Poison burns through my veins like fire. Inside, I writhe, trying to escape the pain, but it’s everywhere. Inside of me. My bones, muscles, flesh—every inch of my body might as well be burning alive. All while I’m frozen. Unable to move. To think.
To breathe.
Finally, my fingers flex at my sides, though the movement makes me feel as though shards of glass are embedded in my joints.
“Easy.” A voice fills my mind, a soft order that soothes even as it arouses.
How the hell am I aroused right now?
“Merrick?” I think to myself.
“Yes, Beta,” he purrs. “Be calm now. It will be over soon.”
The world is still black around me, my eyes unable to open just yet.
“How am I hearing you? I do not understand.”
“I had no choice,” he replies. “I only hope you’ll forgive me.”
Forgive? His voice fades away, and with it, the pain begins to subside. I shift, trying to move my legs as I open my eyes. The light is bright around me, assaulting even. I blink rapidly, trying to clear it, and Merrick’s face comes into view.
He sits on the bed beside me, dressed in a white cotton shirt and black pants. He looks so similar to the day we first met that it makes my heart flip. So handsome. So—and then the memories hit me.
Merrick’s beast rampaging toward us.
Him trying to kill Lark.
Me jumping between them.
His claws biting into my flesh. But if he’s here. If I’m here, then does that mean— “You—is it broken?” I manage, honestly afraid to be too hopeful.
“Yes,” he replies and then takes a deep breath.
My smile is wide. I try to reach for him, but my body feels heavy, so heavy. My stomach growls, and something in me surges to the surface. A primal need to sate my desires. My hunger for both food and the man in front of me.
Mine.
The single word does not belong to me, and yet, it is me.
“Merrick, what’s happening?” My heart rate increases as I take on fear that is not my own. Fear that belongs to—the moment my gaze meets his, I know. Even if it doesn’t make sense, I can tell that he’s afraid. No, not just afraid.
Merrick is terrified.
But why?
His expression hardens, morphing into a similar one to what he’d worn when we first met. “I nearly killed you. Ripped your chest clean open. You were the sacrifice,” he chokes out. “And by the time the curse was broken, it was almost too late. I had no choice but to turn you.”
“Turn me,” I repeat, trying to discern the meaning of his words. Thankfully, it doesn’t take but a mere moment. “I’m a wolf?”
He nods. One crisp dip of his head as his gaze holds mine.
“And that scares you?” My brow furrows as I try to process exactly what it means.
“No.”
“Then what does? I can sense it, your fear.”
The corner of his lips twitch in a quick smile. “Because we are mates,” he explains. “If we are close enough, you will be able to feel my feelings as though they are your own.”
“Your voice? I heard it.”
“I am your alpha,” he replies. “Now that I have my wolf back, I can speak to my pack through that bond.”
Processing, I tilt my head to the side as I try to make sense of his fear. “What are you afraid of?”
“Losing you.”
I shift so I’m sitting closer. Then I reach out and take his large hand as I look into his eyes. I can see flecks of green in his golden irises. “I’m here.”
“You’re not angry?”
“Because you saved my life? Hardly. Besides, I asked for this, remember?”
His brows draw together, bunching just above the bridge of his nose as he recalls a day, not too long ago, when I’d asked him why he couldn’t turn me. “It still should have been your choice.”
“I would have made it,” I assure him as I lift his hand and press it to my lips.
“How do you feel?”
Something shifts within me, and lust so potent it makes me weak surges through my body. The area between my legs begins to throb, my skin sizzling with need. I sit up all the way and let the blanket fall to my waist, baring my breasts. “Like I want your hands on me,” I reply.
Merrick’s pupils dilate, something I never would have picked up on before, and his scent fills my lungs. A mixture of pine and leather. Of want and need. Of love and desire. He reaches for me at the same time I’m leaning toward him, and our mouths clash in a frenzy of teeth and tongue.
I pull at his shirt, shredding it with strength I’ve never possessed.
He kicks his boots off and then pulls away long enough to remove his pants. Then he’s back, climbing on top of the bed and positioning himself between my legs. I grip his arms, pulling him down on top of me and scraping his bottom lip with teeth far sharper than my human ones.
“This is so much more,” I say, breathless as I arch up into him. Every nerve is on fire, every inch of my body alive in ways I never thought possible.
“Yes,” he agrees. He grips my thighs and drives into me. The orgasm tears through my body the moment he fills me.
I call out his name as stars dance in my vision. This feeling, this overwhelming connection is far stronger than before. As though the two of us were made for each other.
Which, according to Merrick, we were.
He pumps into me at a furious pace that I can barely keep up with, and the delicate friction of our bodies melding together is so much more than sex. Something inside of me stirs, and my mouth stings as my teeth grow longer.
Merrick leans down and offers his neck to me. “Bite, Mate.”
“What?” But even as the part of me that grew up human is repulsed at the idea, something far stronger is delighted. Aroused.
Merrick sits back, his dick still hard inside of me as he positions me to straddle him. He cups my face. “Sink your teeth into me while I fuck you.” He leans in and brushes his lips against my throat. “Claim me as I claimed you.”
I open my mouth, damn near helpless to obey, as I lower my lips to his shoulder and press a light kiss. Then, I bite down.
Merrick groans as his blood stains my mouth. Power slams into me, another orgasm sending me over the edge. His hands grip my hips, and he lifts me then brings me back down on him—hard. Rough.
My hands grip his shoulders as we come together like never before, two people who couldn’t have been more different and yet fit perfectly.
His love is hard.
His love is savage.
His love is mine.
“That was nothing short of amazing,” I say as I brush my fingertips over Merrick’s muscled chest. We lie together, naked and in bed, tangled up in one another as we have been for the last few hours.
Truthfully, if it weren’t for the moon shining brightly overhead, I wouldn’t even know time had passed.
“That was a true mate bonding,” Merrick explains. “And it was far more intense than I’d ever thought it would be.”
I raise my head to look up at him. “You’ve never done that before? Slept with another wolf, I mean.”
Merrick’s hand captures my chin, and he leans down to brush his lips to mine. “Mate, I’ve never felt anything like that before—with anyone.”
“Good.” With a soft grin, I lie back down on his chest. “How are you doing? If you want to talk about—”
Merrick stuns me by getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not ever again.”
The pain in his voice is so clear, so noticeable that I move to kneel behind him. Then I wrap both arms around his waist and press my lips to his back. “I’m so sorry.”
“It was my fault,” he says. “I should have listened to you. Should have gone to him.”
“And then we might not have gotten there in time,” I reply. “You cannot live in the ‘should haves’, Merrick. Because they’ve already happened. There is no going back to change them.” Even as I speak the words, I am forced to bury my own regrets.
“It doesn’t change the guilt,” he says then presses a hand to his heart.
I get out of bed and step around to kneel at his feet. Merrick looks up at me, and I can feel his brokenness. The weight of what he wished he’d done. The pain of losing his brother.
“I know, my love,” I reply. “But we’re going to get through this.”
“And what about dealing with Julius?” he questions. “How do we kill that fucker while keeping the rest of my family intact?”
“We go to Viridia,” I reply. “Continue on with what Maynard and I were going to do.”
He looks at me with confusion.
“Do you not remember trying to eat Maynard in the woods? We were attacked, and you showed up and killed the men. That was the night before we broke the curse.”
“I don’t always remember what happens as the beast,” he replies. “Something I am quite grateful to be rid of.”
I smile softly at him. “We should go see your family.” Getting to my feet, I open the chest at the foot of our bed and reach into it to withdraw a dress.
“Not yet.” He stands, a wall of nude muscle.
“Ready to go again already?”
Merrick’s chuckle is rich and decadent like the chocolate I was only allowed to have once a year. On my birthday. Or rather, the king’s daughter’s birthday. “You need to shift. Otherwise, your wolf will become restless, and you might try to eat someone.”
At that exact moment, something inside me stirs, a desire to be free, to run. “Is that what I’m feeling? My wolf?”
He nods. “She will feel like an extra part of you. An extension, though her needs will always surpass yours. Remember that, and you will be just fine.”
The idea of shifting, of changing in the way I watched him change terrifies me. “Will it hurt?”
“At first,” he admits. “But it’s nothing like when I changed before.”
I take a deep breath. “How do I do it?”
Merrick steps forward and brushes his fingers over my cheek then smiles softly. I notice it doesn’t reach his eyes, though. “It’s going to become second nature,” he explains. “All you need to do is think about what you want. Then allow your wolf to take over.”
“Do I do it here?”
He nods. “That way I don’t have to kill anyone for looking upon that glorious body of yours.”
With a smile and a shake of my head, I take a deep breath and focus just as he said. I close my eyes and imagine a wolf—a white one like his brothers. When I feel her pushing forward, a gentle caress against my soul, I let go.
The cracking of bone fills my ears, and I try to focus, but panic fuels me. I lose the image, and the pain intensifies, acid on my skin. In my bones.
“Easy, Mate. Allow the shift to take place. Stop fighting.” Merrick’s order is warmth in my mind.
I try my best to let go, to give my wolf the reins. And seconds later, the pain vanishes. My body feels strange, alien to me, and when I open my eyes, I’m standing on the floor, on all fours.
“I did it!”
Merrick chuckles, opens the door, and shifts. “You are beautiful, Mate. Then again, I knew you would be.”