Page 28 of Forbidden Wolf

He walked me a step at a time back into the cave. “You will sit your sexy little vamp ass down and rest. When you’re not as snarky, we’ll talk about what’s happening.”

A mutiny bubbled up inside me, my back straightening, and my head lifting in defiance. “Get your hands off me so I can leave.”

He backed me against the wall, his body forming a barrier in front of me. Amber flashed in his eyes again.

“Make me,” he said.

May the dark gods help me, but I didn’t know whether I wanted to kiss him or kick him. The boy had enthralled me, but the man that stood here was an enigma that sent my blood pounding in my veins. I pushed against his chest to try and free myself.

His hand wrapped around my throat to tilt my head up.

“Don’t push me, Tasha.” His voice was deep and husky with tinges of his wolf emerging.

My hand landed on the centre of his chest and I pushed. It was childish and I knew he didn’t mean physically but none of that mattered in my head.

“You are driving me batshitcrazy,” he muttered before his mouth landed on mine.

Gone were the tentative kisses and in their place was a man who knew exactly what he wanted and took it. I moaned when his tongue forced its way into my mouth to take control. He shattered my fantasy in a different way, removing the rose-tinted glasses of first love. His kisses had changed and that only came from experience. It was stupid but, in my head, he’d remained faithful to me as I had to him. I’d attempted to kiss other men to try and fit in. When they’d insisted on a relationship, I always found an excuse to escape before it progressed beyond the kiss that felt wrong as if I was defiling a sacred memory.

I pushed against his chest with both hands, and he grunted and stepped back. My hand slapped his cheek. My heart fractured inside my chest at the thought of him with someone else. Every day I’d struggled to survive because I had a goal, somewhere I needed to be at a certain point in the future. I needed to escape and sped to the mouth of the cave.

He grabbed me at the edge of the entrance, spinning me to face him. “What the fuck, Tasha?”

The rational part of my mind knew I was being silly, since we’d both promised each other that whatever happened in those twenty years wouldn’t matter. But I was exhausted and irrational, and Levi had been mine. The thought of him being with anyone else left a burning trail of nausea up my throat.

“Just stop.” I raised my hand in front of me, all the fight leaching out of me. “I believed what we had was special. Apparently not.”

There was nothing more to say. I took the opportunity of him staring at me, his mouth hanging open, to storm past him outside. The sun prickled my skin as I lowered myself away from the cave.

Sweat beaded on my forehead and trickled down my back.

“Tasha!”

I refused to look back because I’d spent the past ten years doing that.

A muttered curse beside me alerted me to Levi’s presence.

“The sun…” He grabbed me and swung me over his shoulder. “You need to get back in the cave before you burn.”

I wiggled my hips to try and spin around to tell him not to bother, but his hand landed on my ass and every muscle in my body stilled at the feel of it there. The skin-tight pants covering me did nothing to prevent me counting every one of his fingers pressed against me. Why did no one else make me feel the way he did?

Ten years and not one man made me burn like Levi the boy did, but the body that I was currently hanging over was no longer a boy. My cheek rubbed against the bunched muscles on his back. I bit my lip to stop myself from tasting him.

“Fuck, Tasha…” He deposited me on the ground in the cool cave, his eyes flashing amber and his canines descending.

Suddenly I was aware of the danger I was in. This man was no longer Levi the boy with sweet words and loving caresses. He was an extremely pissed off alpha wolf who was glaring at me as if determining how he should punish me.

My eyes shifted to the opening at the front of the cave.

“Final warning, Tasha.” His voice emerged low and husky, a threat lacing his words.

My heart pounded. The biggest predator I had ever faced was currently in this cave that now felt tiny with his size looming over me. Levi’s muscles were bunched and ready to pounce. There was no way I could make it to the only exit before he attacked me.

***

Tasha

Levi was an arrogant, egotistical asshole. Defiance burned deep in my belly as he glared at me like I’d lost control of my faculties. He needed to back the hell up and give me some space before I freaked out.

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