Page 72 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

“If you had any sense, you’d understand why we never will,” I say.

The four of us huddle back to back, preparing to fight.

43

EMLYN

Victorstepsforward.

Now that he’s backed up by the rest of the pack, he seems in no hurry for the fighting to begin.

Then again, maybe he’s just not in a hurry to get himself into a position where he’ll have to face the prospect of killing me. I hold onto that thought. If the only advantage I have against him is that he’s reluctant to end my life—well, it’s a damn good one. Maybe I can use it to find a way out of this for us.

“I want to know who you all are,” he says. “Are you a coven?”

No one answers.

“We can do this the hard way,” he says. He steps close and locks eyes with me.

I feel like my insides are on fire. I’m panting, struggling to take in enough air to keep myself from collapsing on the ground. Having him this close is torture.Why didn’t we leave when we had the chance!

Of course, I see now that we never did have a chance. It was a mirage, an illusion. They probably had us surrounded the whole time we thought we were fleeing.

I’m just lucky I managed to get a shirt on. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to be naked right now. I’m sure my body would betray me. I can feel how wet and swollen I am, aching to be stuffed with something. I’d take any man here right now, just to ease the wild pressure of this feeling.

My hand twitches. If I could just touch myself, I’m sure I would come. I’d be mocked for it, but do I really care about that? If it would mean that this torment would come to an end…

Wilder reaches over and catches my hand in his.

I glance at him.

He feels what I feel. That’s always been true between us, ever since the day we performed magic together against the Ravagers attacking his coven.

There’s someone here, someone besides Victor, who really understands what I’m going through right now.

And that gives me strength. I can handle this. For the sake of my mates, I can handle it.

“There’s no hard way,” I say to Victor. “And we’re not going to tell you anything about ourselves.”

He’s taken aback for a moment.

One of the wolves breaks formation and starts forward.

Victor throws out a hand. “Stay back.”

The wolf seems to freeze mid-stride. Then, with a soft whine, it slinks back into its place in line.

“You just do whatever he tells you to do?” Milo asks the wolves in general. “Is that how this works?”

“He’s the alpha,” I say, remembering that Milo has never lived as part of a wolf pack. “They don’t have a choice. He controls them.” I raise my voice a little. “I bet some of them don’t even want to be a part of this. Jess? Are you here?”

I look from one wolf to the next, knowing that I’m facing too many to just be looking at the males of the pack. They’ve got the women out for the fight too. One thing I always loved about my pack was that women weren’t forced not to be fighters. We could train if we wanted to, and we could fight if we wanted to. But Jess was one of many who never did. All she wanted was to do her best to bear children.

If she’s in this lineup, it’s because Victor is forcing her to be here.

“You don’t actually have to fight, you know,” I call out. I’m hoping Jess is around here somewhere, that she’s able to hear me. “We can protect you. Come over and fight with us, and we’ll be able to shield you against any further commands.”

Can we actually do that? I have no idea. I know I resisted Bruce when he tried to command me to show myself on the day I ran away from the pack. I still don’t know exactlyhowI did that. If I had to perform a spell to combat alpha authority, I wouldn’t know where to begin.

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