~ JESSE ~ “Ready yourself,” he muttered, and his hand slipped around to tug at my pants. A bolt of fear shot through me right alongside the ache of desire I had been feeling. “Cazz, just—please explain—” my voice shook and my eyes blurred. I wanted him—had wanted him this whole time, that was why things had gone so wrong. But even though I could feel him through the bond, even though he’d protected me to get me away from the pack and in here, even though I could feel him yearning for me… something was off. “Lucky girl, when we’re finished, you’ll carry my mark,” he growled, popping the buttons of my leather pants, then plunging his hand between my legs. I shivered, heat and fear braiding together in a way that made my body shake and left me confused. “God willing, you’ll carry my mark, and my child.” He hadn’t blocked the bond, and through it I could tell that something about that statement touched a deep place in him, but he reacted like it struck a nerve. I felt him tense, then
~ JESSE ~ I thought they were just words. Just him asserting himself. That dominance thing he’d talked about. He was moving inside me more erratically, so I thought it was over. That he’d climax and this would be done. But the moment he said the word forever, my breath stopped. The skin under his hand, where his teeth had cut my flesh, flared bright and burning. And just as I began to cry out against the pain, it chilled to ice. Still fisting my hair in his other hand, Cazz dropped his face to the back of my neck and sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. Mine. I felt the word. Heard it in my head, though his lips didn’t move. And something inside me responded to it, a whip-crack of light and heat so bright it felt like it seared my heart. “Cazz!” I gasped, my fingers clawing into that bar. His hands tightened on me again, and there should have been pain, but all I could feel was that piercing right at the center of my chest—the light that seemed ready to swallow me whole. It was
~ JESSE ~ Some time later, the sound of the Den faded. And some time after that, his boots rang on hollow wood instead of dirt or stone. And then he was bending forward, lowering my feet to the floor. I gasped and clung to him, unable to explain why, but the thought of being separated from him was horrific. He still didn’t speak. But he caught my flailing hands and pulled them down, stroked my hair and waited. And when I opened my eyes, it was to find him watching me, his bright, arctic eyes ablaze. And his face a tense, expressionless mask. My heart thunked, falling for my toes, but Cazz didn’t hesitate. I felt his warm, calloused palms on my ribs as he slipped his hands under my shirt and pulled it gently up. Then he unbuttoned my leathers for the second time, and pushed them down my legs too—but he also knelt and slipped my shoes off my feet, then pulled the pants off until I stood in front of him naked. When he straightened to his full height, there was still no expression
~ CASIMIR (Earlier, in the room off the Den) ~ The moment my teeth sank into her flesh and I tasted her blood, the world shifted. I almost shifted. The part of me that was animal leaped for control, teeth snapping, body steel, all senses heightened and focused on only one goal. Her. For a time it seemed my body and mind were torn apart and I clung desperately to keep both as my body plunged into her, gripped her, took her… But my mind screamed—desperate need, fear, rage… I spent minutes fighting not to lose myself entirely. I fought for her—snarling at her to declare the sick truth of us—her power over me, mine over her, the ways that we were tied together, whether we wanted it that way or not. And then she said it, she gasped the truth that I was master to her slave, and power slammed through my body until I was clinging to her, not to keep her there, but clawing into her to ground myself, because I feared I was lost. In the wake of that stunning surge, amid her whimpers and
~ CASIMIR ~ There was a moment, a vision blooming in my mind of a different life—a different male. Given, peaceful, joyful… I could see myself as the mate and husband, the reluctant King. The delighted lover and mentor. Happy… and weak. Happy to be weak. Weak to her disapproval. Weak to the loss of her. Weak to her pain. I sucked in a sharp breath, fingers clawing into her hip, her legs, holding her tightly against my chest as if someone was about to rip her free. Then the terror rushed in on the back of the rest of that image: Me happy and weak, and failing. Impossible to lead the packs, to maintain my strength, to control anything if she held such power. Impossible. Utterly. Jesse made a small sound, as if she heard my thoughts, though I knew she couldn’t. Her arms tightened around my neck, her nose nuzzling under my jaw, and her body melted into mine. And then I heard them—the snarling and barking, the howls of distress and fury, the thuds and slams of heavy bodies in a last
~ JESSE ~ I woke the next morning and the first thing I was aware of was that parts of my body hurt. I opened my eyes, confused, then blinked and sat bolt upright. It took a moment to remember that the dark, masculine chamber was Cazz’s. I turned quickly, reaching out for the other side of the bed—but it was cold, the sheets and blankets undisturbed, and the pillowcase uncreased. A pang landed right in the pit of my stomach. When the door opened, I yanked the quilt up to my chest, but it was a female servant hustling in with her arms full of clothes. “Here you are, Sire,” she said, smiling, but keeping her eyes and chin low. “His Highness sent these for you. If you would like others, he’s instructed me to go get them for you.” She placed the bundle of clothes on the end of the bed, then folded her hands at her waist. “I’ll also bring your breakfast if you’ll tell me what you would prefer?” My head was spinning as I tried to remember everything that had happened the night before
~ JESSE ~With a soft growl, Rake turned and trotted back to the door, closing and locking it before he faced me again and started back, slower this time.“Jesse… talk to me,” he said quietly, soothingly. Like I was a scared little animal.“About what?” I laughed humorlessly.“What happened last night? I mean, I know what happened, but… how did it happen?”I blinked, frowning. “What do you mean, you know what happened?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.Rake turned his chin slightly away from me, but his eyes never left mine. “Cazz claimed you… didn’t he?”Relief rocked through me, and I nodded quickly to cover. “Yes. Yes, you’re right. He did. I just… I don’t understand exactly… exactly what happened. Or what it means.”“He didn’t tell you?”I was perilously close to tears, which I hated. This wasn’t how I lived! But something about Cazz had turned me into brittle glass. I felt like the wrong blow—even a soft one—would shatter me into too many pieces to ever hope to heal.I h
~ JESSE ~I huffed, pissed at myself because the threat of tears was back, just like that. Trying to take a grip on myself, I swallowed the pinch in my throat and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”“Of course it matters. You said you’re confused. That you think he’s left you—that seems unlikely to me. But… what happened? Perhaps it’s a difference between wolves and humans? Maybe I can shed some light?”“You already do, Rake,” I sighed and looked down at my lap, picking at the seam in the leather pants Cazz had sent for me.That should make me feel better, I realized. He’d been thinking about me needing clothes because I was in his room. That was a good sign, right?I turned my thoughts inward, towards that knot at the center of my chest. The piece of me that had been so open last night. So full of him until the end. I reached for it, stroking it’s surface, but recoiled.It was still cold.Dead.An emotionless wall.“I just… I don’t know what I did,” I breathed, cursing myself for the