I wait for the pain to come from the sting of his hand across my face, but it doesn’t. “Please,” Ansel says above me. Hesitantly, I peek at him, and he lets out a scoff. “I’m not that much of a brute,” he says, rolling his eyes.
“I-I don’t understand.” The cage vibrates. I’m not imagining it; he’s broken it with little force. Rods fall one by one from around me, making an enormous bang when they hit the floor. Ansel grabs one, stopping it just in time from colliding with my head. I can hear my heartbeat as I stare wildly at the metal pole in his hand.
He extends it to me, and the ice of his eyes brews a storm in them again. “That cage was a bit of a buffer. Now we can actually have some fun.” My face pales at his words and his face breaks into a devilish grin. He chuckles. “I’ve told you already, I’m not a brute…well not THAT much of one, but that doesn’t mean I can have you continue to lie to me. Are you finally ready to admit that I’m right about who you are, or am I going to have to prove it to you?” I purse my lips and he shrugs. “Suit yourself,” he says.
A gasp parts from my mouth when he jerks me to him. Ansel holds me at my wrists and examines my reaction. It doesn’t take long. Picking up on his pheromones, my body betrays me, and my legs turn to jelly. He takes one of my hands and trails it down my stomach, and my breath harshens.
“Do you remember that night?” His eyes tint slightly in color. He pulls me closer, and I can smell the mint on his tongue as he brings his lips inches from mine. “At first, we were just running wild, and playing as we’d always done.” He places my hand on the outside of my right thigh. “Then out of nowhere it began to rain, and you looked at me, and I could sense something was different. Your voice had so much lust in it when you said my name.”
Ansel’s lips found my ear, and his whisper caused me to shiver, “You asked me to make love to you. I’d never heard you be so brazen, but it was only the beginning of the way you would surprise me that night.” He gently caressed my hand, but it feels like he’s touching me directly. “You took my hand and placed it between your thighs.”
Ada gave a raspy growl, and I bite my lip. Feeling him caress my hand again, and I close my eyes and part my legs. He smiles against my skin and slides his hand up further, landing right where my birthmark is. “I know every fold, mole and little freckle that sits on your skin. I know because I studied every inch of your body that night like it was a map made just for me. I also remember how wet you were…”
His fingers connect with my mound, and my legs buckle. “You were as wet as you are now. Do you remember, little wolf? I do. Your teeth imprinted a row on my chest that I thought would stay forever. You asked me to touch every part of you that night, and I did, and the more I touched, the more brazen you became. You begged me not to stop. You told me over and over how amazing it felt when I stroked deeply inside of you. You orgasmed so many times against me that night, you were hoarse by the time the sun rose.”
“Stop it, Ansel,” I say with reddening cheeks. “That was a long time ago.”
He rubs his fingers back and forth, and my wetness grows. “And yet, it’s clear your body still remembers it all the same.” I twitch the tip of my nose to remove the addicting smell of him, but it doesn’t work.
Ansel brings his face back to mine, and though his demeanor is cool, I can tell something in him has shifted again. “Tell me why you rejected me five years ago,” he demands.
“I don’t—” He slips two fingers inside of me, and my words catch in my throat. Heat engulfs my entire body as he works against my sweetened spot.
“Tell me. Why?” His fingers send my body into overdrive without him having to use his powers. My orgasm swiftly approaching, I tighten my wetness around him. “I didn’t love you anymore,” I manage to get out, and he stops, causing my climax to fall.
Ada jolts forward, knocking me into him. My lie drives her into madness, and she grows even more out of sync with me.
Ansel lips tighten into a thin line, and he doesn’t say a word. Instead, he picks up his torture again, and tears well in the corner of my eyes from my sexual frustration. Knowing I was close, he stopped his movements and smirks. “I guess some things haven’t changed,” he says with a smug expression that makes me grit my teeth.
I can’t take this anymore.
His closeness and Ada’s crushing sadness and anger were going to make me spill the truth.
“I’m sorry, Ada, but I need to do this. It’s the only way to keep everyone safe.”
She doesn’t answer me, but I can feel her overwhelming emotions. Pushing them to the side, I swallow my spit and force more poison from my mouth.
“Things have changed, Ansel, whether you believe they have or not. I’m not the same girl you knew before, or haven’t you gathered that yet? They may have changed my name on the auction block, but what they said about me is true.”
The sneer on his face contorts into a look so dark I can practically see his wolf on his face. He pulls his fingers from me and scowls. “What did you just say to me?”
“You heard me,” I challenge back, and the veins in his temples jump. “What part of I go to the highest bidder do you not you understand?”
The look he gives me kills me as much as Ada’s broken heart. If he had even a slither of some feelings left for me, it’s definitely now replaced now by hatred.
“How many men have you fucked for money?” he asks through ragged breath.
I keep my gaze fixated on him. “Countless. More than enough to forget out that random night we shared,” I say as my bottom lip quivers.
Ansel’s eyes shift in color again, and his nostrils flair. His fingers tangle in my hair, and he uses it to back me into the couch. Red in the face, he pins me to the furniture, and I can feel his erection pressed against me.
“Say it again,” he baits me, and I can sense his wolf coming to the surface. “Go on, Karin. Provoke the beast right out of me.”
#Ansel’s Epilogue: A New Tomorrow Ansel and Karin waited together on the wings of the stage, listening to the cheers and booming voice over the microphone. Edwin had been removed from the election ballot. The next in-line for the throne, a cousin, replaced him. Ansel won in a landslide. Ansel looked at Karin. She was leaning against her crutches. Her raven hair fell down over her shoulders. Her brown eyes were warm and flecked with gold. “Did I ever tell you,” he said, “How proud I am of you?” A blush came over her cheeks. She raised her eyebrow. “What for?” “You llean into your confidence more and more everyday,” he said. “I always knew you were feisty as shit, but until the day of the attack, when I really saw you in action, I didn’t fully recognize just how courageous and strong you are.” Karin looked down at her feet, hiding a smile. “I was always scared of Ada’s power,” she said. She looked back up at Ansel. “I held her back constantly, but I think I’ve finally learned to
“Do not leave,” Ansel whispers. “Got it?” His voice is a command. I shake my head. Ansel opens his mouth to argue when we hear a cry. The hair stands up on the back of my neck and my stomach lurches. It’s Charles. Without another second, he is out of the room. Ada’s pacing, urging me to go. She pushes against me with such a force, I can’t ignore it. Quietly as I can, I slip out the door and begin to slink down the stairs. As I do, I pick up on the scents of multiple Weres. The alarm bells are ringing, but Ada keeps edging me closer. I hear Ansel’s voice as I continue creeping down the stairway. “Go on,” he shouts. “Give me the ‘bad guy’ exposition, Edwin.” As I tiptoe around the corner, I see Charles, lying still on the ground. Where I would have panicked, Ada is an intense calm. Ansel’s eyes dart over, likely picking up my scent. We make eye contact before he whips his eyes back, so as not to give me away. Then, he mindlinks with me. “Go upstairs.” I don’t argue back. Ho
Ansel Ansel’s eyes flew open and chaos ensued. Filled with adrenaline, he sprang up in the bed, grabbing a masked stranger by the neck. “Lorazepam!” Ansel could not place where he was or what was happening. The lights were blinding and painful. Blue gloves, blue masks, and eyes of strangers encroached him, swirled over him and around him. He felt overwhelmed and attacked. Hands pried Ansel’s hand from the neck. A dozen arms held Ansel back from flinging himself off the bed or doing further damage. Ansel felt something cold in his arm and it spread through his body. A voice chuckled. “I think the atro-corticoid worked a little too well.” Ansel’s fight instinct abated. His body relaxed. The glaring light dissipated and his eyes adjusted. He registered for the first time where he was. A hospital room, with whirs and beeps, white tile floor, the sound of footsteps outside in the hall, and the smell of sickness, chemical cleaners, and grief in the air. Ansel was surrounded by a conce
KarinThe dream flickers away, like a candle blown out. For a moment, I’m filled with terror, afraid that I’ve lost Ansel, but I feel his presence even if I can’t see or hear him. Still, the control and the energy I’m trying to hold on to is quickly fading. It’s twilight. I’m standing outside the sanitorium. I fight it, but I feel myself slipping into a nightmare redux.“My son tells me good things about you.” Sir David looks nothing like Ansel. His hair is gray, his body is imposingly muscular, and his face is weathered and scarred from fights, but it’s the menacing look in his eyes and the hardened expression on his face that’s the real difference.For once, Ada and are in complete agreement on something - we don’t like him. Sir David’s eyeing me. I pull my hair around, making sure to hide Ansel’s bite mark on my neck. I nod my head. “He’s very serious about you,” he says. “Did you know?”I hesitate. A swallow chirps nearby. There’s no one in sight and he scares me. Ada jumps i
Karin“Tick tick tick…” The jet of a sprinkler shoots water across the green lawn, painting a rainbow in the shimmer of water droplets against the morning sun. Henry wakes up to the sound of his wife crying against the closed bathroom door. “Mags?” Silence. Apathy. Untouched plates of food.Henry sits on the porch, wearing a faded Hawaiian shirt with a surfboard print. Maggie’s in a chair across from him, almost unrecognizable with greasy, unwashed hair and wrinkled clothes. He’s made her iced tea. “With a dash of mint,” he says, his tone gentle. Maggie stares ahead. There’s a dead look to her eyes.Leaves crunching. Greased palm. Black car. Maggie’s hollow eyes torment him. He misses when her eyes were alive, when they sparkled with joy, and even when they sizzled in anger at whatever dumb things he did. It’s her eyes that flicker in his mind when he’s approached. ‘I can be a rat,’ he thinks. He says “yes,” without asking the obvious: “Why me?” Later, he will ask himself
The sea is outside. We’re in the bedroom of a small cottage. The door’s open and I can see his mom’s old piano is tucked into the corner of the living room. My ballet shoes sit near the bench.He looks beautiful in the dim light.Everything about Ansel is strong - from the tenor of his voice, his height and broad shoulders, to the muscular lines of his body and the chiseled features of his face.It’s all there - the power of him, the hard lines I resented because he had changed, but his defenses are stripped away, revealing the totality of him and the gentle warmth inside.We’re shoulder-to-shoulder. He tilts his head over to me and smiles, and I like the way his eyes crinkle when he does. I let my head fall against his shoulder. He hums in my ear and loops his index finger around mine.“Is that a new song?”“Just a bit of a melody that popped in,” he says, shr