Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

When I pull into the parking lot at the state park, the picnic tables are full of families having lunch or taking breaks from swimming in the lake. Beyond the picnic area, though, are miles of untamed forest. I know the trails well, and even when the lake is busy, I’m usually alone when I go out hiking. Sometimes I’ll just take off into the woods with my compass, if only to enjoy the sense of pure wilderness all around me. It’s quiet, peaceful, and beautiful, and it’s often the only way I have to de-stress after a long week at work.

As I park, I spot Eli sitting on a bench, his shoulders curled and tense. When I get out of my car, his head jolts up, though he still has that flat expression I can’t read.

“Tiff,” he says. I stop a few feet away, and he doesn’t try to bridge the gap between us.

“Eli.” I sit down carefully on the other side of the picnic table. There’s such an intensity in his dark eyes that I have to look away. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“Clearing my head.” He turns and gazes out into the trees. “I love it out here. Sometimes I like to just get lost in the woods until I come back to earth.”

I know what he means. It can be really centering to escape the city and simply breathe in the scent of the trees.

Maybe Leon’s right, and Eli and I are more alike than I thought.

“You’ve created a huge mess,” I say at last. Right now, the park doesn’t make me feel peaceful in the least, because all I can think about is what damage he’s done.

Eli shrugs like it’s the most inconsequential thing in the world. “The fucker deserved it.”

“You don’t get it,” I say, biting my lip. “Mr. Bosley—he’s caught up in something bad. Something that could come back and bite me , too.”

His hard expression falters. “What do you mean? Does this have to do with that car following you?”

I explain everything: the strange woman making frequent appearances at the office, and what I suspect Mr. Bosley has been doing for her. How my idiot boss is now probably putting his life at risk doing something stupid, like confronting whoever is in charge of this operation, because of Eli’s little escapade last night.

The longer I talk, the more drawn Eli’s face gets.

“That woman is dangerous,” I tell him. “I’m sure of it.”

“Jesus, Tiff,” he says, massaging his temples. “And you helped him with this?”

I frown. Why don’t any of these guys get it? “I didn’t have a choice. It was that or lose my job.”

“No job is worth this.” He reaches across the table to put his hand on mine, but I pull it away. My anger rises like a flame.

“You don’t get to tell me that,” I snap. “You have to come clean with Mr. Bosley, Eli. He’s going to get himself in trouble. They might even…” I don’t want to think about it.

“So what?” Eli stands up, furrowing his dark brows. “He’s the one who got himself into this mess! It’s not your responsibility to get him out of it again.”

I could just smack him right now. How does he not realize that he’s only made a big problem much worse?

I get up to my feet, too, because I’m tired of letting other people intimidate me. All the anger that’s been festering inside me, that’s grown every time Mr. Bosley insulted me or demanded I defy my own moral compass for him, is sprouting to the surface.

“Don’t you get it? Whatever happens to him”—I jab a finger into Eli’s chest—“it’ll blow back on me, too!”

“Then we’ll protect you.” He lowers his head toward mine, speaking quieter. “I’ll always protect you, Tiff.”

It sends a shiver rolling across my skin. Eli inhales deeply, his nostrils flaring. He smells like sweat and pine trees, and it’s so intoxicating that it’s maddening. I put a hand on his chest and push him away, but he’s like a wall of bricks. Maybe his build is more slender than his brothers’, but Eli is still far taller and stronger than I am.

“Why?” I hold my ground, even though he’s so close to me—so, so close—and it’s filling my head with all sorts of thoughts I shouldn’t be entertaining. “You made it clear I don’t mean anything to you.”

The growl that comes out of him is most certainly not human.

“You mean everything to me,” he says in a low, rumbling voice.

I gape at him. “Then why?” I ask. “Why did you treat me like you couldn’t stand me?”

Eli’s eyes are wide, like he doesn’t understand the question. Then, with clear shame on his face, he looks down at his feet.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he finally answers. “When I saw how close you were with Quinn, how comfortable you already felt with him, I felt like I’d lost a race. Like my brothers already reached the finish line while I hadn’t even realized it started yet.”

“It’s not a competition,” I say, throwing my arms in the air. “There’s no race. You could have stayed when we all went on a date, you know. We could have gotten to know each other better. Instead, you’ve made me think I did something wrong all this time.”

Eli’s shoulders rise to his neck, and he keeps his eyes anywhere but mine. “It was too much pressure. I move at a different speed. And I thought that since I wasn’t like them, you wouldn’t be interested in me. I didn’t want to fall for you if you weren’t going to return my feelings.”

I shake my head, finally understanding. “So what are you saying? Do you like me, Eli?”

His mouth falls open. Then he snaps it closed and frowns deeply.

“ Like doesn’t begin to describe it,” he says, almost dangerously. “I know who you are. I know what you are.”

All the hair on my skin stands on end. “And what’s that?” I ask, voice wavering.

“Mine. My mate.” He steps closer to me, lowering his head so his mouth drops to my ear. I don’t move a muscle as his breath tickles my cheek. “And a wolf protects his mate. From everything.”

Just the words make me twitch between the legs. Warmth is pooling in my belly at the low, seductive lilt of his voice. “You can’t protect me all the time.”

“Yes, I can.” The words come out in a rumbling growl that no longer sounds human. “Because when I drag you back to our den, we’ll all be there to make sure nothing happens to you.”

His mouth trails down from my ear to my throat, never once touching me, just gusting his breath across my skin. The sensation sends a sharp bite of pleasure rippling downward, and I squeeze my thighs together.

Eli sniffs the air and groans. “Is that right?” His hand drifts around my back, still hovering an inch away from my shirt. Then his fingers duck under my hair at the nape of my neck. “Am I turning you on, little rabbit?”

As if his words have taken on a life of their own, I feel my very blood pulsing in my veins. I want to tell him he can’t shut me up and end this conversation just by being sexy. I want to push him away and yell in his face. He has to fix this, somehow. But it’s like he’s put me in a trance.

“W-we shouldn’t be doing this,” I say, my voice unbearably weak. “Not while Mr. Bosley?—”

“Fuck Mr. Bosley.” He leans down and taunts me with another not-quite-kiss on my neck. “You and I have unfinished business, and that’s much more important to me. You’re all I’m thinking about right now.”

The only thing I can focus on is how much I need his mouth to finally taste my skin, how much I need his hands on other parts of me.

“I know what you want,” Eli murmurs. I can feel him changing, his claws tangling in my curls. “I can smell it on you.”

His nose grazes over my shoulder, and then he scrapes me there with his teeth. My back arches, my hips sliding back against his.

“Eli, there are people everywhere.”

But I don’t want him to stop, either. My heart is beating madly, as if I could run a mile. I want to kiss him and I want to flee at the same time. Eli is beautifully, wonderfully dangerous. He understands me, and he destroyed for me. I know now that no matter what, I’m safe as long as I’m with him.

“Is that it?” he asks. “You want to run and hide where no one can see you? Let out all that anxiety until I catch you and rip all your clothes off?”

“Yes,” I whimper. I want to give him control, but in a very different way than Leon takes control. I want to escape the whole tangled web of Mr. Bosley’s bullshit, to forget all about my shitty job and let Eli fuck all the tension out of me.

He runs his hands down my thighs, digging the claws of his other hand into my jeans.

“You want to run away from the big, bad wolf?” he asks, still gripping my hair, breathing against my neck, and I can’t help the moan that falls from my lips.

I nod rapidly. I want to find the high he’s promising me, far away from all these people.

“Then go.” Eli releases me. I find his canines have grown even longer, even sharper. He licks them, as if he’s ready to tear out my throat, and that makes all the blood in my body run even hotter. “Run and hide, little rabbit, so I can find you again.”

I know these woods, probably better than he does. A thrill runs through me. I can weaponize all this fear, all the anxiety I’ve felt since Mr. Bosley called me this morning, and use it to fuel me.

Maybe then I can lose myself in Eli, instead.

My breaths speed up, and without thinking twice, I turn around and run.

I sprint past other picnic tables, where people give me odd looks as I blaze by. Once I’m through the picnic area and surrounded by tall trees, I dive off the main path, because I’ll be much too easy to follow if I take it. I careen between trunks, my legs finally recognizing what I’m asking of them. My muscles come to life and speed me into the forest.

From far behind me comes the sound of footsteps, the crunching of pine needles and twigs. A loud howl echoes through the woods, and I know I’m no longer being chased by a man, but by a creature.

I push my legs even harder, my feet pounding the forest floor as I take a quick left turn, then keep going. That heat in my abdomen hasn’t cooled—if anything, I’m even hotter, even wetter between my thighs, thinking about what Eli might do to me when he finds me. He is truly a beast right now, something feral and hungry. And he wants to eat me .

The ground slopes upward, and my breaths come harder. My thighs burn as I try to keep my pace going uphill. I’m dodging fallen logs and zigzagging between tree trunks when a roar echoes through the air. Instead of two feet crunching the forest floor, now I can hear four bounding through the trees behind me. They’re growing closer and closer, and a manic laugh comes out of me.

I think, perhaps, I’ve always wanted to be chased. I’ve been training for this for years without even realizing it. All my anxiety about Mr. Bosley has drained away, turning into raw fuel.

I take another sharp turn and keep going, my lungs burning, my chest aching. My legs are losing strength quickly, and now my heavy breaths can be heard everywhere.

Suddenly, there’s a low growl from behind me, so close it could practically be on top of me. I don’t have time to dodge or duck before something heavy slams into me, catapulting me to the forest floor. My hands skid across pine needles and dirt, and all the air rushes out of my lungs.

“Caught you,” Eli’s gravelly voice says.

Something massive is holding me down with sharp claws, its body weight keeping me from escaping, no matter how much I scrabble with my hands and twist my body. The more I wriggle, the more those claws dig into my shirt and jeans, and the monster on top of me snarls. My fear and my arousal all mix together, driving me absolutely wild. I’m so painfully wet that it’s sticky between my thighs.

“Keep struggling, little rabbit,” Eli tells me, lowering his drooling mouth to my ear, “and you’ll awaken the beast more than you already have.”

Droplets of saliva fall onto my cheek, dripping down to the forest floor. I moan as those clawed hands rake down my sides, chewing into my clothing. He licks the side of my face, that hot tongue leaving a trail along my cheek and ear. I gasp as his huge hands find my ass, squeezing it tight. I buck, pushing my hips against his paws.

“Should I rut you right here on the ground?” he asks, panting into my ear. “Or should I take you on my cock against this tree?” He tears into the fabric of my pants with an audible rip .

Oh, I kind of liked those.

He drags his claw between the cheeks of my ass, down to where I’m moist and needy, and cups my pussy in his paw. “I think you want me to mate you right here, in the dirt.” There’s even more ripping as my thighs open of their own accord, exposing me to the air.

Yes, that’s exactly what I want: to be fucked by this monster, right here out in nature, right where we belong.