Page 15

After two full days of bed rest, I was going to lose my mind.

The combination of my fast shifter healing and Sybil’s disgusting but effective tonics had mended my cracked ribs and rid me of my concussion by my second morning on Argent, but Ethan would have tied me to the bed if he could.

My wolf’s ears perked up at the thought of Ethan tying me to the bed, but I was absolutely not going to pay her any heed.

Ethan had made it abundantly clear that he did not care about me.

Every cup of tea he’d brought me and every reminder to take my tonics were simply duty, as far as he was concerned.

He had to keep me healthy so he could bring me back to Caleb in full working order and forget that any of this had ever happened.

I would only be one in a long line of females he’d fucked and then abandoned.

If he was going to insist he was nothing to me, then I was going to act like he was nothing to me.

My room had an en-suite shower—because, of course, it did, Argent was stupid rich—and I spent far too long luxuriating in the warm spray.

Days in bed had left me sweaty and smelly and uncomfortable, and feeling it all wash off me was like shedding old skin.

I was no longer weak and injured and vulnerable: I was me, and I wasn’t going to let Ethan fucking Cain tell me what to do for one minute longer.

I was going out, and no one could stop me.

Clean, dressed, and determined, I stepped out into the sunshine, the warmth like a balm on my skin.

This was what I needed, not another day of bed rest. As beautiful as Argent Town was, I slipped away from the path as soon as I could, making my way to the outskirts, where cobbled streets turned to grass and then forest. The cool grass tickled my bare feet, and I could breathe again.

“You sure you should be out here?” A voice behind me made me jump, but when I turned, it was only Cody, a teasing smile on his face.

He really was cute, in a boy band kind of way.

By the looks of him, he’d been on patrol; his blond hair flopped into his face, and his skin was a little flushed, a light sheen of sweat covering his bare chest.

“I’m fine; Sybil fixed me right up,” I said, giving my newly healed ribs a little poke to demonstrate. His eyes followed the movement, lingering on where my borrowed sundress hugged my breasts.

“I see that. Your Alpha gives you the all clear?”

I scoffed.

“Okay, first of all, he’s not my Alpha,” I told him. “Second of all, even if he was, he’s not the boss of me.”

“That’s literally what an Alpha is, but okay.” His blue eyes twinkled with mirth, and I couldn’t help smiling back at him. I might not really want him, but it was nice to talk to someone who didn’t treat me like a child or an inconvenience, someone who so obviously desired me.

“He doesn’t scare me,” I said.

“He scares me, though,” Cody replied. He stepped forward, voice lowered. “You sure he isn’t lurking around one of these corners? I don’t think he likes me.”

“I can take him, don’t you worry,” I assured him. Without thinking, I reached out to squeeze his bicep—part comfort, part gentle mocking. His eyes flickered down to my lips, and I realized my mistake too late.

“Oh yeah?” he said, taking another step forward into my space. “You gonna fight for my honor?”

Before I could push him playfully back and create a safe amount of space between us, my name was fired like a bullet into the calm of the morning.

“Julia! What the hell are you doing out here?”

I knew it would only be a matter of time before Ethan noticed I was gone, before he came charging after me like a bull at a red flag, but I had hoped for a little more time.

“Walking,” I said. “I can do that, you know.”

“I’m keeping an eye on her, Alpha Cain,” Cody piped up, like an idiot. Ethan’s canines flashed long and white as he turned his attention to the hapless Beta.

“I can see that,” he snarled, and I was pretty certain that it was only Ethan’s respect for Leo that was holding him back from ripping Cody to shreds.

“Ethan—” I started, but he paid me no mind.

“Get back to whatever you’re supposed to be doing,” he snapped at Cody. “Now.”

Cody didn’t hesitate, didn’t even spare me a glance as he jogged away back toward town, and I felt a rush of pity for him.

He didn’t deserve to be used as a pawn to make Ethan mad, and he definitely didn’t deserve Ethan’s ire.

Ethan, at his own insistence, wasn’t anyone who had a say in who I flirted with.

I wasn’t going to let him take me back to the house.

He wasn’t going to confine me to bed for another day or more before he declared me well enough to make the journey to Ensign.

Before he could turn his attention back to me, I began striding toward the forest. I hardly made it ten yards before I heard him yell,

“Julia—Julia, get back here.”

I wanted to ignore him, but I was too angry.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I threw at him, refusing to slow my pace. Ethan caught up with me almost immediately, but I wasn’t going to stop unless he made me.

“Are you trying to embarrass me?” he asked, which was not an answer. “I get that you’re mad, but—”

“But what?” I snapped. “I’m not allowed to go outside? I’m not allowed to talk to people?”

“You’re not allowed to talk to him.”

That made me stop. At least we’d reached the tree line. I didn’t want to have this argument in the open.

“Excuse me,” I said, flat and emotionless. He must have realized he’d fucked up because he didn’t fight back.

“You know what I mean,” he said. He wasn’t going to get away with it that easily.

“I really don’t.”

Ethan looked physically pained as he said,

“He wants to fuck you.”

“Maybe I want to fuck him,” I shot back, but Ethan didn’t even flinch.

“You don’t, though.”

Shit. I should never have told him that—I should never have done a lot of things where Ethan was concerned.

“Maybe I changed my mind. Maybe I’ll take him back to my room and spread my legs for him.” It gave me a sick thrill to see the way Ethan’s jaw tensed. I was going to make him admit that he didn’t like the idea of other men touching me, and I was going to make him admit the reason why.

“Julia—” he started, but I wasn’t going to let him talk his way out of this.

“You’re not the only one who can sleep around,” I continued. “Maybe I’ll let him knot me, too.”

“Julia. Stop it.”

“Why? I’m not your mate, remember.”

“You’re still my wife.” His hands shot out to grip my hips, his grey eyes boring into mine, and I couldn’t believe he’d tried that argument; it was stupid, so stupid.

Marriage meant nothing to us—it should mean nothing to us, but seeing his mouth round out the word wife had me shivering under his touch.

“Oh yeah?” I breathed. Suddenly, I could feel my heartbeat at my throat and beneath his palms and between my legs. His eyes pinned me, pupils blown wide.

“Yeah.”

Then his mouth was on mine, and my back was against a tree.

My wolf was howling in victory, because wasn’t this what we’d wanted all along?

I tried to tell her no, tried to tell myself no, but that would be a lie.

Ever since I’d realized we were mates—and on a few very secret occasions before that—I’d wanted nothing more than for him to touch me.

To make up for my own weakness, I bit his lip hard, but Ethan only groaned, sucking my tongue into his mouth as I melted against his body.

Feverish and desperate as it was, the kiss didn’t last long before Ethan spun me around, pushing my front against the rough bark of the tree.

Grinding his erection against my ass, he stepped back, pulling me with him so that I was standing at a right angle, my arms braced against the tree trunk.

I gasped as he kicked my legs apart, and I should have told him to stop, that I wasn’t going to let him fuck me and run again, but my wolf was howling her approval and my body was betraying me more with every passing second.

My nipples were hard beneath my sundress, begging for the attention of his broad, rough hands, and I knew that if he slipped one of those hands between my legs, he would feel how embarrassingly wet I was already.

Ethan did exactly that. Running a hand up the sensitive inside of my thigh, he cupped my pussy through the thin cotton of my underwear, growling low and pleased when he found the material hot and damp beneath his palm.

Desperate for friction, I ground down against the heel of his hand for one, two glorious seconds before he withdrew it, hooking a finger into the crotch of my panties to draw them away from my pussy.

“So wet for me,” he purred, slipping a single, tantalizing finger between my lips. “Was this your plan all along, hm? To make me crazy?”

“No,” I whimpered, unsure even as I said it.

“No?” he echoed. Then the teasing pressure of his finger was gone. “My apologies, I’ll leave you to—”

“Don’t!” I cried, a hand shooting back to grasp his wrist. My legs were trembling, my body strung out with that heady mix of fury and desire that only he could inspire in me.

“Don’t what?” he asked, and I growled, pushing my hips back into his grip.

“You asshole.”

“Don’t what, Julia?”

“Don’t stop,” I whispered, mortified. I shouldn’t be begging for his touch. I should be making him beg. I should have him on his knees, but my wolf was keening and whining inside me. I needed him more than I’d ever needed anything.

And he delivered. With a sharp ripping sound, my underwear dropped away, and three rough fingers were parting my folds to press against my clit. I gasped, dropping his wrist to support myself better against the tree, rocking my hips in time with his movements, needing more, more, more.

Then his hand slipped away, but I didn’t have time to mourn the loss before those fingers landed on my clit again, hard.

The sound of my moan mixed with the sharp slap of flesh against wet flesh, and I dug my fingernails into the bark when his hand came down again, sending a bolt of pleasure-pain shooting through my body.

“Mine.” Ethan’s voice was low and gravelly, demanding a response that I would not give. If he wasn’t going to claim me, then he didn’t own me, no matter how easily my body turned to putty in his hands.

“Mine,” he repeated, landing another hard slap on my twitching, hungry pussy.

I bit down hard on my lower lip to muffle my scream, but I refused to give him the answer he wanted.

Another slap, and my legs were trembling; I was so wet I could feel slick drooling out of me, dripping onto the ground beneath us, and dribbling down my thighs.

Another. They were coming faster now, his fingers rubbing my clit on every landing, and something huge and inescapable was coiling in my abdomen. Another. Another. Another.

“Mine.”

There was no defiance left in me as my orgasm rocked every inch of my body. Clutching the tree for support, my toes curled into the dirt even as my legs gave out entirely, held up only by Ethan’s strength.

“Yours,” I panted with every gasp of breath I could steal, and then he was inside me.

The stretch of him sent fresh sparks of pleasure dancing through my body, and I tumbled over a second peak, clenching and twitching around his length as he buried himself inside me, where he belonged.

Every stroke of his cock was like some divine torture; I was over-sensitive and strung out already, yet with every snap of Ethan’s hips I was building to another earth-shattering crescendo.

I couldn’t control the breathy moans that escaped every time he bottomed out, morphing into a long, unbroken whine as I felt his knot begin to form.

We must look like every human fantasy of shifter debauchery, rutting in the forest, uncaring of who might come across us.

“Please,” I gasped. “Please, please—”

I hardly even knew what I was begging for, but Ethan did. His hands left my hips to pull me upright, one hand clamped possessively around my neck while the other tugged down the neck of my sundress to expose my breasts, pinching and grabbing at my hard, aching nipples.

I couldn’t think. I had become something entirely carnal, wanting and wanting and wanting.

Ethan’s knot was pressing against my entrance, stretching me almost to the point of pain, and I needed it so badly I could barely breathe.

There were lips on my neck, on my shoulder, and then a set of teeth nipping at the skin of their junction, right where the mating mark should be.

My neck bent on instinct, granting him access to the soft skin, inviting him to sink his teeth into my flesh, to mark me as his.

I felt his growl as it rumbled up through his chest, and he nosed and nipped at the offered spot, his breathing coming heavy as he continued to thrust roughly into me.

Each one went deeper than the last, and then I was spread around his knot, stretched and filled until it almost hurt—and perhaps that was what brought me enough clarity to warn him.

“Only—only if you mean it. Please.” I desperately wanted his mark, but not if he was going to take it back when we returned to our senses.

To be knotted and rejected was one thing—I’d lived through it once, and for the sake of the pleasure that was driving me higher and higher with every passing second, I could live through it again—but marked and rejected? It would be too much, even for me.

With a roar, Ethan’s hands on my body tightened, and he shoved the rest of his knot inside me, filling me completely.

The thrust of his hips didn’t stop, hitting every sensitive place over and over and over, but even as I braced myself for it, no bite came, no sweet pain to push me over the edge.

Instead, one of Ethan’s hands came down to my clit, rubbing me in tight, fast circles until I seized and clenched and came again, pulling him with me.

My pleasure stretched on and on as his hot come filled me up and his fingers stroked me through it, and by the time I came down, I couldn’t tell if the tears streaking my face were from ecstasy or heartbreak.