~ CARA ~I wasn’t sure what Rig had in mind for the night, but I put all the effort in—showering and blow-drying my hair, wearing some makeup, though I couldn’t make myself look the way Natalie had. I did have a figure-hugging black dress she’d insisted on putting in my bags, though. Even though it looked a lot more like her style than mine, I decided to wear it. I was sure Rig would like it since the neckline plunged between my modest breasts, and dipped at the back all the way to the hollow of my spine.Besides, I doubted I’d have it on for long.It took me almost two hours to get ready, and I was surprised how shaky I felt at the end of it, after not seeing Rig for that long. We were supposed to be doing this to make the most of our time together, and I was suddenly a little panicked abou

~ RIG ~I shook with need, my hands trembling worse than a middle-schooler getting his first kiss. Cara, so fucking stunning in that dress, was even more incredible to look at naked in the water, her skin glowing under lights in the blue water, her nipples high and hard, darker that the rest of her. I’d rested her neck back on the padded edge of the pool, and it arched her back, her throat bare, her lower back hollowed, knees wide because I was pressed between her thighs.We kissed. Oh, how we kissed.Had I known before her that a kiss could carry so much, be so sacred, I would never have given my lips to another soul before her.I kissed her, she kissed me. And it was as if our souls reached through the damp, breathless heat to twine again.  

~ CARA ~My body was still thrumming, I was still trying to catch my breath, still wallowing in Rig—still held in his arms and that hot water and…But the look on his face, the sudden stress—followed immediately by the tension in his jaw and hardening of his expression. I could feel him become resolute.“Rig, you don’t have to—”“Yes, I do. I really do, Cara. He knows now. If I don’t challenge him, it will be as if I’m scared of him and it’ll weaken my power against my father.”“How? If they don’t even know?”“It’s not that. A wolf’s power is… I don’t kn

SOUNDTRACK: “I Guess I’m in Love” by Clinton Kane.*****~ MACK ~It took us hours to get back to the cabin, circling and testing, making certain we weren’t followed. A part of me had been pissed that Rig would even think he needed to warn us, but then I realized I would have done the same thing.This whole situation was fucked.Natalie was next to me in the car, her hands tight in her lap, her face pale.She was blaming herself.We’d opened a door with this rogue pack, and now she felt like it was her fault that it wasn’t going down the way we wanted it to.“I really

~ NATALIE ~Those scattered tines of hair that were just a touch too long at the front, fell over his eyes and I combed them back with my fingers, while I stroked his chest and arms with my other hand, waiting for him to be ready.But to my surprise, he didn’t groan and press me into the mattress, but sat back on his heels between my bent knees, his hands roaming every inch of my chest, stomach, legs as he followed their progress with his eyes.‘You’re so fucking beautiful, Natalie.’ And his eyes told the story and that it was truth. He was drinking in the sight of me, praising me with his gaze.‘Come closer,’ I urged him, reaching for him. B