Ambrose must notice my reaction because he lifts me up, sweeping my legs over each of his shoulders while never once letting up his devouring of my clit.
In a second flat, I’m tossed onto my back on his bed, and his pants are gone as he stares at me bare-naked and spread out on his bed. I stare right back, taking in every muscle rippling down his chest all the way down to his large cock straining in my direction. It’s all I can really focus on, even as I notice a glow of something on his skin that’s supernatural and not something I’ve ever seen before, even on wolf shifters.
I lick my lips, and then he’s on top of me. His lips on my lips. His cock is hard between the moisture soaking between my legs.
“Hot,” is the only word I can get out as my body blazes and sweat soaks my body. I’ve never been so overtaken by anything in my life.
Ambrose growls, his lips kissing me hard and punishing. His cock is so fucking close to sliding home, to completing our own private ceremony declaring each other as mates.
Something shifts in the air, in us. I don’t know what exactly, but suddenly Ambrose is moving faster, too fast. My mind whirls. Claws shoot out of my fingers and dig hard into his back. His teeth sink into my neck, and he starts shifting—fur, ears, teeth, and claws all begin to form where he was before.
I gasp as the hunger remains in his eyes as he’s half wolf, half human on top of me. The heat propels through my body, and I realize this is it. This might be the moment I finally shift. For a single second, I feel joy, but the shift doesn’t happen.
I’m burning up. And Ambrose is lost to his wolf and desires as he sweeps down my body, biting down on my clit so hard I scream my orgasm out both in agony and sweet release of pleasure.
My heart flutters hard and fast. I have to stop him, but I can’t. I don’t know what’s happening—to either of us. All I see is his predatory stare as his features remain half wolf, half human. If we are truly mates, it’s not going to be enough to save me from him.
The burning in my body says I’m not strong enough to survive even if I stop him. That I need him as badly as I need this to stop. The fire will never burn out of my body. I’ll never shift until I have Ambrose, until I’m sure he’s the one.
Before I can process what to do or how to save myself, Ambrose is thrown from my body, pinned against the wall by a fully shifted Emeric.
“Wait, I need Ambrose,” I cry out as Rowena scoops me from the bed. I’m too weak to even fight back or lift my own body.
“We need you alive,” she says simply. And then I’m carried so quickly from Ambrose that I can’t even begin to understand what happened to him or me.
I’m alive, but I’ve never felt more dead as the heat continues to burn me alive from the inside out. Until finally, I succumb to the feeling, and blackness takes over me.
Chapter 27
Lumi
Achill races through my body, jolting me awake. Wet, cold towels cover my entire body as I lie naked on a bed. Judging by the pink satin comforter, I know this isn’t Ambrose’s bed.
“Thank heavens,” Rowena says, and I turn my head to my right to see her fussing over me.
My head aches like I’ve just been run over by a truck. “What happened?”
“Drink.” She shoves a straw to my lips, and I take a long sip of ice-cold water, knowing I’m not going to get any answers until she’s satisfied that I’ve drunk enough, which turns out to be the entire thirty-two-ounce water bottle.
“What happened?” I ask again after draining it.
Rowena adjusts some towels on my body and looks me over, avoiding my gaze.
I grab her wrist, stopping her from adjusting another cool towel on my body. “What. Happened?”
She sighs. “You don’t remember?”
I start to shake my head no but then stop. “I remember being with Ambrose. I remember feeling really hot, like unnaturally hot. And then I remember you and Emeric…”
She nods. “You were trying to shift but couldn’t.”
I frown. “That’s what it feels like to shift? Like your body is being burned alive from the inside out?”
Her face pales. “It can be. It’s different for everyone.”
“Why did you stop me, then? Why didn’t you let me shift?”
She sits down on the edge of the bed I’m lying on. “Ambrose sent out an alpha call. He wasn’t in control anymore. And you—you weren’t going to survive much longer in your state. You were burning up but not actually shifting. Your human body wouldn’t have survived, and even if you did, Ambrose would have torn you to pieces. He was too out of control.”
