Page 23 of Brody
The matriarch lunged at me.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted a blur of midnight black explode from the tall grass with a roar that shook the ground beneath my feet.
The massive wolf, impossibly large and powerful, slammed into the matriarch hyena mid-leap with bone-crushing force.The sickening crack of her neck snapping echoed across the savanna as the other two spotted hyenas scattered and ran, yipping in terror.
I stared at the wolf standing over the dead matriarch, my mind struggling to process what I was seeing.This type of wolf didn’t exist in the Kenyan savanna.According to my zoological knowledge, no natural wolf species reached those proportions.He was the size of a small horse, with muscles rippling beneath his midnight fur.
The wolf turned toward me, and I found myself drowning in eyes that were far too intelligent, far too human.His scent hit me, sandalwood and citrus and something uniquely, devastatingly male.Something primal deep inside me started clawing at my consciousness.
He is our fated mate,my inner cheetah told me through our mental link.He is strong.Beautiful.Ours.She prowled restlessly beneath my skin, suddenly more vocal than she’d been in months.
The air around the wolf began to shimmer, reality bending as bones cracked and reformed.I watched, transfixed, as the wolf beast transformed into a man, completely naked and so devastatingly beautiful he made my mouth go dry.
Broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist.Powerful thighs.And a thick, erect cock that stretched up to his belly button.Every inch of him was perfection carved from muscle and golden skin, but it was his face that stole my breath, sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw, and eyes that seemed to see straight into my soul.
He inhaled loudly with nostrils flaring, and his entire body went rigid.His growl, a sound that was purely animal, rumbled from his broad chest.
“Fuck,” he said, the word torn from somewhere primal and raw.“You’re my fated mate.”
Yes,my cheetah said in my head.He will give us beautiful cubs.Claim him.
What the fuck?
Cubs?
We just met him thirty seconds ago.
Time means nothing,my cheetah replied with feline certainty.He is ours.We are his.This is the truth.
“There is a probability of zero for encountering one’s fated mate in a random location,” I said aloud.
“Apparently, fate doesn’t give a shit about probabilities,” he replied, moving toward me with predatory grace.
My pussy clenched and became wet with desire.His scent intensified, citrus, sandalwood, and something wild that made my knees weak.
“Jesus,” he breathed, his pupils dilating as he inhaled deeply.“I can smell your arousal.”
I lifted my chin defiantly, refused to be shamed.“You’re my fated mate.Biology doesn’t lie, even when it’s inconvenient.”
For a moment, I saw raw hunger flash across his features.His hand lifted toward my face, fingers trembling as they hovered inches from my cheek.I held my breath, waiting for him to ask to mate and claim me.
Finally, someone who saw me, accepted me, all of me.
Then something changed.Pain flashed across his features, so raw and sudden, it took my breath away.His eyes, which had been blazing with heat moments before, dimmed with what looked like fear.Loss.Something deeper that I couldn’t name.
His expression shuttered.He jerked back like I’d burned him.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, his voice cold and distant.“I won’t claim you.”
Ours, she snarled.Take what is ours.
The rejection hit me hard.Something fundamental cracked inside me, a breaking so profound I heard it like glass shattering within my soul.
I stared at him in shock, the rejection like a physical wound that stole my breath.Every shifter cub grew up on stories of fated mates.Finding your mate was supposed to be the moment everything finally made sense.
Not the moment everything imploded.
For a split second, I saw myself through his eyes, obviously unworthy, fundamentally unlovable.The revelation sank into my bones like poison.If my own fated mate, the one person written in my destiny since birth, could look at me and decide I wasn’t enough, what did that say about me?The question burned through my chest like acid, corroding everything it touched.
