Page 16 of Purchased

She is tagged with a quick nip on the back rear leg by Daniel, and then on the right by Marcel. They drop back as she slows, a limp in her gait that will only worsen with time.

Ordinarily, anybody who hurt my mate in any way would die, but those rules, like so many others are suspended right now. They are all extensions of me, doing my bidding. The alpha’s mate does not merely belong to the alpha, she belongs to the pack.

These methods might seem cruel, but she could stop. It will all end once she is no longer running. Until then, she is a fleeing creature attracting the relentless pursuit of a pack.

Stop.I will her silently, as she keeps running on pained legs.

Stop, I snarl, though it does nothing to stop her.

If I want her to stop, I have to make her stop. This needs to end, before my pack takes her apart one nip at a time for the sin of insolence. I surge forward, taking the lead again. This time, I am prepared to use the last reserves of my energy. I have caught up with her. I have run her ragged and now…

I do not grab a limb; I draw even with her and nudge a front leg with my nose. She does not have the energy to right herself, so instead she gives into gravity, stumbling, rolling. I am right there on top of her, teeth fastened on the back of her neck, forcing her down to the ground, biting hard enough to slice through her resolve.

The message is clear.

She will drop the wolf form, or she will suffer.

She chooses to suffer.

I hear her yelp beneath my teeth. I feel them puncture the thickness of her hide.

I should have known better. I know very little of her, but I do know that she is stubborn. I know that she has remained herself even though she has been roundly punished and rejected for it. Force is not the answer. It will never be the answer.

I release my jaws before blood taints my teeth, and I lick the place I bit, her fur gorgeous beneath my tongue. I groom my mate, making what was hurt feel better.

She is panting beneath me, her ribcage rising and falling with the effort of exercise. I wonder if she will faint, if she is so drained by all this chaos and fear that she can no longer retain consciousness. It happens quite often when a young wolf overextends themselves. There is a limit to what they can stand. The body can draw more energy than it should, pull from reserves that should never be tapped, and the result is exhaustion that lasts days.

In the end, that is what gets her. Not a lack of strength, but a lack of fuel.

The wolf form fades, leaving a naked young woman under me. She is thinner than she should be. I see ribs and I see sores. I see bruises that did not come from me, or from this rough round. I see softness too, curves and swells, and beauty in the raw, but it will take more careful tending than this to draw it out.

Almost immediately, she starts to struggle, both for consciousness and against me. She pushes against my pelted chest and I too shift, taking my human form. I need to be able to speak to her.

She needs to be able to argue with me.

* * *

Beatrix

“Let me go.”

“Never.”

He snarls the word, looking down at me with eyes the color of the moon. There is a fury in him that was not there before. He has taken my running rather badly. They always do. When they think I’m sweet and broken and helpless, a baby bird to be nursed back to health, that is when they are sympathetic. But now he has seen me in my strength, I am feeling him in his.

I want to bite him, but he keeps me pinned in the dirt, covering my body with his own. His chest is rough with hair even in human form. The night air is cold, the ground is wet, but he is hot against me. Not just warm, but practically a furnace.

“You want to get up?”

I don’t, actually. I want to stay here for as long as I possibly can. Under the stars, surrounded by wolves, beneath the body of one who hunted me down. This is what I have dreamed of my entire life. I have been a wolf without a pack, a waif without a home.

And now he is over me, making me submit, ensuring that I know I am his.

It’s terrifying, and it is everything I have ever wanted.

I want to run, but I can’t. He won’t let me. There is no way of getting up or getting out unless he lets me.

The way his eyes burn into me makes me feel as though I am pinned to the ground by a look alone, pure silver, anathema to a werewolf, somehow contained inside him.

---