Page 12 of Triumph of the Wolf
I shook my head bleakly, wanting to deny that the end neared, that nothing could be done, but we both knew the truth.
“You will take this now,” Mom said, “so there is no dispute after my passing.”
I knew she’d wanted me to have it, but with the moment upon me, my first instinct was to reject the medallion. I had half-siblings with as much right to anything of Mom’s as I had.Moreright. They hadn’t forsaken their heritage and cut off ties to the pack for years.
“You are the strongest of my offspring.” Mom gazed intently at me. “That is why you will take it. It is not about who is most deserving or who did the most for the family over the course oftheir lives. It is about what is best for the pack. That is the way of the wolf. You have the strength and power to protect the pack, to ensure its continued existence in this era of waning magic and pressure from the outside world, from humanity ever imposing itself on our territory.” She looked at Duncan, who’d retreated to the doorway, and then back at me. “I trust you will find a suitable alpha male to help lead the pack.”
“You make it sound like the female is in charge of all that,” I said.
Everyone knew it was the alphamalewho led.
Mom managed a smirk and looked out the window. The back of Lorenzo’s shoulder was in view as he stood as a silent protector on the porch.
“The male is usually the strongest and a great hunter,” Mom said, “but we all know the female cares the most about the welfare of the pack, of ensuring birthrates remain suitable and doing everything possible to survive in the modern era, to retain our heritage. Also, the magic has chosen. Do not forget that. The medallion responds to you.” She held it out, inviting me to take it.
All it had ever done was glow a little when I touched it, but I accepted that it didn’t do even that for others.
Though I wanted to deny the gift, since it meant Mom believed her end near, I lifted a hand to accept it. Warmth thrummed from the wolf-head medallion as my fingers wrapped around it, and its glow intensified, almost blindingly so. Power flowed from it and into my body, invigorating me, making me long to change into the wolf and go hunt. Or to join the others in chasing away those who trespassed, who threatened the pack.
“I knew it would respond more strongly once that dreadful potion was out of your system,” Mom murmured, sounding satisfied. “Put it on.”
Yes, the medallion wanted that. I could feel it in the magic infusing me.
Though I couldn’t understand why I deserved its interest, it gave me the sense that it had been waiting for me to wear it. To wield its power.
I unclasped the fastener and lifted it toward my neck but paused, sensing that Duncan had moved behind me.
“Allow me,” he said in a husky voice that surprised me.
The glow had faded enough that I could see his face when I looked back, his eyes intense as they met mine. Intense and hungry. His own medallion glowed enough to bathe his features in its warm light, to reveal his parted lips, lips on the verge of kissing me. Or… devouring me? His aura crackled in the air around him, the magic brushing my skin, sending a hot tingle through me though he hadn’t yet touched me. Heat flushed my body, making my core tighten in anticipation of?—
Of what? We were in my mother’s bedroom.
“Are you drawn because of the medallion?” I whispered, thinking if I pointed that out he would realize it was influencing him and be less affected.
“I am drawn for many reasons.” Duncan took the ends of the chain, brushing the back of my neck as he fastened them.
Another hot tingle swept through me. His fingers lingered, and he stroked my neck, brushing his nails along my skin and up to rub my scalp.
Such desire scorched my nerves that it was all I could do not to turn around and throw myself upon him. My entire body hummed with heat and with need.
But I hadn’t forgotten where we were, and I looked toward my mother. She was watching intently. Wanting us to mate? To give her the werewolf offspring she craved?
Yes, I knew with certainty that she wanted that. Maybe she’d even known the medallion would increase my allure to Duncan,or whatever it was doing. This wasn’t the first time I’d held it, even worn it in his presence, but it was the first time I’d done so while he was wearing its match.
Since the artifacts had historically belonged to the male and female alphas of the pack, it shouldn’t have surprised me that their power might seek to mingle, to bind their wearers together. But I didn’t want to have sex with Duncan because magical necklaces were coercing us into it. He couldn’t want that either. He had to be tired of beingcoercedby magical devices.
“We need to go,” I whispered harshly and slipped away from his fingers.
I swept out of the room, almost running. I didn’t intend to give in to my mother’s manipulation or that of the medallions either.
Duncan caught me before I reached the front door, his arm wrapping around my waist and halting me. Powerful and irresistible, he pulled me back against him, his muscled chest against my back.
“Luna,” he growled, lust radiating off him.
My body responded in kind. Instead of trying to pull away, it pushed back into him, images flooding my mind of Duncan tearing off my clothes and taking me against the log wall of the cabin. I envisioned screaming and howling with intense pleasure as he plunged into me.
One of his hands cupped my breast, thumb brushing my nipple through my shirt, and such scorching desire flooded me that I groaned. Damn the magic, I couldn’t resist this. Couldn’t resisthim.
