Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

CARVER

M emories of the purple-haired girl from last year's round of sacrifices came rushing back. I'd never forget her, as she was the one Casey had caught. The one where I, for the first time, joined in on the feast.

Fuck.

The one time I tried to "fit" in with my pack and participate in the feast following the Hunt, it had to be Ruth's sister. Now I knew where I recognized that vibrant streak of purple running through her hair.

This was the moment where I was supposed to let my human side back into the driver's seat, the part of me that was better equipped to explain what had really happened.

Ruth scrambled to her feet and put several steps of distance between us.

"I didn't kill her," was all I could gnash out as I advanced on her, prowling toward my prey, ready to pounce if she tried to run again.

"You're a liar." Her voice shook as the space between us shrunk. Her survival instincts, along with our freshly forged bond, made her all too aware of what her heat scent was doing to me. I couldn't resist the urge to fill and fuck her right here in the dirt for much longer.

Even if she was still under the impression that I'd murdered her sister.

"I'm not lying…" I said, taking another step toward her. "But even if I did, you butchered my brother. Would that not make us even?"

She held her ground, her hands fisted at her sides and the hatred in her eyes as sharp as daggers. "I— That's not— I didn't have a choice! You had a choice! You said yourself that you didn't need rabbit shifter blood to sate your bloodlust. Or was that a lie, too?"

"It wasn't."

I rose up on my hind haunches to reach for her. She stumbled backward, her back hitting a tree. "S–stay away from me."

"I can't." My mate smelled entirely too delicious for me to do anything of the kind. "My human should have known I wouldn't let you leave these woods without me."

Even though she hated me, her body was desperate for me. The delicious heat pheromones rolling up from her dripping cunt had my mouth watering and my dick hard.

Her attention dropped to my cock, and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth at the way a thick rope of pre-cum oozed from the tip.

That look— It roused something savage inside me. Maybe I didn't crave bunny blood like the rest of my kind,but, oh, how I longed to wring every last drop of cum from her.

"Maybe he did know." I loomed over her now, one paw braced against the tree over her head.

She stiffened against the tree, fury licking up our bond like fire on a rope. Her chest heaved, dark baby hairs clinging to her brow in perfect little curls. She's so delicious . Every moment I wasn't inside her was pure agony.

"Before, I thought this side of you—" she gestured to my furry chest "—was sweet and good. That you had this Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. But maybe there isn't that much of a distinction between you two. You're a monster in either form."

"I am," I agreed. "And that makes your pretty little pussy, oh so wet."

Contempt was written all over her face, but there was desire and excitement there too. Good. I wanted her to want me as much as I wanted her. I wanted her begging for my seed. If I caused her pain, it would be the kind that would leave her desperate for more.

And more than anything else, I wanted to take her far away from these woods, far away from her burrow and the people who threw her to the wolves.

"You're right. My human is a liar. Know why?"

My paw gripped her waist, giving her a squeeze. I loved how my claws nearly touched, she was so small in my grasp.

"Tell me." Her voice bent with a heady mix of pleasure and pain as my digits tightened around her.

The claw tipping my thumb brushed the underside of her breast, creating a lovely little indent in the soft mound. "He agreed to your arrangement, knowing full well I wouldn't allow you to leave. And he didn't tell you the truth when you assumed I couldn't breed you because he wants you just as much as I do. He accepts that now."

"You can't keep me here. They'll find and kill me."

"Oh, Little Bunny. I am leaving these woods with you. Even when I'm not there with you, you will always feel me. I'll hunt those who mean to harm what's mine. I'll stalk your nightmares if it means being the only monster on your mind."

I canted my hips, pushing my cock against her. With our height difference, it jabbed at her belly, making her gasp. I simmered in her shock for a moment before drawing my hips back again, just to watch the thread of pre-cum attaching us stretch and snap.

She caught it, too. I knew by the way her pulse kicked up. She lifted her attention back to me, determination setting her jaw. "If you didn't kill my sister, then who did?" she demanded.

"My brother." I tilted my head, an ear flicking backward. "So, you got your revenge, don't you think?"

Her eyes slivered. "You still had a part in it, didn't you?"

"In a way," I admitted. "I wasn't involved in her death. I wasn't lying about that. I don't join in the Hunt. I never have."

She swallowed hard, giving me those fire-filled "fuck me" eyes.

The human locked within me warned me not to mate her out here in the open.But how could I resist her?

My mate was naked, the sweetest scent leaking from her cunt, so wet I could see little beads of her arousal streaking down her legs.

My mouth watered, my tongue snaking out to lick my jowls. Her lashes fluttered as beads of my saliva peppered her flushed cheeks. "Carver…"

My name in her mouth, breathy and threaded with lust, had me fisting my cock and pushing closer to her.

I needed to bend her over now. She was mine. All mine and I didn't give two fucks who or what might see us. Let them watch. Let them see as I knotted my mate.

"We can't. Not here."

"The cabin would be safer," I mused in my gravel cadence. "But you're in heat again. It won't be long before my pack scents it. It might be better to rut you here and cover you in my scent."

"What if they find us?"

"Then I'll kill them. I'll kill them all if it means protecting you."

Her beautiful doe-eyes widened with shock. "You'd kill your own pack? Why would you do that for me?"

The answer was simple, but I couldn't make myself voice it. I had no right to tell her I loved her, and she wouldn't believe me anyway. Besides, it's not like the love I had for her was healthy or normal. Oh no, my love for this little bunny was strange and dangerous, baptized in blood and hatred.

"I'll tear out every throat that stands in the way of your survival. I'll watch the whole world bleed for you, Ruthless."