6

CHAPTER SIX

Ihave no idea where I'm going.

The second I heard Dayne's office door close behind him and his beta, I was tiptoeing down the steps and slipping out of the front door.

Even though it can't be later than six in the evening it's already pretty dark which is perfect. Less chance of being seen from the house that way. I hope.

Luckily for me, considering this looks to be an old farmhouse, someone has kept the hinges well-oiled.

Before I crept out, I heard the conversation drifting from what must be the kitchen at the end of the hallway, as well as Dayne and his beta talking in low voices from a room behind a closed door. Possibly his office. I should've been able to hear them clearly, but I didn't hear much of anything. It's as if Dayne's had the office soundproofed.

But I don't stop to consider the possibility for too long. I sprint down the front porch steps in Dayne's sweatpants, which are still too big, even after I've rolled the legs up as best I can, and plunge into the thick forests.

I should have headed for the same path Dayne drove down, at least, then I'd eventually end up back in Hardin. No matter how small the town is, maybe I could've hitchhiked or found some other way to escape. But desperation has made me careless, and instead of thinking things through, I aim my body at the forest and hope for the best.

When the skies open up and rain soaks me in a matter of seconds, I swear under my breath. I'm not even surprised. Shit like that always happens to me.

At the sharp sound of a branch snapping to my right, I pause, straining to hear over the rain hitting the leaves and trees all around me.

It could be nothing, but it could also be Dayne coming after me. Should I keep running, or should I go back and try to think up some excuse as to why I'm running out on my mate the first night I joined his pack?

Torn between staying and going, I consider all the damage a half-crazed wolf could do to a submissive wolf like Jenna.

Doubt falls away in an instant, and I continue.

This time away I'm angling away from the sound, hoping it was nothing more than a rabbit or some poor creature seeking sanctuary from the rain. But in case it isn't, in case it is Dayne, I pick up my pace.

I can't stay. It's too dangerous, not only for me but for everyone else.

At the sound of another branch snapping, I nearly run into a tree as I spin around in a wild arc to see which direction it came from. But again, there's nothing there.

By now the rain has fully soaked through my sweatpants, plastered my hair to my head and my bare feet are sinking into the wet soil, turned muddy from the sudden downpour.

I keep going, at this point not even caring where I end up. But as long as I'm heading away from the pack land, that's all that matters.

I jerk to a halt.

Because there, right in front of me, is a wolf with silver eyes glinting in the night, staring at me.

I don't move. It's impossible to tell the color of the wolf as the rain continues to lash down on us, soaking through its fur as thoroughly as it has my hair.

All I know is the wolf is male, and the look in its eyes warns me he's not about to let me venture any further than I have already.

As if he's heard my mental thoughts, the wolf takes a step forward, his mouth opening wide in a toothy grin to reveal sharp white teeth.

At the sight, my heart constricts hard enough to hurt, and then pounds in a harsh drumbeat the wolf can't fail to hear, even over the sounds of the rain and the forest.

My mind empties of everything except the need to escape.

Although the wolf hasn't snarled or tensed as if about to spring at me, I feel the overwhelming sense of being hunted, that I'm prey, and all I can think to do is run.

Spinning around, I manage about three steps.

There's no warning.

None.

One minute I'm on my feet, being forced back in the direction of the farmhouse, trying not to trip and fall because I know if I go down, that's it. Game over.

The next moment I'm on the ground, a solid weight on my back, pinning me down.

For a second I lay stunned, water soaking into my pants and top, my face an inch away from lying mired in the wet earth. So, close I feel the grass brushing against my cheek. And I start struggling. But by then it's too late.

A hand slips around my neck, and though it doesn't squeeze, the threat is implicit enough to make me stop.

"You should know better," Dayne whispers into my ear, "than to run from wolves."

Yes, I should know better since he's not the first wolf to chase me down.

"Can I get up?" I ask, still not moving. I'm not feeling brave enough to try.

"No." His answer is immediate. Firm. There is no give in his voice at all.

Uh, okay.

I have no idea what he's going to do to me, and even though I'm cold, wet and a sharp rock is digging painfully into my hipbone, I don't move an inch. Which is when I notice something I should have picked up on sooner.

Dayne isn't naked, but he should be.

I feel the distinctive press of jeans on the back of my thighs, and I think he's wearing a t-shirt as well.

Which means he couldn't have been the wolf I saw, because there's no way he'd have had enough time to shift back to human, dress, and tackle me if he were.

It must have been the beta then. Luka. Which means they not only heard me leave the house, they must have come after me the second I slipped out for them to have caught up to me as soon as they did.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, shaking. Aware now of how much trouble I'm in—how much I'm at his mercy at this moment. "I didn't—"

"Shhh," he murmurs against the back of my head.

Brushing my hair aside from the back of my neck, I feel his lips glance over the sensitive line of my throat, and then the firm flick of his tongue against my mate bite has me gasping with pleasure.

I had no idea how sensitive a mate bite would be since no one ever told me. Not that I expected uncle to tell me a thing.

"You're mine," he growls against my neck. "Mine."

He moves now, lifting his body, which is lying flush against mine.

Thinking he's letting me up, I rise onto my hands and knees. But I don't get any further than that.

One of Dayne's hand slides around my front, up between the valley of my breasts, while the other squeezes my hip. Just once, but hard enough for me to know it's nothing less than a warning.

Immediately, I stop moving.

The hand on my hip shifts under my shirt and glides along the bare skin on my stomach before pausing on my lower belly. Just above my sweatpants.

Sucking in a breath, I make a soft sound when it's clear in which direction he intends to move his hand next.

"Did you think you could escape me?" he murmurs in an oh-so-soft voice that makes me shiver when his lips brush against the shell of my ear. "Did you think I'd let you go?"

There is no response to a question like that, so I do the wise thing and keep my mouth shut as Dayne slips his fingers under the waistband of my sweatpants and angles his fingers down.

My entire body tenses in anticipation as the very tip of his fingers trail a searing path along my lower belly, and drifts lower.

And as the rain continues to pummel down on us through the gaps in the trees high above us, I force back my moan when Dayne's finger brushes intimately against me, teasing the entrance of my sex.

"Answer me," he growls.

Answer? Does he think I can speak? Now?

"Uh," I choke out, about the only sound I can make.

Swallowing hard, I open my mouth to try again. Which is when Dayne presses the blunt head of his finger inside me.

There's no holding back my moan now as I force myself to hold still.

Although he's wearing jeans, and I'm in sweatpants, there still isn't enough material between us for me not to feel his erection nestled in the crease of my ass.

Squeezing my eyes shut as my head hangs down, all I can do is fight for breath, panting, as he works the thick length of his finger in and out of me, going deeper each time, echoing what he did with his cock at our mating hours before.

"Talis," he snarls my name in warning.

Presumably, he still wants me to answer him, but it's wasted on me. I've lost the ability to think, to speak, to do anything but feel as he reawakens a need deep inside me.

This, this was what it felt like, him moving inside me after the initial sharp pain of our first joining. But then he stopped, and the pressure eased, and he left me incomplete, throbbing with unfulfilled, agonizing need.

But now, with the pressure building between my legs as he works another finger inside me, I move with him, rubbing myself with increasing desperation against his hardness pressed tight against my ass, widening my stance so he keeps driving his fingers deeper inside me. Hoping. Praying he never stops.

"Please…" I whimper, heat building inside me, tossing my head as I hover on the edge of some great explosion, I'm desperate to throw myself over.

It's going to be so good, I tell myself as a warm fullness spreads, my stomach muscles tighten, and I grow wetter when Dayne growls deep in his throat.

The muskiness in the air is me, my arousal, a scent that continues to intensify.

I'm close. So close.

And just as my breathing changes, just as the muscles of my sex ripples and clench, is when he yanks his finger free and tears himself away from me, making me cry out in frustration.

For the second time in forty-eight hours, my knees can't hold me up as Dayne leaves me a quivering crumpled mess on the ground.

I lay there shaking, struggling to force breath back into my lungs, so painfully close to climaxing that if Dayne wasn't there, I would finish it myself.

"There's nowhere you can go where I won't find you. No way you can escape me." Dayne's voice leaves me cold, stealing away the heat of his body—and his touch.

He's more wolf than man, and not only does it sound like he's a wolf on the edge of violence, I'm his closest target.

I go still. It's a battle to slow my breathing, to force my body back under control, but bit by bit I claw myself closer to normality.

"Do you hear me, Talis?"

The scent of my arousal still surrounds me, a rich fragrance in the air.

How can my body still be crying out for him, even now?

"Talis!" he snaps, which finally gives me the strength I need to flip myself over onto my ass so I can see him, in case he decides to attack.

"Yes… yes, I understand," I reply, the words spilling from my lips.

He stares down at me, his eyes silvered in the night.

For a second, my gaze drift down, caught by the bulge in his pants. And seeing it, remembering how good it felt to have him inside me, how full… the scent of my arousal sharpens, crystallizes.

His low growl has my eyes flying back up to meet his.

When I see his face gone harsh with raw emotion, fear replaces my body's desperate need for sex, and I scramble backward, crablike, and keep going until my back hits a tree.

All the while Dayne marks my retreat with his wolf silver eyes, lips compressed into a merciless line, and his hands forming tight fists by his side.

"You're mine now," he growls, "and I never give up what's mine."