The Line between control and surrender

Lines Crossed

I didn’t want to train with Devon today. He had to get free, I could tell. The things I had told him last night had to sink in and I knew him long enough not to press him to think in a loud way. I went alone before the other wolves would start in their gathering.

I took off my clothes, and stored them in the cleft of an old tree, and let the shift take place.

The moment I was on four legs, I smiled. The morning air ripple over my fur and my senses spread as I heard the soft throb of jungle near me as the jungle awakens. In this form, even rejection felt smaller. My wolf still hurt, but not as much. The wild in her could run, hunt, leap, forget.

Wolves weren’t cannibals, but we were still predators. And predators liked action.

I broke into a run, cracking my neck and following, at the random prompting of instinct rather than judgment, a zigzag path that I had scratched out in the early-morning encounters of the past year. However, I was not able to build up to top speed when I collided with something solid and immovable.

I fell onto my back with paws scrabbling in the soil.

The voice snapped, inside my head, saying, “Watch where you go.”

Damn it. I knew that voice.

“Sorry,” I muttered, already turning to leave, but he was in front of me before I could take two steps.

“Little Kaela,” Corin said, and I could hear the edge in his voice. “What are you doing here?”

He seemed different today. Angrier. There was a wildness in his eyes, something less controlled, more dangerous. Corin in a good mood was already a challenge. Corin like this was something else entirely.

I tried to sidestep him, but he began circling me, slow and deliberate, like a wolf closing in on prey.

“You didn’t answer me. Transform.”

He didn’t use the Alpha command yet but I knew how close it was to spilling from him. I had already learned the hard way how easily that kind of power could tear through my barriers.

“No. I don’t want to transform in front of you.”

“Why?” he asked. “Afraid of what might happen if neither of us has the protection of clothing?”

If I had been in human form, I would have been bright red. The image of the night before slammed into my mind, me standing in front of him, barely clothed, heat thrumming through me from the mate bond, begging myself not to give in.

“No,” I answered tightly. “I just don’t want to.”

He stopped circling and took a step forward. “Transform before I make you, Mate.”

His eyes had that same burning intensity from before, but today it was unfiltered. Raw.

I stared at him for one second too long, then made my decision. Before he could get any closer, I turned and bolted, racing into the trees as fast as my legs would carry me.

My hearts beat like a drums in my chest. Each step shortened my breaths. and I was aware of every stroke of my paws on the moss floor of Ebonreach. The wind cut my fur and I ran harder and faster trying to elude him.

I was horrified, a part of me which I endeavoured not to acknowledge. I could hear him behind me, not near, but not very far. He walked slowly and surely. He was holding himself in.

He was toying with me.

I had never been one of the fastest wolves in the pack. That title belonged to Melissa, and even she would have struggled against him. Corin was bred for speed and strength. He could catch me whenever he wanted. I just hadn’t thought he would.

I underestimated his pride. His anger.

You need to stop, Kaela, his voice whispered in the mindlink, soothing and unaffected. If I must catch you on my own, you won't enjoy what I’ll do to you.

I pressed on, declining to respond. His voice wasn’t even winded. We had been running for nearly an hour, and he sounded like we had just begun. That only made it worse.

But I had a plan.

As long as I stayed within range of his Alpha power, he could compel me. He hadn’t yet, probably too caught up in whatever twisted game this was. But I knew that if I could get far enough, outside the range of the pack link, his voice would fade, and I could be free at least for a little while.

Our pack’s territory stretched far, the borders magically reinforced and expanded over the years thanks to the strength of our Alpha. Corin’s own link was rumored to be stronger than his father’s, but if I was lucky, really lucky, I might just get far enough.

This is pointless, he said, his voice deepening with authority. You’re only prolonging your own suffering. Stop.

There was enough Alpha power behind the command that I stumbled. My paws faltered for a moment before I caught myself and surged forward again.

The link was thinning. I could feel it.

One more mile. Just a little more…Then I felt it, the exact moment he realized what I was doing. And then he ran. Fast. Too fast.

He tore through the jungle like a storm, and I knew I wouldn’t make it. Still, I tried. He slammed into me just as I reached the edge of the border.

“Transform,” he ordered.

The might of hus command broke my fortification and I changed at the instant to my human form before I had time to realize what had occurred. I was on the ground underneath him, pinned to the ground with his weight and he was breathing hard with a completely different purpose.

“You were trying to run outside the border after nearly dying at its edge? Are you insane?” His voice was sharp, furious but also laced with something else.

Worry.

I tried to sit up, but he had my wrists pressing against my head. His hand was strong, verging upon harsh.

I begged of him, my voice breaking under the stress of fear, I begged him, I said,”please, let me go.”

“I told you, Kaela. I told you what was to happen to you by getting me to chase you.”

He bent down so close where he breathed over my neck.

“I like the reek of terror on you,” he grimly whispered. It is inebriating.”

I shivered. “I’m not afraid.”

He chuckled, low and dark. “You are. I can smell it. I can feel it.”

“I’m afraid because you’ve got me pinned naked to the ground!” I snapped.

His eyes opened a little wider; they darkened with a sensation which made my pulse leap. Anger still present on his face, but presently behind it, was something else, something that whirled irresistibly. Hunger.

“And what are you afraid I might do?” he said a little quieter, more dangerous.

I almost averted my eyes, tried to close my ears against the touch of every muscle of him against mine, against every hard touch, against every breathing and heartbeat. His erection mashed into my hip, and I despised the fact that my body reacted, my wolf was whimpering with desire in my very depths.

I wanted him. And he knew it.