Page 26 of Hunted
“I don’t know how to lead without taking charge,” I admitted.
“You don’t have to,” she said.“You can still be in charge.You just have to trust that wecanhelp when you need us to.That we’ll all be here for you, no matter what you need.”
Suddenly all I wanted, with every ounce of my being, was to go back to my room, curl up in my big, soft bed with its mounds of pillows and its down comforter, and sleep for a year.Preferably with my omega true mate in my arms.“I’m sotired,” I admitted, hating it.I felt like I wasn’t really here, most of the time.Like I was constantly being pulled in multiple directions all at once and my mind had splintered.It was hard to stay present.
Ruya’s hand moved to mine.Soft.Real.Her presence grounded me in a way nothing else did these days.
“Rest,” she said gently.“Even if it’s just for a few minutes.We’re alone.It’s just me, Robin.And you must know I’ll never see anything you need as a weakness.”
I turned my hand over and laced my fingers through hers, holding on as I sipped my tea.We sat like that for a time.The silence was full of things that we both knew but didn’t need to speak aloud.My respect and love for her, her quiet support.All the million fucking problems I needed to handle.
I needed her.More than I hadeverlet myself need anyone my whole life.The pure, unshakable faith andgoodnessin her calmed the raging beast inside me and made me feel like myself for the first time in days.Like I could think straight.Like desperation wasn’t constantly raking at my heart and mind with razor-sharp claws.
She leaned toward me, and I met her halfway.The kiss was slow.Beautiful but careful.Like gently unwrapping a priceless gift.
Heat rose up inside me at the brush of her soft lips against mine, and I growled, lifting my free hand to tangle my fingers in her sparkling silver hair and hold her close.This witch had been a stranger to my court not all that long ago, an intrusion, an unwanted complication.And now she was something I needed with every fiber of my being.In that moment, my purpose and my need for vengeance was forgotten.Ruya was my anchor.My heart.My reason for drawing breath.Mine.
I trapped her lower lip between my teeth and she shuddered, her sweet lust rolling off her in waves.I soothed the sting away with a few soft, quick kisses.Then I slid my chair back and dragged her into my lap, devouring her.Her arms went around my neck, and she willingly pressed closer, as hungry as I was, her aura blooming around her like the sweetest perfume.
I broke away from her lips to kiss along her jaw, down the side of her neck, to her shoulder.My hands gripped her hips, my fingers curling inward, my long nails digging into the fabric of her yoga pants.Thin fabric.Her clothes would be so easy to shred with my claws.I could have her naked in seconds, her soft skin against mine...
I kissed her again, hard.I wasn’t usually so aggressive in our lovemaking.But at the moment, I gloried in the way she didn’t cower or pull back, but met my fury with her own passion and heat.I stood, not breaking the kiss, using my shifter strength to carry Ruya with me.To lay her out on the nearby table where I could feast on her to my heart’s content.
I ripped her t-shirt from her with ease and tossed it aside.Her perfect, heavy breasts were barely contained by a scrap of stretchy fabric masquerading as a bra.I got rid of that as well, in one impatient motion, making her gasp.Then I leaned over her to lavish attention on her beautiful breasts, cupping and suckling, teasing a nipple between my teeth.
“Robin,” she moaned my name like a prayer.As if she’d been desperately asking the creator to make this moment happen all her life.Her nails dug into my back where she clung to me.The beast rose up inside me.Mine.I couldn’t believe this gorgeous woman was mine.Mine.
My teeth were at her throat in an instant, without my conscious thought.I came to my senses just as she arched her back, instinctively baring her throat to me, begging me to bite deep, to infuse the bite with the venom and the magic that I could feel swirling under my skin like a tornado of fire.To fully and permanently bring this delicious omega under my influence.
My cock was so hard it ached inside my pouch.My fangs dented her sweet skin.My hands were wrapped around her upper arms, nails digging into her tender opalescent flesh.It was nearly impossible to think past the frenzy inside my head.In my body.I needed toownher, like I needed oxygen.
I had never felt so out of control in my life.And it was that one thought, flashing through my mind in a second of blinding clarity, that kept me from doing something unthinkable.
I pulled released her, braced my hands on the table on either side of Ruya’s body and stared down at her while my breath sawed in and out of my lungs and my dragonthrashedinside me like it had gone mad.As if that part of me was on a rampage that would tear my insides apart.Ruya, spread out beneath me, her bare chest heaving, her hair spread out around her like a silver pool, her crystalline blue eyes bright and a little glazed.Her whole body flushed with want.
Her magic and her omega nature were calling to me, demanding that I bond her to me.Deeply.Permanently.Make her mine.
“Fuck!”
I heaved myself off the table and away from her, fangs digging into my bottom lip and drawing blood.My body had started to change, and I hadn’t evennoticed.
“Robin?”the sweet alto notes of her voice were huskier than usual, resonating with lust and magic.Calling me back to her.Nature demanding that we finish what we had started.
But she didn’t know any better.She hadn’t triggered me on purpose.Hadn’t asked me to tie us together and steal her will, turn her into a possession that lived to please the alpha in me.
I wanted to vomit.
“I’m sorry,” I snapped, the words sibilant, hissing around my fangs.I took a deep breath.Tried again, as gently as I could manage, though my voice just came out cold instead.“I’m sorry, Ruya.”
There was movement behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to see her sitting up, lovely and disheveled, clutching one arm over her chest as if that would hide her glorious nakedness.My gut clenched with the need to go to her, to pull her into my arms and comfort her.But I knew that couldn’t happen.I couldn’t touch her, or I’d claim her here and now, whether she wanted it or not.
I couldn’t trust myself.Shecouldn’t trust me.
She slid off the table and paced toward me slowly, her hands held out in front of her as she blindly navigated toward me.“Robin.It’s okay.You didn’t—”
“Stop!”My voice came out like the crack of a whip, and I took several steps backward, nearly tripping over a chair myself.“Donottouch me.”
I yanked my own shirt off and tossed it at her.“Put that on.Cover yourself up.And get out of here.Immediately.”
