“No, actually, I don’t, Jaxson.” I was taunting the devil, but I couldn’t help it. The flurry of emotions that he was throwing out was making me crazy and confused.
“You’re my mate!” he roared in an almost bestial voice. “How could I stand by while you offered yourself freely to a vampire?”
I gestured violently to my neck as anger pumped through me. “To drink my blood, Jaxson. Not to keep, not to fuck.”
He tilted his head in disbelief, bitterness tinging every word. “Do you think those two are any different for a vampire?”
“It’s different for me,” I snapped.
His expression darkened, and his voice dropped low. “I saw the way you swooned. How different was it?”
Indignation cut through me like a bullet.
I backhanded him across the face, smacking his head around. Pain rang through my knuckles, but it was nothing compared to my delight at seeing the disbelief in his eyes.
That’s right, this bitch has bite.
Fury flashed across his face, but I could smell his arousal, which only ratcheted up mine.
“Do you think I wanted that freak sucking my neck?” I snarled, shooting daggers at him with my eyes. “We had to get Dragan’s finger, so what I did, I did for the pack.”
“The pack didn’t ask that of you, and neither did I. We could have found another way,” he said, moving closer, inch by threatening inch. “All I asked was for you to stop, which you ignored.”
His smoky pine scent wrapped around me and fogged my brain, and my back bumped against the wall. “So what’s this about, Jaxson? That I let Alejandro bite me, or that I disobeyed you?
He narrowed his eyes and closed the gap between us, his body taut with barely restrained fury. “Both. You should have listened. I’m your alpha.”
Between the wall and him, I was trapped. A riot of emotions exploded in me. Rage. Frustration. Unabashed arousal and need.
Rebelling against how hot his dominance made me, I grabbed him by the lapels of his suit and flipped us around so that his back was suddenly up against the wall. I tilted my head and whispered in his ear. “You’re my alpha, huh?”
A low growl of arousal rumbled from his throat, making my treacherous center burn with desire.
I shoved him so hard that the plaster on the wall cracked, and I stepped back to escape my emotions. “News flash, Wolf King: I don’t have to listen to you.”
Before I could get away, he grabbed my wrist and yanked me back to him, leaving our faces just inches apart. “I don’t want to make you listen. I want you to want to listen. To trust me, godsdamn it.”
My heart raced. I did trust him, didn’t I? And if I did, why was defiance such a drug?
I needed space. His closeness and heat were both suffocating and alluring, and I couldn’t sort out my thoughts. What the fuck was he doing to me?
Pushing free, I latched on to my anger to defend myself because that’s what I knew best. “So what about listening to me? Trusting me?”
In a heartbeat, he surged forward and boxed me in against the wall again, his arms on either side of my head. My breath hitched as his emotions barraged my senses. Frustration. Betrayal. A need to control. "You asked me to trust you when you were painting. It was insane, but I did. I kept the guards and onlookers at bay so you could finish.”
I raised my chin, refusing to be cowed. “And it worked. I got us an audience.”
He brought his mouth near mine. “True. And when I told you not to let Alejandro drink, that was when you should have trusted me.”
And as much as every inch of me wanted to ram my hands into his chest and blast him back with my magic, I didn’t fight or try to get away. Instead, my treacherous lips brushed dangerously close to his, teasing and tempting. “And when I told you it was the right choice, that was when you should have trusted me.”
Inches apart, we glared venomously at each other, neither of us willing to concede, apologize, or admit our need.
And then we were kissing madly, violently.
Our lips clashed as our mouths dueled for control. Sparks of ecstasy cascaded though my body, and his tongue stroked mine, causing the rivers of my body to meet.
No longer able to restrain the beast of lust within me, I shoved Jaxson to the couch. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me down onto his lap so that I was straddling him, but he kept my arms restrained behind me.
His hard body pressed into all my soft places, and a throbbing ache settled between my legs. I moaned loudly, driven by instinct. The need to fuck. To be one with my mate.
But he wasn’t letting me.
In frustration, I leaned forward and sank my teeth into his lower lip, and the metallic tang of his blood set my senses aflame. He growled but released my hands.
Free at last.
“Savannah—”