Chapter 6

~ Annalyn POV~

"Come here," he said.

The command in his voice was low… but it thrummed through my veins like electricity, and my legs moved...without permission.

Lucas grabbed my wrist, holding me back. "Don't!"

"I'm not doing it," I gasped. "My body...he's pulling me."

Ezra's smile widened. "Your heat is deeper than they know, you think you've tasted it with them? You haven't even begun." He took another step.

Lucas growled. "Touch her and I'll rip you in half!"

Ezra just laughed, "ha, ha, ha..." but it wasn't warm.

It was the sound of someone who had already destroyed something precious...and liked how it felt.

Lucas pushed me behind him. "Go back to the room, Annalyn!"

"I can't leave you here." I said.

"This isn't your fight."

"Yes, it is!" I snapped. "I'm the reason he's here."

Matteo said under his voice.."She's defending him now? Whatever!"

Ezra's voice interrupted. "You're not the reason, you're the prize."

And then everything exploded, Lucas launched forward, faster than sight.

Ezra met him halfway, and the house shook. Snarls, fangs, claws. Play like music.

Two alphas...both unstoppable...clashed in a blur of shadows and rage. Matteo and Calix pulled me back, shielding me.

But I saw it, I saw the way Ezra bled...and laughed. He was enjoying this, Lucas went for his throat and Ezra twisted, slammed him into the wall. Glass shattered, pictures fell and the roof groaned under the pressure of their power.

And then...Ezra turned his head, his gaze locked on mine. Even while fighting Lucas, he smiled at me.

I felt it then...between my legs—a ripple of heat so deep it knocked the breath from my lungs. He was doing it again, manipulating my body, fueling my heat. And I couldn't stop it.

My thighs pressed together, my nipples peaked under the sheet and Calix noticed.

"You're reacting to him now?" he growled.

"I didn't... I'm not..." I stammered.

Matteo stared at me, jaw clenched. "He's syncing with your cycle."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," Calix said darkly, "you're bonding."

"What!" I ran down the hall. Back into Lucas's room, the sheets still smelled like sex. My body was betraying me in every way. Sweat clung to my skin. My heat was rising again...worse than before deeper and more violent.

I dropped the sheet and stumbled to the mirror. My reflection stared back...red cheeks, parted lips, eyes glassy with lust and panic.

What's happening to me? I turned the faucet, splashed cold water between my legs. My fingers shook, my knees gave out. I gripped the counter, trying to breathe.

Behind me...the floor creaked, I turned. Ezra stood in the doorway. No blood, no wounds, no sound.

Just… him. I should've screamed.

But all I could whisper was, "How...?"

"He let me go," Ezra said, stepping inside. "Lucas knew I'd come for you. Now he has no choice but to let you choose."

"I didn't invite you..."

"You don't have to." His hand lifted.

And my body stepped toward him. No control, no resistance. His fingers brushed my jaw.

And the moment he touched me, my body went wild.

I gasped, heat exploded from my core like fire through my bloodstream. My knees buckled. My back arched. He caught me before I hit the floor.

"My pretty little Luna," he murmured against my neck, lips brushing where my pulse throbbed.

"Please…" I whimpered, unsure if I was begging him to stop or to keep going.

His hand slid between my thighs, I was already soaking wet.

"Do you feel that?" he whispered. "That's mine."

"No," I moaned. "You're not..." He bit me.

Not hard enough to mark, but hard enough to claim me with pain and pleasure at once.

My scream echoed through the room, I came in his arms, shaking. Clawing at his shoulders.

And when I looked up at him, breathless, wrecked… I realized the truth. Ezra wasn't like the others.

He didn't want to protect me, he wanted to break me, and I was already halfway gone. My legs were still trembling.

Ezra had left, just like that, after setting my body on fire, after tasting me, after whispering words into my skin that still made me feel weak, he disappeared into the hallway like smoke. No doors opened, no footsteps echoed. He just vanished.

But my body hadn't calmed. My breath was still ragged, my thighs were still slick. The heat hadn't faded and if anything, it had deepened. And worse....something had awakened.

My reflection in the mirror no longer looked like me. My pupils were dilated, my lips swollen. There was a glow under my skin that wasn't just lust. It was the wolf.

She stirred in my chest now, restless and wild. Not satisfied, not claimed, and hungry for more.

I wrapped myself in a robe I found on Lucas's chair. It smelled like him...dark spice, earth, power. It should have calmed me. Instead, it made the ache worse.

A knock hit the door, not loud but heavy. I didn't answer and it creaked open anyway. Lucas stepped in.

His face was bruised, his knuckles bloodied, his chest rose and fell like he'd run a marathon through fire.

He looked at me...really looked at me...and I saw it. The moment his heart broke.

"He touched you, didn't he?"

I lowered my gaze.

"He made you feel things you didn't think were possible."

Still, I said nothing.

Lucas crossed the room in two strides, he didn't touch me. Not yet, he just stood close enough for me to smell the adrenaline on his skin.

"I should have killed him the second he walked through the door," he said.

"Why didn't you?"

He looked at me. "Because you looked at him the same way you once looked at me."

That cut deeper than anything in my heart. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Lucas reached out, slowly, and cupped my cheek.

"But you're still mine," he whispered.

I shook my head. "I don't know who I belong to anymore."

His thumb brushed over my lower lip. "Then let me remind you."

He kissed me. Not like a lover, like a war.

His mouth claimed me, his hands gripped my hips. My robe fell open and I gasped when his fingers found the slick heat between my thighs.

"You're still wet."

"Because of him," I admitted.