“Secret, are you listening?”

“No.”

He came around the unlit fire pit and stood in front of me. “This is important.”

“It isn’t right. We should be doing this at home.”

“I don’t know if we’ll get a second chance to continue with Callum’s permission. He could revoke his approval at any moment, and then where will we be?”

“Square one. I think we’re pretty familiar with it by now.”

Lucas forced a smile. I could always tell when he was faking his smiles because there was no warmth in his eyes. I crossed my arms over my chest and didn’t return the disingenuous expression.

“I don’t like it either,” he admitted.

“And it wasn’t what he and I agreed to.”

“Well, he agreed to let us get married. Did you specify the when and where?”

I gritted my teeth. “Fucking loopholes.”

He hugged me. “If I explain it again, will you listen this time?”

“Can I be glib?”

“As if I could stop you.”

We walked back to where the ceremony would begin, and he went over what Callum would say, what Lucas and I would be expected to do. The process wouldn’t take long, and there wasn’t too much to remember. A little song and dance, some professions of love, my promise to honor and obey—pfft—and some run-of-the-mill blood sharing.

“Do we get to cut our hands open and high-five like blood brothers?” I held my hand up.

He gave me a look.

“You said I could be glib.”

“I said I couldn’t stop you.”

“So, we exchange blood, then we’re married.”

“Yes.”

“And then all the werewolves change and eat me because I can’t shift.”

“I told you not to worry. So don’t worry.” He sounded annoyed with me now. I don’t think kings are used to having their word questioned, let alone outright doubted.

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

“I said trust me.”

“Okay. I trust you.”

He grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me to face him. There was something…alluring about the way he looked at me. “Trust me.”

I blinked, then decided to see how far I could push my luck. “And what if I don’t?”

Lucas growled and a shiver ran through me. “Take off your jacket,” he instructed.

I hesitated for a moment, but I let the garment drop to the ground.

“Now your pants.”

“Bossy,” I replied, but my voice came out husky. I complied. My shirt came next, all my clothes in a heap next to the fire. I stood, feeling too exposed in my underwear and profoundly self-conscious of the Victoria’s Secret panties I wore that said, Take a picture, it will last longer.

Lucas stripped down until he was in his black boxer briefs. Seeing the muscled expanse of his chest illuminated by the moonlight made my knees turn to butter. I licked my lips.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

“No,” I lied.

“Then you’d better run.”

“I—”

“Run.”

He dove for me, and I dodged. The smile on his face was wild, his blue eyes shining chartreuse. This close to the full moon little signs of his wolf were starting to show themselves through the veneer of his humanity. My heart pounded with excitement, and all my anxiety melted away.

If the wolf king wanted a chase, I could give him a chase.

I sprinted out of the circle and into the dark waiting arms of the oak trees. The ground was soft and spongy underfoot, with none of the sharp pine needles I was used to when I ran barefoot at home, but the extra layer of moss made it feel like I was running in sand. It slowed me down. Manitoba ground might be pointy, but at least it was hard.

Lucas was right on my heels. His fingers grazed the small of my back and sent me spinning out of his grasp and off in the opposite direction. He lunged for me, and I jumped, grabbing a low-hanging branch. I swung up then turned to face him, swinging again for more leverage before I kicked off the trunk and over his head.

I ran.

The April air was cool and invigorating, and since my sprint wasn’t fueled by fear, I ran like I was flying, streaming through the spaces between the trees as though the night had loaned me wings and I could run and run forever.

Lucas caught me, his arms latched around my waist. He slammed us both against the nearest tree, his breath rising and falling with mine, excited pants against each other’s skin. He licked my neck, and a shudder rocked me from the bottom of my spine to the top of my head.

“I caught you,” he murmured into my sweat-dampened shoulder.

I dug my fingers into his hair, letting him support me against the moss-covered trunk of the oak. Instead of rough, the tree felt soft on my bare skin. “What are you going to do with me?”

His teeth grazed my neck where his tongue had just been, and he cupped my chin with one big hand, holding me up easily with one arm. His strength was staggering. Lucas angled my face upwards with a gentle push then dragged his hand slowly down my throat. I let him, knowing that by exposing the most vulnerable part of myself to him I was showing him I trusted him completely.

He bit me again, and I moaned.

My clever panties met a dramatic end, ripped off with one hand.

“I liked those,” I teased.

“I don’t care.” He pushed his hips against me—hard—and the only thing holding me up now was his pelvis. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my heels anchoring into the place where his back curved into his toned ass. When his hands cupped my breasts, I arched my hips against him, trying to find a way to will his hardness inside me while both our hands were otherwise occupied. He growled again while I continued to rock myself against his erection.

“What do you want?” he whispered, his teeth nipping my earlobe, making my scalp tingle.

“I want you to fuck me,” I rasped. “Now.”

I opened my eyes and was staring into the pupils of an animal. The blue eyes I knew so well had vanished, replaced by the amber-green eyes of a wolf.

“Are you afraid?”

“No.” My fangs couldn’t hide anymore. Passion and hunger rode a fine line for vampires, and he was testing the limits of my control. I grinned and showed him my razor-sharp canines. “Are you?”

He ground his pelvis into me. “No.”

“Then shut up.”

He lifted me, both hands on my bare ass, and I reached between us, pulling his hard cock free from his boxers. In one motion he lowered me onto him while he thrust hard. I tensed around him, intensifying the friction, and he made a noise somewhere between a moan and a growl. His fingers dug into my hips while he buried himself so deep inside me I rode the line from pleasure to pain and back again.

Faster and faster he thrust, and each time our skin smacked together in a rough, desperate frenzy, I lost a little more of the hold I kept on my control. When his teeth bit down on my nipple and he drove into me so fiercely I thought I might end up inside the tree, I buried my fingers into his hair and jerked his neck to the side.

He didn’t stop biting me, not even when my fangs pierced his artery.

His blood filled my mouth, and every time he pumped into me, more of that precious liquid spilled over my tongue. I drank deep while he fucked me, and then it came. The moment that brings vampire blood donors back for more. The stinging pain of the bite changed, and the pleasure rode him. He cried out, fingers digging so hard into my skin I would be bruised, and his rhythm became more vigorous as the ecstasy of the bite mingled with the cresting orgasm from our wild coupling. I pulled back, licking the wound to seal it, and gasped as his thumb circled my core while he drove into me, pushing us both over the edge.

We collapsed onto the forest floor, too exhausted and bleary-eyed to move or speak for a long, long time. When we finally disentangled our sweaty limbs, he looked at me with astonishment. “I don’t know what to say.”

I smiled at him, one eye half-open. “You can start with thank you.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Ceremony night.

I was a bouquet of raw nerves.

Considering everything that could possibly have gone wrong on this trip had gone wrong, I was certain a disaster of Titanic proportions was waiting for us at the ceremony site. Lucas was so positive it would run smoothly he wasn’t willing to accept that anything bad might happen.

I wasn’t willing to listen when he said it would all be fine.

How could it be fine?

The closest I’d come to shifting since I was a baby had been in a do-or-die moment, and I hadn’t a clue as to how I’d shifted my hand then. How was I supposed to turn myself into a wolf when I’d spent my adult life burying the ability as deep inside of me as I could?

We’d been given black robes to wear for the ritual. I guess the wolves didn’t see much point in dressing up when they would be getting naked again to change forms. When Lucas and I left our cabin, there was a trail of lit tiki torches lining the way into the woods. Although no proper path existed, after years of wolves trekking the same way into the woods, a groove had long ago been worn into the forest.

We followed the queue of black-cloaked wolves as they made their way to the site. Some chatted casually, like this was nothing out of the ordinary. Others bowed their heads in quiet contemplation, clearly viewing their shift as a kind of religious experience.

Dominick walked behind us, Morgan and Jackson in front. Eugenia and Ben worked their way into the pilgrimage a little farther up the path, and she looked back, throwing me a smile and a wave. I waved back but couldn’t make my lips form a smile.

I was going to throw up.

I remembered my imaginary top-ten list of worst experiences ever. If I got into the ceremony circle and didn’t shift…well maybe the whole damned list would have to be revisited.

Sensing my unease, Lucas took my hand, and we walked that way for the rest of the journey. He’d been looking at me differently since our woodland sexcapades. An expression somewhere between reverence and worry. Who knew what was going on in his head? He hadn’t tried for a second round.