Page 2 of It's Kind of a Bunny Story
“Yes?” he whispered.
“What if their alpha ordered them to”—I hesitated, my cheeks burning—“to mate with me. We both know that they’ll struggle to resist me once they catch the scent of my heat. And it will be too late to warn them by the moment they lick my skin. I don’t want to take their right to choose away, which is what will happen if they come in here before I warn them.”
A wolf howled in the distance. It was answered a heartbeat later by a second wolf. Their long, eerie calls had my cottontail puckering. These wolves were on our side, but they were predators, and I was prey. There was no way to ignore those facts or my body’s instinctual reaction.
Fletcher shifted positions until he could stretch out beside me. We were close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his fully clothed body.
What would it feel like to press myself against him?Would he push me away?
“Stop those thoughts right now. You’re overthinking this and taking on guilt you don’t need to feel.” Fletcher rested his hand on my hip, giving me a playful shake. “They know. Monroe’s mate explained how things work for our kind. They understand the heat, the way females bond for life, your need to be kept safe from anyone who comes looking for you, and they agreed without hesitation. They were given a choice, and they both chose to come of their own free will. Got it?”
He knew the horror I’d feel if I survived my heat, only to discover I’d all but forced two men to take me as their mate.
It took some effort, but I managed to whisper a soft, “Yes.”
“Good.” His long sigh caused the stray hair around my face to tickle my cheek. “We did it. You’re safe, Charlee.”
He should have sounded happy, but he didn’t. Meeting his gaze, I saw the sadness pooling in their golden depths as he studied my face as though memorizing it for an exam.
Fletcher was leaving.
The ache in my chest had nothing to do with my heat and everything to do with the sudden terror I felt at never seeing him again.
Mine.Just because I wanted him to be mine, it didn’t make it so. But how could I let him go without telling him what he meant to me?
My heat became like a living thing, trying to burn my body from the inside out. There was no holding back the cry that was ripped from my chest as fresh agony tore through me. The pair of wolves howled, as though responding. They were closing the distance between us at an alarming pace.
“You’re burning up! Crap, crap, crap!” Fletcher sat up, eyes wide as his hands slid over my arms and shirt. “Is this normal? You’re completely soaked.”
Thanks to the accidental brush of his knuckles against my breasts, it wasn’t just my clothing that was soaked. I tried toswallow the whimper that bubbled from my throat, but when Fletcher’s hand moved down to my waist, I lost the battle. Unable to hide the raw lust pounding like a bass drum inside me, I moaned.
Moving fast, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine. Our lips met, and I poured all my emotion into the kiss, wanting him to realize the full depth of how I felt.
Despite the strength my desperation gave me, Fletcher could have easily pulled away. But he didn’t. He remained frozen for the span of several moments before his lips moved against mine.
“Don’t. Leave. Me,” I gasped between kisses.
Fletcher groaned, his muscles trembling. “That’s your heat talking.”
“You’re wrong,” I breathed. Shifting my hips slightly, I managed to wrap my legs around his waist and pull him tighter against me. “The heat is just giving me the courage to say what I want.”
My breath was coming in short, ragged pants. Between my rising temperature and the lightning-like zap of pain sizzling through my body, the room was beginning to spin. I pulled my lips from his and tried to draw in a deep breath.
Fletcher’s fingers dug into my hip, holding my squirming hips still. It wasn’t until he stopped me that I noticed his hard length pressed against me. Excitement and hope burst in my chest. He wanted me too.
Or was he just responding like any unmated shifter male would when a woman in heat threw herself at him?
“The plan was to help you escape so you could leave everything in your old life behind. That can’t happen if I stay.” Fletcher’s voice was rough, but I couldn’t tell if it was from emotion or the effort of restraining us. “I’m part of your past, Charlee.”
“The best part of my past. And yes, the heat is amplifying the raw lust I feel for you—” Bringing my gaze up to meet his, I dropped the walls I hid behind, allowing him to see the bare truth. “But I was already in love with you.”
Fletcher’s eyebrows drew together as he stared down at me. “You want me to stay?”
“Yes.” I worked to keep myself from curling into a ball as my insides twisted and burned.
The heat didn’t like being denied. Especially not with an able-bodied male between our legs and separated by nothing but a few scraps of fabric. But I didn’t want Fletcher to make his decision based on pity for my current predicament, so I bit down on my tongue to keep from crying out again.
“Oh, Charlee!” The exclamation tumbled from his lips on an exhale as he caught my face between his palms.
