Page 50 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
CYRUS
Bishop groaned, the sound just at the edge of my hearing, and my balls tightened in sympathy. Audrey’s gasps and moans still rang in my ears, and the scent of her release hung heavy in the air around us. It was torture coming closer to her, forcing her to strip, and I could only imagine how much harder it was for Bishop actually having touched her.
Fuck me. I am not sleeping with her. Not here. Not now. Not ever.
And I sure as hell wasn’t going to have a one-night stand with her. She deserved better than that.
She deserved the promise of forever.
But even if Bishop joined our mate bond, the pack still wouldn’t accept her as an alpha, and I wasn’t going to put her through that. No matter how much my wolf wanted her. She deserved to be worshiped and adored, valued for who she was not for how much power she possessed. Putting her in the public eye would only point out her weakness, and I feared she’d emotionally crumble and never recover from that.
She was already on the precipice. She might have glared at me for using my powers to make her strip, but even as she pulled off her boots and stepped out of her pants, she was shrinking in on herself. It was like watching a flower wilt before my eyes.
Now she crouched on the riverbank, her shoulders hunched, as she clutched her bloody shirt to her body, covering her breasts and groin as if she were ashamed.
Which made my wolf furious. Being naked was a natural part of being a shifter. If we didn’t want to constantly be buying new clothes, we had to strip if we wanted to shift, and she had no reason to hide herself. It wasn’t natural.
But that was just a reminder that she wasn’t natural. Her pack had cursed themselves, preventing them from shifting until they were adults. She hadn’t grown up with the casual nudity I had, and without a wolf form, she’d never needed to take her clothes off in front of anyone.
“Drop the shirt,” I said, trying to keep my voice even and not reveal how much I was fighting to keep my wolf from wrapping our arms around her and comforting her. “It’s only going to get in the way. I’ve seen it all already anyway,” I added, hoping to relax her.
But she stiffened and turned red instead.
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” she murmured, dropping the shirt and thankfully not forcing me to make her. “Just hurry this up. I’m cold and—” A shiver rolled down her body from her head to her perfectly curved ass and her desire thickened around her. “And I’m pretty sure I’m not downwind from you.”
No. No, you’re not.
I bit back a rumble of desire and wrenched my gaze away from her to pull my first-aid kit from my pack. “You have a cloth in your pack. Wipe yourself down and let’s see what we’ve got.”
I heard her rummage in her pack and then the splash of water and turned to watch her slide the damp fabric over her shoulder and down her arm.
My wolf’s focus snapped to her movement and the beads of water gathering on her skin. From this angle, I could see the swell of her breast, but her arm hid her nipple?—
And now I was imagining the water beading on that dusky bud and my tongue licking it away.
Fuck me.
She had a couple of bites on her arm, as well as on her back, and I focused on those, reminding my wolf that while we wanted to claim her — which we sure as hell couldn’t — she was still hurt and our first priority was to take care of her. We needed to assess her injuries, decide if she needed an elixir, and patch her up.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t that hurt. She had a couple of nasty bites that Nova probably would have stitched up to be on the safe side since she healed like a human, a lot of cuts and scratches, and an enormous bruise blossoming over her right thigh, but nothing that seemed serious enough to warrant giving her one of our precious elixirs.
I patched her up as quickly as I could, trying to keep my touch professional and my expression distant, but by the time I’d taped on the last piece of gauze, her breath had picked up, her eyes dilated with desire, and her arousal thickened the air.
“We’ll stop early tonight so Bishop can help you,” I said, wrenching away from her to shove my first-aid kit back into my pouch.
Fuck, my cock hurt. I was hard from hearing her come and had only gotten harder as I’d patched her up. Touching and smelling her and knowing I was the one arousing her was pure torture. It didn’t matter that her desire for me came from her heat and her incomplete mating bond and not from a genuine interest. My body and my wolf didn’t care.
I needed to put some distance between us and she needed a good long fuck.
“I ah…” I heard her rummage through her pack again but refused to look at her. “Don’t stop early.”
I clenched my teeth, determined to not watch her get dressed. “You pretty much passed out the minute we stopped yesterday and today you’re going to be even more tired.”
“Good.”
“Not good.” My willpower cracked, and I glanced at her, grateful that she’d managed to put on the clean pair of pants that had been in her pack and was pulling down her shirt, hiding her breasts. “If your heat is affecting you this much, you’re going to have to have sex. Cuddling with Bishop won’t be enough. The sooner you deal with it, the sooner you’ll be thinking straight.”
“Cyrus, please.” She pressed her hands against her chest, the motion she’d done last night when she’d felt Bishop’s soul steadying hers. “I need this bond broken. My emotions are a mess, and if Bishop and I… It’ll just get worse.” Her cheeks flushed and she dropped her gaze to her feet. “What happened was a mistake. I can’t— I’ll—” She sucked in a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and met my gaze head-on again. Determination filled her expression even though her pupils were still blown out with desire. “No stopping early or starting late and no unnecessary breaks. I can push through. I will push through. I have to.”
She was holding herself together on sheer will alone. I hadn’t fully understood what she was going through with Knox rejecting their bond, hadn’t thought she’d been experiencing the full effects so soon, but I could see the truth now. She’d been worn down to fragile glass in a matter of days and anything — like fearing Bishop would reject her once her heat was over — would shatter her. It wouldn’t matter if I told her my brother was smitten with her. She didn’t believe she had any value and couldn’t imagine that someone would want to be with her.
And even if she could get past that, having sex with Bishop and knowing she’d never have it with her bonded mate — even if she didn’t want that mate — could shatter her as well.
Fuck.
She was in a precarious position until the bond was broken. She probably didn’t even know which emotions were really hers, which were the incomplete bond, and which were her heat.
“Fine,” I forced out, my wolf angry that letting her suffer was the best solution to the problem.
I grabbed my pack and hopped up the bank, listening as she scrambled to follow. My cock throbbed and my wolf heaved inside me. Fuck I hated this. I hated that my wolf had finally become interested in someone and I couldn’t have her, and I hated that I was going to make her suffer even if it was at her own damned request.
Bishop, I snarled. Did you hear any of that?
Yeah, he replied, his mental voice solemn. I’ll carry her if she starts to slow down.
You both know she won’t want that, Knox replied as he bounded up the rocks. She needs to prove how strong she is. To you and to herself.
“And here I thought he wasn’t paying any attention,” Bishop muttered as he climbed up after him.
I can still hear you, asshole, he huffed. Anyone who spends two seconds with her can figure her out. One look at her face and you know exactly what she’s feeling.
That just makes you the asshole, Bishop replied. You’re breaking her soul and endangering her life on the slim chance that we’ll be able to break the mating bond at the death god’s temple.
Pretty sure being stuck with me for life is worse, Knox shot back as he raced out of sight.
Did he just…? Bishop asked me.
The effects of a mating bond goes both ways, I replied and while that comment meant Knox was softening up to his unwanted mate, it also meant he was determined to not keep her. Just like Audrey, Knox struggled with seeing himself for who he truly was.