Chapter 1 #2
The air between us shifted, a low growl vibrating in my chest before I could stop it. My claws itched to tear through him, to shut him up by choking him with his own blood. Instead, I took a slow step forward, closing the space between us until my breath stirred the hair at his temple.
“Careful, Captain,” I murmured. “A wolf who mistakes restraint for weakness doesn’t live long.”
For a beat, silence reigned. Then he smirked again, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He dipped his head a fraction, just enough to signal his retreat.
“Of course, Commander,” he said lightly.
I let him step back. The other officers shifted uneasily, muttering excuses to scatter. I stood alone in the middle of the chamber, my pulse still somehow even, though the wolf under my skin prowled restlessly.
Haldor thought he saw a crack. Let him. One day, I’d be the one to put him in the ground.
But not yet.
Not until I’d gutted Voss first.
Now though, I was going to head to my chambers. My quarters were deeper in the compound, down a narrow hallway most wolves didn’t bother with. I liked it that way. No soldiers barking orders, no rookies tripping over their own feet. Just pure, relaxing silence.
I walked the hall, the sound of my boots hollow against the shattered tile. Fluorescents buzzed overhead, one strobing faintly, throwing the corridor into a rhythm of light and shadow.
That was when the smell hit me.
Blood. Fresh blood.
I froze.
Another step and I rounded the corner.
Two wolves lay sprawled across the floor, their throats torn open, their blood smeared across the wall in jagged handprints. One still twitched faintly, his eyes glassy with shock. His weapon lay inches from his fingers, never fired.
Crouched just beyond them, barefoot in a torn hospital gown, was a woman.
Mariah.
The one I’d been searching for.
My deal with the Resistance had been simple. They’d help me destroy the Nyktos. In return, I’d find someone for them. A human woman named Mariah.
She’d been captured somewhere on the edge of the city by the wolves. The Resistance believed she was still alive, and they wanted her back. I told myself it didn’t matter why. That it was just a task, a mission like any other.
I had carried her face with me. A sketch, rough and fading, tucked into my back pocket.
I’d unfolded it so many times the creases had started to tear.
The paper was soft now, worn thin by my fingers.
I’d memorized every line, every shadow of that girl’s face until I could see her when I closed my eyes.
And now she was here, standing in front of me.
Dark hair matted, lips slick with crimson, her chest rising and falling too fast, like she was running on pure rage. Her teeth gleamed in the stuttering light, her eyes wild. They look unnatural, rimmed with veins, and glowing faintly like something alive had crawled under her skin.
“What in the hell…” The words rasped out of me.
Her head snapped up.
Those green eyes locked on me, feral, unseeing, but they hit me like a spear to the gut all the same. My wolf surged, claws itching, instincts screaming mine even as my brain shouted monster.
Then she came for me.
She moved faster than any human should, a blur of pale limbs and bloody teeth. I barely had time to brace before she slammed into me, knocking me against the wall hard enough to rattle the steel paneling. Claws—no, her hands—scrabbled at my throat, her strength enhanced and unnatural.
“Easy,” I growled, shoving her arms wide, trying not to dislocate them. “I don’t want to hurt you—”
She hissed, a sound more beast than woman, and her teeth snapped for my jugular.
I twisted and spun us around, slamming her into the wall. She barely flinched. She came right back at me, nails raking my chest, hot lines of pain blooming under my shirt. I shoved her off, staggered back, and kept my stance wide.
Her breathing was uneven, her face an open snarl. She wasn’t seeing me. Hell, she wasn’t even hearing me.
“Damn it,” I muttered, raising my hands in a placating gesture she couldn’t possibly comprehend. “You’re not my enemy.”
She lunged again, too fast. I ducked, caught her around the waist, and spun her, driving her back into the wall. Her head cracked against it, but she only screamed, thrashing and snarling.
She was strong—too strong for her size. I could only guess that she was drugged and whatever they’d pumped into her veins had burned out the human weakness and left only hunger and rage.
“Hold still!” I snarled, slamming my forearm against her collarbone to pin her. Her skin burned hot under my touch, sweat and blood mixing slick against my grip. She writhed, teeth gnashing, her lips peeling back to show the wolf-slayer’s talent she’d just worked on my guard soldiers.
Her nails dug into my arm, deep enough that blood welled. My vision sparked white at the pain, my wolf roaring under my skin, begging to rise. I could end this. Break her neck. Tear out her throat. One move and the fight could be over.
But I didn’t.
A part of me refused.
Even like this—blood-soaked, drugged into madness—she was mine. I knew it in my marrow, in the way the bond clawed at me, how every instinct screamed to claim instead of kill.
She snarled and bucked, bringing her knee up between my legs. My vision went black for a second, my knees buckling. I shoved her away, stumbled back, and gasped for air.
She hit me again before I could recover, tackling me to the floor. Her teeth scraped my neck, so close I felt the puncture before I wrenched her head aside. I wrapped my arms around her, rolling her and using my weight to pin her down against the tile.
“Stop!” I barked, my voice rough, raw alpha command bleeding into every syllable. “That’s an order!”
For half a heartbeat, she froze. Her chest heaved, eyes wild, her lips parted against my throat. Her breath scorched hot against my skin.
Then she screamed—a ragged, broken sound—and thrashed harder.
My muscles trembled from holding her down, blood dripping down my arm, my chest heaving. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could last without breaking her in half, or without her tearing my throat out.
Her scream rattled through the corridor, high and wild, echoing off the steel until it felt like the walls themselves vibrated. My arms shook from holding her down, muscles quivering, her body thrashing beneath me with a strength no human should be even remotely capable of.
She snapped her head up, teeth grazing my cheek so close I felt the whisper of her lips on my skin.
“Damn it—” I grunted, wrenching her arms above her head, pinning her wrists with one hand. My claws slid out, digging into the tile around her skull just to keep control.
She bucked her hips, nearly throwing me. I slammed my weight down, chest to chest, legs braced around hers. Every soldier’s instinct screamed at me to end it, to just snap her neck, crush her ribs, and finish this before she tore me open.
But I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t.
Because there were stronger wolf instincts howling through me. My wolf knew that beneath the madness in her eyes, beneath the drug twisting through her veins, she was somewhere in there.
And she was mine.
She thrashed again, and I caught her jaw in my free hand, forcing her head to the side. Her teeth snapped, blood smeared across her lips, her throat bared inches from my mouth. My wolf roared, claws of instinct ripping through me.
“No,” I snarled.
Her eyes flashed, green and gold, feral and broken. She let out a guttural growl, her body arching, fighting like a wild animal.
I bent low, my lips brushing the heat of her skin, and before I could think, before I could stop myself, my teeth sank into the cusp of her neck and shoulder.
Her blood hit my tongue, vivid and electric, and the world detonated around me. My wolf howled through me, every nerve lit with fire, every muscle locked as the bond snapped into place.
She went rigid beneath me.
The fight bled out of her in a single shudder, her scream dying in her throat. Her eyes widened, then flickered, her breath stalling as her body trembled beneath mine. Her claws—no, her nails—dug once more into my hand pinning hers, then fell slack.
I held her there, my mouth pressed to her skin, the taste of her blood anchoring me to her, tying us together in ways I couldn’t untangle if I tried.
Mine.
When I pulled back, panting, blood streaked my lips. She lay beneath me, chest heaving, her eyes still wild but softer now, like the drug’s grip had loosened. Confusion flickered there along with pain and anger.
Her body trembled, and I tightened my grip, pressing my forehead against hers.
“It’s done,” I rasped. My voice was hoarse, thick with an emotion I hadn’t let myself feel in years. “You belong to me now. No one will ever take you from me.”
Her lashes fluttered, her breath warm against my lips. She didn’t answer, maybe she couldn’t, but she didn’t fight me anymore either.
Her body was still trembling beneath me, every muscle quivering from the fight, her chest heaving against mine. I kept her wrists pinned above her head. Her scent was everywhere now, full of blood, sweat, and something else that was darker, spicier, hotter.
Desire.
It hit me like a blade to the gut.
I lifted my head and gazed at her, then froze, panting, my teeth still wet with her blood where I’d marked her.
I hadn’t meant to notice it, hadn’t meant to breathe it in, but once it was there, it wrapped around me like smoke, coiling into my lungs, through my blood, until my cock was pressing hard against the seam of my pants.
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, dropping my forehead to hers again, trying to will it away. This wasn’t the time. She wasn’t herself.
Then she moved against me, hips bucking unconsciously, and the heat of her body seared through me. My grip on her wrists tightened, my restraint stretched thin as a wire.