Chapter Eleven
Chanin wrapped hisarms around her.The warmth of her silky, bare midriff seeped into the skin of his forearm and hand.He tightened his hold on her and gripped her narrow waist with his hand.Awed.He marveled at the soft delicateness of her skin.Traces of his scent blended with her vanilla violet.It wasn’t as strong as it would be once they were fully mated, but his wolf still basked in the elusive notes.
She stood with her back flush to his front.Morlie’s breath rushed out loud and hard, combining with the sounds of the forest around him.The scratching, chirping, and scurrying of woodland insects became the backdrop to the symphony of Morlie.Holding her pressed against him, he felt the tremors rocketing through her body and the power of her fast heartbeat.It had not slowed since the moment he’d caught her.
“Cha-Chanin...?”
Fuck.‘Yes’ was on the tip of his tongue and should be so easy to say in regard to her question.However, even the thought of someone else touching her, having her in their arms, made rage fill his blood.Reaching up, he grabbed hold of the thick branch above his head.Heat zipped from his gut to his cock.His dick lengthened along the curve of her round, pert ass.
As he’d been staring at the building, he’d seen Aodh’s mate enter with Morlie over two hours ago and fought the urge to race into the doorway and locate his mate and carry her out, letting the world be damned.
This woman was causing him to lose control.Fuck that.Being without her had him out of his mind.
The souls of both man and wolf were crying out her name.Morlie.
Then he’d smelled her scent—a musky vanilla peppered with the woodsy notes of violet as if he’d wished for her too hard and had concocted her intoxicating smell because he wanted her so much.And in the middle of his torment, his wolf saw a flash.She was running.At first, he tried to convince himself that she was perhaps doing what humans did, going for jogs to stay fit, but the power in her gait and the determination in her face made it clear to him she was running away...to him.
Even when Liekki, Aodh’s second in command, came out of the other side of the same building, walked to the edge of the territory line, and called her name, Morlie didn’t even break stride, as if she had never heard him.
She’d been so laser-focused on her flight that she’d practically run past him.Hell, his wolf had been so engrossed in watching her run and seeing the working of her thigh muscles and the rise and fall of her small breasts that it had almost allowed it to happen.
In a breath, Chanin shifted, and she was in his arms.
“Yes.”He ran his nose from her ear to the curve of her neck.The gums around his canines burned within his mouth so close to where he yearned to sink his teeth.“I got you, little bunny.”
“I-I—” Her short curls brushed the center of his chest as she shook her head.Her exhalation came out in a whimper and broken growl.
Her frustration was palpable.
“Tell me you came to me,” he declared, but he needed to hear her admit it.
“No...maybe...I don’t know what I’m doing.”Like a scared rabbit in the grip of a big bad wolf, her belly quivered under his hand.
Chanin flexed his hand around the limb as his fingers tingled, and the claws on his left hand extended and dug into the tree.Pieces of bark broke off and rained down over them.
“Little bunny, this is not the time for indecision or second guessing.”He drew his right hand up under her short top, then swiped his thumb along her flesh directly below the curve of her breast.
Morlie gasped and reached up, clutching his arm with both her hands.But she didn’t pull at him or ask him to release her.
“What do you want?”he commanded.He held his breath and waited.
Chanin’s wolf growled and paced inside of him.His beast didn’t care what her answer was; this was his mate, and now that he had her, the wolf would not let her go.Chanin had allowed her to be removed from them once before, and it would never happen again.His beast was Alpha over the Omega Pack, and Morlie was his mate.Done.
“You.”Her soft response was barely audible.
But Chanin heard it.
He lowered his hand and took hold of her face.His fingers imprinted into the supple skin of her cheeks as he held her and turned her to him.Without pause, he claimed her mouth.No light kiss.No playing and teasing her.He needed her to know his desire and claim on her would not be gentle but fierce and overwhelming.
His core was more animal than man, and his wolf would only be satisfied with its mark on her.All over her.
