The forest held its breath.
Moonlight cut through the bare branches like silver knives, painting the ground in cold light and deeper shadow.
The air smelled of damp earth, pine, and something older something that made the back of Allison’s neck prickle even before she heard the soft crunch of boots as Derek closed the final distance.
She didn’t turn away.
She already knew.
Derek’s hand closed around her throat, not tight enough to choke, just firm enough to pin her against the rough bark of the great oak they had returned to.
His body crowded hers, leather jacket cold against her green sweater, heat radiating from the skin beneath.
His free hand braced above her head.
His eyes were fully gold now, the man and the wolf both looking out at her.
“You shouldn’t have come out here,” he said, voice low and rough.
“Not tonight.”
Allison’s pulse jumped under his palm.
She didn’t look away.
“Something’s hunting in these woods.
People are disappearing.
You’re the only one who knows what’s really out here.”
A humorless smile ghosted across his mouth.
“And you thought cornering an alpha the night before the full moon was smart?”
His thumb stroked the side of her throat, slow.
She felt the faint tremor in his control, the way the wolf under his skin was already stretching, restless.
The scent of him rolled over her: pine, smoke, and the sharp metallic edge of the Change waiting just under the surface.
“I thought,” she said, breath catching, “that if I came alone, you’d finally stop pretending you don’t want me.”
Derek’s eyes flared brighter.
For a second the forest seemed to lean in.
Then he kissed her.
It wasn’t gentle.
It was the kind of kiss that said mine and dangerous, and I warned you.
His mouth claimed hers hard, tongue sliding against hers, teeth grazing her lower lip.
Allison made a soft, helpless sound and arched into him. Find the original chapter at g.com.
His hand left the tree and fisted in her red hair, tilting her head back so he could deepen it.
The other stayed on her throat, possessive, feeling every swallow, every racing beat of her pulse.
When he broke the kiss, they were both breathing harder.
“You have no idea what you’re asking for,” he growled against her mouth.
“Then show me.”
Something in him snapped.
Derek spun her, pressing her chest to the tree.
The bark bit into her palms as he yanked her sweater up, rough hands mapping the bare skin of her waist, her ribs, the soft undersides of her breasts.
She gasped when his teeth found the side of her neck—not breaking skin, not yet, but the threat was there, the promise of a bite that would mark her in ways that had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with claiming.
His hips pressed against her ass.
Even through the denim, she could feel how hard he was, thick and heavy, the wolf’s hunger bleeding into the man.
“Mystery first,” she managed, voice shaky with want.
“The missing hikers.
The claw marks that aren’t yours.
The way the pack’s been restless for weeks”
Derek’s hand slid down the front of her jeans, cupping her through the fabric.
She was already wet; he made a low, satisfied sound when he felt it.
“There’s something older than us in these woods,” he said against her ear, fingers working the button of her jeans open.
“Something that wakes when the moon is almost full.
It doesn’t just kill.
It takes.
And it’s been circling closer every night.”
His hand slipped inside her underwear.
Two fingers stroked through her slick folds, then pushed deep.
Allison’s head dropped forward against the tree with a broken moan.
Derek worked her slow and thorough, curling his fingers just right, thumb circling her clit in maddening little presses.
“And you,” he continued, voice rough with restraint, “keep putting yourself in its path.
Looking for me.”
She pushed back against his hand, chasing the friction.
“Because you’re the only one who”
He added a third finger, and she lost the rest of the sentence in a sharp cry.
Derek’s free hand yanked her jeans and underwear down just far enough.
The night air was cold on her exposed skin; his body was burning hot against her back.
She heard the rasp of his zipper, felt the thick, hot length of him slap against the curve of her ass.
“Last chance to walk away,” he growled.
Allison reached back, fingers wrapping around him, stroking once, twice.
He was so hard it almost hurt, the head already slick.
“I’m not walking.”
He lined up and thrust into her in one deep, claiming stroke.
Allison’s cry echoed through the trees.
Derek’s hand clamped over her mouth, muffling the sound as he set a hard, relentless rhythm.
Every snap of his hips drove her forward against the tree; every withdrawal made her clench around him, trying to keep him inside.
The wet sounds of their bodies meeting filled the quiet forest.
His other hand stayed between her legs, fingers rubbing tight circles over her clit in time with his thrusts.
The wolf was close to the surface now.
She could feel it in the way his grip tightened, in the low, continuous growl vibrating against her back, in the sharp points of his canines grazing the sensitive skin of her neck.
“Derek”
“I know.” His voice was barely human.
“Come for me.
Let me feel it.”
She shattered with a muffled sob against his palm, inner walls clamping down hard around him.
Derek cursed, hips stuttering, and followed her over with a deep, guttural groan, burying himself to the hilt as he spilled inside her in hot pulses.
For a long moment, the only sounds were their ragged breathing and the distant call of a night bird.
Then, somewhere deeper in the woods, something answered.
A howl that wasn’t any wolf either of them knew.