Chapter 375
“He was saying goodbye, Dallas,” she whispered, her voice dropping low, sultry and deliberate. “He told me… that if you ever hurt me, he would kill you.”
The world turned red.
She brought his threat into my den. She dared to voice a lesser male’s challenge while sitting beside a King.
I slammed the brakes. The tires screamed against the asphalt as I wrenched the wheel to the right, sending the heavy SUV skidding off the highway and onto a deserted gravel service road. Dust billowed around us as the car lurched to a halt beneath the looming shadows of the pines.
“Kill me?” I let out a dark, incredulous laugh that vibrated in my chest. I unbuckled my belt and turned on her, looming over her small frame. “You think a boy who couldn’t keep his own pack can kill me?”
“I think,” Adella said, her breath catching as she looked up at me, pupils blown wide, “that he believes it.”
“Then let me show you what a real beast looks like.”
I didn’t give her time to respond. I didn’t care if the driver could hear us or if the trees were watching. I grabbed her face between my hands and crashed my lips onto hers.
It wasn’t a kiss of affection. It was a branding.
I forced her mouth open, my tongue sweeping in to taste her, to devour her. I bit down on her lower lip — hard enough to bruise — demanding submission. I needed to scrub him off her. I needed to replace that sour stench of failure with the scent of cedar, ozone, and the terrifying power of a Lycan King.
Ragnar purred, finally settling as he felt her surrender.
Adella made a soft, breathless sound in her throat, her hands tangling in my hair and pulling me closer. She wasn’t fighting me — she was meeting my fury with her own fire. The mate bond snapped taut between us, a violent electric current arcing through our chests, burning away everything that wasn’t us.
I kissed her until she was gasping for air, until her lips were swollen and red, until the only thing I could smell in the car was her and my claim.
I pulled back, breathing ragged, my forehead resting against hers. Her eyes were dazed, swimming with the same intoxication coursing through my veins.
“You smell like me now,” I growled, dragging my thumb over her wet, bruised lip.
“Yes,” she breathed, a small, victorious smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
She had played a dangerous game, and she had won. But as I shifted back into the driver’s seat and threw the car into gear, the adrenaline didn’t fade — it merely shifted focus.
“We’re going home,” I said, the engine roaring beneath us. “Now.”
I merged back onto the highway and pressed the accelerator to the floor. The beast had been fed. But the hunger — the hunger had only just begun.