Page 75 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)

KNOX

Cyrus bounded out of the cabin in his wolf form and slipped into the dark forest surrounding the glade.

My pulse lurched. Something had happened. But I had no idea what.

The last time I’d seen him, he’d been sleeping on the porch swing while I’d been trying to sleep on the far side of the glade, as far away from the cabin as the mating bond would let me.

I hurried to the cabin before I realized what I was doing, grabbed the door that Cyrus had left open, and stared inside into the dark living room.

I didn’t hear screaming or sex and Bishop wasn’t calling me. Audrey had to be okay.

Except she wasn’t… and if I didn’t want her to be stuck with me with my fucked-up head, I had to let my brothers take care of her.

They had a plan, and I just had to keep my wolf collared and wait until we were in Stonehaven and Whil had transferred the bond before releasing him.

I shut the door and turned to head back to the far side of the glade but couldn’t make myself step off the porch.

The pull of the mating bond mixed with my worries was just too strong. It squeezed my chest, making it hard to breathe and move and hell, just think about anything else.

Fuck, this was my worst nightmare. I hadn’t even known that this was what I feared the most. But the terror howling and clawing and unable to break free from inside me was stronger than even the squeezing, suffocating panic that seized me if I was inside for too long or surrounded by too many people.

Everything in my soul screamed that I needed to protect her, and my wolf was losing his shit, furious that I’d let Cyrus and Bishop lock him away.

Her heat had been going on for too long and even if I hadn’t overheard Cyrus and Bishop’s conversation about it not stopping — and the theory that it wasn’t going to stop until our mating bond was sealed — I’d be terrified for her.

I curled up on the porch swing, forcing more ice into the mating bond, praying that would help stop me from completely fucking up her life.

I couldn’t take care of her the way a mate was supposed to.

I couldn’t even cover the basics for a mate.

I couldn’t spend more than a few hours inside, and I couldn’t ask her to live like I did, sleeping in the tall grass outside Stonehaven or in the sacred grove outside the alpha’s residence. Even if she could shift, she’d still need shelter for winter and the storm season.

But she couldn’t shift and she’d want more than just “living inside.” She’d want a life and she deserved to have one. She deserved everything her old pack had denied her: friends, family. Hope.

No. I couldn’t be her mate. I couldn’t be anyone’s mate. I was too fucked up.

I squeezed my eyes shut and fought to still my racing thoughts. If the bond wouldn’t let me leave the porch, then I needed to embrace the oblivion of sleep. In the morning we’d start the journey back to Stonehaven and then everything would be fine.

Hell, maybe whatever had made Cyrus race out of the cabin as a wolf had been whatever she needed and the fever would be broken by morning… and I wasn’t going to think too deeply about what that might have been. A heat fever was dangerous and whatever he’d done would have been to protect Audrey.

I sucked in a slow breath then another and listened to the crickets. I could do this. Audrey could do it. Everything was going to be okay.

A soft thump jerked me awake and I sat up with a start. Inside the cabin, slow footsteps shuffled across the wood floor in an unsteady rhythm, drawing closer. Then a door squeaked and clicked shut, and a moment later, the shower started.

I strained to hear more. It hadn’t sounded like Bishop. He was tired, but his steps would have been heavier and surer. Which meant Audrey was in the shower. By herself. Did that mean her heat had broken? Even if it had, she had to be weak. The fever had ridden her hard and she’d barely eaten or slept. Why was he letting her use the shower by herself?

What the hell was wrong with him?

I mentally nudged him and received a sleepy groan in response. Exhaustion and worry surged through our twin bond and I clamped down on it before it could affect me. I hadn’t realized just how tired he was.

My wolf wrenched against the collar. If Audrey’s fever was that bad, then we needed to go to her, not just to protect her, but to protect the other half of our human soul as well.

I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut. Bishop wasn’t alone. Cyrus might have needed to go for a run, but he’d be back, and Audrey had both of them. They’d be fine.

But my wolf didn’t believe that and a growing part of the human me didn’t believe it, either.

Something inside thumped and all my senses snapped to high alert. Bishop remained asleep and the shower shushed in a steady, undisturbed stream of water. Audrey wasn’t moving around, that would change the sound of the falling water.

Because she’s fallen, my wolf snapped, his voice muted as if he were far away.

A surge of panic shot me to my feet. I wasn’t sure if it was mine, my wolf’s, or a combination of both. I couldn’t assume the thump had been Audrey falling.

And yet given how weak she had to be, I couldn’t assume otherwise.

I mentally reached for Bishop to wake him and make him check on her when a soft sob cut through the shushing water.

My wolf wrenched me to the door and flung it open before I realized what I was doing.

Panic seized my chest and I gripped the doorframe, stopping my wolf from forcing me inside.

She needs us, he snarled, his voice getting louder, his fear straining the magical collar containing him.

We can’t. I tightened my hold on the door, fighting to stay where I was. The wood groaned, threatening to crack beneath my grip, and the walls of the cabin crowded closer together, proving exactly why we couldn’t be her mate.

Another sob cut through the sound of the falling water and my wolf wrenched my unwilling body to the bathroom despite the pressure of the collar.

Audrey sat huddled in the corner of the shower just outside of the spray, hugging her knees to her chest. Her hair was wet and limp around her face and shoulders, her body too pale and too thin, and her eyes were squeezed tight in desperate agony.

The pressure in my chest that had been squeezing me since her fever had started crushed tighter, and I sucked in a sharp breath filled with her sweet scent and the scent of her arousal.

All fear of being closed in and suffocated by the small room vanished and my focus narrowed to just her, everything within me screaming to help her.

I turned off the water, crouched before her, and cupped her cheeks in my palms, urging her to look at me.

Her lids fluttered open and she locked gazes with me. Her eyes were surprisingly clear, the fever having eased enough for her to be lucid.

“Knox?” she gasped as tears rolled down her cheeks, the agony in her expression breaking my heart.

It should never have come to this. Bishop should have been taking care of her from the moment we’d left Stonehaven. Except if Bishop and Cyrus’s theory was correct, that wouldn’t have made a difference.

Only sealing the bond would have prevented this.

Her body tensed and her face scrunched in agony. A strangled moan escaped her clenched jaw and her breathing grew shorter and sharper.

My pulse lurched and I picked her up, not caring that she was getting my clothes wet. Sisters, she was lighter than when I’d carried her on my back to escape Darkweald. And that had already been too light for my liking. It spoke of neglect and too many days going to bed hungry. And now she was wasting away to nothing.

I had to get her to Bishop.

No. I had to end this.

Fuck.

I didn’t want to seal the bond, didn’t want to trap either of us. But there wasn’t any other choice.

I set her on the counter and brushed her damp hair from her face. She stared up at me with her soulful brown eyes, the gold rings around her pupils shining bright, mesmerizing me and reminding me that I’d never been close enough to look her properly in the eyes to notice that subtle, beautiful detail.

The bond had already ensnared my soul, it was only a matter of time before this brave, determined woman fully ensnared my heart.

Before I realized what I was doing, I palmed the back of her head to keep her steady and captured her lips with mine.

Her breath hitched then turned into heavy pants, and she kissed me like she was starving. Her fingers clung to my shirt and her hips rocked up, pressing her slick heat against my painfully hard cock.

My wolf howled and heaved inside me, straining against the collar, determined to break free and claim her. She was ours and we’d neglected our responsibility to protect her for too long. We shouldn’t have even left Stonehaven. We should have accepted the truth from the very beginning. She was our mate. She’d always been our mate and we’d just been waiting for fate to bring us together.

I bit back a growl, undid the tie keeping my pants up, and shoved them down my legs. My cock sprang free, jutting between us, and Audrey wrapped her small hand around it.

More tears rolled down her cheeks and she sobbed into my mouth.

“It’s the only way,” I said, my voice gruff and my throat tight with guilt.

“But you don’t want me,” she said even as she weakly stroked me and pressed me against her slick, swollen folds.

“I don’t want anyone.” I captured her lips again, my need for her tearing through the last of my resistance.

I needed her as much as she needed me, needed to fill her and complete myself, needed the bond that would only make us miserable.

I pushed into her, unable to hold back any longer. She moaned, the sound loud and satisfied, just like the sounds she’d made for my brother.

See, I could please her just as well as they did.

I would please her better because she was mine.

I tangled my fingers in her wet hair and tugged her head back, deepening our kiss, as I plunged into her again and again.

“Please, Knox,” she begged against my lips. “Harder. Please, please, please.”

I picked up my pace, pounding into her as she wept and begged for more, for me.

“Yes,” she cried. “I need you, Knox. I need you.”

“You’re mine,” I growled, my wolf straining to break the collar.

A shudder swept through her and her walls clamped around me as her eyes rolled back in pleasure, but I kept pounding into her. I wanted her to scream, wanted to brand my soul onto hers and shatter the fever consuming her. If we were going to make this sacrifice, I was going to save her.

Another orgasm tore through her and her moans grew louder. But the fever wasn’t letting go. I could feel it rising again, feel the heat radiating from her skin.

My balls and cock ached, the need to fill her with my seed tightening every muscle in my body. But I needed to hold out, needed to make her come again and again. I needed her screaming my name.

“Who’s your mate?” I snarled.

“You,” she gasped, another weak climax rippling through her.

She was losing strength, which meant I was losing her.

“Who?” I yanked her hair, determined to get her attention and keep her from succumbing to the fever. Her eyes flew open and her gaze, filled with a wild heat, locked on mine.

“Say my name,” I demanded as I pounded into her, my hand behind her butt jerking her toward me with each thrust. “Say. My. Name. Who’s your mate?”

“You,” she cried, her body trembling, her expression wild with pleasure. “You, Knox.”

Every muscle in her body contracted, the force wrenching my own release from me. Heat shot down my spine into my balls, my canines grew despite my wolf being collared, and I sunk my teeth into Audrey’s shoulder, claiming her.

She screamed my name again, her voice reverberating into my soul, ringing with a great, powerful gong. Every cell within me vibrated at the sound, aligned, and a brilliant golden light exploded behind my lids.

Mine.

She was mine. Forever.

Gods help me.