Page 26 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

What was wrong with me? If I wanted the female, I should take her.

Now. While she could still say she wanted me back.

The whiplash of swinging from knowing I shouldn’t have her to being unable to resist her had my soul in shambles.

I ran my hands over my face and took a deep breath before walking back into the cabin, steeling myself against the sight.

Fenris had one arm wrapped around Maeve’s waist, the other holding her free hand up by their shoulders.

She laughed as he spun her around, his movements crisp and clean, hers clumsy with mirth and alcohol.

He leaned into her ear and whispered something that made her smile, such a quick reversal from the pout I’d gotten outside.

Last night, I’d made her grin like that. And last week, she looked at me with those fucking eyes and told me she wanted me.

This was the animal in her, trying to break loose. If I didn’t give her what she needed, she’d find it from someone else. Even my best friend. Hell, out of all the monsters in this fucking place, he would be her next best bet—second only to me.

He slid his fingertips up the column of her spine, swaying her around to the beat of the slow music blaring over the radio.

A hot wave of something dark and territorial flooded my veins, cascading from my chest down into my gut and fingers.

I wanted to tear Fenris’s head from his shoulders.

I wanted to rip his hands off for touching her.

Fenris lifted his gaze to mine and raised an eyebrow.

I knew what he was doing, and fuck me for being such a stupid shit, but it was working.

I stalked over to the radio, slammed the power button, and glared at the two of them as they startled and glanced back at me.

“Party’s over,” I snarled, looking to the Vanderbilt. “Go home, Maeve.”

“Mill,” Fenris said. “Come on, buddy.”

“No, it’s okay.” Maeve nodded and glanced around. “Thank you for the good time.”

She walked toward the front door, brushing me with her shoulder as she passed.

That one touch did me in. My beast yelped at the connection, electricity, and three weeks’ worth of tension exploding.

The door closed behind her. I glared at my best friend, sent a wave of back off down the pack bond, and turned to go after her.

By the time I stepped off the front porch, Maeve was a hundred yards ahead of me.

She stalked across the backyard toward her house with her arms wrapped around her midsection, and I followed behind her like the obsessed psycho I was.

Gods, what a fucking nightmare. I’d rejected her, pushed her away, and two minutes later gotten jealous that someone else had swooped in.

My wolf cared about none of that. He simply wanted her and couldn’t understand the human’s reluctance.

When I got close enough for her to hear my footsteps, she rounded on me, her eyes blazing, her hands clamped into fists at her sides.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She shoved my shoulders as hard as she could, but I outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds, so I barely moved.

“You know what he was doing.” The words came out clipped and angry, almost as a roar.

“Of course.” Maeve tilted her face to mine, staring me down, refusing to break eye contact.

In my world, that meant a fight for dominance, but my wolf understood it as something else…

something the human wouldn’t put a name on.

“But what business is it of yours? You want me, you don’t want me.

You eat me out, let me suck you off, you pretend it didn’t happen.

You kiss me, you ghost me. You flirt with me, you reject me. Make up your mind.”

“I want you,” I growled, surprised the words had come out. I shouldn’t have confessed it, but we were well past insecurities now. I stepped closer to her, invading her space, towering over her. Despite how much she stood up to me, she seemed so small in comparison. “But I shouldn’t.”

“Says who?” Maeve waited for a response, but when I didn’t continue, she rolled her eyes and scoffed, turning away again. I grabbed her wrist to stop her, whipping her back to face me.

My merciless half finally yanked free of its restraints, coming to the forefront of my willpower.

I couldn’t fight him anymore. I couldn’t fight this anymore.

Wrapping my hand around the back of her neck, I crashed my lips to hers, relishing in the surprised and satisfied moan that poured out of her mouth into mine.

I swallowed it down, emboldened by it, aching to consume everything she’d let me have.

This was a dangerous game. Even now, I hungered for every last drop of her. The primal side of me called to something dark and powerful inside her, and I wanted to consume it, feast on it, let it live inside me forever, intertwined with my own depraved wickedness.

She melted under my touch, wrapping her hands in my hair, pressing her body firmly against mine. Just when I thought I had her, that we’d both finally succumb to the clawing thing between us, she pushed away from me and squared her jaw.

“No, you don’t get it that easily,” she said, voice trembling. “If you want me, you have to work for it.”

I furrowed my brows, confused about what she meant, until she grinned and took off toward the cabin in a dead sprint.

My heart nearly stopped (again), and I gave her exactly five seconds before I went after her.

I knew what she wanted. This was part of the game, our game, the one I dreamt about for weeks.

I didn’t want her to get too far ahead. There were vampires hiding out in the woods somewhere, but the thrill of the chase took me over. Her lovely scent left a trail for me to follow, and the sound of her feet on the grass amped up my excitement.

The beast inside me howled with delight as I pumped my legs to reach her. But I didn’t want to make the game too easy. I let her think she had a lead as she veered toward the pastures.

The nighttime chorus grew louder, the frogs cheering us on, the crickets humming in approval.

She howled at the nearly full moon, and I sprinted faster, my heart racing, my blood soaring.

Joy filled my soul, the long-lost sensation of happiness overtaking both me and my wolf.

It had been eons since the warm sparks of play had trickled through my veins, and I didn’t know why I’d closed myself off to it.

Then again, I couldn’t do this with anyone else.

Maeve had a certain energy to her that complemented the void inside me.

She was Persephone, the Goddess of spring and the queen of hell, bright and shining and ominous simultaneously.

And I was the king of darkness, presiding over a paradise of death.

She vaulted over a fence, and I went after her, capturing her just as she landed. I took her down to the ground, rolling her onto her back, pinning her wrists above her head as I situated myself between her legs.

“The night is dangerous,” I said. “You never know what could be lurking in the shadows.”

She groaned and tried to break free. I held her tighter. “I like it when you chase me. I like when you catch me.”

The words jogged a memory of a dream from a few weeks ago, right after I’d started working here.

“Don’t tease the wolf, baby. You won’t like what happens to you.” It was the same reply I’d given her then.

She squinted at me, seemingly confused for a moment. “Are you going to bite me?”

Enough.

The call of her scent and her blood enticed me in ways I couldn’t explain.

My wolf knew what was happening, even if the male pushed back against the idea entirely.

Mating her would be a terrible idea for a million different reasons, but a shifter couldn’t always help it.

What if…What if it was really happening?

What if it had been happening all this time?

The scotch and the beer and the thrill of the night had caught up to me, and I shoved dangerous thoughts like that away.

I leaned down and kissed her softly before pushing to my feet and taking her with me.

When we were both standing, I lifted her into my arms, one under her shoulders, the other under her knees, and I carried her back toward my cabin since it was closer than the mansion, the smell of her heavenly scent buried deep in my nose.