Page 8 of Taken By the Alpha Priest

But I’m fading fast. My body feels heavy, sinking into the earth.

And then he changes.

The wolf melts away, his form twisting and shrinking until he’s something else entirely. A man.

A naked, gorgeous man with bronze skin, salt-and-pepper hair, and a thick beard.

“Stay…away…” I rasp, the words catching in my throat. I can’t finish. My head tilts back, the world going dark around me.

“It can’t be,” he murmurs, shock in his amber eyes.

As everything fades, one thought crystallizes in my mind:

I’ve been taken prisoner by the Alpha Prime.

Reyes Garza.

The man I came here to kill.

3

REYES

“It can’t be,” I whisper, my voice barely cutting through the roar of my own pulse.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing—or more like what I’m feeling in every cell. My wolf is losing it, clawing at me, demanding I let him loose. The scent—blackberries and leather—wraps around me, squeezing out every logical thought, leaving only this raw, primal need.

The bleeding stranger beneath me?

She’s my mate.

For a second, I just…freeze. Questions batter my brain: How? Why now? Why her? But none of it matters. Not to the part of me that’s been caged for so long it’s ready to rip through the bars.

She’s here.

She’s mine.

And she’s dying.

Movement snaps me out of it. The guy who shot her is galloping away, dodging punishment. My wolf howls, begging me to go after him, to make him pay for what he’s done. A growl bubbles up in my chest, but I glance down at her and—fuck. Her heartbeat is slowing down, faint and uneven.

I can’t chase him. Not when my mate needs me. She’s more important.

I drop back to her side, my hands framing her hips. Instinct drives me to press my lips against the blood slicking her stomach, desperate to do something, anything, to stop it. The taste of blood floods my senses, sharp and metallic, mixed with that maddening blackberry sweetness. The bullet hit her gut, just off to the left. A kill shot if I don’t act fast.

The pain in her face, the weak rise and fall of her chest…it’s like it’s happening to me. My wolf snarls, urging me to save her, to claim her, to do whatever it takes.

“Stay with me,” I murmur, my voice rough, breaking against her skin. “Don’t you dare give up now.”

I run my tongue over the wound, lapping at the blood. It’s primal, pure and simple, the wolf taking over. Her blood is rich, wild, tinged with blackberry, and every pass of my tongue feels like I’m holding her here, tethering her to life. Our venom–our saliva–has healing properties, or so I’ve heard. It’s why the gunshot she hit me with is already on the mend…but I’m full lycan, and she’s human.She needs more than this.

My wolf paces inside me, restless and raging.

She’s not just anyone. She’s ours.

“Reyes!”

I spin, snarling, crouching over her like a shield. Will has just walked up and he freezes, hands raised in surrender. Smart move. The power rolling off me isn’t something he wants to mess with right now.

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