zavier and tell him to bring his truck and medical bag.

“Brother.”

I jerk my head up at the voice of my Prez and see not just him but several other men coming out of the woods, some still shifting.

“What’s wrong?” Corbin demands, eyes going to the woman in my arms. “I heard you as I’ve never heard you.”

“Son,” my dad, Daniel, calls, coming forward, eyes filled with concern, he was watchful. “The connection completed itself, didn’t it?”

“How did you know?” I ask, my voice harsh.

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