Page 6 of Never Submit (Bad Wolves #2)

Chapter 6

Ren

M y feet fly across the snow-frozen earth.

I tear through the woods, panic propelling me down the steep mountain slopes. Every breath is ragged, every step a frantic attempt to put distance between myself and Andras’s wolves, for my life.

They’re behind me. Their growls and snarls are like the relentless march of death itself.

The sights and sounds of the forest aren’t calming anymore. I barely feel the chill as my feet pound with every step, crunching over dead leaves and sticks and stones.

My senses are in overdrive.

They bombard me from all sides, making my temples pound. The smells of the crisp, chilled air, the trees, the animals who flee as danger approaches, coupled with the sounds of my frantic heart and the beasts behind me…

It’s almost too much to sort through.

I pump my arms for speed, but a mournful howl says it won't be enough. The enemy is closing in.

My next step is uneven, and my ankle rolls, sending me tumbling to the side .

Arms windmilling, my speed and the incline of the earth send me hurtling forward, and the world spins.

I hit the snow hard and my shoulder takes the brunt of the fall. Wincing, I groan, the entire side of my body scraping against the unforgiving forest floor.

Pain ricochets through me and tears well in my eyes. Once the momentum stops, I scramble back to my feet, driven by sheer desperation.

Pain is for later. It’s for someone who isn’t trying to escape their kidnapper.

Someone who doesn’t have rabid wolves on their tail.

Vicious snarls echo through the trees, and I’m off and running again, forced to ignore the way my body aches and pinches everywhere .

My head swings left and catches a flash of movement. There.

The monsters are rushing through the shadows, closing in on me with predatory intent. My vision sharpens, honing in on the danger, and somehow I speed up.

Faster, faster.

I need more speed.

I can’t feel my legs anymore.

There are four wolves that I can see—blurs across the scenery—but I’m sure there are more that I can’t. They’re hunting me, drawing in closer, and as I swerve around thick trunks and foliage, my skin begins to tingle all over.

Heat rises, and when I glance down, white fur sprouts from my hands again.

Holy fuck.

Then comes the pain. It hits like a truck, stealing the breath from my lungs and forcing me to halt.

My bones grind together underneath my skin, and muscles bunch unnaturally. They twine and twinge and shift as my body contorts in unnatural ways. My shoulders pop out of their sockets, adjust, and reconnect.

I scream until I run out of air.

My limbs elongate and straighten. My fingers stretch, the nails pushing out and sharpening into animal claws, and I scream some more, my entire body trembling.

I plead with my body to stop. I try to fight it, but the pain increases, bringing up nausea and more tears.

What is happening to me?

Collapsing, I fall onto my hands and knees, gasping for air. Staring down at white fur and black claws. My memory flicks to the moment inside the cage.

The strength, the hair, the animalistic senses… I hadn’t imagined it. It wasn’t a dream, and Andras wasn’t wrong when he commanded me to show him my wolf .

But seriously, a wolf? Me?

Maybe not a wolf like Torin or Mathis, but…something different. I’m more like some kind of half-shifted freakshow right now.

Terrified and agonized.

As my muscles clench tightly, my chest heaves. I'm weak, disoriented, and struggling to adapt to the changes.

The snow crunches nearby and my gaze snaps toward the sound. Two giant wolves stalk out of the shadows cast by the setting sun.

Their eyes flash in the low light, their lips curling up in warning growls. I feel the sound through my system and my already raw nerves pinch.

They’re telling me not to run anymore, or else they’ll kill me.

How do I know that? I have no idea., I just know.

I whip around and catch two more wolves stalking toward me with hackles raised. They’ve surrounded me. It’s four against one.

There’s no way I’m going to let these monsters drag me back to Andras. No way.

Whatever it takes to get out of here, I’ll do it.

They must sense my thoughts because the moment I move, readying to launch off and bolt again, they all pounce for me in unison.

I’m thrown back, the pain of their bites and claws searing. I cry out and lift my arms to defend myself, striking back when I can, but each hit is much too feeble.

I’m clumsy compared to them.

The pain from the ongoing transformation threatens to overwhelm me. I fight with every ounce of strength I have left, battling both the wolves and whatever is happening to my body.

I fight through the agony. The battle rages on, a chaotic flurry of fur, claws, and fangs. My breath comes in ragged gasps, each inhale tainted with the metallic scent of blood.

Andras’s wolves are relentless. They nip and claw at me, their teeth sinking into my fur and flesh. My vision blurs with tears, but I refuse to give up. I lash out with my claws, desperation lending me a savage strength. My blows connect–a wolf squeals, and blood splatters.

Goddess, please let me survive this.

I didn’t live through my twenty-fifth birthday only to die now.

Dax

I leave Mathis behind, blabbering on about something unimportant. His plans for the future. His plans that he thinks will somehow save him as if life actually adheres to a fucking plan.

It’s all chaos.

We struggle against it and hope to survive, and in the end we turn right back to that mad darkness.

Maybe we start all over again.

I’m not sticking around for Noble to get another hit in. No fucking way.

The dickhead might have his mating bond, but I’ve fucked her. I’ll fuck her again.

I've just got to find her.

I grind my teeth together. I’m coming, Red .

The woods are familiar no matter how far I stray from home. Loping along in human form feels wrong here, though, and the shift takes me easily once I shuck the clothing off.

Goosebumps erupt from the cold air, there and gone in a blink as familiar pain rips through me. Muscles twist and lengthen, bones shatter before growing stronger, and I’m on all fours.

Eyes sharp, hearing sharper, teeth and claws ready for blood.

She’s out there.

She’s out there somewhere, and I’m fucking waiting around for everyone to pull their heads out of their goddamn asses and do something about finding her. Not anymore .

Let Mathis and Torin keep licking each other’s assholes. They’ll waste hours of precious time chasing their tails. Torin and Noble had no more information than we did, even though I’d hoped otherwise.

The human part of me slowly disappears under the instincts of the monster inside. And the next step I take as a giant golden wolf covers more ground than a man’s two strides.

I’ve got to find her.

Back, back, back the way we came. Toward the top of Grey Mountain and the ruins of the temple there.

I didn’t pick up the trail on my way down, but maybe that’s because Red never made it down.

Little Red.

She’s still alive.

My muscles warm the farther I run until even the rugged terrain isn’t a problem. Outside the boundaries of Mathis’s territory, like I’ve ever given a shit for those invisible lines anyway.

I’ll rip apart whoever took her. If I end up finding them before I find Red, then all the better. For what they did to her. To us. For taking her from me. Leaving me alone, again.

I skid to a halt with my heart thundering and my lungs working like bellows.

What if Red is out here in the woods by herself? What if someone dumped her, the way they dumped?—

There’s no guarantee she’s even still alive at this point, but hope…hope is that single thing that even an asshole like me clings to. Hope that the following day is going to be better than the ones you leave behind.

No one should have to live without hope, the way I’d been before Mathis found me here.

My thoughts tangle together, working over and among themselves until it’s an impossible mess in my head. My throat closes so that each inhalation becomes a struggle.

No .

I’m not fractured anymore. I’m not fucking broken no matter what everyone says. Or what I think about myself.

Shoving those thoughts aside takes work, and by the time I find my stride again, I’m still not okay. I'll never be okay, but at least I know what I’m good at. My only use.

Revenge .

I’m thirsty for it, itching to punish whoever stands in my path. As long as it gets me closer to Red, whether in life or in death. I’ll go down fighting if I have to.

I won’t have to .

There ahead, through the trees. There’s an echo of the path we took, and within our tangled scents, like a beacon in the dark, the ghost of Red. Her memory stands out even among the alphas and their betas like the brightness of her hoodie.

It takes me way longer than I thought to track back up the mountain path, but it’s faster without a nearly dead human dragging us down. Faster but still not fast enough because every day we wasted back in our territories cost us lead time.

I’m not close to the top of the mountain, but it’s like crossing over an invisible electric fence. Something in the quality of the air changes and sets my teeth grinding.

A scream cuts through the air.

The thin, reedy quality of it does nothing to disguise the pure terror in the sound.

I shift to high alert and pivot on my back legs.

I’m coming, Red .

She’s here.

Somewhere through the trees and the snow.

I lurch into a gallop, cutting a path through the white flakes and black tree trunks, heading toward the source of the scream.

Within seconds, her scent is an explosion of color in a monochromatic world and there she is, pumping her arms for speed as she tries to outrun four men .

They reek of the wolves we fought at the temple. The ones who attacked us without warning, after destroying the ancient shrine and desecrating the place devoted to the goddess. The ones who tried to steal the Moonstone.

Andras. And his men, fighting with a shadowy figure in the snow.

Red. It’s her.

The metallic tang of blood fills my nose next, and I see it–the color red–painting the snow around her.

I’ve got to hurry.

My howl cuts through the air. Red freezes at the sound, but one of the wolves plows into her back and sends them both flying forward into a snowdrift.

The other two move toward me, while the third watches.

Black overtakes the edges of my vision, and it’s a simple matter to let any hint of humanity fade as my wolf rises to overtake me completely.

Time to destroy them.

Loping, I throw myself at the man covering Red with his body, his paws on her wrists and his lips peeled back in a wolfish smirk. His buddy tries to block me before I get to them but they’re too slow. So fucking slow. I dodge the first and land on the second, my teeth shredding his throat and showering Red with blood.

She gasps, fear flickering in her gaze. I turn away and take most of the dude’s throat with me, gulping it down and savoring the sweet coppery taste of him.

I want to slice and dice and revel in the death gargles of the others.

But the longer she stays on the ground, the longer I have to listen to her gasps and smell her terror coloring the air, and the less control I keep over myself .

Her terror and her…wolf?

I catch a flash of white fur, black claws, and I roar, digging my own claws into the side of the animal on top of her, hooking through his ribs, and tossing him effortlessly. He sails through the air and cracks against a nearby tree trunk.

It’s been too damn long since I’ve gotten to eviscerate someone, and I’m starting to get a little itchy. A little restless.

A little thirsty.

I turn on the other wolves, catching one in my sights and racing toward him. He’s not expecting me to move that fast and his reaction time is too slow. He turns a beat too late, and I slam into him. I bite down deep in the scruffy skin at the back of his neck until my canines pierce flesh and fur. His blood fills my mouth, and I jerk him from side to side. Holding on even as he tries to shake me off.

I bite deeper yet until the wolf beneath me yelps. He scrambles to unseat me from his back, and I rip at his underside with my back paws. I release him only long enough to circle around to his front and herd him closer to the tree. He’s limping, dripping blood on the forest floor.

And with a smile, I destroy him.

With my mouth around his neck, relishing the crunch of bone and tendon, I feel when his heartbeat slows and life leaves his body.

The other two are almost ridiculously easy to kill.

It’s ecstasy, and almost too hard for me to come back to myself and away from the glory of death. Only Red’s whimper is enough to splinter my attention.

I turn to her, and she’s covered in blood–hers and her attackers. The shift rips through me until I stand in front of her naked, steaming in the chill of evening .

“Dax,” she manages to squeak out.

I can barely think as she limps to me, throwing herself on me and latching her mouth to mine. Barely think as my tongue tangles with hers and my hands fist in her hair, pressing her close to me to the point of pain. To the point where she groans, and the sound is a mixture of agony and pleasure.

My hands fist in her hair to keep her face angled up to me. “Little Red. You’re all right now. I promise.”

It’s a statement, not a question, because she’s here with me. And I’ll sure as shit make sure she stays that way.

No one is going to take her away from me again.

Adrenaline burns through my system, and my cock hardens, searching for a place to bury itself. If I’m not inside of her this second…

She’s half-shifted.

I’ve never seen anything so fucking sexy in my life.

White fur speckles her forearms and the tops of her thighs. Her fingers are elongated and tipped with sharp claws.

Her eyes have changed.

I slide my hands up her silky inner thighs and paint her red in the process. Thunder roars through my veins and the only thing I can think about is the feeling of her. Her sweet dripping pussy clenched around my cock.

I want her in my den, my cave, covered in blood and riding me until she screams.

There’s no reining in my impulses now.

I drag what’s left of her pants and panties off and leave her ass bare. Red only hisses, lunging for me, wrapping her arms around my neck. I catch her around her waist, swinging her up into my arms so that she has no choice but to wrap her legs around me .

Running my hand between us, I find she’s already wet, crying out in need.

I rub the knuckle of my index finger through her slit before I bring it up to my lips and smell her, licking myself clean. So wet, so fucking delicious, tasting as sweet as blood.

“Dax! Please.”

She’s whimpering, and I turn her so that her back presses to the tree trunk. My emotions are out of control when it comes to this fucking magnificent beast of a woman. She shifts with desperate need, pressing herself against me, arching her hips.

I push her back harder against the tree and pin her in place.

She grits her teeth and reaches down between us to wrap her hands around my cock, squeezing the shaft. Drawing a moan out of me with the way she works me.

She angles my cock to her core, and I reach under her shirt to squeeze her breast, pinch her nipple until it hardens, massaging her until she cries out. Pleasure and pain and everything I need.

Her little grunts of pleasure are a clear demand, and she arches against me harder.

I rock my length against her cunt. Coating myself in her moisture.

Then I notice something. A new tattoo there on her abdomen, a feminine design of a wolf head. When did that?—

It doesn’t matter. There’s no time to go slow.

I’m going to fuck the mate bond right out of her. Noble will be nothing to her after I’m done with her.

I grin and scrub my chin down the side of her cheek. She presses her full tits against my bare chest, knowing she’s at my mercy, knowing she wants this just as badly as I do. Red tries to sink down on my cock and impale herself, but I keep her in place, just at the opening of her tight entrance.

“Give it to me,” she demands.

I snap at her before I rear back and force her to look at me.

“You demanding, sexy little fucking bitch.”

The moment her eyes meet mine, I shove all the way home and fill her in one punishing motion.

She’s so fucking tight. And she’s screaming.

Half shifted, half feral, screaming and bloody, her pussy milking me.

She’s dripping wet and stretching around me to accommodate my girth. She doesn’t want to wait, not even a beat.

Painted in crimson, she is nothing but my dark fantasy. Her hips roll against me as I drag my cock out of her and thrust up, taking her hard and fast. Fucking her to the point where speech is impossible. Her head falls back, and I wrap my hand around the pale column of her neck to keep her in place while I use her.

I bite down on her collarbone.

Our breaths gust out between us in puffs of white, and the blood on our skin hardens, darkens. Red reaches between us to flick a hand across her clit and starts to rub. Moaning and grunting with each thrust.

“Come all over my dick,” I demand. “Don’t hold back.”

It doesn’t take long before she does, a single circle and then her pussy clamps down on me. Dripping moisture down the length of my shaft.

Her eyes widen as I fuck her faster, her cheeks flushed. Those keening noises in the back of her throat are pure fucking torture. I bury myself in her sweet cunt and slam into her without rest.

I give her credit. She never blinked at the blood, and she doesn’t turn away from me now, arching further to take me as deep into her body as possible. I lap at the blood on her neck, her chest, her face, licking her until she rakes her nails down my back hard enough to split my skin.

Harder, faster, ready for my own release and uncaring how rough she wants to get. The pain is everything as her nails sink into my flesh. The pain has me snarling at her and digging my hands into her thighs, her neck, pushing her ass against the tree trunk.

Perfection .

What have I ever done to deserve this?

I lose myself in her tight wetness and soon enough my balls tingle and clench. She squeezes me with her pussy one last time, and I can’t fight my needs anymore. My cock swells and release roars through me, and I fill her sweet pussy with my seed until Red whimpers.

The knot at the base of me keeps me stuck inside her, her muscles stretching to accommodate me even more.

“You’re too big,” she whimpers.

But she’s not going anywhere.

“You’ll take it and you’ll fucking like it, Red.”

My knot inflates, and I bite her again. She sags against me, a heavy exhaustion taking over her limbs, and whether it’s from the sex or the fight or the half-shifting, I don’t know. But when I look at her again, all the fur has receded and her body is fully human again.

I know her secret though. I’ve always sensed something bigger in Red, but I never expected this. She’s human no more.

Now, she’s my dirty little wolf.