DEADLY ATTRACTION TO THE WRONG TWIN

Chapter 2

Dane’s pov

I didn't stop driving until I pulled into the parking lot of NEO hotel. That place had been my second home for years now, the place I ran to when the packed house got too suffocating.

I guided her inside to my room on the third floor. It was nothing special, just a simple setup with a small bed and a nightstand, but it was private. Her eyes trailed around the space, unfocused and glassy. The alcohol was hitting her harder now.

"You can rest here," I said, lowering her onto the edge of the mattress. My hands were shaking. "No one's going to find you."

She sat there trembling, knees pressed tight together, arms wrapped around herself like she could physically hold the pieces in.

Her eyes were red with dark circles around her eyelid, it was clear to me that something had happened, but then, it didn't seem like it was the first time.

I stuttered to the fridge where I grabbed a bottle of water and turned it into a glass cup which I handed out to her.

"Here, water will help." I spoke, stretching out the water to her.

But she raised her hand faster than I expected and smacked the glass clean out of my grip. It hit the wall and shattered, water spraying across the floor.

"Don't!" she spat, eyes wild with rage and hurt. "Don't you dare come near me. You have his face. His face. I cannot even look at you without wanting to scream."

The words carved straight through me. I felt my jaw lock, teeth grinding hard. But I kept my voice low. "You and I both know that is a lie."

She laughed, bitter and broken, and scrambled backward across the bed until her spine hit the headboard. "Stay the hell away from me!"

I didn't listen. Could not, even if I wanted to. My feet moved on their own, one slow step, then another, until my knees brushed the mattress.

The air between us turned thick. Electric. I could feel it spiking, that pull that had been there since the moment I first saw her. The mate bond.

Her scent hit me hard, not much worse changed about it. There was still this sweet scent of strawberry that always captured me each time I was close to her.

Just being so close to her made my c*ck throb, my wolf was yearning to be with her. To hold her

"You feel it," I said, my voice dropping to a growl I barely recognized. "You have felt it since the second I dragged you out of that ditch. I am not him, baby. I am nothing like him. And deep down, you damn well know it."

Her chin jerked up, defiant even while her lips trembled. "Yeah? You are nothing like Dylan." A cruel twist of a smile. "You are worse, you are Cursed!"

That word, Always that word. My wolf lunged inside me, snarling. I swallowed the rage, forced it down until my hands stopped shaking.

Then I reached out slowly and brushed a damp strand of hair from her cheek. My fingers stayed there, tracing the fever-hot skin, the tear tracks, the frantic pulse in her throat.

"I don't know what he did to you," I whispered, softer than I had spoken to anyone in years. "But whatever it is, you don't have to carry it alone. Let me in."

She shook her head hard, more tears rolling down. "I don't want to talk." Her voice cracked wide open. "I just want to forget."

And then she moved.

One heartbeat she cowered against the headboard, the next she launched herself at me. Hands fisting my shirt, mouth locking onto mine like the world was ending and this was the only way to survive it.

She tasted like salt and desperation and something so sweet it made my chest ache. A broken moan escaped from her throat straight into my mouth, and I swallowed it down, kissing her back like a starving man.

Her tongue slid against mine and I groaned because, Oh, she tasted like sin and sorrow and every forbidden thing I had ever craved. My hands found her waist by pure instinct, yanking her flush against me. She rolled her hips hard, grinding that soaked heat right against the ridge of my c*ck, and the friction nearly buckled my knees.

The closer I got to her, the more obvious it became.

She was in heat. Her wolf calling out to her mate.

I opened my mouth just long enough to rasp, "Back up, sweetheart. You are in full heat. You don't know what you are—"

She shut me up with another kiss, teeth sinking into my bottom lip sharp enough to draw blood. Her palms slid down my chest, lower, until she cupped the aching length straining behind my zipper. A shocked, hungry little gasp left her when she felt exactly how hard I was for her.

Her forehead dropped to mine, breath coming in ragged pants against my lips.

"Please," she moaned softly, her voice trembling with need. "Dane. Please... make me feel a woman again. Make me feel anything but his."

My vision flashed red. My wolf roared so loud the room spun, claws pricking under my skin, fangs aching in my gums. Every instinct I had screamed to claim, to bite, to knot her right there and never let go.

The last thread of my control snapped.

I surged forward, mouth slamming back into hers, swallowing her cry as I lifted her clear off the bed. Her legs locked around my waist, thighs trembling, heels digging into my lower back. I could feel her wetness soaking through both our jeans, hot and shameless, and it took every ounce of strength I had not to drop her on the floor and take her right there.

Tomorrow she might hate me. Tomorrow she might remember whose ring she still wore. Tomorrow the pack could burn us both for this.

But tonight, she was begging for me.

And I was done pretending I was strong enough to walk away.

I turned and pressed her back against the wall, one hand braced beside her head, the other gripping her thigh so hard I knew it would leave marks. She did not care. She arched into me, nails raking down my back through my shirt, leaving burning trails in their wake.

"Say it again," I growled in her mouth. "Tell me what you want."

"You," she breathed, eyes locked on mine with desperate clarity. "I want you, Dane. Only you."

Something in my chest cracked wide open at those words. Not just lust. Not just the mate bond. Something deeper, something I had spent my whole cursed life believing I would never deserve.

I kissed her again, slower this time, trying to pour every unspoken thing into it. Trying to tell her without words that I would burn the whole damn world down before I let anyone hurt her again.

Her hands fumbled with my belt, fingers clumsy but determined. I caught her wrists gently, pinning them above her head with one hand while the other cupped her face.

"Not like this," I said, voice rough. "Not against a wall like some quick f*ck. You deserve better."

"I don't care," she whispered, but there were fresh tears in her eyes now. "I just need to feel something other than broken."

"Then let me give you that," I said, carrying her back to the bed and laying her down with a gentleness that contradicted every violent instinct raging through me. "Let me show you what it feels like to be cherished."

I knelt between her legs, hands sliding up her thighs, watching her face for any sign of hesitation. But all I saw was raw need and something that looked dangerously close to trust.

Tomorrow could bring whatever hell it wanted.

Tonight, she was mine.

And I was going to make damn sure she never forgot it.