Page 13 of Rituals & Runes

I squeezed against the door behind me as if making myself smaller would help my cause and contemplated bolting again though I had no idea where to go.

Behind me, someone opened the entrance.

“Close the damn, door,” Ryker shouted.

I bolted through and yelped as they pulled it shut, closing it onto my ribs. I squeezed and popped out the other side.

Ryker cursed. “Didn’t you get the message we needed to secure all exits?”

As I rushed into the dark, pine-scented forest, I barely made out a reply. “I didn’t know. I just came back from the store.”

Panting, I scrambled over the patchy snowy ground into the brush and scented the cold air to try to find water.

Not knowing which direction I headed, I weaved in and out of low bushes and between trees. I could figure things out later. Sure, it’d be weird to find a naked woman wandering around with only a pair of glasses on, but embarrassment beat death.

As I caught sight of an almost full moon which set in the west back toward town, I caught a scent that made my heart stutter.

A masculine fragrance that carried on the frigid breeze, tickled my nose, and almost drove my wolf to do a one-eighty.

Back toward Kaden.

Pure, raw need surged in my wolf folds as his powerful, alpha male fragrance drove me to get him. My wolf tried to turn on her heels toward the one she believed could ease our overheated ache. Our body urged her to find him as the need to mate almost overpowered us.

When my true heat had hit, I would have no choice but to seek him out and spread my legs to welcome him between my clenching thighs.

With my human in the backseat, it took everything in me to push forward toward town and find shelter. Running from my cure for this heat while my wolf whined in angst, tore me in two as pain ripped down the center of my body.

She didn’t want to escape him. She trusted him. Needed to seek him out. To soothe this want. To be with the one that would complete her, the one who could quell this pain.

I yelped as I caught sight of him, a midnight black wolf bounding toward me with such grace, such agility, and power, it left both my wolf and me in awe. He bounded effortlessly as he raced toward me.

My wolf heart squeezed with sadness as we weaved between more trees away from the one who could fulfill her.

Paws padded on the forest floor, closer and closer to me. I no longer looked back but urged myself forward until my heart hurt in my chest and my lungs burned.

Something slammed against my back. I skidded then tumbled, head-over-heels, into the pine-needle and dirt-covered ground.

Kaden pounced on me. And I didn’t know how, but in one fell swoop, he pinned me on my back to the soft, forest floor in a clearing with a little snow. His jaws opened and he nipped me on my neck. He kept his jaws open, his sharp canines grazing my furry flesh as a warning.

His golden eyes blazed with fury and lust. In a flash, he shifted back to human but his expression remained the same. Pissed. His sharp-edged teeth clenched and his wide eyes drilled into me. Every inch of our overheated, damp bodies molded together.

He caged me with his sculpted arms next to mine. His hard shaft pressed into my belly.

“You disobeyed, Aila.” He nipped my neck sending goosebumps over my bare breasts. Without my glasses, his face remained fuzzy but I could make out general shapes. And I could see the movement of his eyes as he searched my face and peered down my frame. “I need to punish you for leaving, Aila. You put my pack and me at risk. Didn’t you hear it the first time that you’re the solution to stopping my pack from dying off?”

I wiggled underneath him trying to escape his hold. He was a killer. Who was crumbling my resolve to stay away from him. My attempt to wriggle free only served to rub against his firm, muscular body, and to spike the temperature in my already fiery body.

He collared my throat and snapped his teeth. “Oh, no, you don’t. Not again. You’re staying with me, you and your wolf.”

Under his hot body, the chilly air didn’t get to me. I’d never been near a male in such proximity, and certainly not with my nude body molded to his, and certainly not against what I sensed with my skin to be a perfect alpha male specimen. Heat ripped through me. My womb spasmed with the need for his potent seed to flood my channel.

My chest heaved creating friction against his smooth, round pecs, and making my nipples painfully bead but I pushed the sensation away. “That’s why you kidnapped me. You planned on having your pack kill me. Isn’t that right?”

He sniffed the air. A devilish smirk ticked up on his full lips. Against my better sense, I wanted those lips to kiss me. “You wouldn’t have come willingly so I had to take you. I’m going to take you back to the compound and lock you up better. Tell me, Wolfling, what kind of punishment should I give you for not following my alpha orders?”

Overwhelming need surged through my blood as his husky voice asked me. I rubbed my core against his thigh which had settled between my legs. My dear. I needed Kaden more than I needed air to breathe. I croaked out, “Take me back to the room. How is it fair that you kidnap me from the laundromat and expect me to submit to you sacrificing me? How is that okay?”

His hand squeezed my neck. He dipped his cheek next to my cheek and sank against me. Every inch of his sculpted frame made contact with mine. His tongue curled around my earlobe, sucking it into his mouth and eliciting a moan from me. “The scent of your arousal is filling the air. I should fuck and claim you right here. You would like that, wouldn’t you, Wolfling? You want my cock deep inside you, don’t you?”

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