Page 104 of Taken By the Alpha Priest

And then…shehowls.I didn’t just sense her freedom.

I sensed her wolf, finally unleashed.

This is real.

It’s happening.

I should have known my warrior queen would save herself.

I finally see her, and my heart soars. There’s a wolf on the other side of the clearing–green eyes flashing, a coat of silken, tawny brown. She’s loping toward me, breathless. I can feel her body like we’re living in the same skin, the whisper of grass beneath her paws, the way the wind whips through her hair.

I can smell her heat. The full moon is working its magic.

We won’t make it home tonight.

I watch as she shifts seamlessly from wolf back to human form, gloriously naked and bathed in moonbeams. She’s still sprinting, coming face to face with me in a heartbeat. “Reyes!” she gasps, flinging herself toward me. I’m shifting before I even know what I’m doing, taking her into my arms, kissing her and kissing her. She rakes long, sharp nails over my shoulders, finding the healing wound just to the left of my heart, where I was shot in the shoulder.

Her bite is a few inches above it, my saving grace.

“I knew you weren’t dead,” she breathes, touching me all over like she’s making sure I’m not a figment of her imagination.

I duck my head against her neck and inhale her scent, frustrated that I’m not inside her already. I’m still trapped in wolf brain, unable to use my words. When I do speak, her name pours out like holy water.

“Tilda,” I sigh. “Tilda.”

I need to be with her in body and mind and heart. She seems to sense my desperation—to feed off it, give into it, and she tilts her head. My lips are on my mark, my tongue running across her collarbone and making her whine with need.

“It isn’t…safe…” she gasps. Her actions don’t match her words. She’s wrapping her legs around me, kissing me hard. “Need shelter.”

I pull back from her, gazing into her eyes. “I won’t be separated from you again,” I say, more like an affirmation than anything else.

She kisses me hard, sucking my tongue into her mouth, and against my lips she whispers, “Then run with me.”

She shifts…and she’s taken to it so naturally I can barely keep up.

I’d thought I was ready for her. I’d thought I could anticipate her movements, that the bond between us would allow me to guide her through the primal instincts tearing through her mind. But Tilda has always been unpredictable, and the wild glint in her eyes before she bolts confirms it.

She’s running.

Her sleek wolf form barrels through the underbrush, powerful and unrestrained. I barely have time to react before she vanishes into the shadows, her fur a blur of deep bronze under the fractured moonlight. The sound of her paws pounding against the earth resonates through the woods, her new form still clumsy but driven by sheer will.

The thrill of the chase hits me like a tidal wave.

I let out a growl and surge forward, my own form shifting effortlessly. My limbs elongate, claws bursting from my fingertips, fur rippling across my skin. My senses sharpen, her scent cutting through the dense foliage, and I launch myself after her.

She’s fast, but she’s new to this. She doesn’t yet know how to pace herself, how to let the rhythm of the moon guide her. Her movements are frantic, darting left and right, trying to throw me off, but I’ve been a wolf long enough to know her tricks before she even tries them.

She’s not runningfromme. Not really.

She’s testing me.

Teasing me.

I push harder, my paws digging into the earth, the wind roaring past my ears. The forest blurs around me as I close the distance between us, her scent growing stronger with every stride. She leaps over a fallen log, her movements more graceful than I expected, but her landing falters, and it’s enough for me to catch up.

I’m on her.

I lunge, my body colliding with hers in a tangle of fur and claws. We roll together, the impact sending us both tumbling through the underbrush. Branches snap, leaves scatter, and the forest seems to hold its breath as we come to a stop in a clearing, surrounded by wildflowers.

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