The Wolf Within (Purgatory #1)(23)

She shook her head, sending her wet hair flying over her shoulders.

“Run!”

He spun back around and grabbed Saul’s hand. With one twist, he broke the bastard’s wrist. Payback, you SOB. Then he grabbed Saul’s other hand and broke that wrist, too.

Saul staggered back. Then he hit the floor. Fur burst along his skin as his bones snapped.

Saul was shifting, and…so am I.

The white-hot agony ripped through Duncan. Speech was impossible. He could only snarl and growl as his body reshaped. His muscles tore, his tendons stretched. When his hands hit the floor, they almost instantly became paws. Power beat through him. Power…and bloodlust.

He attacked what is mine.

Mine.

Duncan went for the other wolf’s throat. His paws slammed into Saul’s side, and his teeth snapped at the bastard’s neck.

But Saul’s claws drove into Duncan’s side. Sliced deep. The pain just made him angrier. Duncan attacked with his own claws. Blood matted Saul’s pale coat of fur.

“Duncan?” Holly’s quiet voice.

Mine.

He sank his teeth into Saul’s neck.

“Duncan, we need him alive!”

No, they needed him to die. Because he’d hurt Holly. Not once—

Holly’s arms wrapped round Duncan. “Please.”

His whole body vibrated, but he hesitated, barely managing to hold back from taking the other wolf’s life.

That hesitation was all that Saul needed. He staggered away from Duncan and ran for the big, bedroom window. The glass shattered as he jumped right through it, leaping out and falling to the street below.

Duncan jerked away from Holly and ran to the window. He stared below, snarling, as he watched the white wolf streak away.

“I don’t have any close neighbors,” Holly said quietly from behind him, “so I don’t have to explain to anyone why a wolf just jumped out of my second story window.”

He glanced back at her. The rage still burned within him, and he wanted to follow Saul but—

Can’t leave her.

It wasn’t just the wolf’s instinct to protect. It was the man’s, too.

Only she wouldn’t be seeing him as a man then. Just as a beast. He turned toward the window once more.

“Don’t leave me,” she whispered.

His muscles trembled. Didn’t she understand? If he stayed—

“Please.”

She broke him.

He whirled toward her. Fought to pull the man back to the forefront and shed the body of the beast. He wondered if the pain of the shift would become easier to bear, or if it would always feel like he was being ripped apart.

But the pain, it didn’t last. In moments, he was one the floor, body trembling, hands and knees pressing against the hard wood of her bedroom.

“Duncan?”

His head lifted as the floor creaked beneath her footsteps. She’d grabbed some kind of robe and wrapped around her body. Her blood had stained the side of the robe.

He still wanted to rip Saul apart.

“It’s okay.” She kept talking softly and held out her hand, as if to a wild beast.

Oh, yeah, right. That’d be me.

“Are you…in control?” Holly asked quietly.

He was still on the floor. He should be on his feet, helping her. She was wounded. She needed care and attention.

But he didn’t move because he wasn’t sure of himself. He gave her the truth, simply saying, “No.” Rumbling. Deep.

Her eyes widened.

He’d told her to run before. Why hadn’t she listened to him? Saul hadn’t been the only threat to her.

“I’m okay,” she told him. Still in that whole let’s-tame-the-beast voice. Only she didn’t seem to get that the beast wasn’t in the mood to be tamed.

Then she lifted her robe, revealing the curve of her thigh, the dip of her stomach. “See…all healed.”

There were no wounds on her, nothing to blemish that smooth skin. How the hell was that even possible?

But…screw the hows…her legs were long and perfect. He could see the curve of her breast. She was trying to pull the robe back but—

Want to see.

In an instant, he was on his feet. His hands were on her, reaching for that robe.

“Duncan?”

“I told you…run…” She could still get away. He was as much of a monster as Saul and—

Holly shook her head. Her eyes seemed to see into him. “I don’t want to run from you.”

His breath was coming too hard. His heart racing too fast. His cock aching too much. He stood before her, naked because his clothes had shredded with the shift, and there was no hiding his arousal.

She wasn’t pulling away. Wasn’t pushing against him.

She was reaching up. Standing on her tip toes. Kissing him.

The woman had just sealed her fate.

You should have run. Now there won’t be any escape.

She tried to make the kiss soft and gentle. Not happening. He was on fire for her. Needed her more than air. So his hold was too rough, his hands almost shaking as he lifted her up against him and plundered her mouth. His tongue thrust past her lips. He tasted.

Yes. She tasted as sweet as she smelled. His mouth pressed harder against hers, and he stumbled forward with her.