Page 15 of Forsaken Fate

Mine!

My wolf hovered just below the surface. I wanted. It threatened to undo me.

I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom waiting for the shower to get hot. I peeled off my shirt, thinking of Brynna’s hands as she ran them under it. She’d been so wet, so eager, so fast. She had marked me, leaving a bite mark on my chest. A slow smile crept into my face. With my shifter blood, it had healed already of course. But…

She had marked me.

It was a dare. A challenge. One that I wanted to return. God. It had taken everything that I was not to bite her at the base of her neck and claim her as my own in the only way that mattered. Make her mine. My mate. My fated…

Fuck.

No. She can’t be that. Not for me. I would not allow it. I would not let myself become the man my father was after he lost his fated mate. Broken. Vulnerable. Half-crazed. Brynna was not my fated mate. I wouldn’t fucking allow it!

I should get the hell out of town. I should get on a plane, get back to Michigan and my life, put New York and the specter of Diana Dorran behind me once and for all. Fuck Grayson. He was a lying weasel just like his mother.

Steam poured out of the shower, and I stepped under the jets. I hissed when the water hit the flesh on my back. She had marked me there too. Her nail marks healed almost the instant she made them. But it had been pleasure mixed with pain and the memory of how those scratches got there made me hard all over again. Brynna had raked them across my skin when she came. She’d been wet for me the minute I touched her. She fucked like a pro – and I knew my share of them – but something about her had been different.

Fuck.

I wanted her again. Soon. Who was she? As far as I could tell, she had come out of nowhere. The conventional wisdom in the room tonight – as well as apparently Diana’s –was that she was just a gold digger. She could be. But something about that story didn’t ring true. She was after something in that study and my ego wasn’t so far out of whack that I believed it was just me. Not at first. And now, I’d committed to standing up with Grayson if he actually went through with it and marked her.

A shudder went through me. My claws came out. My wolf stirred. The thought of letting Grayson put his hands on her, sink his teeth into her…No! Just the idea of that sent white rage through my veins. I shook it off.

My cell phone was ringing when I stepped out of the shower. I tucked a towel around my waist but dripped water all over the floor when I crossed the room to answer it.

“Hey, Doyle,” I answered after reading the caller ID. “What, you miss me already?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said. “I just forgot to ask you before we left last night. My dad wants to hunt with you before you ride off into the sunset. It’s getting harder and harder for him to shift these days. Physically. Emotionally. He’s been a lone wolf for a long time. It would mean a lot to him.”

I swallowed hard. Memories of being a kid and hunting with my father’s pack, with Adam… I hadn’t allowed myself to think of those times. It hurt too much.

“Can you meet us at the southern end of Lake Bliss? Dawn?”

“I’ll be ready,” I said and hung up the phone. I had the makings of another plan that Doyle might just be able to help me out with. It was a hunch. Brynna Carrington could be just what everyone thought she was. She could just be after Grayson’s fortune – which would probably increase by a couple of zeroes when Diana’s estate was probated. But then why the hell would she risk getting caught fucking me under the same roof as Grayson’s political-coming-out party?

I pressed my hand against the healed spot on my chest where she’d sank her teeth into me. Brynna Carrington had gotten under my skin in more ways than one.

CHAPTER 7

Brynna

Mercifully, the rest of Grayson’s guests left just after Theo did. Grayson staggered up to the master bedroom. I closed the door behind me as Grayson sat down heavily on the end of the bed, hanging his head low, almost between his legs. He let out a great sigh and his shoulders heaved.

“Baby?” I said. Carefully, I sank to the space on the end of the bed next to him.

“Did I just blow that?” he asked. With great effort, he pulled his head up and looked at me with blood-rimmed blue eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t think they believe in me. They condescend. They think I’m stupid. They judge me.”

“Grayson,” I said. “I think you’re reading into things that aren’t there. I think most of them just wanted to hear directly from you that you’re committed to holding on to the power that’s your birthright. That you’re willing to run. You gave them that.”

Grayson stood and took a shaky step forward. He meant to pace, I think, but had enough presence of mind to realize his balance was too wobbly. He plunked back down on the bed and buried his face in his hands.

“You don’t understand. You haven’t been here long enough.”

“So explain it to me. What do you think you did that was so wrong?”

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