Madison was going to be mated soon, if she wasn’t already. No way was that bastard going to let her go more than a few hours without sealing a bond.
I needed to go after her.
But I couldn’t take down an entire skulk of kitsunes.
I needed to find her, to get her away from him.
But she didn’t want to be mated to me, and I’d be a shitty mate.
I had to?—
Footsteps crunching the snow outside my house had my bear tearing through me. I ripped the door open just as Artie and his mate, Emily, stepped onto my porch.
He moved in front of her immediately, though there was no fear in his eyes.
Just rage.
“What the fuck happened? You said she wasn’t here,” he growled. “Why the hell did I get a call from Gary telling me that they found her in your cabin, smelling like sex?”
“She’s the one who texted you,” I snarled back. “And she’s mine.”
That was the bear speaking.
I told myself it was, at least
“What do you mean, she’syours? She’s been engaged to the alpha since she was conceived. The mating was supposed to improve her standing, and her life.”
“My bear bit her.Ibit her. She’s mine.” Repeating that wasn’t going to help me in any way, but I couldn’t hold the words back.
“What do you mean, youbither?” Artie’s snarl nearly matched mine.
I could tear him apart with a few swats of my claws, of course. But I wasn’t going to.
Probably.
“I claimed her while we were fucking. It wasn’t intentional. There were no vows, so it shouldn’t have started a bond,” I gritted out.
“How do youunintentionallybite someone?”
“Let’s all just take a breath,” Emily said, her voice calm and upbeat as she stepped around Artie, putting herself between us.
He tried to move her behind him again, but she didn’t budge.
The tiny woman had her naturally curly hair tied up in two puffs on top of her head. The rips in the band t-shirt she had on beneath her open coat showed smooth, dark skin that barely registered to me.
I wasn’t attracted to her.
She was basically my sister-in-law.
And the only person I wanted—needed—craved—was probably sealing a mate bond with another bastard as we spoke.
A feral roar tore through my chest. It took everything I had not to shift. If I did, my bear was going to run right to Madison, regardless of the hours it would take and the fact that she wasn’t mine.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Artie demanded, once again physically placing his mate behind his body like I was a threat to her.
“How sure are you that it’s not permanent?” Emily asked.
“He’d better be positive,” Artie said.
