it. I jumped from my seat and sprinted straight for Alex’s wolf, knowing full well that if I wasn’t quick enough about it, Remy and Alessandra would surely stop me. I hadn’t planned on tripping over broken pieces of furniture, though, as shouts of warning rang out across the room at me. As it was, I crashed gracelessly to the ground about four feet from Kai’s and Alex’s wolves, knocking the wind from my lungs.
I cringed when initially my attempt to intercede seemed to do more harm than good, as the dark wolf jerked his muzzle in my direction, taking the white wolf’s neck with him, eliciting a whine of agony in the process.
I gasped. “No, Alex!”
I heard Alessandra pleading with me to stay out of it, followed by Alcaeus shushing her. Alex’s black and grey wolf snarled at me.
“Oh, shut it!” I barked right back before I could think better of it. “Don’t you dare hurt Kai!”
Alex’s wolf ears perked up at my challenging tone, his feral eyes pinning me in a manner that could be described only as unsettling. Then a low growl echoed from his huge chest.
Shit. They really were freakishly mammoth in their wolf forms.
I held his gaze and refused to back down. “Let. Him. Go.” I spoke calmly, despite the trembling adrenaline coursing through me; but in no way did I phrase it as a request.
The black and grey wolf blinked. He stopped growling. To my dismay, he didn’t relinquish his hold over the white wolf’s sorely abused throat. But his energy felt less angry to me. Or was it my imagination? He looked pensive. Perhaps he was considering my demand?
I arose shakily to my hands and knees, intending to crawl closer.
“Down, Milena!” Alcaeus’ command hit me like a dead weight to the small of my back, flattening me to the floor on my belly.
The white wolf was abruptly released, and it took all of my willpower to stifle the scream that lodged in my throat as the dark wolf yipped and leapt for me. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, covering my head with my hands as four paws landed with a resounding thud on all sides of me. I tried to quell my complete and immediate panic, telling myself Alex’s wolf would never harm me, reminding myself how I’d felt safer with Alex’s wolf nature than I had the man.
I had, right? Why had I thought that again?
Fuck, sensing his inner wolf nature while he was in human form was one thing, but physically getting up close and personal with his snarling, freakishly enormous, and terrifying beast form was something else entirely.
“You’re safe, Milena. He won’t harm you.” It was Alcaeus’ voice I heard inside my head, accompanied by waves of his calming energy throughout my system, making me feel warm and languid all over, just as something soft and furry brushed overtop of me. A cool snout nuzzled against the back of my head before snuffling into the crook of my shoulder.
I held perfectly still as Alex’s wolf proceeded to ghost his muzzle in what felt like a soothing gesture back and forth along my spine and atop my head, whining somberly. As I relaxed enough to breathe deeply, I inhaled the most heavenly aroma my she-wolf and I had ever scented, and I’m pretty sure I actually purred aloud.
The black and grey wolf purred back.
Well, technically speaking, it was probably still a growl. But it was a gentler growl, the vibration accompanying it feeling distinctly more like a purr to me. Or at least that’s what I convinced myself.
He prodded at me with his snout until I rolled over for him. As I peeked my eyes open, his nose pressed into my belly, tickling against me as he sniffed, nudging my shirt up slightly in the process.
“Cut it out!” I squealed when a hot, long tongue lolled out to lick across the expanse of my exposed lower belly. He repeated the action again and again, until I was giggling and squirming beneath him, oblivious to the gawking spectators surrounding us.
My hands that had lowered in defense of my belly were thoroughly laved