Page 25 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

Vermillion

“Y ou’ve got a problem,” Fenris said, nodding toward Maeve as she sang and swayed between Columba and Poe.

I nursed my beer. “Oh?”

“Oh’s right.” Fenris blew out a breath. “I could smell it the second I walked into the mansion.”

I cracked my neck and straightened my shoulders, pretending I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“She smells like shifter,” he continued. “She smells like you .”

Fuck.

I knew I released a bonding scent last night in her room, but I didn’t think it would have lasted this long. He, of course, was right. I smelled it from here.

“She’s got something carnal in her eyes.” He shook his head. “She’s close, brother. Real close.”

“I know.” I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose before rubbing a hand over my face.

“Are you planning to?—”

The glare I gave him shut him up. I’d already promised Kodiak I would, and even if I hadn’t, my wolf wouldn’t let me leave her alone.

He wanted to give her the magic in my body and watch her transition into what she was truly meant to be.

A small part of me was concerned about this new thirst for her blood, but I prayed the transition magic would keep me in line and prevent me from doing anything stupid.

“If you don’t, you’ve got four other wolves here that will.”

A low growl rumbled from my chest, and my fangs extended, my inner beast surging to the forefront.

Fenris let out a loud, mocking laugh and grabbed my shoulder. “You can’t let her suffer alone. Poe went through the transition by himself. It nearly killed him, and he’s a dominant. A submissive little thing like Maeve?—”

“You think I don’t fucking know that?” I snarled and glared at my buddy, malice radiating from my pores.

Fenris put his hands out to either side in a gesture of peace.

“Brother, I’m just saying.” He pointed to Maeve with his beer.

“That female is exploding with pheromones. I can practically see it wafting off her. Those young shifters?” He blew out a teasing breath.

“They’re very male, and it’s been a long three weeks up here on the ranch.

The promise of a few days in a bed with her would make any of them feral. ”

The image of Columba, Aquila, and Poe taking turns with her churned through my mind, and my heart pumped erratically, sending raging fury through my veins. Neither I nor my wolf could stand the thought of it. I wouldn’t let them touch her. I wouldn’t let them anywhere near her.

Her sweet floral scent drifted over to me, enchanting and enticing, making my mouth water and my fingers tingle for the feel of her soft delicate skin. Resisting the urge to sweep her up and take her back to her room nearly brought me to my knees.

Take her. Claim her. Bite her. Mine.

My animal side hadn’t stopped since I’d licked blood off her fingers, and now that I knew she’d likely go into her transition soon, I wanted to give in to those exciting demands.

We’d have so much fun with her, my wolf said. We’ll keep her forever.

“I need some air.” I turned away and stormed outside, bursting into the cool summer night.

Fresh oxygen coated my tongue, slipping down my throat into my lungs, washing away her scent.

I ran my hands back through my hair again, leaning against the side of the house as I struggled to maintain control of my inner beast.

Memories of taking her at the cliffside came back to my mind, how she’d gripped my hair, how delicious she’d tasted, how she responded to my touch.

The sight of her climaxing on my tongue would stay with me for the rest of my life, and when she put me in her mouth and sucked me dry, I didn’t think there was a greater pleasure on earth.

And all of it was a mistake. She’d said so herself. Just a one-time fling, done in the heat of the moment.

I struggled to understand how I had let it get that far in the first place.

The alpha had said not to touch her. Hell, even Guin had threatened to rip my heart out if anything happened to her.

There was only one thing more powerful than the alpha’s word: when one’s mate was involved.

It was the way the species protected itself.

I couldn’t override the alpha’s command, but if my mate was compromised, if my mate demanded something of me, the alpha could go fuck himself.

That I’d ignored it, that I’d put my paws where they didn’t belong last week and almost again last night?—

No.

There was no way Maeve was my mate. Fuck, the girl hadn’t even gone through her transition yet.

She didn’t know who or what she was, and after that was over, she deserved the time to understand her new life.

She didn’t need to be tied down to someone as despicable and rotten as me.

I mean, hell. I’d wanted to drink her fucking blood.

Like a Goddamned vampire. Like one of those fucking bloodsuckers we spent our lives tracking down.

I’d died and come back to life as something unnatural and wretched.

I should go inside and beg Fenris to tear my head off, to drag me out into the woods and give me an Ole Yeller.

They should have let me die.

The door opened, and a mouthwatering scent of caramel and midnight dew preceded Maeve as she walked outside, laughing and yelling at someone behind her.

“Don’t be such a brute, Columba,” she said. Then she paused when she saw me and raised an eyebrow, slowly shutting the door behind her. “What are you doing out here all by your lonesy?”

She put her hands in the back pockets of those incredibly short cut-offs, her boots click-clacking across the wood of the tiny porch.

Her skin seemed softer against her white tank top, her hair darker, her eyes brighter.

The moonlight made them glow, and if I wasn’t sure that her transition would hit her soon, I could have sworn she was already a shifter.

“Listening to the night,” I said.

Cicadas and frogs sang loudly from the tree line, accenting the wind and squirrels and other members of the nocturnal orchestra. They grew louder with each step she took closer to me, as if they could sense the tension between us, and they, too, waited for it to boil over.

“Oh, yeah?” She bit her bottom lip between her teeth, and my focus dropped to that tiny cut, the one I’d made yesterday, the mark I’d left on her to let all those young shifters know she belonged to me.

Except she doesn’t, and she never will.

“What’s the night saying?” She tilted her head and moved closer, placing a hand on the porch railing so she could lean to the side.

“Nothing good,” I said, sipping my beer.

She grabbed it from my hand and tilted it over her lips for a drink before placing it on the railing.

“You’ve been avoiding me.” She moved to stand in front of me, clasping her hands behind her back so her chest arched out. “Was the kiss really that bad?”

“What?” I balked. “No.”

“Then, why did you run out of there so quickly?” She raised an eyebrow. “Sorry about the blood thing. I don’t know why I did that.”

I gulped, the memory of her delicious taste making me salivate. “It’s fine.”

Maeve looked up at me, a hint of hope and playfulness in her gaze. “Fine?”

“I mean...” I winced and shook my head. “Maeve, I’m not good for you. If you knew me…the real me…you’d run away screaming.”

“Do you want me to run from you?” Her teasing intonation and sparkling eyes set off the best kind of alarm bells in my mind. My wolf sat up at attention, howling and yipping.

Yes, he said. Yes, run. Chase. Yes!

“No.”

She came closer, forcing me to spread my legs wider so she could move in between them.

Now inches away, she peered up my torso with an adorable, beguiling grin, like she knew what I’d been dreaming about, had been dreaming about it herself.

The inches between us sizzled with anticipation, crackling with how much I wanted to close them.

“What if I wanted to run from you?” she murmured. “What if I wanted you to chase me until you caught me and held me down while you took what you wanted?”

Fucking hell.

The mental image alone was enough to keep me hard for a month, and an electric shock of arousal ricocheted down my spine and into my balls. I wanted that more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. For the first time in years… literal years… I lusted after a female with passionate abandon.

Maybe she read this in my eyes because she hooked her fingers into the belt loops of my jeans and pulled my hips forward, connecting my pelvis to hers.

“You’re no good for me, Mill?” She scoffed. “I’m no good for you, either. But maybe we could be no good together for a little while and see where it goes.”

Ohhh, what a tease. But I knew better. If I took her the way she wanted me to, if I let myself give in to it, I wouldn’t be able to stop.

She deserved better, that much was true, but there was more happening here than she knew about.

She would transition, and fuck me, but I would help her through it because I didn’t want anyone else to.

And if we were bound to end up there anyway, what the hell was I waiting for?

“You enjoyed yourself at the cliffside; I know you did,” she said. “And you told me you’d fuck me in my bed and taste me until you’d had your fill. Have you already gotten it? Your fill?”

The decadent feminine scent of her arousal plumed around me, pulling me under its spell, and the more I resisted, the more it yanked.

I could give in. I could let it sweep me out to sea, releasing these years of pent-up sexual frustration.

But I was terrified of what that meant. Four days from the moon, and I was clawing out of my skin. I wanted and I yearned and I…

Get your shit together, Vermillion.

She lost patience with me before I could give in and stepped back with a despondent smile and sad eyes. “Okay, Mill. I get the message, loud and clear.”

My heart dropped as she turned and headed back into the house, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

Fuck!