Page 21 of Midnight Bond (Wolves of Midnight #5)

I blocked the strike and had her pinned against the side of her car in a flash.

When I felt her struggle against me, the instinct to subdue her, to dominate raced through my blood.

Onyx howled in excitement, his own instincts bolstering mine.

Like a man possessed, I lowered my head and kissed her hard, pouring all of my frustration, anger, and pain into it.

She fought to push me back, but that only made me kiss her harder.

Still gripping her throat, I forced her chin up to deepen the kiss, using my tongue to pry her lips open.

Once I was inside, I didn’t hesitate to take what I wanted.

What I’d been craving ever since our first kiss at the cabin.

The second I tasted her again, need roared through me, and I ground my pelvis against hers with a feral growl.

She cried out as I savagely rocked against her, but I couldn’t tell if it was a fearful cry or one of pleasure.

I didn’t stop to check, lost to the nirvana flooding my body.

I’d never felt pleasure this intense before, not even during my first rut.

It was incredible, so consuming that I almost let my control slip.

Thoughts of her naked and writhing beneath me on the concrete floor nearly undid me.

Onyx picked up on my thoughts and blasted his excitement through our connection.

Claim mate, claim mate, claim mate.

I rocked faster, my tenuous grip on control hanging on by a thread.

My hips kept time with the thrusts of my tongue, and I gorged myself on Brielle’s addicting taste and soft body.

My hard erection fit perfectly between her thighs, and even with our clothes still on, the delicious friction tightened my balls.

I chased the high, almost forgetting why I was doing this.

To punish her. To show her how terrifying I was. How dangerous. She shouldn’t want this with me. Shouldn’t want to be my soulmate. I would only hurt her. Would only ruin her.

But as my thrusts grew frantic, the exquisite tension in my body about to explode, I couldn’t help but think that she was ruining me.

She suddenly stiffened against me with a strangled cry, and when I realized that she was orgasming, my own climax barrelled through me.

I jerked against her with a groan, ejaculating in my pants.

She gasped into my mouth, her rapid breaths in sync with mine as we shot sky high.

I continued to rock against her, prolonging the pleasure for as long as I could.

When her body went pliant against mine, I slowed, my grip on her throat easing.

Only after the high started to fade did I realize what a terrible mistake I’d just made. She wasn’t cowed in the least. There wasn’t an ounce of fear coming from her.

It didn’t make sense. I’d just subdued her. Just initiated physical intimacy without her consent. She should be livid. She should hate me.

But that’s not how she felt. She felt . . . relieved.

Suddenly, I was the one doused in fear. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Nothing about this was right. I must have broken her. Must have gripped her throat too tightly and robbed her brain of too much oxygen. She wasn’t thinking straight, and that made this so much harder.

Still, I forced myself to repeat my words from earlier, needing her to do what I couldn’t. “Reject me, Brielle.”

With our bodies and mouths still flush together, she breathed against my lips, “No.”

Frustrated by her stubbornness, I pulled my mouth away from hers to say, “I won’t let this happen again. I can’t.”

She was silent for a beat, then tipped her face up to look me in the eye. “Then let me go.”

I blinked down at her, struggling to understand. “What?”

“Let me leave and don’t try to follow me this time.”

Panic gripped my chest. “But this is your home. You belong here.”

Sadness filled her emerald eyes. “No, I don’t. Not anymore. I can’t be here if you won’t pursue me. It hurts too much. Everything hurts. But maybe with time—a lot of time—I’ll get over you and we can be friends.”

As soon as she said the words, I knew that could never happen. We could never just be friends, not after this. And I would never, ever get over her.

Even so, I knew that I couldn’t stop her from going, not this time. For both our sakes, I had to let her go.

The second I had the thought, Onyx went crazy. He thrashed inside of me, desperate to gain control so he could make her stay. I stiffened, gritting my teeth as I fought to keep him at bay. My hold on Brielle’s throat tightened once more, and her eyes widened.

With a curse, I jerked myself back, forcing my hand to release her. “Go.”

Onyx snarled and cried, throwing himself against the cage my body kept him in. I shoved him down, feeling my limbs begin to shake under the strain.

“Jagger,” Brielle said, taking a step toward me.

“I said GO!” I thundered, and she finally cringed back. Finally balked at the feral look in my eyes. I didn’t hide it. She needed to see. Needed to know just how unpredictable I could become around her.

Dangerous. I’m dangerous. See it. SEE IT, my eyes told her.

She hesitated for a moment longer, but when I bared my teeth at her in silent warning, she relented.

Onyx howled and howled as she turned and slipped inside her car, shutting the door.

When the engine started and she backed out of the garage, it took all of my strength not to stop her.

For a split second that lasted an eternity, our eyes met and held through the windshield.

One last chance to change my mind. One last chance I couldn’t take.

I wiped my expression clean, and her own fell. She looked away, and I did too, forcing my gaze not to follow her as she drove through the roundabout and left the property.

When I could no longer hear her car, I turned and picked up the wrench I’d dropped earlier.

I started to put it away, then paused, staring at my pristine Porsche for several long moments.

My hold on the wrench tightened. Without a word, I raised the tool and brought it down on the hood.

Over and over, I struck the gray metal, taking my devastation out on it.

My pain. By the time I was done, it was a mangled wreck.

Just like my broken heart.