HER TOUCH

DAPHNE

The rain came down in relentless sheets, washing the mud across the cracked asphalt of the Neutral Zone highway.

Every step I took felt like my insides were tearing apart. Breaking a fated bond was actual physical torture. My lungs burned. I staggered toward a rusted guardrail, bent double, and spat a mouthful of dark blood straight into the dirt.

The silence inside my head was deafening. The Crescent Dawn pack mind-link was completely gone, leaving nothing but a freezing, empty void.

Fat, bloated cow.

Isolde’s mocking voice rattled in my ears, louder than the thunder. I gripped the cold metal guardrail so hard my palms bruised. I looked down at my soaked gown, the wet fabric plastered against my wide hips and heavy thighs. Tristan and his inner circle had spent years making me feel like my body was a defect just because I wasn't built like a skinny frontline warrior. They used my own skin to paint me as a weak liability.

"I am not dying in a ditch for you, Tristan," I choked out, wiping the blood from my lips.

I forced my legs to move, stumbling along the dark, unmapped wasteland.

Suddenly, the asphalt vibrated under my boots. Headlights cut through the downpour as a line of three blacked-out luxury SUVs came tearing down the highway.

Then, a loud crack echoed through the trees. Sniper fire.

The front tire of the lead SUV blew apart in a shower of sparks. The massive armored vehicle skidded violently, slammed into the concrete barrier, and flipped completely onto its side.

The other two trucks screeched to a halt, doors flying open.

"Ambush!" a man screamed into the storm. "They’ve got silver rounds! Move!"

Men in tactical gear flooded out of the woods, guns blazing. I scrambled down the muddy embankment, hiding behind a boulder. I only had a small hunting knife, so I needed to stay invisible.

Then, a deafening screech of tearing metal echoed across the road. The door of the flipped SUV was kicked entirely off its hinges, flying twenty feet and crushing an attacker instantly.

A man climbed out of the smoking wreck.

The second his boots hit the ground, my heart stopped. He was massive, a mountain of raw, dominant muscle in shredded black clothes, but he was hands down the most breathtakingly handsome man I had ever seen in my life. Even covered in mud and blood, his sharp, aristocratic jawline and lethal features made my breath catch completely in my throat.

But he was lost to a violent Lycan blood-rage. His eyes glowed a bright, terrifying crimson in the dark. He moved like lightning, using his bare hands to rip throats out and snap spines like twigs. He was an absolute tyrant.

But the silver was fast. I could smell the sickening, sulfurous tang of silver burning his flesh, seeing the dark purple veins creeping up his neck from the bullet wounds in his chest. His knees suddenly buckled. An attacker stepped up right behind him, raising a rifle to the back of his gorgeous head.

My brain didn't even think. My heart hammered against my ribs as I scrambled up the mud, lunging across the wet asphalt. Before the guy could pull the trigger, I slammed my hunting knife straight into his throat. He choked and dropped into the mud.

The rest of the attackers panicked and sped away into the dark.

The highway went dead quiet, except for the heavy downpour.

The man turned around slowly. His bloody, crimson eyes locked onto me. He let out a low, terrifying snarl that shook the ground, raising his claws, completely blind with pain and ready to tear me in half.

"Stop!" I gasped, standing my ground under the freezing rain. "The silver is hitting your heart!"

He lunged anyway.

His immense weight slammed into me, knocking the wind out of my lungs as we crashed onto the wet, crumpled hood of the SUV. He pinned me flat, his claws digging into the metal right next to my neck. His breath was hot against my face, smelling of copper and raw fury. His red eyes stared down into mine, his suffocating dominant pressure trying to force me to submit.

I didn't blink. I shoved my bare hands straight against his bloody, smoking chest, pressing down hard on the burning silver wounds to stop the bleeding.

The second my skin touched his, everything changed.

The thrashing stopped. The rabid snarl in his throat died instantly. The blood-red fire in his eyes vanished, fading into a deep, pitch-black obsidian.

His entire body went rigid. He let out a sharp gasp, his chest expanding like he had just inhaled air for the first time in his life. The chaotic weight of his aura suddenly smoothed out, turning heavy and completely focused.

He stared down at my hands on his bare skin, then slowly raised his eyes to mine. My touch had just forced his cursed wolf completely lucid.

Up close, the sheer, devastating beauty of his face made my heart race so hard it felt like it would burst out of my chest.

His massive fingers wrapped around my wrists. His grip wasn't gentle—it was a bruising, possessive vice. He didn't pull away. Instead, he leaned his heavy chest down closer into my palms, his dark eyes locking onto mine with an unhinged, intense stare. There was no fated mate bond between us, but there was a heavy, intoxicating pull that made me completely dizzy.

The romantic rain washed over us, soaking my hair and dripping down his blood-smeared, perfect jaw, but neither of us moved.

"Who..." his voice was a deep, rough gravel that vibrated right through my hands and straight down my spine. His grip tightened, his thumbs digging into my skin as his eyes raked over my face, looking at me with total fascination. "Who the hell are you?"

"Daphne ," I whispered, breathless, staring right back into his dangerous, gorgeous eyes. My heart was pounding furiously, trapped beneath his massive body. "And if you don't let me fix your chest, Alpha, you're going to die right on top of me."

A slow, dark, wicked smile spread across his bloody lips. He didn't let go of my wrists. He just leaned down even lower, his rich, overwhelming scent of cedar and rain completely taking over my senses, utterly obliterating the memory of Tristan.

"I'm not dying," he whispered, his voice dangerously low, his eyes dropping to my lips with a sudden, heavy hunger. "Not now that I've got you."