Page 43 of Wolf.e
I take off and run for as long as I can, almost twisting my ankle in the rough terrain more than once. Twigs snap under my wedge sandals, and I know I can’t go on much longer. All the while I can hear him; the sound of his even and steady boots crushing the dead leaves underfoot as he stalks me through the woods, is almost enough to make me scream. But screaming wouldn’t help me now. I’m not sure anything would.
I pause as I see light through the trees and desperately hopeit’s a road or another cabin, anything with people and the possibility of safety. I bolt towards it, moving my sore and tired feet as quickly as I can, begging my breath to be quiet so he doesn’t hear it.
I see a large tree about twenty feet away and make that my destination, but before I can get more than five steps, a strong hand circles my throat and I’m being slammed backward into the thick trunk of a live oak. His other hand behind my head stops me from hitting it but the bark bites into my shoulders.
“Stop fighting me,” Wolfe bites out.
I don’t listen, I start to fight, scratching at him in protest. The fear of my imminent death fueling me.
“Don’tfight me,” he says as I cry out. He moves his hand from behind my head and snares both of my wrists, holding them captive in front of me so I can’t continue scratching him and places his other large palm on my chest.
“Breathe,” he says in a way that almost feels soothing.
I try to suck in a deep breath, understanding how predators calm their prey before they murder them. “You’re going to… You killed…” I sob. “Those poor, innocent—”
“Don’t you fucking dare. Don’t youevercall those men innocent,” Wolfe snarls in a low voice as his palm slides up over my heaving chest to grip my throat. Even in the dark, I can see the gray of his eyes boring into mine. He’s angry, yet I don’t feel as scared anymore. I am what my father would’ve called a masochist. Stupidly soothed by the man that is about to hurt me.
The hand on my throat loosens so Wolfe can gently graze his knuckles over it as if he is trying to decide between choking me and soothing me. It’s a dance I can’t make sense of.
“One of them blew up Jake’s truck the other night. Anyonecould have been standing there, been inside it, and that man isn’t dead. He’s going to deliver a message for us to his piece of shit leader.”
My breath hitches as I try to catch it.
“The other one. The fucked-up bastard I shot—he groomed, drugged, and raped a sixteen-year-old girl almost a year ago, then shared photos and videos of it. He practically ruined her life. She wouldn’t even leave her house for two months.”
My stomach drops as time seems to stand still. Suddenly, I feel just as angry as he looks.
“And she’s family. One of my men’s little sisters.” His palm leaves my neck and presses back into my chest as it rises and falls. “It was a rival club. They weren’t happy. We did something that hurt their crank business in Atlanta, in one of their most profitable areas.”
“I can’t hear this. I don’t want to hear this.” I panic.
If I hear this, I’m dead.
“The girl was Mason’s little sister—it was a retaliation of the sickest kind, and it goes against everything men like us stand for. So, did I let her brother do unfathomable things to him? Yes.”
Mason’s sister?I shudder, thinking of Mason angry. I find myself wondering if this girl I don’t even know is okay.
As he speaks, Wolfe flips his hand over on my chest and his knuckles begin another leisurely graze over my collarbone, then to my shoulder, as his other still grips my wrists and I realize my breathing has involuntarily slowed. His hard body presses against mine and some fucked-up part of me wants him here, feels safer with him pressed against me.
His lips come down to my neck and he shocks me by licking a slow trail upwards, tasting my sweat as he goes. I fist thebottom of his warm shirt with my still clasped hands under his cut without thought.
“And after I let her brother torture him, and get everything he wanted from him, did I shoot him in cold blood?” Wolfe releases me, moving both of his hands down to slide up the outside of my thighs, taking my dress with them, over my panties to wrap around my bare waist.
My deranged body ignites with this soft, intimate touch. It’s a moment I’m sure I’ll remember as traumatic for the rest of my life, but I pant as his thumbs trail over my lower belly.
“Fucking right I did. And I’d do it again. I don’t regret it. Not for a single fucking second. My only regret is that we couldn’t torture him forlonger,” Wolfe growls, that ominous tone coursing through me.
I whimper as Wolfe pulls me tight to him, holding me up with his hands circling my waist. His lips find my throat, then my collarbone, as his tongue sweeps across my skin. I grip his shirt tighter, but I can’t tell if I’m pushing him away or pulling him closer. Is there any point in struggling? I fall completely slack against him, defeated. His mouth searches my shoulders, nipping, sucking, biting, like he can’t control himself any more than I can. My hands slip under his shirt and I whimper. His hard muscled body feels warm against my palms.
He’s too strong and if I’m going to die anyway, being handled like this, with more passion than I’ve ever felt in my life, is the way I choose to go. He’s touching me with a hunger I’ve never felt.
I can’t explain it. I can’t understand it. Hell, I can’t even process the reality that this is actually happening. I don’t even ask myself why I shiver with desire as Wolfe grips my cotton panties and tears them from me, just as he did last night. Onlythis time he brings them closer to his face. I know they’re wet with all the evidence he needs to prove that, however fucked-up this is, whether I want to admit it or not, Iwant him. Darkness be damned.
He closes his eyes and breathes in, then slowly exhales with a deep groan, rubbing the damp cotton between his thumb and his first two fingers, as if he’s assessing how wet they are. I watch with fascination as Wolfe pulls them to his mouth like he’s about to suck my arousal from them, and that’s exactly what he does. I’m helpless to do anything but watch as he turns his eyes to me and grins wickedly.
“You understand what it means that you just witnessed my club’s business?” he says as he places my soaked and torn panties inside his cut.
I give a shallow nod, knowing this is the end. I begin to spiral.
