Page 12 of Crossed Fates

The invitation hung between us as a choice, one he turned his back on as he started up the stairs.

Help or leave.

I knew my decision before he reached the top stair.

If there was a link between the silver poisoning and the girls, I had to know.

Follow it is,I thought, trailing after him.

Alaric

My thighs burned with restraint.

Don’t move.

Don’t touch.

Don’t fuck.

I didn’t have time for this madness. But I couldn’t concentrate on anything beyond Makayla’s medical ministrations.

She’dstabbedme. And now she was playing nurse in my apartment. Just without the appropriate outfit. She still wore her T-shirt and jeans, her long, dark red hair pulled high into a messy bun, as she bent over my shoulder and focused on stitching me up like some sort of damn quilt.

It infuriated me.

And it made me want to bend her over my bed and drive into her from behind. My shoulder would protest, but I’d welcome the pain as I unleashed an equal amount of agony into her pretty little body.

She deserved it and worse.

I wanted to make her crawl, beg, and mewl, all in that order. And then I’d consider letting her come. Maybe.

Her sweet scent slithered around me in a taunt, her fingers brushing my overheated skin as she finalized the last of her handiwork. “Almost done,” she whispered, her throat bobbing as she swallowed.

She stood between my sprawled legs, my upper body shirtless as a result of her destroying my jacket and shirt. Blood was a bitch to clean, so I’d just tossed both items into the bin, then I’d kicked off my jeans and boxers and had washed up in a quick shower.

Which left me clad in only a towel.

Atentedtowel.

Because my intended mate was scant inches from my groin and drowning me in her sensual perfume. It’d be so easy to grab her by the hips and pull her into my lap. She’d protest, but only for a minute. One kiss was all I needed to subdue the stubborn female inside and call upon her wolf.

Shifters were always easy to seduce.

We were sexual by nature, our animals very much in charge of our instincts.

Which was why I had to ignore the inclination, because if I started playing with her now, I’d never make it up to Silver Lake by dawn.

Besides, she didn’t deserve my cock.Because she fucking stabbed me.

Why was that such a damn turn-on? I should be furious—and I was—but I also wanted to drag her onto my bed and dare her to use that knife again.

A growl lodged in my throat, my wolf riding me hard.

I’d heard rumors about fated mates and what it did to the male. Those rumors weren’t wrong. My drive to take her and mark her as mine nearly surpassed all reason.

I don’t know her.

I don’t want to keep her.