Page 62 of Running on Empty

Fuck, her scent was thick and heady, coating my tongue like honey and twice as sweet. Our claws raked across the door, creating great furrows in its surface before we twisted the door knob once, twice, then we felt something snap inside the mechanism. We slammed our palms against the door when that didn’t open it, then shoved our shoulder into it, the weight of our body forcing the wood to crack. We heard muffled voices, both inside the door and out, but none of them mattered when the door finally swung open because there she was.

The one, our mate, our true north. Everything led to Stevie. I wanted to tell her that, my tongue still thick in my mouth, the words desperate to come out, even as I struggled to make a sound. I stared at her, all of her, as if burning the sight of her naked body into my retina would help me somehow, but she just smiled.

“Hello, Jax.”

Chapter36

I stared at Jax then, though was it him or…? I couldn’t finish that sentence as I raked my eyes over the sweetest of the Kelly boys, not finding any of that easy manner right now. He looked… bigger, muscles thicker, arms held out wide, claws at the tips of his fingers, fur prickling all across his skin in waves, coming and going with his every breath. And then there were those bright green eyes.

Jax looked feral and somehow that was fucking hot.

I’d spent my life thinking he didn’t want me, didn’t need me, and yet here he was, clawing the door down to get to me. I went to step closer, but an arm wrapped around my waist.

“Decided to get your head out of your arse, brother?” Ronan said, sliding a hand over my naked body, slowly enough to make whichever version of Jax we had in front of us snarl. I smiled at that. “Well, you don’t get to huff and puff and blow my door in to get my girl.”

I shivered as I felt Ronan’s fingers rake along my flesh, old pleasures remembered and more promised, if I just… He nuzzled my neck, my head tilting sideways to give him better access, slick leaking from between my legs as a result. Jax watched this and that made him edge closer, his hands forming fists.

To join us or to pull me away from Ronan. I’m not sure what scenario I wanted more, my wolf whining and pacing inside me at the sight of Jax’s coming so close to the surface. The sound of it had my feet shifting, unable to just let Ronan touch me, protect me.

Probably because they always gave me the one thing I didn’t want. I never wanted their protection, just them, all of them. So I broke away from Ronan, loving the feel of his fingers as they grasped at me, wanting to stop me from taking a step further, even when he couldn’t.

“See something you like, big guy?” I asked and then I reached out and smoothed a hand over Jax’s chest.

“Stevie!”

Ash shouted my name, the whole damn Kelly family swarming closer. I should’ve been ashamed. I was naked and covered with cum, another man’s blood and maybe some of his brains, but I didn’t care. I listened to the ragged sounds of Jax’s breath, knowing he was right on the edge…

And ready for me to push him off.

“You want me.” I dared to fucking say it, the thing I knew deep down, even if all the evidence said otherwise. Jax’s head nodded slowly. “You think I’m yours.” He snarled at that, but I just smiled. “Well, Ronan’s right, you have to prove yourself to get to me, so…”

I stepped out of the room, away from Ronan, from all of them, my whole body winding tight in preparation for this. The wolf and I experienced a moment of perfect agreement. We wanted Jax, but we weren’t going to give him shit, not without a fight. He deserved that, to suffer, to struggle to get his hands on us, just like we’d fought the need for them every fucking day.

“Stevie…”

His voice wasn’t Jax’s anymore and lo and behold, neither was Ash’s. The calm controlled alpha seemed to fracture with every step he took towards us, his eyes going from blue to turquoise and now green. I’d never seen that before, my smile spreading wide at the sight of it.

“Don’t take another step.” Ash’s voice vibrated with barely contained threat, but he wasn’t enough to scare me anymore. I just grinned in the face of his displeasure because his secret was out. His eyes watched me just as closely as Jax’s did, seeing every step I took away from them as an act of rebellion, one he so desperately needed to squash. Well, he wouldn’t right now, not without a damn fight.

“Yeah?” I said, injecting all the challenge I could into my voice, the wolf howling her pleasure at this. Finally we were standing up to them. Finally we were pushing back, demanding their attention. “Make me.”

I turned then, not willing to wait and watch their reactions, my feet, the wolf’s paws, moving as one, striding forward, then leaping, tearing through the complex and away from all of them, the joy of running vibrating through me. Our legs pumped, our hands sliced through the air as we raced through the living area, then down into the garage below, our feet only skittering to a stop when we reached the roller door that led to the outside.

“Don’t.”

Ash’s voice rang through the room, Jax and Ronan standing beside them and part of me wanted to be a good girl, to come to them and see what magic we could conjure between us.

But the other part was fucking mad we hadn’t spent the last few years doing just that.

I slapped my hand down on the green emergency exit, the roller door slowly rising, a smaller side door for just a person to step through swinging open.

“Catch me if you can,” I said, before streaking through it.

I kicked the door shut on my way out, knowing that wouldn’t stop them for long. The wolf and I worked in perfect tandem, picking up a dead branch and then trailing it behind us as we bolted for the stand of trees a few metres off to the left. The branch swept across our footsteps, covering them right up until we reached the trees and then we dropped it, really starting to run.

There was a pleasure that came from moving, the machine of your body doing just what it was supposed to. It felt like I flew over the ground, barely disturbing the leaf litter under the trees, only the skitter of small lizards marking my passage. But I paused for a second, sucking in breaths, as I heard a long, drawn out howl.

They were coming.

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