***
Note from the Author:
Explicit sex with some forced elements, raw animal aggression, lust and shapeshifting under a Mating Moon. A hate to love tale. It starts off sweet but does twist into dark erotica.
Read with caution.
***
TEASER:
SAMANTHA
I could hear the first snuffling as the sun was setting. A wolf had tracked me out here and was huffing near the tree.
"Get back to camp!" I heard Jaecar's voice. Growling in dangerous warning. Then I heard a thud and the sound of bones crunching.
A yip indicating the wolf was hurt.
Jaecar stepped into view and delivered another ruthless kick to the wolf's ribs. "Get out of here!" He grated out. "My territory!"
The wolf gave a shrill whine and trudged from my view.
Jaecar's eyes were level with the peepholes again, but I could see now they were slitted.
He's feral now. I could tell just from looking at him. I'd never seen him like this.
Every year before I'd locked myself in the hut and he'd helped me fortify it and put on the extra locks so no amount of charging or digging would get the wolves into my domain.
Every year I was safe. Because of him.
Now I won't be...Because of him? It didn't seem right. It felt like the deepest betrayal.
He knocked aside the bit of wood blocking the opening and his arms reached into fold me back through the hole and pull me out.
"Jaecar!" I was almost happy to be free of the tree. Thinking I could talk him into letting me go. I tossed my red-blonde hair as he set me on the ground. Kneeling so he could adjust his posture and lift me into his arms.
He walked a short distance, and I heard the wolves howling in the distance.
They can smell me now. I peered around his arm but couldn't see any yet.
We reached a swinging wood and rope bridge, and I was scared.
But as he did all things, Jaecar crossed it expertly. Surefooted and perfectly balanced.
Which is how he wins every tournament.
He wasn't massive like some of the others, but he was tall, broad-shouldered, lithe and incredibly agile.
All of which bode ill for me now.
***
Jaecar walked into a cottage within the trees. A fortified construction I hadn't known was here. He kicked the door closed. Turning, he tipped me up to lift his arm high enough he could grip and turn the locks.
"What is this place?"
"My house." He set me on the rug while he crouched to get a fire going. "You cold?"
I was. But I wasn't about to admit weakness to him. Not tonight. It'd only make his predator instinct more ferocious. I knew enough about wolves to know that.
"Fine." He shrugged when I didn't answer.
He got the fire going and worked to untie my ankles. Holding them together as he sat on them to undo the binding at my knees and moved up to straddle my waist. "Sam, I need you to cooperate."
"I won't, Jaecar. I didn't agree to this."
"No, you didn't. I gave you time. And opportunities. But I'm afraid in a few hours you won't have a choice. I am going to take you."
A shiver rolled down my spine. "You wouldn't."
"I will. I'm going to." He said firmly. Lips tightening. "I've thought of nothing else. And I'm unwilling to wait any longer. I've kept you safe." He nodded back toward where my hut, my sanctuary was. "From them. From me. But it's time that you let it go. That you understand you will be my mate."
"I won't." I shook my head adamantly.
"I was afraid you'd say that." He sighed. As he unwound the binding at my elbows and caught my wrists. Lifting them over my head to drop over a hook in the floor which faced away from me. Then he slid down and caught my ankles to pull me down flat on the rug. Yanking the rope binding my wrists tight and instantly making me feel vulnerable.
Desperate.
"Jaecar. Jaecar, please!"
Don't do this!
"Stop saying my name." he growled. Leaning over me. "It's making me harder."
I complied. Eyes wide. As my gaze roved his handsome face. I couldn't help trying one more time. "Don't do this..."
He was so beautiful. Piercing green eyes. Shining black hair which swept back from his face and along his head to sweep his collar. A straight, haughty, nose and beckoning lips.
How could he be so cruel?
He grunted and suddenly leaned over me to grind his hips into my abdomen. Snarling in a wolf's voice.
Unease was settling through me. The Mating Moon is rising.
I have to get away!
Jaecar drew my undergarments down, pausing to finger the second waistband.
Knowing I always wear two to prevent this. How many times had I confided that to him?
He looked at me as his rough knuckles brushed along my bare thighs. He tossed my underwear into the fire.
An effort to hide my scent.
The other wolves would follow my smell to this cottage.
And they'll try to get in. Get to me...
He growled hungrily before ordering. "Hold still."
He unlaced his leather pants and freed the thing I feared the most.
