I slipped out of bed and pulled on a pair of panties. “Aric?” I called, although something within me insisted he wasn’t there. I sat on the edge of the bed and waited for—I don’t know— sound maybe?

Heavy breaths behind our closed bathroom doors had me sighing in relief. I smiled. Aric was there, I wasn’t alone. “I thought you’d left,” I said.

His breathing stopped, cut off as if with the flip of a switch. Something in the quiet riled my beast and sent her on high alert. Her agitation poked at me, making me uneasy. I tried to settle her as best I could, reminding her that Aric was with us, when Shah suddenly materialized on my dresser.

My eyes widened. He shouldn’t have been here. I shook my head at him, trying to get him to leave. My tigress warned against announcing his presence. I listened and mouthed to Shah that it wasn’t safe for him here.

From one breath to the next, he was gone. I pushed the hair out of my eyes and returned to bed, keeping my attention on the closed double doors. Once more, only silence greeted me. “Aric? Are you all right, love?”

Aric pushed open the doors. Moonlight trickled in from the skylight behind him, shadowing his face. I didn’t give it much thought and edged away, making room for him beside me. “I’m starving. Let’s order takeout, okay?”

I turned and reached for my cellphone while I waited for him to answer, then scrolled through my list of contacts. “The bar and grill down the road should still be open. Do you want something from there?”

Aric crawled under the covers without speaking. There was something different about him, but I didn’t initially know what. His large hand came to rest on my hip. “Not now,” he murmured in an unusually deep voice.

I thought he wanted to make love, but instead of his gentle teases and strokes that usually preceded our intimacy, he slapped his hand over my scars and yanked me to him. I startled, clasping his wrist when he moved his hand aggressively south.

I dropped my phone. “Aric, stop. You’re hurting me.” He wrenched free from my grasp and grabbed my breast, squeezing it hard. Fear and shock warred within me, blinding me to what was happening. I struggled to shrug him off, but his hold on me tightened, and his motions grew more demanding, forcing me to submit.

He rammed his hips against me. “Aric, stop—stop!” My breath lodged in my throat. At once I realized his scent was completely gone and so was any trace of warmth. A cold chill swept down my body, making my stomach lurch.

This isn’t Aric.

I fought against his hold. His teeth clamped down on my neck, piercing my skin with all the aggressiveness of a hungry beast upon his prey. Warm fluid trickled down my neck. “Shut up!” he growled when I screamed.

Even through a mouthful of blood, I knew the voice was not his.

My legs kicked out savagely at his shins. His bone snapped beneath my heel. He grunted, but instead of releasing me he wrapped his injured leg around both of mine and clasped his hand over my mouth. I could barely breathe, the force of his hand bruising my lips.

I couldn’t get enough air through my nose. My breaths had quickened to racehorse speed, and my heart threatened to explode from the rush of terror. I tried to change and break away, but my tigress was gone.

He held me with just one arm while his other hand released my mouth only to grab at my breasts brutally. I let out a choked sob. “Aric, no!”

He flipped me onto my back, landing so his knees pinned my arms. I was screaming and crying, knowing I was about to be raped. I knew this, and that thought hurt more than the pain against my arms and the swelling bruises to my breasts. My cries grew hysterical. I fought and kicked, bucking hard, and still I couldn’t get free.

He released a horrid growl and pulled back his fist. Everything slowed, allowing me to meet the wretched cruelty in his eyes. He looked like Aric, but there was nothing of the real him left. And although I knew this, I reached out, hoping to find a trace of my wolf locked within this shell.

“You told me you’d never hurt me,” I choked. “You told me you loved me.”

He stilled with his fist in the air, closing his eyes and his mouth tight. There was a deep rumbling in his chest, like lava building within a volcano. Whatever this thing was, it was about to erupt. I needed to escape, yet I remained too helpless to move.

His head jerked hard to one side then the other, forcing his neck to the point of breaking. A growl mixed with a curse escaped his lips while a turmoil of emotions flooded his face—sadness, guilt, gut-wrenching fear, but most of all primal fury.

When I was sure he’d kill me, his face whipped back to meet mine. Sweat dripped down to his chin, and just as abruptly as he’d attacked, he withdrew, stumbling from the bed and backing into the corner.

I scrambled to the floor panting so hard I thought I’d pass out. “A-Aric?”

He swiveled his head from side to side in an awkward gesture that told me he still hadn’t regained control. “Run, Celia,” he rasped. “Run.” He searched the room as if something else was there, until he faced me once more. “You need to go—do you hear me? You need to go, now!”

Tears trickled down my face. Without turning my eyes from his I reached for the robe at the foot of the bed. I slapped at the silky fabric several times, before my trembling hands could finally lift it. I continued to shake as I pulled it on, terrified to be naked. “No. I won’t leave you.”

Aric reeled fast enough to make me jump. His hand gripped our leather chair, crushing the frame with the strength of his grip. “Go,” he urged. “Go!”

The tendons and muscles stretched along Aric’s broad back, straining and threatening to sever his spine. He was in agony. Something was tearing him in half.

I covered my mouth with my hand, knowing I should leave; yet I couldn’t force my feet to run. He needs us, my tigress insisted. He needs you.

My entire body shook violently as I inched my way to him. Every rational thought should have sent me bolting from the house. But I couldn’t leave him, and neither could my tigress. My fingers quivered as I reached to touch him, but just as my skin skimmed over his, Aric catapulted through the window.

Glass exploded in his wake and there was a loud thud as he hit the ground below. A sharp burning sensation filled my lungs as I took my first full breath. For a moment, my body simply swayed in place and my vision seemed to double. Somewhere deep within me, my tigress roared, snapping me out of this cloud of confusion.