Bite Marks (The Lycans 5)

I shivered, but it had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the man who was currently standing right behind me.

15

Adryan

She was terrified, reasonably so, but there was also this underlying hint of curiosity, arousal.

She knew I was right behind her, yet she didn’t turn around, didn’t acknowledge my presence. It was the way her body tightened, her shoulders stiffening, that told me she was in tune with me just as much as I was with her.

Forever Linked.

I didn’t know how strongly humans recognized their mates, but I knew it wasn’t the intensity an Otherworld creature felt when they found their other half. But she definitely felt something for me, this instinctual, primal part of her that recognized me.

She gripped the handle of the door tightly, her knuckles white, the skin on her arm prickled up in goose bumps because of the chilled weather. I wanted to reach out and smooth my fingers along her soft, very human skin, so fragile, like tissue paper. Easily torn, easily destroyed by one of my enemies… by me if I wasn't gentle or careful enough.

Gods, I wanted to protect her, to destroy everything just to make sure she’d be safe, that no threat would ever come to her. If I could level everyone and everything as a precaution, I would. Gladly so.

I knew she’d run if she could, if there wasn’t a vast land of nothingness right out in front of her. But I said nothing as I stood there, giving her the time she needed, patience that I’d never possessed, never granted to anyone in my life.

She slowly turned around, shifting her smaller body so she faced me, her hand still on the door as if she was using it as some kind of lifeline, an anchor. Our gazes clashed, held. Her pupils dilated, the scent of adrenaline rushing through her veins saturating the air, surrounding us, telling me that her body knew to be afraid of me, that I was a dangerous predator.

I liked the fire in her eyes, the stubborn streak that she gave me. It turned me on, had flames licking through my body and settling in my cock, hardening the length, reminding me that with each passing day I didn’t claim my female, I would only become harder. It would be a temptation that was like an addiction scratching me from the inside out, trying to tear its way out until it was fulfilled.

And she’d also feel that rising desire as well, that consumption that would slowly eat her alive until she was mindless with her need for me. It wouldn’t be as strong as mine; it would never be the kind of possessiveness that I felt. But it would be enough to drive her crazy, to have her throwing herself into my arms and giving every piece of herself over to me as if she’d been born to do so. And she had.

Only mine. Only mine. Only mine.

I sensed Kane and Sebastian step into the foyer, their presence an irritant when all I wanted to be was alone with my female, to ease her worries and tell her how it would be, which would probably have the opposite effect of easing anything in her.

Because there would be no running, no fighting. I couldn't allow that. She was mine, and I’d never give her up. Even if she hated me, I’d have to show her how good it could be with us, that I was her protector, her savior, that I’d kill anyone who threatened her.

“Go,” I said to my cousins but didn’t look away from Kayla. I could see how tense she’d become since they stepped into the same room, but she tipped her chin up in an act of defiance, in a rebellious streak that had me grinning.

She’d make the greatest queen. My queen.

I didn’t have to tell Kane and Sebastian what was going on. I knew they could scent the connection Kayla and I had now that we were in the same room, now that I let my pheromones for her pour out of me and fill the space… the mating mark I had for her that would let all other males know she was mine.

And that mating scent would cover her flesh as I fucked her, as I came deep inside her. It would cover every inch of her right along with my bite marks on her skin. Any fucker who looked at her would know she was mine, and the consequences for getting too close to my female would be their dismembered corpse at my feet.

When Kane and Sebastian came forward, Kayla stepped away from the door, her focus on them now, apprehension on her face. I wondered if she realized she edged closer to me, as if she instinctively knew I would protect her at all costs.