He’s a perfect specimen. The right kind of male. The one I should have met all along.
My spirit guides me in this discovery, forcing me not to think about anything other than this beautiful male and the power emanating around him.
Except we’re not alone.
I can feel their eyes on us, their hunger a palpable wave that brands my skin and makes me that much hotter.
They’re not marked.
They’re not bleeding.
I want to claw at them, too. Sink my nails into their flesh and tear, then drink from their wounds.
What is wrong with me? I marvel, my mind clouding with foreign urges and intense feelings.
I feel reborn. Like a brand new shifter. Like I’m finally the wolf I was always meant to be.
It’s freeing and suffocating at the same time.
Lively and deafening.
Overwhelming and right.
A finger trails down my spine, the touch molten against my skin. Lips caress my shoulder, Caius’s warm breath against my ear as he says, “You’re stunning, Clove.”
The praise goes right to my heart, causing it to skip another beat.
I can barely breathe.
And yet, when I inhale, it’s a cloud of musk and male. Peppermint. Pine trees. And coppery ash.
My thighs clenches. Those scents are undoing me, making me want to kneel for reasons I can only begin to understand.
This is what my claiming should have felt like.
The day I embraced my mate.
Not all the pain and death.
But this beautiful heat filled with renewed life and meaning.
I lean forward to lick Tieran’s chest again. He rumbles in response, the sound part growl, part purr. I sigh, utterly captivated by that vibration. I want to melt into him. Do whatever he needs so long as he quells this storm brewing inside me.
His hand remains on my nape, holding me close to him.
He’s aroused.
I feel the brand of his heat against my lower belly through his jeans. It takes restraint not to remove them. Somehow I know that’s the wrong thing to do.
He’s in charge now.
Hell, he’s always been in charge.
And while part of me wants to defy that, to challenge him, another part of me longs to bathe in that superiority and allow him to be my guide.
It’s a conundrum I don’t understand.
A mixture of fates that don’t blend well with each other.
How can I want to submit and challenge him in the same thought?
Volt’s mouth meets my opposite shoulder, his identity easily known because of his scent. He’s the source of copper and ash.
Death, I think. He reminds me of death.
But addictive and right.
Caius is the spicy one, the refreshing mint I crave to taste on my tongue.
And Tieran is the source of masculinity and grace, the one filling my lungs with a pine-like scent. He’s the master of the forest. The pack Alpha. The leader who demands my submission, yet craves my fire.
It’s all incredibly intoxicating, this knowledge and power and intimate union.
I can’t remember why I was angry before.
I can’t even remember the events of yesterday.
All I want is to indulge in these males and bathe in their strength.
My insides clench painfully now, that storm reaching a violent point in my lower abdomen and raining passion down my thighs.
Tieran growls.
Caius hisses.
And Volt hums in approval. “Slick,” he says.
“She’s going into heat,” Tieran replies, his voice gruff, his pupils blown wide.
“How much time do we have?” Caius asks.
“Not long,” Tieran tells him. “We need to fortify the den. They’re already on their way here. I can feel them pounding up the hill.”
He releases my neck, drawing a whimper from my throat at the loss of contact. I feel as though we’ve been standing here for hours, glued together by this warmth pooling inside me.
But it’s really only been minutes.
Maybe even seconds.
It’s all so surreal and unfocused.
A pulsating spasm in my lower abdomen causes my knees to buckle. Tieran catches me instantly, his hands branding my bare hips.
I mewl, leaning into him, needing more.
“Hold her,” Caius says. “We’ll handle the perimeter.”
Tieran growls, the sound making me whimper as another pang vibrates through my belly. It hurts. I need. But I don’t understand what this is, or why it’s happening.
On some level I… I sort of do.
He said I’m going into heat.
I’ve witnessed that among females in my pack, but I don’t recall it being painful or all-consuming like this.
It’s something that only happens to mated wolves.