A FAMILIAR SCENT

Aylin crawled to him, and the warm wetness that soaked straight through her jeans told her how much blood he had already lost.

"Kyros, look at me," Aylin pleaded, pressing both hands over the hole in his chest as Zuri crawled up against her side, trembling. "Please, stay awake."

"Go," Kyros gasped breathlessly, his voice rough with command even as each breath rattled in his chest.

He pushed her hands off his chest. "Take her and get out of here. When you are far enough to be safe, call Raff."

"I'm not leaving you here," Aylin snapped, blinking hard against the tears blurring her vision. “Stay still, let me stop the bleeding.”

"I'll heal, but it will take a while," Kyros said, his voice faltering as his eyes struggled to stay focused on her face. "The bullet most likely went straight through my lungs but didn't hit anything vital." 

A wet, rasping cough tore out of him, and blood sprayed across his lips. "The remaining two men escaped after that gunshot. They would have gone to call for backup. I don't want them to return and meet you here. Go."

Aylin did not answer him. She looked at the bodies scattered across the warehouse floor and the men groaning in the corners, then back at the stranger bleeding out in her hands.

"Follow me very closely, sweetie," Aylin whispered to Zuri, setting her gently on her feet and forcing her voice to stay steady. "Hold onto my shirt and don't let go, okay?"

Zuri nodded, her lip wobbling as she fisted both hands in the hem of Aylin's sweater.

Kyros pushed weakly at her hands when she grabbed his arm, but there was no strength left in him. 

Aylin hooked his arm over her shoulders and hauled him up with a grunt. He was heavy and almost too much for her, but the adrenaline still pumping through her veins gave her just enough to keep her legs from folding.

She stumbled out into the alley under the flickering orange glow of the streetlights. Her eyes darted toward every shadow as she dropped him beside the two guards still sprawled by the door. 

Quickly, she searched the unconscious men’s clothes. She let out a sigh of relief when she dug into one of their trousers, and her fingers closed around a car key fob.

She pulled it out, faced it in the direction of the cars parked nearby, and clicked it.

"Thank God," Aylin breathed, her voice shaking with relief when the lights of a black car flashed in response.

Getting him into the back seat nearly broke her back, but she persevered. 

She grimaced, easing him down as carefully as she could so she would not jolt the wound, then buckled Zuri into the front and threw herself behind the wheel.

The drive was a blur of red lights and empty streets. Aylin's knuckles turned white around the steering wheel, and every few seconds her eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror to look at him. 

Kyros's face was ashen with strain, and his chest was rising and falling in shallow, labored jerks.

"Hang on," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Please, just hang on."

The smartwatch on her wrist buzzed with the alarm she had set for her medicine, but she silenced it without looking.

Her apartment was a small ground-floor unit in a rundown apartment building downtown, and for once she thanked every star in the sky that she did not have to drag him up any stairs. 

By the time she wrestled him through the door and laid him on her couch, he had passed out. 

She stepped back with her chest heaving to look at him properly. Blood had soaked through his shirt completely, and his long legs hung off the end of the couch.

"Hey, sweetie," she said softly, kneeling to meet Zuri's wide eyes. "I need you to go to the bedroom while I take care of him."

Zuri nodded, still gripping Aylin's sweater.

Aylin kissed her forehead. 

"Why don't you go cuddle with Tabby for a bit?" she coaxed, brushing the curls back from her face before nudging her gently toward the bedroom.

Zuri's face lit up a little at the mention of her stuffed cat. She ran to the bed and scooped Tabby up against her chest.

Aylin let herself have one small, shaky smile before going to grab the first aid kit from under the sink.

She sat on the edge of the couch and cut his shirt open with trembling hands. The wound was ugly, but it was already smaller than it should have been, the edges of torn flesh drawing together in a way no human body could manage.

Who knew joining the Red Cross club in high school would actually come in handy, she thought, letting out a shaky laugh as she cleaned and bandaged it.

When she was done, she studied his face. Even unconscious, he looked carved out of stone, all sharp angles and a hard jaw, with faint creases of pain between his brows.

"Who are you, really?" she murmured, brushing a lock of blonde hair off his forehead. "Who just throws himself into danger to save a stranger without a second thought?"

Kyros groaned softly, and his head rolled toward her.

Aylin jerked back with a gasp when his eyes suddenly snapped open. His previously blue eyes were now pitch black.

She tried to scramble off the couch, but his hand shot out and locked around her wrist. Then he pulled her down toward him with a strength that should have been impossible for a man who had just been shot.

Quickly, she braced her hand on the chair to avoid falling on him.

She stiffened as he lifted his other hand and brushed his fingers along her jaw so gently that she forgot to breathe.

"You smell different," he murmured, his voice thick and rough with the edge of his wolf. "You smell like…”

Aylin tried to push out of his grip, but he held her tighter. Fear and panic surged in her.

She didn’t know what triggered his wolf to take control. But her history with people losing control of their wolves around her made her know it never ended well.

“Calm down,” she said slowly. “You’re safe. I was cleaning your wound.”

As if she hadn't spoken, he tilted his head and sniffed as if confused. “You smell like... mine."

A shiver raced down Aylin's spine.

His hand slid around to the back of her neck, possessive and warm, and he lifted himself off the couch and kissed her.

Heat exploded through her body as she had never felt before. Aylin's hands came up to push him away, but instead they fisted on his chest. Without notice, she leaned into him, her brain cells going off with the heat and pleasure surging in her.

When his other hand found her waist and squeezed the soft curve of her hip, Aylin instinctively sucked in her stomach. 

But a low, approving growl rumbled out of him, and his fingers only dug in deeper, as if he wanted more of her to hold.

His tongue pushed into her mouth, hungry and desperate, tasting every corner of her like he had been starving for this all his life. 

She had never been kissed like this, never felt anything like the fire spreading under her skin, and she felt herself giving in to it completely.

He dragged his mouth away from hers and worked his way along her jaw and down her throat, alternating wet, open kisses with slow drags of his tongue and quick, stinging nips that made her whimper. 

It felt so right, his taste… his scent… the way their bodies melted together. It was as if she had been made to fit against him.

He reached the curve where her neck met her shoulder, buried his nose there, and breathed her in deeply.

Aylin jolted out of the haze when his teeth grazed her skin. 

Her father's voice rang through her head: “Never let any wolf bite you there, sweetheart, not until you're certain you love him and are ready. If not, the catastrophe would be terrible.”

She had never found out what he meant by catastrophe because by the next week, he was dead.

"Stop!"Aylin cried, shoving him hard and stumbling to her feet. 

Her hand flew to her neck, and her fingers came away clean, but her skin was throbbing where his teeth had been. 

“I’ve never…” she stuttered, running her hand over her lips. Her mind was a wave of confusion, struggling to make sense of the sudden intensity between them. “What is this?”

Kyros let out a low growl, reaching for her.

"No!” Aylin snapped, backing quickly out of his reach. “Get a hold of yourself.”

Kyros's black eyes searched her face. "Mine?" the wolf muttered in a low, wounded whimper.

"I'm not yours!" Aylin shouted, her voice shaking. "What does that even mean? The blood loss is affecting you. Give him back control!"

She glanced at the bedroom, worried about Zuri.

Her parents had drilled one thing into her above everything else, which was how dangerous a man became when he lost control of his wolf, and this was no ordinary wolf. This was an alpha. 

Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was trying to fly out of her chest. 

The wolf paused, as if he could sense her fear. Those dark eyes held hers for a long moment.

Then the black bled out of them, and his face went slack. His eyes drifted shut, and he slumped back against the cushions, unconscious.

Aylin pressed a hand to the throbbing spot on her neck. "What the hell did you mean by mine?" she whispered into the silent room, her heart hammering against her ribs.