Slaved By The Moon God

11

The huge wolf lunged toward me, and I let out a startled cry as he rammed into me and knocked me to the forest floor. I tried to wriggle away from his sharp fangs and claws, but then he shifted back. Now a hard and very naked human body had me pinned beneath him. His knees dug into my thighs, and he captured each of my wrists with his hands. His tanned face was close enough that I could see that his eyes were just as blue as when he was a wolf, and he had some rugged scruff along his jaw that only made him sexier.

Stop it, I told my brain. You shouldn’t be noticing how hot he is, you’re seconds away from getting your throat ripped out if you say the wrong thing.

But as our eyes met, something passed between us, something that made my heart race faster and my breathing catch. Something that tugged on my soul and said this one. Desire and yearning like I'd never known before flared inside me, and I wondered if he felt it too.

“What are you doing out here?” His eyes dropped to my lips like he couldn't help himself, and then his face lowered, his nose slowly brushing against my neck, sending a shiver through me. I thought he might press his lips there next, but then he pulled back. “Cancer pack?” he snarled it like an insult. “You should be down with the others.”

“I’m hiking, not lost,” I said again, trying not to let the words tremble like my body was doing, while the pulse at my throat beat rapidly. I was all too aware that he was completely naked, and I kept my gaze pinned on his face, not daring to look down. He’d notice, and I didn’t know if I could look away from his body if I broke his gaze. He radiated heat and it soaked all the way into my bones from where we touched. Even though I was terrified, I couldn’t stop the rush of warmth pooling between my thighs from the feel of his hard body on top of mine.

"Hiking?" he asked as if he didn't believe me.

“Before the ritual tonight I wanted to take some time by myself. That’s allowed, isn't it?” I felt a little braver, and my smart mouth was back online. “This is all neutral land.”

“Yes, but surely you have pack members who are missing you.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. Right. Mira was too busy chasing after anything that smiled at her and Wesley was probably lapping up Dad’s praise. “No one would miss me.”

“Funny." His tone was patronizing, as was the slight smirk on his face as he took the rest of me in. His eyes lingered, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was checking me out. “And here I thought the Cancer pack was pretty tight-knit.”

I snorted at that, unable to help myself. “You obviously don’t know anything about me.”

The man’s face darkened. “And I don’t want to. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget you ever saw me.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me? Please, go ahead. I’d like to see you explain how you killed someone in Sun Witch territory during the Convergence. I’ll laugh at you from the afterlife.”

His gaze darkened further, his blue eyes going almost black. “You have a death wish, little wolf.”

Somehow that rankled more than mutt or half-breed. He couldn’t have been much older than I was. “No, I’ve just got nothing to lose.”

He curled his lips back in another snarl. He looked ready to say something else, but his attention suddenly shifted elsewhere, his piercing blue eyes focusing on the brush a few feet back.

I heard it a moment later than he did, the rustle of something moving within them, something obviously human. I tensed immediately. I’d been in enough fights to know that the arrival of someone else wasn’t always a good thing. Especially this far out from my own pack. It would more than likely be someone from his pack, whichever one that was.

“Let me go,” I said, squirming in his hold once more, trying to get the heavy press of his body to give. No such luck, and all it did was rub me against every naked, hard inch of him. And oh god, he was definitely hard. And big too. Lust flared inside me like a bonfire sparking to life. I'd never felt anything like it before, and it made me gasp. He glanced down at me, lips ghosting up into a dark smile like he knew exactly what I was thinking about, before pushing himself away from me.

"Get out of here, little wolf," he said. "And forget you ever saw us."

Before I could look him over further, he shifted back into his wolf and greeted the other two males who melted out of the brush with a soft chuff. I scrambled to my feet, stepping back toward the trail. Another low growl resonated from his wolf’s lips, warning me away. The two males looked between him and me, but I didn’t recognize either of them. It was likely I just hadn’t seen them before, but something about this whole situation set my teeth on edge. What were they all doing so far away from the Convergence?

Now that his body wasn't on top of mine, a semblance of reason returned to my stupid head. Without looking back, I turned tail and fled, sprinting back down the way I’d come, trying to put as much distance between us as I could. It was only after I’d slowed to a slow trot that I stopped to wonder which pack they’d been from. The man had smelled like the forest, woodsy and heady, but I couldn’t yet recognize scents like full shifters could. I cursed my lack of wolf for the second time. If I’d been able to shift, I could have unpinned myself, and my keener senses would have alerted me to his presence before I’d stumbled upon him in the first place.

The strange sensation stayed with me the whole way down. There was something odd about that wolf and the two males who had been with him.

Something my gut told me was trouble.