Page 33 of Wolf's Redemption

She gulped the sweet liquid down. “Mmhmm. I know the feeling.”

Ulrik took the phone from her hands, his brow furrowed. He turned it over, running his fingers over it and tracing the cracks on the screen as though deciphering it might help him come to grips with how she’d come to be here.

“How does it work? How do you make the light shine?”

She shook her head. “You can’t. The battery’s flat. That’s why the light went out in the dungeon. Without my charger…”

Bek frowned. How did one explain the concept of electricity and power sockets to a man who lived in a world where they cooked food over a fire? Where the sun and candles were the only sources of light, and the only modes of transport were on foot or horseback.

“It needs a power source. It’s useless to me now, but essentially I could…connect with anyone who had one of these, as long as I knew the right set of numbers linked to their device. If they had their device turned on. Then I could talk to them, even if they were all the way back at the keep.”

He nodded, still staring at her phone. What did he make of it all? He seemed to be taking it in his stride. Then again, he had a magical amulet. That couldn’t be bog standard. She doubted every knight in the tenth century was wandering around with one. She eyed him, running her gaze over him from head to toe. So what made him so special?Apart from the obvious.

Ulrik handed her phone back and reached for the wineskin. He took a long drink and stared into the fire. He passed it back to her. Bek took a sip. It had been one of those days. One of those weeks, and it didn’t look as though things were going to get any easier. Chances were, if she was going to figure this out, they were going to need a shit load more wine.

Chapter Fifteen

They sat in companionable silence, eating the first proper meal Ulrik had had in weeks. He should be savoring it, but he chewed with nary a thought, barely registering the tender flesh or the smoky flavor of the meat, so aware was he of the woman beside him. Watching her take delicate bites of hare and licking her fingers with a swish of pink tongue had aroused a hunger in him for something other than food.

He got to his feet, the flare of desire in her eyes as she caught sight of his cock straining at his breeches highly satisfying. He restrained the urge to pull her into his arms, the hint of her need rich and thick in the air. His body hummed with heat and his wolf prowled close. He had never been one to control his impulses, much to Gaharet and the pack’s obvious disapproval. He did now.

Who knew how wide a circle Lothair would cast with the keep guard to recapture him. And they were still too close to the Vautour estate for his liking. When Rebekah gave herself to him, and he did not doubt she would, he wanted to give her his full attention, and he wanted plenty of time. A rushed coupling, with his senses focused on the surrounding forest, was not what he had in mind.

Anticipation for the moment he would have her beneath him, his hands cupped around those voluptuous breasts, his hips between her luscious thighs, welled up within him and stole the breath from his lungs. When he took her, had her screaming hisname as he brought her to release, the passion between them promised to burn hotter than any fire.

The feeling washed over him and he embraced it. His wolf panted within his mind, eager and hungry, all its enhanced senses fixed on her. It heightened the tension in his body, keeping him on the knife’s edge of control. It was not an entirely unpleasant sensation.Surprising. He had never thought he would enjoy delayed gratification. It certainly wasn’t what he was used to. Women never said no to him. Never made him wait, and he never had to pursue them. Perhaps that was what he had been missing. The chase. After all, he was a predator.

Ulrik kicked dirt onto the fire, putting it out. They had to keep walking. The light of a fire at night could be seen for leagues, and his fellow werewolves would catch the scent of smoke and cooked hare easily. It would be sure to draw them in. He had only lit it to cook the hares. In his wolf form, he would have eaten the hares raw, and not bothered with skinning, gutting, or cooking them. Not so Rebekah.

Rebekah from the twenty-first century. More than athousandyears into his future. It astounded him, confounded him. For one who could shed his clothes and shift his human body into another form, there was not much that surprised him. She had.

Now she sat there, blinking and waiting for her eyes to adjust. No demands he keep the fire lit, and no hysterics at being plunged into darkness. For all her concerns about her lack of intelligence, the woman was smart. And brave.

“I know you are tired, Rebekah, but we must continue on for at least another few hours. We need to put as much distance between ourselves and the remains of our fire as we can.”

She got to her feet. Ulrik slung the sack over one shoulder and set the wineskin over hers. She flinched at his touch but did not move away.

“Okay. I understand.” She held her hand out toward the forest. “Lead the way.”

Instead, he took her hand in his. Without his enhanced vison, even with the light of the moon flickering through the leafy canopy, she would have difficulty seeing. “I will guide you.”

Before she could protest, or think to pull her hand from his, he set off walking, giving her no choice but to follow.

* * * *

It was but a few hours before dawn when he stopped again. Rebekah’s feet were dragging, and he was all but pulling her along with him.

“I think it is safe enough now for us to stop for a few hours’ rest.”

He let go of her hand and she slumped to the ground. She was exhausted, but she had not complained, nor demanded they stop. Not once. A woman out in the world alone, without the support of her family, would be no stranger to hardship.

Dropping the sack, he removed his surcoat and laid it out on the ground. It was not much, but it would provide some comfort against the cold earth. With the rope in his hand, he approached her and looped it around her waist.

She backed away from him. “What? No. You’re not seriously thinking of tying me to a tree again, are you?”

She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

“No. I am not tying you to a tree.” He tugged on the rope, pulling her against him and leaned close to her ear. “I am tying you to me.”

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