31. Wisteria

He's lying. He has to be. It's impossible.

I stand in the entryway with my hand against the door, my heart pounding, tears streaming down my face. Trying to understand why he would come here, and say something like that to me.

We're mates.A week ago, days ago, I would have been overjoyed. Hopeful. Fearful that he'd gotten bad information, but wanting so badly for it to be true. And now–

Now it just feels like my heart is getting ripped open all over again.

The fact that he went to another witch to find out just feels like adding insult to injury. He couldn't stand to look at me, but he went to another witch. He listened to her when she said that there was no spell, no love magic that had been used to bind him to me.

It hurts. It hurts so badly–and the worst part of it is that I still love him. I still want him. And I have no idea if it's ever going to go away.

If he's telling the truth, it won't.

A howl jolts me out of my thoughts. A high-pitched, miserable, yearning howl that echoes from the woods behind my house, tugging at something deep inside of me, making me want to follow the sound.

My hand drifts towards the doorknob.

What are you thinking, Wisteria?The last thing I should do is go out into the woods–not least of which because Eli said those men were coming after me…even though I feel fairly certain they won't be now. I don't want to think about precisely what Eli might have done, but I think that whatever danger there was to me from them, it's passed now.

The howl sounds again, mournful and so full of longing that the same pain jolts through me. My hand drifts to the knob, turns it.

I open the door.

It's like a string, pulling me forward. Drawing me out into the skin-prickling cold of the night, in nothing but my tank top and sleep shorts, like a girl in a horror movie, like a girl in a fairytale. The woods loom beyond my back fence as I walk around the side of the house, dark and forbidding, but then the howl sounds again, and my pace quickens.

Eli.

It might not be him, I argue with myself. And even if it is, why would you follow him after what he said? What he did? Not to mention–if he's a wolf…

It could be dangerous.

A shiver runs down my spine at the thought, but it doesn't stop me. I see wolf prints in the muddy grass ahead of me, bigger than any normal wolf, leading past the fence into the trees.

It feels like I'm being drawn by something outside of normal reality, something I can't argue with or deny. It tugs at me, pulls me, draws me to my back gate and past it, into the line of trees. Deeper into the woods, as I hear the howl again, and my skin tightens as I remember that night when I heard the shifters howling at the full moon. I remember what it did to me, my body wracked with pleasure, aching for something I didn't understand.

Was it Eli I was aching for? Was the bond there, before we barely even knew each other?

Our entire relationship flashes through my head, every moment, every irrational, undeniable desire, from that very first night. My blood pounds in my veins, my heart racing, the pieces fitting together in a way that I can't bear to think could be true–because if it is, it's everything I wanted, and everything Eli has ruined for us both.

Before I know it, I'm further into the woods than I meant to go. I look around, the deep shadows closing in around me, the sliver of moonlight above barely enough to give me an adequate amount of light. I hear a sound behind me, and whirl to face it, freezing in place as I see what's coming towards me.

A huge, silver-white wolf.

It's bigger than any wolf I've ever seen, twice the size I would expect it to be. It moves slowly towards me, and as I get a glimpse of its eyes, my heart stutters in my chest.

For a moment, they look blue-grey. But then I look again, and I see that they're a bright, metallic silver.

A silver I've seen before, in those moments when Eli has come so close to losing control with me.

"Eli?" I whisper his name, and I see the ears prick. The lips tug back, showing teeth that are wolf-like and sharp, and my mind feels muddled, confused. Everything in me wants Eli, the man that I love, the man that claims I'm his mate, that I'm bonded to him in some cosmic way that neither of us got a choice in. But what's in front of me is a beast. An animal. And every instinct inside of me screams at me to run.

So I do.

I spin on my heel, and flee into the trees.

The ground is soft and damp under my bare feet. Branches whip at my arms, leaves pressing between my toes. The air is cold, chilling me to the bone, but a fine sweat breaks out over me, my heart beating so hard it hurts. And behind me, I can hear the cadence of the wolf's gait, loping after me through the trees.

I remember what Eli said to me, that night we went out to watch the stars.

I'm not sure if I could control myself, out here with you like this.

My pulse leaps into my throat. I pick up my pace, running faster. I can hear him behind me, catching up, his stride easily twice the length of mine.

I want to shift, and hunt you.

Fear lances through me. I'm being hunted. Chased. But the rest of the memory floods back, of me astride him in the grass, his handsome face taut with desire and his hands resting on my hips, and that fear mingles with something else, too.

A pulse picks up between my thighs, matching the beat of my heart, desire spreading through my blood. I stumble in the dirt, nearly falling, and I hear a howl from behind me, loud and far too close, echoing through the trees.

I'm his prey, and he's going to catch me.

I want to run you down, tumble you into the dirt.

I hear a snarl. Hear the slap of paws against dirt and leaves, and I feel a sudden hot weight slam into me, thick fur against my skin as the wolf's body slams into me, sending me across the forest floor, panting on my back in the dirt.

The beast leaps at me, eyes glinting silver, fangs showing, paws landing on either side of me as it snarls–

–and the creature shifts, fur sliding back into flesh, into hard, rippling muscle, the face of a wolf turning back into the face of a man that I recognize…and don't, all at the same time.

His eyes are still glinting silver. His teeth are human, but sharp. It's undeniably Eli, and heat floods my body as I'm overwhelmed with the awareness of how soft and vulnerable I am, lying here beneath him.

Turn back into a man again, and fuck you just like that.

He growls, a deep, primal sound that sends a shudder rippling through me. I feel his hips thrust forward, pressing hard against me, the thick, hot length of his cock against my belly. His hand goes down to my hip, fingers curling against my skin, and I feel the scratch of sharp nails as he tears the shorts away from my body.

"Wisteria." He rasps my name, his hips rutting against mine as he buries his face in my neck, breathing in my scent. His other hand comes up, sharp claws on human fingers tearing away my tank top. Shredding it, until it's nothing but scraps of fabric in the dirt around us. His hands close over my arms, dragging them up, pinning them above my head. They slide upwards, fingers closing around my wrists, and his knee shoves my legs apart.

I could try to fight him. I could try to escape. But I don't want to. I look up at those inhuman silver eyes as Eli stares down at me, a low, growling rumble in his chest, and I arch my hips upwards as I feel the hot length of his cock rub against me again.

He growls again, thrusting. I feel the thick shaft rub against my clit, slick with pre-cum, and I let out a gasping moan, my entire body lit up in an instant by the feeling of him against me.

I wanted this. I needed this. And now, he's going to give me all of that and more.

His fingers curl tighter against my wrists, his hips thrusting again. More friction, more slick heat against my aching, swollen clit, and I moan and buck upwards, already so close to the edge.

Eli's eyes glint with lust. With anger. With something else that I can't entirely read. "Tell me no, little witch," he growls. "Tell me no, or I'm going to fuck you right here."

His voice is low, rasping, every word a primal snarl. He grips my wrists in one hand, the other sliding down to grasp my chin, holding me in place so that I have to meet his eyes. "Tell me to stop."

I want to–and I don't, all at the same time. Somewhere beneath the desire, the lust that's raging through me like a wildfire, I remember how much he hurt me. How I've hurt him, too. How even tonight, when he tried to come back and tell me what he'd discovered, it just hurt me in a new way all over again.

If this is what love feels like, I'm not sure I want it.

But I look up at him–at his muscled body rippling in the moonlight, the silver eyes gleaming down at me, and I can't tell him to stop. I want this. I want him, even if it's for the last time. I want my wolf. I want my Eli.

And I want him even more because I know that even now, even like this, he would stop if I told him to. He's a shifter, a beast–but he's always more man than anything else.

"Don't stop," I whisper, looking up at him. "I don't want you to stop."

Eli's hips move against me, his iron-hard cock rubbing against my clit, the press of his knot making me moan. "Fuck me," I whisper, arching up against him, spreading my legs wider. "You hunted me. You caught me. Now devour me. Please."

The sound he lets out is half-snarl, half-howl. I feel his hips pull back, and then he buries his face in my neck as his swollen tip pushes against me, and I feel every inch of his too-big cock slam into me in one hard, rough, violent thrust.

For a terrifying moment, I think he's going to knot me. And god help me, if he tried, I'd let him. I arch upwards with a cry that's half-pain, half-pleasure as he sinks into me all the way to his knot, only to pull out and slam into me again, fucking me into the grass with a force that threatens to go too deep. I feel him try to go deeper with every thrust, his taut, swollen knot pressing at the edges of my entrance, his hips rocking against me with the effort. His teeth scrape against my neck, and Eli lets out a ragged groan, shuddering.

"Wisteria–" He moans my name, grinding into me. He thrusts again, hard, and I feel myself tip over the edge.

I arch upwards, crying out, my hands curling into fists as I buck against his grip on me, twisting beneath him in the grass as I come hard. He thrusts again, slick and hot inside of me, our bodies writhing together in a dance as primal as his growl in my ear, his teeth against the skin of my neck. I shiver at the contact, the sharp scratch of them over my soft flesh, the warmth of his breath, the pressure of his lips, my body sinking back into the grass as I gasp for breath.

My eyes fly open as I realize he's gone nearly still above me, his body trembling with effort as he holds himself deep inside of me, his hands clutched hard around my wrists. His lips are pressed to my throat still, and I feel the pressure of his teeth.

He could rip my throat out, if he wanted. Cut me to ribbons like the shreds of my clothing around me. I should be afraid, but I'm not. It's as if every bit of my self-preservation fled with my orgasm, and now all I want is more.

I let out a soft, breathy moan, clenching around his thick length, and Eli jerks back as if I've burned him.

He lets go of my wrists, those silver eyes wide as he recoils, pulling out of me and stumbling to his feet. For a moment, as he stands over me, all I can do is stare up at him–at his muscled, sweating body in the sliver of moonlight, his hands curled into claws, his chest heaving, his hard, slick cock pressed against his abdomen, still straining for relief.

"Wisteria." He moans my name, his eyes wild, as he stumbles back. I want to go to him, but I'm too confused, stunned and still trembling from my climax. I stare up at him, watching as he shakes his head, backing away another step, and another.

"I can't. I can't." He shakes his head again, backing towards the trees. And then, as I watch in fascinated horror, he starts to shift.

His body wrenches, changes, muscle and bone enlarging and cracking, twisting, as fur flows over his skin and he drops to all fours. He lets out another of those long, anguished howls that sounds as if it's torn from his throat, and those glinting silver eyes meet mine once more.

And then he turns, loping away into the trees.