Luna
I know better than to think I can escape a more muscular, older wolf, but I still run. I’m acting on wolf instinct, not human logic. I dodge shrubs, leap over stones, splash through a marshy area. I can feel eyes on me, can smell a wolf, but when I look over my shoulder, I see nothing but the shadowy forest. Did Axel let me go, or did I somehow manage to escape?
A sense of giddiness crashes against the fear rippling through my body at the thought of him chasing me again, like he did outside the vampire’s lair.
Then guilt tugs at my heart, because as much as my body and my wolf adore Axel, my heart still belongs to the three men who saved me when Axel didn’t-who saved me from what he did to me.
I’ll find my way back. I can do it.
I glance over my shoulder again, and finding no one in pursuit, I slow my frenetic pace. But when my head swings forward again, my heart leaps into my throat. Axel bears down on me, his teeth pulled back in a snarl.
The bastard got ahead of me!
Before I can even swerve out of the way, he tackles me. We tumble over and over until coming to a stop in a patch of pine needles. I’m soaked from the spring, breathing hard and turned around from rolling head over tail so many times, but have enough wits about me to feel Axel’s jaw clamped around my neck.
I close my eyes, waiting for him to rip my throat out or use his Alpha dominance to make me behave, the way Warrick would. Instead, I feel his body shift on mine, and his human hand begins to stroke my neck and head, rubbing around my ears, soothing me. “Luna love,” he croons. “You’ve got to learn to trust me. I won’t hurt you, but I’m not letting you get away again. You are mine, Luna. You can run to the ends of the earth, and I’ll find you and claim you as many times as you need me to until you understand that.”
His words make my wolf side thrill with joy, but they settle uneasily in my belly, where my human side balks in protest. I snap at his hand.
He yanks it away and leaps to his feet. “Go on then.” He points toward the trees. “Run, my little mate. I’m happy to chase you a thousand times because I know I’ll catch you and carry you home to warm my bed at the end of the day.”
I lie there panting, considering my options. I will never outrun the Alpha who is so insistent on claiming me and making up for rejecting me to
begin with. But if he’s enlisted the help of his Second to watch us, that means he thinks I’m a threat. That I could hurt him enough to escape, if not kill him. I don’t hate him the way I did at first, not enough to want him dead, but I do want the freedom to make my own choices. And if that means fighting my way out, I’m not afraid of getting my paws dirty.
I scramble to my feet and lunge for Axel, teeth bared, but he’s too quick for me. He darts aside, and in the few seconds it takes for me to turn around and leap back to where he is, he’s shifted back into his fur.
He goes for my throat again. When I’m pinned once more, he holds my throat in his powerful jaws, his fangs squeezing but not breaking the skin. A low growl rumbles in his throat.
We remain like this for several long minutes until I shift back to human. He shifts, too, and suddenly we’re both naked against one another, glaring at each other like we could bite the other’s head off like a catfish headed for the supper table.
“Get off me,” I snarl, pushing against his rigid body. “Are you going to run again?”
“Maybe,” I say, refusing to look away.
He positions his forearm against my collarbones. “Then I’m not going anywhere.”
“Get off. You’re too heavy.” I curl my fingers around the muscles of his arm, and he eases up, but he doesn’t release me.
“Want to play chase again?” he asks, a smile curling his lips that makes me want to rip his face off.
“This isn’t funny,” I snap, seething with fury. “You had your chance to claim me, Axel. I could have been yours. But now I’m not, and that was your choice, not mine.”
“How many times are you going to remind me?” he says, sorrow washing over his face.
“As many as it takes.” I jerk my head up and bite his shoulder.
His jaw clenches, but he says nothing. “Admit it. We were having fun before you got spooked. What happened?”
I shake my head, unwilling to share.
He huffs out a sigh. “Have it your way. I’ll wear you down until you trust me one of these days.”
“You threw me away,” I snarl.
“We’ve already established that.
And now I’m trying to correct my mistake,” Axel says, nuzzling my cheek with his nose.
“It’s too late,” I snap. “I found other men who wanted me, even when I didn’t know how to use a fork. And I want them. Let me go home.”
He stills, and his eyes narrow. “That’s not your home.”
“You can’t keep me away from them,” I say, pushing against his solid muscles.
“Want to bet?” he growls.
I spit in his face, struggling under him, but he doesn’t budge, and the more I struggle, the more I can feel his cock hardening against my thigh.
“Let me go,” I cry.
“Did you let them fuck you?” His voice is low and sharp, like a ragged blade.
“What if I did?” I writhe beneath him, and the sand and pine needles scrape against my backside.
“That’s not an answer. It’s a question. Did you let those bastards fuck you?” His face has transformed into steel and edges.
I reach up with both hands and shove against him. “Why do you care?” “I care,” he growls.
I stare up through the leaves overhead at the gray sky. It still looks like it’s going to storm, but maybe it’s biding its time just like I am, plotting my escape to find my lovers. What is the right way to get back to them? How can I get Axel to give me up? If I say yes, maybe he will think I don’t belong to him anymore.
I stare into his eyes, the color of agates. He seems to carry the weight of the ages in his gaze. My wolf shimmers inside me the way she does
when her fur wants to rise at the lonesome howls we used to hear from the pack when we lived in Bogbeast Waters. Mama would always hurry us inside when they were hunting.
Axel’s body feels like a thousand tons, his cock like a steel rod against me, though he doesn’t seem to notice. The sensation of it makes heat and wetness build between my legs.
Axel puts pressure on my chest and repeats, “Did. You. Fuck. Them?” “One of them,” I say, lifting my chin and glaring at him.
Axel reaches down with his free hand and strokes my mound. “Is that why you shaved your pussy?”
A smile lights my face at the memory of Ethan climbing in the tub with me. “No,” I say. “I didn’t shave it.”
Axel’s eyes flash, and I can feel his wolf’s fury inside him even if his human tries to hide it. “Who shaved you?” he growls, pushing a finger inside my slick entrance.
“One of the others,” I say, my breath coming quicker. I watch the way he flinches, and some mean little part of me is happy about that. I know that dissolving our bond hurt him as much as it hurt me, but the difference is, he chose it anyway. I would never have chosen to hurt him that way.
“One of them fucked you, one of them shaved you… What did the third one do?” His breath lands hot on my face and neck, and his cock
pulses against my thigh as he thrusts his finger into me more roughly.