18. Raphael
RAPHAEL
The wolf had been pacing for three days.
Ever since that night on the couch, her hand in mine, her voice saying words I had never expected to hear from anyone. Maybe we’re both monsters. Maybe monsters can recognize each other.
She had seen something in me that night. Not the wolf, not yet, but the darkness underneath the control. And she hadn’t run.
Now my wolf wouldn’t shut up about it.
I stood at the study window, watching the last light fade from the sky. The beast prowled beneath my skin. Restless. Demanding. Closer to losing control than I had been in years.
The investigation files sat untouched on my desk. Another dead end.
I was looking in the wrong places. I knew it. But I couldn’t see where else to look.
The front door opened downstairs. Her scent reached me before I heard her footsteps. That inviting aroma that made my wolf purr every time she walked into a room. She had been coming every night now. No longer because the contract demanded it. She came because she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
Neither could I.
I met her in the foyer. She wore jeans and a soft sweater, her hair loose around her shoulders. Beautiful in the way that had nothing to do with designer dresses or carefully applied makeup. Just her. Just Lena.
“You look like you’re crawling out of your skin,” she said, studying my face with those sharp eyes that missed nothing.
“Long day.” I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from reaching for her. “The investigation is going nowhere. Every lead turns into nothing.”
“And?”
“And nothing.” I looked away, toward the windows where the last purple light was fading. “I just need to get out of here. Clear my head.”
She tilted her head, considering. “Where?”
“I have a property outside town. Woods, mostly. A cabin I rarely use.” The words came before I could think better of them. “It’s quiet there. Private.”
“Take me.”
Two words. Simple. Direct.
We took the back roads, winding through the mountains as darkness settled over the peaks. Lena sat beside me in the passenger seat, her window cracked despite the cool air. Breathing in the night, the wilderness, the freedom of being away from everything that demanded pieces of us.
The property sprawled across forty acres of old-growth forest.
I parked near the cabin and killed the engine. Silence rushed in, broken only by crickets and the distant call of an owl.
Lena stepped out of the car and turned in a slow circle, taking in the wall of trees, the sweep of stars overhead, the absolute darkness beyond the cabin’s solar lights.
“This is yours?”
“Has been for years. I come here when I need to remember what quiet sounds like.”
She walked toward the treeline, drawn by something she probably couldn’t name. I followed, watching the way the moonlight caught in her hair. The wolf watched too, alert and interested in a way that had nothing to do with hunting.
We walked without speaking. Through the meadow behind the cabin, into the woods where the canopy blocked the starlight and everything became shadows.
I could see perfectly, of course. My wolf vision had no trouble with darkness.
But she moved by touch and instinct, one hand occasionally brushing a tree trunk for balance.
I should have offered to guide her. Instead, I let her find her own way. Testing her. Or maybe just watching her prove herself capable of navigating my world.
After a while, she stopped in a small clearing where moonlight broke through the branches. Her breath made small clouds in the cool air, and her scent carried notes of excitement underneath. Pine needles and cold earth mingled with her familiar scent.
“Why did you bring me here?”
A question with layers. I answered the surface one. “Because you needed to get out too. I could see it on your face when you walked in.”
“And the deeper reason?”
This woman. Always pushing. Always refusing to accept easy answers.
“Because this is where I come when the walls close in. When I need space to breathe.” I stepped closer, close enough to catch the flutter of her pulse at her throat. “I wanted to share it with you.”
Her expression softened, the wariness she wore like a shield easing just slightly.
“It’s beautiful here.” She looked around the clearing, then back at me. A smile tugged at her lips. Mischievous. Dangerous. “And very private.”
“Yes.”
“No one around for miles.”
“No.”
Her smile sharpened. “What would you do if I ran?”
The words hit like a physical blow. My wolf snapped to attention, every hunting instinct screaming to life.
“What?”
“You heard me.” She was already backing toward the treeline, her eyes locked on mine. “If I ran right now, into those woods, what would you do?”
I should have said something sensible. Should have reminded her that the woods were dangerous at night, that she could trip and hurt herself, that this was a game with consequences neither of us could predict.
Instead, my lips curled back from my teeth.
“I would catch you.”
“Prove it.”
She ran.
I counted. One breath. Two. Three. Giving her a head start that wouldn’t matter. My wolf was already tracking her, cataloging every footfall, every branch that snapped under her weight, every spike of adrenaline that sharpened her scent from sweet to sharp.
Five breaths. Six. The forest swallowing the sound of her retreat.
Then I hunted.
The shift didn’t come, not fully, but I let the wolf rise enough to feel the change in my senses. Sight sharpening until the darkness became shades of gray. Hearing amplifying until I could track her heartbeat through the trees. Scent becoming a roadmap that led directly to my prey.
She was fast. Clever too. Doubled back once, tried to mask her trail by wading through a shallow stream. Amateur tricks against a predator who had been tracking prey since before she was born, but I appreciated the effort.
I let her think she was getting away. Her heart rate spiked with the thrill of escape. The fear and excitement blended together until her scent was intoxicating.
Then I closed the distance in three silent strides and caught her against a massive tree.
She gasped as my body pinned hers to the rough bark. Her chest heaved against mine, her pulse hammering so hard I could see it jumping in her throat.
“Caught you.”
“You cheated.” Breathless. Not afraid. “No one moves that fast.”
“I never said I would play fair.”
Her laugh was shaky, bright with adrenaline. “What now?”
I unbuckled my belt and pulled it free in one smooth motion. The leather hissed through the loops. Her eyes widened when she saw it, but she didn’t pull away. Didn’t tell me to stop.
I turned her to face the tree and gathered her wrists behind her back. Wrapped the belt around them, looping it tight, the leather warm from my body. She tested the bonds, found them secure, and made a sound that went straight to my cock.
“Is this what you wanted?” My mouth found her ear, my body pressing her into the bark. “To be caught? To be helpless?”
“Yes.” The word escaped on a moan as I ground against her from behind. “I wanted to know what it felt like. Being hunted by you.”
“This is what happens to prey that runs from me.” I sank my teeth into the curve of her shoulder, not hard enough to break skin, just hard enough to make her gasp. “Caught. Claimed. Fucked against this tree until you understand who you belong to.”
I had fantasized about this. Her, bound and willing. Mine to take however I wanted. The reality was better than any fantasy because she was real, warm, trembling with want instead of fear.
My hands found the hem of her sweater. Pushed it up to expose the smooth skin of her back. She arched into my touch, seeking more, and a low growl of satisfaction escaped me.
I took my time. Tasted the salt of her skin, the rapid flutter of her pulse. Found the places that made her gasp and exploited them without mercy. My pants were painfully tight, but I ignored my own need in favor of building hers until she was begging.
“Please. Raphael. Please.”
I freed my cock and took her against that tree.
“You ran.” The words came out guttural, barely human. “I caught you. Now you’re mine.”
The man was receding. My beast was surging forward with every thrust, rough, primal, with her bound wrists pressed between our bodies.
She cried out with each thrust, pushing back to meet me, demanding more, harder, deeper.
Snarls and growls tore from my throat with every stroke, sounds no human throat should make, but she only moaned louder, arching back into me like she craved the animal as much as the man.
“Take it,” I growled against her ear. “Take all of it. Every inch. You ran, and now you pay.”
I slammed into her, all control abandoned, roaring as the pleasure built to unbearable heights. I gave her everything the wolf demanded. Everything she had asked for when she ran.
The orgasm built at the base of my spine, inevitable. I wrapped a hand around her throat, not squeezing, just holding. Claiming.
That was when it hit.
The shift.
Not the controlled partial transformation I used for hunting. This was different. My control fracturing, giving way, with a force I hadn’t known since I was a teenager learning to manage the beast inside me.
I tore myself away from her so fast I stumbled. Horror flooding my veins like ice water.
“Raphael?” Her voice, confused. Still bound. Still trusting.
“Don’t.” The word came out guttural, barely human. “Don’t look at me.”
But of course she looked. She twisted against her bonds, trying to see what was happening behind her, and I saw the exact moment her eyes found me.
The shift was halfway complete. My spine curved at an angle that shouldn’t be possible. Fur rippled across my arms, receding and returning as I fought for control. My hands had become something between human fingers and wolf claws. And my eyes, I knew my eyes were glowing amber in the darkness.