Page 102 of Shifting Hearts 1
Ishould’ve stayed away. I should’ve walked deeper into the forest, buried myself in the hunt, burned the bond from my blood with distance and silence.
But I didn’t and now it may be too fucking late. The second I left her standing there under the trees, eyes too full of things I didn’t deserve, the wolf howled in my chest. And not the part of me that kills. No, this is the part that claims. The part that still thinks of her as mine.
But I can’t think of that right now. Today we need to be the hunter instead of the hunted. I meet her in front of The Veiled Eye so we can start working. We head into the forest and up the side of the mountain, following the path her magic has revealed.
The storm finds us halfway to the ridge. It rolls in fast with a blackening sky, furious wind, and rain so hard it blinds me. Lightning forks above the treetops, and the path disappears beneath our feet. I shout for her to follow, and she doesn’t hesitate. She never does.
We run, slick with water, breath ragged, and soaked to the bone. By the time we reach the abandoned ranger station tucked into the slope, we’re both shaking. Emilia slams the door shut behind us and locks it with a flick of her fingers. She’s dripping, wild-haired, breathing hard. She is stunning in her natural beauty and I have to stop myself from staring at her.
“You didn’t have to stop,” she pants. “I could’ve kept up.”
“I wasn’t going to let you freeze or Goddess forbid, get hit by lightning.”
She arches an eyebrow. “You say that like it wouldn’t just piss me off.”
I snort. Can’t help it. She’s impossible and infuriating. The only thing keeping me sane right now. But she is also my greatest temptation.
“You’re soaked,” I say, because the silence between us is starting to feel dangerous.
“You noticed.” She pulls her shirt over her head. Slowly. Deliberately.
And just like that, I forget how to breathe. She’s not even trying to seduce me and that’s the worst part.
She peels her clothes off in front of the fireless hearth like I’m not watching her every move. Like I’m not memorizing the curve of her waist, the pale gleam of her skin, the bruises from the fight last night that she hasn’t healed. Like I’m not burning alive.
She wraps herself in a blanket from the cabinet and flops onto the dusty old couch with a sigh. “Your turn, hunter.”
I blink. “What?”
She gestures. “You’re dripping on the floor. Get naked, or die you suddenly become shy?”
I should say no because I don’t need to strip to get my body heat back up. My wolf warms me from the inside. I should turn around, strip silently, sit across the room like I’m made of restraint and honour.
Instead, I strip down to my skin and sit across from her. My legs are apart, my arms resting on my knees affording her a view of everything.
Her eyes flick to the scars on my ribs, then to the claw mark down my thigh before landing on my erection. The heat is still rising between us.
“You’re staring,” I murmur.
She smiles, something small, tired, wicked. “You’re beautiful when you’re wounded.” Her voice is low and sultry, seducing me.
My wolf growls low and I know she hear it. Fuck, she probably feels it. The tension between us snaps like a trap springing shut and then I’m on my feet. she stands too, her shoulders thrown back and her gaze unwavering as she waits to see what I’ll do next.
And we don’t speak as I cross the space between us like a man possessed because I am. The bond is riding me, my wolf pushing to get free and claim what is his.
My lips slam down on hers as I tangle my fingers into her wet hair. The kiss is war. It starts with teeth, mine on her lip, hers on my jaw. Then her fingers in my hair, dragging me closer, deeper, like she’s starving. I press her back against the wall, lifting her, her legs wrapping around my waist like instinct.
Her scent drowns me. Rain, magic, rage, and need.She bites me. Hard. And I fucking moan. I don’t take her to the couch, and I don’t lower her to the floor. I take her against the wall, like the animal she brings out of me, like the only thing that matters is feeling her break around me.
My cock prods at her entrance, and she whimpers breaking something inside me. I bury myself inside her in one smooth thrust. Her wet heat envelopes me and my eyes roll back in my head. Her nails score down my back. She chants something soft against my throat, words that sound like a spell, or a prayer, or a curse.
I don’t care which. Because in that moment, she chooses me. Not because of the bond because I already broke that ten years ago. And she doesn’t do it because she’s weak. She does it because she wants me.
My wolf howls in the recesses of my mind as I fuck her against the wall. She moans loudly, her cunt rippling along my length and I know neither of us are going to last. I thrust harder, faster, pushing her into the orgasm I need to feel around it.
It only takes a moment before she is breaking apart in my arms with my name on her lips. I pump my hips three more times before I fill her with my cum.
We may have both thought this is just a way to get rid of the tension building between us but we both know that isn’t true. This is so much more. And that changes everything.
