Page 30 of Purchased

I don’t dare ask, so I stay wondering.

What I do now know is that this is what the mate bond feels like. It feels like being tied to him by a hundred invisible threads that are strummed by a look, a word, even distance itself. I feel the connection to him as strongly as I have felt anything ever.

“This is usually when a female wolf would experience her first transformation into her wolf self,” Armand says, his silver eyes regarding me with that half-confused, half-hurt stare he thinks he has managed to hide from me.

I don’t know why men have to ruin things by opening their mouths, but the spell is broken by that comment. My ability to shift on my own terms seems to concern him a whole lot. He’s jealous of the other men, men who don’t exist, but he supposes must do.

I do not want to have the conversation he is angling for. I have no strength for it, and I am annoyed by the necessity of it. I found my way to my wolf without a man’s cock being involved—directly, at least. I could tell him that, but I don’t think he would believe me.

He wants me to shift because of the magic effects of his cock? Not out of my own desire to take the form, but because he drives me so wild as the animal I am? It will make him feel powerful for me to lose control of my form? I can do that if that’s what’s necessary. This pretty palace could use some messing up anyway.

I take my wolf form, sliding into it smoothly and effortlessly because it is more me than my human self. Sometimes I feel as though my human form is the pretense, the mask I wear so ordinary people don’t kill me on sight. My instincts are animal, my desires are animal, and right now, I am entirely animal.

The first thing I do in my much more powerful state is burst through the bedroom door. It is a heavy oak construction, but it comes off its hinges the same way any run of the mill door would.

“Beatrix!”

I hear him shout for me, but I am already gone, laughing inwardly in my animal self, thrilling to the freedom of being the menace I am. Things fly in my wake as I dash through the halls, not entirely knowing where I am going, but having the sense that the exit is out and down. My paws slide here and there on marble floors, and I find the remnants of my human mind wondering why the fucking hell a wolf shifter clan would live in a palace with no traction on the floor.

I slip and slide toward the front door, a big shaggy thing with little control over my trajectory, collecting a runner along the way that has a table set on it with all sorts of things that crash and clang as they fall everywhere.

And then I am out.

Under the sun this time, running at full speed with all the joy that entails.

He is giving chase, I know that, but I am not really running from him. I am running for myself, for the feeling of freedom, and for the joy of using my body for what it was used for. The few times I shifted at the orphanage, I had to sneak out a very long way and hide clothes, and it felt very dangerous. I worried I wouldn’t be able to keep my wolf form long enough. There were a few times that I couldn’t. I lost it miles from where I started, away from my clothes, and had to sneak through the countryside entirely naked and absolutely exhausted. Taking an animal form uses a lot of energy.

I am burning a hell of a lot of energy now. Running at full speed is thrilling, but draining, and I shifted not twelve hours ago, so in some respects I am on fumes. I guess I just have my new mate’s magic cock to thank for the energy I have now.

I turn my head enough to see behind me. Last time he came after me with a pack. This time it is just him. He is racing after me, his mouth open, tongue lolling in the effort to keep him cool as he sprints after me.

In human forms, a female is slower than a male over shorter differences, though not over longer ones. Women have always known how to endure. I don’t know if males are faster than females in wolf form. I never raced one before. I suppose I’ll find out.

* * *

Armand

I let her run.

I let her run because I want her tired out and calm later on tonight. I would rather have her falling asleep in the soup course than have this amount of energy when encountering the senior members of the pack in this state.

She is truly a handful, an absolute terror, I imagine, if not given the necessary attention. I can see why the director of the orphanage said she was going to be trouble. I have not been able to take my eyes off her since I bought her.

I don’t mind that. She’s worth the trouble. The moment I entered her body and felt her soul trysting with mine, I knew that she truly belonged to me, that she was not merely made for me, but a part of me.

This wild, rebellious little female is part of my wholeness. I won’t ever be able to change her nature, but I might come to know myself through it.

So I let her run. I let her run because she needs this, and because I need it too. I need to feel her glee through the mate bond, her excitement and her true joy at being able to be herself with me. I also don’t want to panic her and send her into a blind sprint. There are a lot of cliffs around here that a hapless young wolf could tumble from.

Fortunately, she runs toward the lake, where willows line the shores. There she slows and sniffs at the edges, scenting deer and other little creatures, and enjoying the sun filtering through the willow trees. She laps at the pristine waters then lies down in a patch of half-sun, half-shade, waiting for me to catch up.

When I arrive, I do not take my human form, as she does not take hers. I stay in my speechless animal self and I lie down beside her, nuzzling under her chin.

I want her to know that she is accepted with me. I want her to know she is safe with me. And I want her to know that being the wild thing she is will never lead me to reject her in the way she has been rejected and punished before.

There are expectations for my mate. The pack and my parents, when they finally meet her, will want a well-bred young virgin with good manners and a pleasant demeanor. Someone soft and nurturing who will provide the pack with new alpha pups and an heir.

Beatrix is not ready for that responsibility. She has no idea of the weight on her shoulders, or how much scandal is potentially yet to be uncovered if something has in fact happened between her and another wolf before our meeting.

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