Page 8 of Twist of Fated Mates
“Ran home. Attacked my pack. Not on purpose. I was out of my mind. Luckily, I was stopped before causing any real harm. A few sloppy bites, screaming, and wolves rushing in en masse to stop me. I’ll be grateful to those wolves until the end of my days. Er, nights now, I suppose. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d killed anyone.”
The horror is painted in his pained expression. My heart aches for him.
“Perhaps the silver lining is I barely remember that fight. It’s all a blur. I can share this part of the tale because they told me afterward. They contained me. Our alpha forced my shift, and though I was in no condition to explain myself, the transformation in my body was evident. I smell as I do now. Dead. My teeth are fangs, even in human form. My neck and wrists were covered in half-healed bite marks. They knew what fate had befallen me without me having to say it.
“Someone was sent to fetch me a goat, of which I have only choppy memories. But its blood brought me round enough to struggle again. To try to free myself, but in vain.” He wrings his hands.
I think of him bound and shiver at the awful image it conjures.
“For the first month, it went that way. Half-crazed, jailed, and fed a steady diet of animal blood. But it wasn’t enough. Never enough. Night by night, their surveillance grew lax, and I managed to escape. I had just enough sense to realize I was a danger to everyone and everything I’d ever loved, so I ran as far away as my paws would carry me. I ran blisters into my pads that night.”
I clench my feet in sympathy. “Ouch.”
“The pain didn’t matter. I heal even faster now. During the day, I slept in the earth and woke up with no wounds at all. As if the night before had never happened.
“Since then, I’ve gorged on the blood of animals. Slaughtered so many deer I lost count. A few bears. An elk or two. Wild boar. Anything to satisfy the demands of this greedy curse. I’ve become a menace to wildlife near and far.
“After a while drinking my fill each night, I came back to myself. And when I could think properly again, I mourned. I sobbed. I felt sorry for myself. And I walked. I’ve been walking ever since. Sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four. Endlesswalking.” He glances up, and our eyes lock. “Until I caught your scent.”
A warm tingle races up my spine. I affect him. Maybe not in the same way he affects me, but I matter to him. And more than anything in the world, he matters to me. We can work with that. We have to. “Thank the moon you stopped long enough for us to meet.”
“To meet, yes. But no more.”
“Nigel—”
“Charlie. I will leave after this. You’ll be much safer without me.”
My heart sinks. “I’ll be lost without you.”
Chapter Four
Nigel
“I mean it.So long as I’m here, you’re in danger. I’d never hurt you on purpose, but the thirst is maddening. It’s driven me out of my mind once before.” Telling the tale has served the memories up so ripe they’re bitter, tightening my throat. I squeeze the next words out anyway. “You should go before it happens again.”
Charlie sits forward in his chair and frowns. “But?—”
“No buts.” A clean break will be hard for both of us, but in the end, for the better. “I must insist.”
“In that case, so must I.” He’s over the table and half in my lap before I gather the wherewithal to resist. He slams his lips against mine, and I couldn’t resist if I wanted to. It’s too good. Too perfect. Too right.
All I want is more of him.
His mouth is hot and eager. I return the kiss, parting my lips for his tongue. He tastes of life, both sweet and savory at once, a decadent flavor all his own. I grip his waist as he cups the back of my neck and holds me still for his exploration.
I’m powerless in the heat of Charlie’s stolen kiss. All I can do is sink farther into his embrace and moan my pleasure. The sheet around him shifts and falls in heaps around his hips. His fire-warmed bare skin feels amazing beneath my questing fingers.
His heart beats like a drum, pounding my sensitive ears. I hear blood raging through his veins like a roaring river.
My fangs ache. My mouth waters. My thoughts blur around the edges.
The thirst crashes through me, tensing my muscles and stiffening my cock, where Charlie wriggles in my lap. I crave him. Everything he has to give and more. I crave what I shouldn’t. What he can’t live without. The very essence of his being.
When he runs his curious tongue carelessly over my razor-sharp teeth, a spark of pure ambrosia lights my taste buds like wildfire.
I lose control, whipping my head sideways and jerking out of his grasp. He spills to the floor in my rush to gain distance.
He gazes up at me, confusion warring with hurt in his sky-blue eyes.
