Page 3 of Hunted Mate
“What you are investigating is unnatural and yes, unforgivable. This is your warning. Stop.”
“You mean wolf shifters?”
“I mean the cursed children of the wild,” he says.
“Wait, that’s what you call them? Cursed children of the wild? Unforgivable?” I go to my desk, pick up a pencil, and start making notes.
He is on me in a flash, snapping my pencil in half and throwing it on the floor.
“Throwing tantrums won’t stop me,” I say as he looms over my desk, his hands fisted on either side of it as he stares me down.
Again, he doesn’t say anything.
“I might take you seriously if you weren’t wearing that stupid Halloween mask,” I add, my temper flaring as he continues to say nothing at all. “I’m not afraid of you. And I’m not amused by all these stupid pranks. Nobody here might be taking this seriously, but I am.”
“I’m taking this very seriously,” he says. “More than you know. That’s why I am telling you to let this go. Stop thinking about it. Stop investigating it. Stop trying to find information.You’re going to get yourself killed.”
He says the part about getting myself killed in a deep growl that makes fear run through me in a horrible trickle. He wants me to feel threatened, and I do.
I back up toward the door, but he’s faster than me. A lot faster. He reaches the door before I do and closes it without slamming it somehow. His speed, strength, and careful coordination are impressive.
I’m trapped in the basement with a massive man in a wolf mask, who is trying his level best to fucking scare the hell out of me.
“Tell me you are going to stop this investigation,” he says, closing the distance again, making me back up against the door. I could scream.
“Or what?”
It’s not the smartest thing to say, but it is the first thing I think of. I don’t like being treated as if I deserve to be afraid. I don’t like to be scared. I don’t like to be told what to do.
“Or I will make you.”
“You can’t make me.”
He’s so close now I can smell him. Rough. Male. Animal. No deodorant and cologne, but bracken and pine and woods. He smells like the outdoors. He smells like the wild.
He lowers his head toward me, and puts his lips to my ear. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to whip your ass and fuck your pussy. If you don’t want me to do that, all you have to do is agree to look into something else. Anything else.”
I take a deep breath and try not to show how much that threat affects me. It’s not just the hair on the back of my neck that is standing up. Every bit of chemistry inside me is being unleashed at once. Adrenaline and more disturbing—arousal.
He takes a deep breath, and when he next speaks, I hear a smile in his voice. A deep rough growling voice that is throatier than ever.
“You like that, don’t you? The idea of being taken, here in the dark, vulnerable to a creature, a man you don’t really know, but who your body already senses it belongs to?”
He runs his hand down the side of my body, his palm brushing the side of my breast then going lower still to find the curve of my hip. That’s where his hand settles, where he grips me and pulls my hips forward hard against his pelvis. I feel the ridge at the front of his jeans, that rock-hard promise to carry out everything he just told me about. I feel my clit tingle as I shift slightly and the friction between us sends bolts of pleasure through me.
I’ve never been with a man. I don’t really like them that much. They tend to be smug and… fuck, I can’t even think about all the reasons I don’t like them right now because my body is telling me that I like this one very much.
“You don’t scare me with your sex threats,” I tell him.
“They’re not threats. They’re promises. I can smell you. You’ve been wet since you bumped into me. And now you’re practically begging me to fuck you.”
“I am not.”
He reaches down between us and runs his hand between my legs, pressing his fingers against my pussy through the slick fabric of my underwear. Why did I wear a skirt today? I’ve made his access so easy.
I should resist, tell him no, but I can’t make myself do it. I am wet. He was right. My body is hot for him and there’s no avoiding it.
He grips the whole front of my panty-clad pussy, fisting my underwear away and to the side. I feel my wetness clinging to the gusset, but he easily bares my pussy.
