Chapter 51
The afternoon was quiet. We didn’t speak about Julien or Dominic. I held my little wooden wolf in the palm of my hand, petting its back with my thumb for comfort.
Jax and Grayson tested their abilities with hunting together, leaving me alone in my own thoughts. I could hear them dashing through the foliage, occasional glowing eyes checking on me.
It was driving me crazy. The not knowing. The waiting. Every passing minute felt like an hour. I was completely alone in the camp but surrounded by the two men inside my head. I closed my eyes.
Dominic remained exactly where I left him. His energy turned smug at my acknowledgment of his presence. I attempted to do as Grayson had taught, building a wall brick by brick. I could feel his hold weakening but before the last brick was set, it disintegrated from the bottom up.
Our connection during this time was too strong, his pretentious grandeur filling the space. The bond held so much power over me that it was becoming overwhelmingly insistent. The tie between us hummed with his attention.
He was summoning me and the call hooked beneath my ribs. My gravity shifted in his direction. Before I could even comprehend, my feet moved without permission as the tension built below my belly.
An uncomfortable ache set into my bones, tightness pulling at my veins. A slow burn spread from between my thighs and my skin prickled as the flush crept up to my neck. Wetness grew as desire for him pulled at my hips.
My eyes were still closed but I could tell I had left camp, moving towards him like a match to gasoline. I was led by ribbons of shimmering light, guiding me down paths I had yet to learn.
Dominic was pleased by my progress. I wanted to please him. An image of me on my knees before him appeared. My hands gripping his waist, the world narrowing to his length alone and I took it in my mouth, trying to become a part of him with each suck and swallow.
Solid hands stopped me in my path, I opened my eyes to a hazy but real Grayson holding me in place.
"You’re not getting away from me that easily," he said, turning me around and pushing me back toward camp.
"I don’t know what happened," I said, scared and flustered from the lingering feelings.
"It’s the bond," he said. " He’s testing us, reaching through it for you."
Disappointment tightened around my throat for my lack of control.
"He’s near, I can smell the rot of him."
I gasped wondering how close was close enough for Grayson to be able to smell him. I wrapped my arms around my shoulders, shuttering at how close I could have came to being claimed by Dominic again.
Jax lept onto the path, making me scream out in horror at the scare. He laughed at the way I jumped making me snack him on the chest.
He raised a bundle of different small game, hanging by their feet. He was grinning widely at his accomplishment and Grayson gave him a look of approval as we continued down our path, his hand at my back.
Back at camp, Jax busied himself at the work table while I clung to Grayson’s protection.
When I was close enough, Grayson’s bond silenced Dominic’s. Grayson wore a look of irritation but didn’t stop me as I followed him around.
As sunset began do fall upon us, we settled into our places by the fire. This time I sat at Grayson’s feet, using his shins as my backrest.
Their conversation floated around me but I couldn’t hear them. My worry made my ears mute, my mind trapping me in what-ifs.
When Jax drifted off to sleep mid-talk, Grayson’s hand fell to the base of my neck. The sensation snapped me back into his presence, and I leaned into the warmth of the fingers gripping the side of my throat as gently as he could manage.
I took a deep breath, letting the heaviness release as he squeezed slightly.
"I hate that I feel this way. I hate that I have no control," I confessed to him.
"I’d think you’d be used to it by now," he said and I turned with an offended look directed at him. Was he seriously making a joke right now?
He rolled his eyes like I was the one to have said something rude to him and reached for my arm to pull me up.
I hesitated, but followed as he stood. Jax breathed softly through his open mouth as we passed. I tiptoed, not wanting to wake him, but Grayson’s fell with heavy thumps, defeating my efforts. Yet Jax remained fast asleep as we left.
"Where are we going?" I whispered, afraid any noise would wake the trees.
He led us into the darkness, "you need a walk."
I entwined my fingers through his, he went rigid but didn’t pull away. The almost full moon split through the shadows, giving an allure that felt less like danger and more like a promise.
We strolled until my mind cleared, the charm of the night air filling my lungs like an intoxicating spell.
Grayson moved like moonlight was part of his blood. Not something he saw, but something he was. Everything seemed to bow to him like he was the master of the dark. I paused, turning him towards me where our hands met.
He peered down at me with a questioning look. Standing on my tiptoes, I reached around his neck and pulled him down. I pressed my face into his neck, taking in his own aroma with a gratefulness for his solidity.
He tensed against my touch, then his shoulders dropped as though my body against his signaled him to settle.
He closed around me, fingers tracing my spine. The feeling was electric and I wanted to bury myself in him to forget Dominic ever existed.
My nose rubbed against the skin of his neck, just below where the shadow of his beard ended. The skin raised at the wind of my breath.
He felt so good, smelled so good. The urge for more coiled tight in my chest, threatening to explode. I dragged my lips down his neck, fighting the impulse to suck on him.
His hands moved to my ribs, tightening their grip as though he wanted to push me away but didn’t have the strength. I should hold back, I told myself. My emotions were too high to be acting so recklessly the night before the full moon. But part of me wanted to rebel.
My tongue touched down on the coarseness of his neck before my lips did and a groan fell from him that made my stomach lurch. I twisted my fingers through the hair at the back of his head, feeling its silky-smoothness with a fierce need.
My knee dragged up his leg until it rested at his hip where I wrapped my ankle around him, pulling him closer.
He was already ready for me, his gurth pressing into me with a throbbing need through his pants.
A hand moved around the back of my leg that wrapped around him and he yanked me even closer. My kisses to his neck became more passionate as I moaned into him.
Without warning, the hand not gripping into my ass, held fast onto the back of my neck and pulled me abruptly away at the base.
I stared into him, upset by his lack of response. His voice broke through the stillness, deep and pained like he was enchanted by a choice he didn’t have.
"Don’t start something you’re not ready to finish."
His eyes has darkened and his breathing had quickened as he looked at me with restrained desire.
I had wanted him before, but that pull had come from the bond, a tether I couldn’t quite separate from my own desire. It had felt compelling, almost inevitable.
Now, standing in his arms with one hand on my ass and the other around my neck, I realized something had shifted.
This wasn’t the bond forcing me.
I was choosing him.
I leaned in closer, my lips rubbing at the edges of his ear before I whispered to him,
"I’m yours,"
My tongue slipped into the place my words had been, sealing them in as I moved to the bottom of his earlobe. A growl fell from him, predatory in nature and he pulled me back once again.
I froze at the look in his eye. His bottom lip curled back, baring his clenched teeth. His breath shook with what felt like anger, his chest heaving with short breaths. His eyes sparked into a golden glow. He was purely animalistic with how he glared at me.
"I won’t be able to stop myself," he confessed, the implication of his words hanging between us.
"Then don’t."
Time froze for a fraction of a second before he pulled me in. He grappled at my leg, pulling it so I lifted and was completely wrapped around him. My hands clawed at his back as he pushed me against the nearest tree and finally...at last.
His lips crashed into mine.