“You’re wrong,” she insisted. “It hates you. It will kill you if I survive that moon.”
“It doesn’t hate me. It fears me. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever you want to label it,” she said. “It wants you dead.”
Chapter Eleven
It wants you dead. The hair on the back of Evan’s neck stood up at those words, and anger fir
ed in his gut. “Message, for your wolf -- you’re mine. It can’t have you.”
“We both know it already has me,” she yelled, the rain suddenly pounding on them again, a torrential downpour.
He kissed her, a deep passionate devouring kiss, meant to stake a claim, to silently declare her his woman. It was a branding. The wolf couldn’t have her and neither could the council. “I’m not letting you go,” her repeated against her lips.
“No,” she shouted, trying to push away from him. “No. You need to stay away from me. Far away so I can’t hurt you.”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her captive. “I’m a vampire,” he said. “No wolf is going to hurt me.”
“Tell Troy that,” she countered.
He scooped her up, ending the conversation with actions. He didn’t want to hear about Troy and Sarah.
Marissa squirmed in his arms, wet and slippery, and already stronger for the wolf growing inside her. “Damn you, Evan! Let me go. I have to go.”
She was illogical, kicking and biting, and he didn’t want to hurt her, which proved a challenge. The next thing he knew, he was slipping. He went down hard with her on top of him. Mud splattered around them, but thankfully the downpour slowed.
Marissa scrambled to get up but he rolled her to her back. “You aren’t alone in this, Marissa. You aren’t alone. We’ll get through this. I’ll make this right.”
“You don’t understand,” she shouted. “It wants you dead.” She started squirming and kicking again, but he used his body, to trap her, easily holding her. Still, she kept fighting. He shoved her hands over her head as he had once before, pressed his lips near her ear, sent her a mental compulsion he prayed would work. Stop. Stop now.
She listened, going still beneath him, though he wasn’t sure if he’d willed her actions, or she’d simply tired. Suddenly, he was aware of every womanly curve beneath him, of her bare breasts beneath the wet tee she wore. His cock thickened, his balls tightened. His hand slid over her breast, teasing her nipple. She moaned and arched into him.
“You and your wolf want me,” he pursed, scraping his teeth over her shirt, teasing the pebbled peak beneath.
“Damn you. Don’t be a fool,” she hissed, “I’ll fuck you and I’ll like it, just like Sarah did Troy. But in the end, Evan, I’ll still be the monster who kills you when the full moon comes.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. “Sarah was a natural born wolf. She worked for the rebels and was using Troy to try and infiltrate the Wardens. She’s wasn’t an innocent victim like you are.”
“I stopped being innocent the minute this thing started growing inside me.”
“Maybe,” he conceded, “but you’ll get rid of your wolf far easier than you will this vampire.” He kissed her, stroking her tongue with his, telling her he’d meant his words. He had no idea why this woman had taken him by storm, why she was the woman for him – only that she was. She moaned into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his. He dropped her hands and pressed them beneath her t-shirt, fingering her hard little buds. His dick throbbed, his blood all but boiled. Mine. The word echoed in his head, in his body. He was alive again because of this woman, burning alive with lust and need.
He shoved his hand past the loose band of her shorts, his fingers between hers thighs, over the bristle of blonde hair, to the sensitive folds of her. His pushed his fingers inside her, her muscles clenching onto him, her hips lifting.
“Evan,” she cried out. “I…” She gasped as he rolled her swollen nub and then suckled her nipple between his lips. Possessiveness like nothing he’d ever known rolled through him. He wanted her pleasure, her understanding that it was his to take and give, and no one else’s.
Her nails dug into his shoulders, her teeth scraping his neck. “I want you inside me. I need you inside me.”
He growled low in his throat – a primal sound that no wolf could match. He was a vampire – he would not give this woman up to a damnable wolf. He twisted his hand, the butt of his palm stroking her clit, his fingers pumping into her. She dropped back onto the ground, tilted her head back, exposing her neck. Her blood pulsing in the vein, calling him, as it had from the moment he’d first seen her.
He sunk his teeth into her neck, and she instantly came, her body instantly clenched around his fingers, her body tightening, spasming. That possessive feeling rolled over him with her pleasure, with her blood. He drank her in, tasted her. He could save her now, convert her. End this all. End the wolf. Thunder rumbled overhead, the rain soaking them, her breathing a sensual rasp in his hear. Time stood still for Evan. There was only Marissa’s blood, and the wildness of the vampire in him that knew what he wanted, what he had to do. No man, wolf, or council member could take her from him once it was done.
A split second of warning spiked in his body before a hand was shoved into his hair, and his head was yanked back, blood – Marissa’s blood dripping down his mouth.
A massive male squatted in front of him his black as hell eyes holding a lethal threat. “It appears I’m just in time.”
Chapter Twelve