Chapter seventeen
444 Words
"You want to know what I am?" he growls, his eyes searching mine with a desperate, hungry intensity. "I am a beast who is starving. And you are the only thing that can feed me. But if I take what I want, I destroy you. The Council will hunt you. Seraphina’s pack will come for your life. Is that what you want?"
"Maybe I don't care," I whisper, my hands finding the lapels of his jacket and pulling him closer. "Maybe I’m tired of being protected, Silas. Maybe I just want to be yours."
Silas lets out a broken sound, half-sob and half-growl. He buries his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling so deeply it feels like he’s trying to pull my soul into his lungs. His teeth graze the sensitive skin just below my ear, a sharp, stinging pressure that makes my toes curl in my heels.
"You don't know what you're asking for," he mutters against my skin. "I won't be gentle, Ivy. I don't know how to be gentle when it comes to you."
"Then don't be," I breathe.
He pulls back, his eyes dark with a promise that makes my blood turn to liquid heat. He looks at me, really looks at me, and for the first time, I see the Alpha completely unmasked. There is no billionaire here. There is only the wolf and his mate.
He reaches for the strap of my dress, his fingers trembling slightly. "If I do this, there is no going back. You stay at the estate. You stay with me. Forever."
"I’m a lawyer, Silas," I say, a small, shaky smile touching my lips. "I’m very good with long-term contracts."
He lets out a dark, breathless laugh and leans in, his mouth finally crashing against mine in a kiss that tastes like ruin and starlight. It is a battle, a desperate exchange of everything we’ve been holding back for years.
But just as his hand slides down to the curve of my hip, a voice cuts through the darkness.
"How touching. A human and her pet."
We pull apart, Silas instantly shielding me. Standing at the edge of the garden is Seraphina, but she isn't alone. She has three large, shadow-like figures standing behind her, their eyes glowing with a murderous intent.
"The Council sent me to check on you, Silas," she says, her voice as cold as ice. "It seems the 'obligation' has become a distraction. And we all know what happens to distractions in this pack."
Silas’s hand finds the heavy silver knife at his belt. "Move aside, Seraphina. Or find out why they call me the Shadow Alpha."
- Writer
