Rhyannon Byrd - Last Wolf Hunting

He shook his head as he studied her. “You know, you always were stubborn, but I don’t remember you enjoying a fight this much before.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Jeremy.” She lifted one shoulder and blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes—casual gestures meant to disguise the dizzying confusion going on inside of her. “I just want you to leave me alone.”

“Won’t happen. Not today. And not tomorrow. I’ve come to a decision tonight, little witch. One that’s been a helluva long time coming.” His eyes went hotter, the sexy, smoky green swirling with a primitive violence and hunger that made heat crawl its way up her spine, melting over her skin like liquid fire, leaving her seething in a need too sharp to contain. Any moment now, the dam would burst—and god help her when it did. “I mean to have you, Jillian.”

Her eyes went wide. “Wow. Just like that? Jeremy says he wants me and poof , I’m his?” she drawled, desperately clinging to an illusion of indifference. “I hate to rain on the parade here, but I just don’t feel the same way anymore.”

“Like hell you don’t.” He laughed, daring to flash her an arrogant, predatory smile. She had the feeling he could see right through her, as if by looking into her eyes, he could see into her very soul and the dangerous truths that she’d buried there. “You’re lying, and we both know it.”

“And you read minds now?” She snorted, hoping he didn’t know how he affected her, but it was a stupid wish. All he had to do was breathe, and he could tell just how hungry she was for him.

He arched one tawny brow. “I don’t have to read your mind,” he said lightly. “Not when I can scent your body.”

Jillian opened her mouth, but nothing came out, as if the denial had simply dissolved on her tongue.

“Kinda intimate, isn’t it?” he whispered, the words silky, seductive, scratchy and a little raw. “Knowing that I can smell the need, the hunger, growing in you. That it affects me more strongly than any other male, whether he’s human or as bloody purebred Lycan as they come. That you were made for me. That you’re mine .”

Jillian took another step backward, ready to flee, even though she knew she couldn’t outrun him. “I was never yours,” she argued, breathless as she swallowed the lump of panic caught in her throat. “Thankfully I got smart and opened my eyes to what you really are before it was too late.”

“You didn’t open your eyes to jack,” he shot back in a soft growl. “And you sure didn’t trust me.”

“With good reason!”

“You gave up your future, your destiny, for a title,” he sneered, his contempt for the pack and what it stood for evident in his tone. “You jumped on the first excuse you could find to get rid of me, because deep down inside, you were terrified of having to choose between a life with me and your precious wolves.”

“I didn’t give up my destiny!” she shouted. “The pack is my destiny, Jeremy. I was born for this, but I’ve no doubt you would have expected me to just up and walk away from it all, because of your hatred. That is, if the League didn’t strip me of my position first, for making what they considered an ‘irresponsible choice,’ whether nature meant for us to be together or not!”

They were both breathing hard, their bodies tremoring with anger as emotion tore through them. “And does your job make for a lonely bed partner at night, Jillian? Does it stay faithful to you?” His voice lowered, becoming more intimate…more dangerous. “Does it keep you satisfied? Make you happy?”

His husky words cut straight to her core, as if he knew just how to wound her, the way a fighter knows instinctively where to place his next blow. “My position calls for sacrifice,” she said softly. “It’s not anything I’d expect you to understand.”

“You have no idea what sacrifices I would have been willing to make for you.” Shoving his hands in his pockets, Jeremy hardened his jaw. “You never even gave me a chance to prove myself, so forgive me if I still seem a little pissed about it.”

“You didn’t leave me any choice,” she whispered, her throat shaking.

“Like hell. I couldn’t do anything about my reputation before you came home from school, but from the day I realized what was between us, I never, never , gave you any reason to distrust me.”

Jillian stared at him, stunned. “You still deny you were with Danna that night, after our first…our only kiss? After I told you that I was ready to give a relationship between us a chance?”

His nostrils flared as he drew in a deep breath, the arc of his cheekbones flushed the dull red of anger. “If you had ever taken the time to ask me yourself, I could have told you that I didn’t lay a hand on Danna Gibson that night. I hadn’t touched anyone but you since you came home from school,” he growled, his voice like gravel. “And after you threatened to sic your mother and your precious League on me if I ever came near you again, I was too furious to even think about sex. It took me months before I cooled down enough to go around another woman, Jillian, much less take her to bed.”

“That’s—”

“Pathetic? Sad? Embarrassing?” he sneered, cutting her off. “Yeah, I know. But like I said, I was crazy about you. I’d have given you anything you wanted, but it wasn’t good enough for you. No, you were just waiting for me to screw up,” he continued, his anger mounting again like a great, swelling wave skimming the surface of the blackest ocean. “The second someone came running to you with some bullshit story about me, you jumped at the chance to believe them. And we both know why that was. You were afraid of more than just trusting me to be faithful, Jillian. You were terrified of what you knew we could have, of how powerful it could be. You ran from that like a frightened little girl, because you were scared that it’d mean you would have to make that choice between our relationship and your position. But that would have been a choice forced on you by them , not me.”

Despite his conviction, she didn’t truly believe him. It was one thing for him to make such a claim now, when a relationship between them was impossible, but back then, Jillian knew he wouldn’t have been so accepting of the path her life was meant to follow. No, he’d have never been willing to live in Shadow Peak or understand her loyalty to the League. And living in the Alley would have presented its own problems. He would have resented the time she spent in town, with people he despised, and the pack would have been furious at the idea of their Spirit Walker living with the Runners. She had no doubt they would have demanded her resignation.

“What do you want from me, Jeremy?” she asked in confusion, fighting not to fall apart as all the pain from the past decade crashed down on her, smothering and dark. “I know you no longer want to bond with me, so then what are you after?”

He made a rough, sarcastic sound in the back of his throat. “You’re right. No one said a damn thing about bonding, and I’m no longer a starry-eyed kid who hopes for things he’s never going to have.”

“You were never starry-eyed.”

His voice went lower, barely human beneath the seething emotion in his words. “Where you were concerned, I always had my head in the clouds. You let me down, Jillian. Changed me.”

“Don’t you dare turn this back on me!”

“I’ll do whatever I want to you, because this —” his feral gaze moved slowly down her body, affecting her like a physical touch “—belongs to me. It’s mine .” The husky words were rough with lust…and something deeper. Something so dark and emotional that she had no frame of reference for it. “You want to know what I want? I want you under me. Pure and simple.”