Page 4 of Scarlett's Wicked Wolf
And then I hear the whispers drifting through the trees, through my veins, through my wound. Words I don’t understand in a language older than anything I’ve studied. They pulse with my heartbeat—shame and longing, fear and want—braiding into something that feels like…yes.
The heat in my belly is doused by the ice filling my veins. Cold. I’m so cold. The world tilts and blurs at the edges. This is it. This is how I die.
The forest darkens around me like an omen, as if a part of meknows: this isn’t just a wolf.
This is the destiny my dreams forewarned me of. Something ancient and instinctive stirs inside me.
I reach up, weakly grasping at his fur. “Please,” I whisper, unsure what I’m asking for. Help? Mercy? Him?
The wolf’s amber eyes lock onto mine again, and I imagine I see an apology in those golden depths. But why would this huge wolf be sorry?
He leans down, nuzzles my neck… and bites.
“Oh!” I gasp, suddenly understanding his remorse.
But his bite doesn’t cause me pain. It’s deliberate.Measured. His teeth pierce just deep enough, and then?—
Magic.
It explodes through me like wildfire.
I cry out, arching as a rush of ancient power surges through my veins. My blood stills, and somethingsnapsinto place between us. A tether. A thread. A bond. My chest is tight. My skin feels hot and cold at once. My thighs squeeze together on instinct.
The wolf growls, and I swear I hear something in that sound. Not a threat. A promise. It rolls through the ground and into my spine.
Mine.
I feel it deep in my gut, in my bones, between my legs, where an ache has been living for weeks.
My eyes flutter closed as the wolf’s deep, protective growl vibrates in and around me, and the world dissolves.
Chapter 2
Reid
She moves beneath me, but not in pain. At least… I don’t think it’s pain. It looks more like… pleasure.
Her hands grip me, but not to push me away. No, she clings to me, her mouth parted, her breath ragged. Her body writhes. Her scent—Gods, herscent—overwhelms every shred of logic I have left. Orange blossoms and forest magic, tangled with a pheromone so potent it sets fire to both the man and the beast inside me.
She smells like destiny. Like mine.
And I don’t stop.
I press closer. Teeth scraping skin. Heat, salt, copper.
Her blood?—
I jolt awake, gasping, my cock swollen and throbbing, electricity snarling through my veins.
Cold stone bites into my bare skin. I’m sprawled in the shadows of the cave, my sanctuary when the wolf inside me takes over.But I’m not alone. Notreally. The bond hums inside me like a second heartbeat.
And my hands…
They’re stained dark. Dried blood crusts my knuckles, my wrists, the edge of my jaw. My lips feel sticky.
No.
Not hers.
