Page 9 of Trick Me (Immortal Vices and Virtues: All Hallows’ Eve)

Is this how it feels for shifters? The thought is mine but echoes strangely, bouncing off this new presence that seems amused by my confusion.

I sniff the air, and Ash’s scent has me salivating. Which should be concerning but mostly just makes me want to get closer, to rub against him, to mark him with my scent so everyone knows?—

What the hell am I thinking?

I prowl forward, lips peeling back to show teeth. My reflection glints in his eyes, and I see myself for a moment—huge white wolf, bigger than any natural wolf has a right to be, eyes glowing gold in the darkness.

“Easy,” Ash says, voice dropping into something commanding that makes my spine tingle. “Now, back off.”

My legs lock, refusing to move forward despite every instinct screaming at me to pounce. I push against the compulsion.

“Sit,” he demands in that same tone, and my ass hits the ground before I can process the command. What the hell?

“Roll over.” He grins, enjoying himself.

I’m on my back, paws in the air, belly exposed, before the fury washes over me. The position is submissive, vulnerable, everything the wolf in my head hates. How dare he? I’m not a dog doing tricks for treats. I’m not his pet to command.

The wolf agrees, insulted by the casual dominance, by the assumption that we’ll just obey because he has a nice voice and authority issues.

I scramble onto my feet, tail stiff behind me. My ears flatten as I start to circle him slowly, deliberately, each paw-step silent against the forest floor. The wolf wants blood. Or at least pride. Maybe both.

Ash watches me, brow lifted like this is all very amusing. “Okay. Take it slow. Sit.”

I bare my teeth.

“Stay?”

A warning growl rumbles in my throat.

His smirk twitches. “Play dead?”

I lunge a step closer, lips peeled back over fangs, and that’s when something shifts in his gaze. The amusement drains, replaced by focus. He takes a step back. Then another .

“All right,” he mutters. “Message received.”

Too late.

I surge forward, claws outstretched. He dodges fast, but not fast enough. My claws catch his shirt, ripping fabric as he spins away and bolts into the woods.

“This is not how this is supposed to work!” he shouts, vaulting over a fallen log with impressive grace.

I chase because the thing inside me loves to hunt, lives for it, was born for it.

Ash is fast, dodging trees with inches to spare, sliding under low branches. But I’m faster now, four legs better than two.

“Stay back!” he shouts, that commanding tone again. “Stop!”

The compulsion flares over me like a wave, trying to freeze my muscles, to force obedience. But I push through it, drawing on every ounce of stubbornness that’s ever made me argue with ghosts who insisted they weren’t dead. The wolf lends its strength.

Ash breaks into a clearing lit by moonlight, and I spot my chance. I launch myself at him, all four paws leaving the ground, body stretched to its full length. We collide in midair, his attempt to dodge coming a fraction too late.

We hit the ground hard, rolling twice before coming to a stop with me on top, paws on his chest, teeth at his throat.

My jaws part, teeth resting against his skin. Not breaking it, not yet, but holding. A growl rumbles from somewhere deep in my chest, vibrating through both of us. This close, his scent is overwhelming. A combination of fear, sweat, arousal, and challenge all mixed together.

He goes perfectly still beneath me.

He should be terrified. Any sane person would be scared with a wolf’s teeth at their throat. But his heartbeat, while fast, isn’t panicked. His scent carries adrenaline but also… arousal? Trust? That can’t be right.

“You going to bite me, or are we just going to stay like this?” His voice is steady, conversational, as though we’re discussing the weather instead of the fact that I could tear his throat out with one flex of my jaw.

I inhale deeply, trying to understand this man who isn’t afraid of me even when he should be.

He’s special. Important. Mine , the wolf whispers, or maybe I do.

Slowly, carefully, I ease the pressure of my teeth.

My tongue flicks out without permission, tasting the salt of his skin and…

the copper tang of blood? There, on his arm, those scratches from earlier when my claws first emerged.

They’re already healing, bu t I clean them anyway, an instinct I don’t understand but can’t resist. The blood tastes like electricity on my tongue, sending sparks through my entire body.

I move back to his neck where my teeth had been, licking the small indentations, and he makes a sound that’s part groan, part growl.

“Shift back,” he states in that deep and rough voice that I find too irresistible. “Now, Erynn. Come back to me.”

It feels like thunder under my skin, power grabbing hold of my bones and pulling.

The wolf beside me in my mind protests, receding reluctantly but unable to resist whatever authority his voice carries.

The change hurts more, my body protesting the return to a form that suddenly feels too small, too limiting, too human.

When it’s over, I’m straddling him, completely naked, shaking from the transformation.

The moonlight does unfair things to his features, sharpening already dangerous cheekbones, making his amber eyes glow with their own light.

His dark hair is mussed from our chase, strands falling across his forehead.

There’s a wildness to him that calls to whatever is now living inside me, and the smile spreading across his face is pure sin.

“Good to have you back,” he almost purrs, which has me shuddering with a strange excitement. “Enjoy your first hunt?”

“I—” Words are hard when he’s looking at me like that, like I’m something magnificent instead of a naked disaster straddling him in the woods. “That was?—”

But my emotions take control, and suddenly, I’m leaning down and kissing him.

It’s a mistake. I know it immediately. Because the moment our lips meet, I can’t stop. The kiss isn’t gentle. It’s hungry, desperate, filled with the wild energy still coursing through my veins. His hands come up to tangle in my hair, holding me close, and when he nips at my bottom lip, I moan.

He rolls us, pine needles and earth soft beneath my back, his weight pressing me down. I should feel trapped, but I don’t. If anything, I’m grounded, kept from floating away on this tide of impossible sensation. He kisses like he’s trying to devour me, and the wolf inside me purrs its approval.

I try to flip us back, to take control, but his hand catches my wrists, pinning them above my head.

“So that’s how this is?” I gasp against his mouth, testing his grip just to determine how easily he holds me.

“Problem?” His teeth find my pulse point, and I arch beneath him, a whimper escaping that I’ll deny later.

“I don’t submit.”

“You did earlier. Sat so pretty when I told you to.” His free hand traces down my side, leaving trails of fire in its wake.

“That was different. That was—” I lose my train of thought as he does something with his tongue on my neck that shorts out my brain. “Not fair. Nothing about this is fair.”

He pulls back off me just enough to look at me, and with the heat in his eyes, I’m squirming. “Give me a moment.”

The loss of his warmth leaves me whimpering. But he’s only gone for a second, shrugging off his jacket. It’s thick and oversized, and he lays it out on the ground beside us.

“Come here,” he states, patting the makeshift blanket. It’s not quite a command, but there’s something in his voice that has me moving before I even think to resist.

I crawl to the makeshift blanket, hyperaware of his eyes tracking my naked body. “You’re playing with fire,” I warn him as he unbuttons his shirt and takes it off, laying it on the ground for more coverage. Then he moves to join me.

“Maybe I like the burn.” His hand cups my face, thumb tracing my cheekbone with unexpected gentleness. “And you’re shaking.”

“I just turned into a wolf. I think I’m entitled to some trembling.”

“Fair point.” He pulls me against him, both of us on our knees. The skin-to-skin contact makes us inhale sharply. “Better?”

The moonlight catches the sweat on his skin, highlighting every line of muscle. The wolf in my head is pushing me toward something primal and dangerous.

“This isn’t like me at all,” I whisper. “I don’t do this… I’ve never…”

“Yet you can’t keep your hands off me,” he teases. His fingers trace my jaw, tilting my face up to meet his gaze. “The wolf thinks you belong to me.”

His admission empties my mind of thought or a response.

“And the wolf wants me to devour you,” I tease.

“Then devour me.” He shifts, rising to his feet, hands moving to his belt. The sound of leather sliding through loops is impossibly loud in the quiet forest. “Show me that hunger you’re fighting so hard to control.”

My breath catches as he towers over me where I kneel. The power dynamic changes as I glance up at him.

One hand tangles in my hair, not pulling, just holding. “Scared?”

“Excited,” I correct, and my voice comes out breathy, nothing like my usual sarcasm. “The wolf… she wants things. Dark things. Things I’ve never wanted before.”

“Tell me.” His thumb traces my bottom lip, and I catch it between my teeth, biting gently. His breath hitches. “Tell me what you want.”

“To taste you,” I whisper. “To mark you. To make you lose that perfect control you’re holding on to so tightly.”

He laughs, low and dangerous. “You think I’m in control right now?”

“Aren’t you always?”

“No.” His hand tightens in my hair, and I gasp at the sensation. “Not with you. Never with you. You undo me, Erynn. Make me want things I shouldn’t want.”

“Like what?”

“Like keeping you here, on your knees, looking at me like I’m something you want to consume.” His voice drops to a growl that makes the wolf in my head purr. “Like letting you…”