Chapter Seven

SYRA

Brother’s expression and tone kept me awake.

 My mind couldn’t drift away from what Lucian said. The future of the pack depends on you.

I wanted to call him and demand an answer, but all he’d sent me was a text:

Join the pack and I’ll reveal it.

There’s something you need to know — but only as a member of MoonClaw.

The words gnawed at me.

Unable to bear it anymore, I slipped out of bed. Adrian didn’t stir.

I just needed something to eat, something to keep my hands busy while my mind churned.

The chill of the night breeze licked against my bare thighs as I padded to the kitchen, my oversized green minishorts and well-buttoned shirt doing little to fight off the cool air.

I pulled open the fridge, bathing myself in its pale light, and grabbed an apple from the drawer. Biting into it, I left the fruit clamped between my teeth, freeing my hands to snag a carton of milk and a glass.

Still balancing everything awkwardly, I bumped the fridge door closed with my hip, and turned.

And nearly dropped everything.

Adrian stood there, silent and watchful, half in the dark. His eyes, sharp and gleaming, pinned me in place.

My heart jumped.

How long had he been standing there?

I tried to cover it up, awkwardly clutching the milk and the glass tighter against my chest, the apple still wedged between my lips.

“What?” I groaned through the fruit, my words thick and muffled, glaring at him.

He didn’t answer — just stalked closer with that slow, deliberate stride of his.

Before I could so much as flinch away, Adrian pinned me against the fridge with a hand braced on either side of my head, his body towering over mine.

His breath was warm against my skin.

“I’m hungry," he growled.

I shifted uncomfortably, the glass and milk carton trapped awkwardly in my hands.

"Then—then get something in the fridge," I mumbled through the apple.

Adrian’s smirk deepened, a slow, almost wicked tilt of his lips.

Without warning, he dipped his head — and sank his teeth into the other side of the apple still clamped between my teeth.

The moment froze, startling and surreal. His face was just inches from mine, his dark gaze burning straight through me as he chewed, his smirk curling wider.

I stood there, rigid, wide-eyed.

"Sorry," he growled before he ripped the entire apple from my mouth and tossed it aside like it was worthless.

"I'm not hungry for that."

Before I could react, his mouth crashed onto mine, stealing the very air from my lungs. He shoved me backward against the fridge, his body pressing into mine, the kiss brutal.

Struggling was pointless. Adrian was relentless — each time I tried to push him away, he just deepened the kiss, holding me there with an unyielding force, until I melted helplessly against him.

A long, stretched minute passed before he finally tore himself away, leaving me breathless, my chest rising and falling as I stared up at him.

Hate to admit it... but this guy was an incredible kisser.

The kind you don’t just recover from. The kind that makes you forget why you even wanted to resist in the first place.

Adrian smiled, devilish.

"That stench on you," he growled darkly, "it's messing with my fucking mind, Sunshine."

He leaned closer, his forehead brushing mine.

"Sorry, but I can only be satisfied after I get it."

"What stench—" I tried to ask, but the words barely left my lips before he grabbed me, his hands locking around my waist.

In a flash, I was thrown onto the dining table, my back slamming down against the cold surface. The carton of milk slipped from my grasp, crashing to the floor as the glass shattered.

Adrian was on me in seconds, his body caging mine in a way that left no room to breathe.

One of his hands pinned me firmly to the table, while the other lifted my thigh high against his hip, locking me in place.

I sucked in a terrified breath as I stared up at him — and my heart nearly stopped when I saw the red glow bleeding through his eyes.

"Sorry, Sunshine," he murmured, voice rough with hunger, "but my wolf can’t hold back. That stench is overwhelming. I have to take it."

"What the hell—" I started to protest, but his mouth crashed down on mine again, swallowing the words before they could escape.

He kissed me like he was claiming a birthright.

Fighting him was pointless — not just because of his strength, but because some twisted part of me was thriving on it.

  On this wild, reckless need that coiled tighter and tighter inside me with every second.

His hand caressed up my thigh, ruthless and merciless, setting every nerve on fire.

My resistance crumbled, piece by humiliating piece, until my body betrayed me — until all I could think about was more.

"You feel that?" Adrian growled against my ear, his teeth tugging at my earlobe, sending a wicked shiver straight through me.

"That's the hunger you've neglected for too damn long. No matter how hard you fight it... your purity is mine to take tonight."

It hit me then — what he meant.

The stench he smelled.

My face burned with shame.

Married for ten years... and not once had Asher touched me.

No sex. No real intimacy. Always excuses.

Waiting for a mark. Waiting for the company to be stable. Waiting... until ten years passed me by, until I almost forgot I was still whole.

Wolves could smell it.

Adrian pulled his shirt over his head, baring the hard, muscled planes of his chest under the pale kitchen light.

He leaned down, brushing his thumb over my lips — then sank it into my mouth, forcing me to wrap my tongue around it as he sucked it slowly back out, never breaking eye contact.

"For tonight..." he rasped, "...fuck the deals. Fuck the promises. Flirting or not, you stole this right from me ten years ago. And even the Moon Goddess knew...

I was always the one meant to take it."

He gripped the front of my shirt and tore it apart in one brutal motion, exposing my bare skin to the coolness of the night air.

His thumb circled my now hardened nipple with maddening slowness, each touch sending sparks tearing through my body.

"Sunshine," he murmured darkly, almost reverently, "I'm taking what was always meant to be mine."

He kissed down my neck, slow, possessive, his tongue flicking against the sensitive skin as he descended to my breasts.

He took his time there, his mouth hot and insistent.

My hands clutched the edge of the table, desperate to hold onto something.

 The moment his tongue slid lower, parting me with one wicked, claiming stroke, my body betrayed me all over again.

Pleasure ripped through me, raw and uncontrollable, tearing down every last wall I had built.

It was so new.

So overwhelming.

I had wondered how it would feel from watching or reading.

Each stroke of his mouth against my skin pulled sounds from my throat I didn’t even know I could make.

Moans, rough and broken, vibrated up as my neck arched helplessly. He sucked hard against the tender skin, branding me with his mouth, and God, it was good.

So much better than anything I had ever dared imagine.

"Ohh—!" I whimpered.

"That's it, Sunshine," Adrian growled, his voice guttural as he kissed the corner of my mouth.

"Stop fighting. Give me my right."

Before I could even gasp, he shoved two fingers deep inside me.

I cried out, my body jolting as the sudden invasion set fire to my every nerve ending.

"You're getting wet," he rasped darkly, his lips brushing my ear, "but not wet enough.

I need you soaked."

He didn’t wait.

His fingers thrust inside me faster, harder, slamming into a place that made me twist and writhe beneath him, lost to the brutal rhythm he forced into me.

"Oh fuck!" I gasped, my voice breaking apart as pleasure clawed through me.

"Come on, Sunshine," he urged, low and rough, "Show me more. Give me everything."

I tried to resist — tried to pull away — but my body had its own desperate mind now.

I danced against him, hips jerking, thighs trembling, as my walls tightened brutally around his fingers.

He pinned me down harder, his palm flat against my stomach to hold me in place, while his fingers kept thrusting mercilessly, the wet sounds of it obscene in the charged air.

The table shook under the force, the whole kitchen filled with nothing but the slap of skin and my desperate cries.

Something was building.

It coiled low inside me, ripping my sanity apart one wicked second at a time.

I was about to break.

I needed to break.

I clutched at my head, fingers burying into my hair as the pressure inside me reached a terrifying, beautiful peak.

"Oh shit! I'm about—!" I sobbed out, body straining upward toward him.

"Shit— Oh fuck—!"

"Yes, Sunshine," he snarled, never letting up.

"Give it to me. Break for me."

"Oh God!!"

I shattered.

Pleasure ripped through me, so sharp and overwhelming I could barely breathe.

I trembled violently on the table, my legs kicking out, hands clawing at the edges, completely undone.

He grabbed a chair, kicking it closer with a brutal scrape against the floor.

Still fully dressed from the waist up, he shoved down his night pants with one rough movement, revealing the thick, hard length of him, straining and ready.

His red-glowing eyes locked on mine — hungry.

"Now," he rasped, his voice thick and dark with need,

"Now, Sunshine, I'm going to break you as much as I fucking want."

He gripped my hips, yanking me forward, lining himself right at my entrance — his tip just barely grazing where I was still throbbing, still trembling from the climax he had ripped from me.

I gasped, the heat of him burning against my sensitive flesh.

"You're mine," he whispered.