She rose out of the forest like a ghost, and Nick feared that Lacey was just an apparition. He knew it was her, despite the hyena form. The wolf just knew. It felt like he could fly in that moment, as if he’d been made whole again. She lived.

He didn’t like the wildness in her eyes or the scratches and scrapes marring her skin from running through the forest. Nick wanted to get her into the cabin as soon as possible, not just to protect her from the rest of the forest, but to have her all to himself. He wanted to get drunk on her scent, to revel in having her nearby. It hurt with a deep burn to leave her in the cabin as he gave her time to clean up and pull on the baggy sweats that concealed her glorious curves, but he relaxed back against the mass of branches so he could gaze up at the darkening sky. Patient. He had to be patient.

That went out the window when she heard that her cousin became queen and called off the search, and Lacey began to destroy the cabin from the inside. He hated the pain in her, the break in her voice, and he hated every shifter in the city that lost faith that they could find her alive. Nick would help her punish all of them.

If she didn’t bring the cabin down on top of them and destroy their only shelter. He did the only thing he could think of to distract her from tearing the structure apart, and it was something he’d been dying to do for months. He kissed her.

She inhaled sharply but didn’t pull away. Nick slid his hand into her tangled hair, cradling her head, and deepened the kiss. Her lips were soft against his, gentle and giving, and he growled in anticipation as the wolf pushed for more. More. She made an answering noise and then she caught his head in her hands and dragged him closer. Their tongues tangled as Nick reached for her side, palm sliding under the T-shirt to her bare skin, and he nipped at her lip to encourage her.

Lacey’s arm looped around his neck and suddenly she leaned back, dragging him on top of her on the bed. Her thighs parted in invitation, and Nick groaned as his hips settled closer to hers. God help him, he wanted her more than anything in the world. Lacey’s eyes fluttered closed and a hint of blood turned her lower lip red, a memory of his teeth, and she wiggled in his arms to drag the hem of her shirt up.

And that made him pause. He wanted her enough to follow through, to spend the next week fucking like rabbits and wolves and hyenas and whatever animals they wanted, but something didn’t feel right. Her rage and fury seethed just below the surface, and as much as he enjoyed angry sex, he didn’t want that to be their first time together. She deserved more. Nick, breathing hard, broke the kiss and held himself over her. “Wait.”

Her eyes snapped open and Lacey stared at him as if he were the stupidest fucking loser in the world—which was exactly how he felt. “I beg your pardon?”

“I want you more than I have words for,” Nick said, and dipped his head to drag his teeth along the pure white column of her throat. The thin cotton sweatpants weren’t any match for his dick, and he let her feel that, too, until she arched her back and rubbed against him. He almost unloaded right in his pants, between the smooth roll of her hips and the sight of her full breasts testing the strength of the T-shirt. “But something’s up.”

“I should say so,” she said, and her palm slid over his abs and into the sweats, wrapping around his dick until Nick groaned and cursed and his forehead dropped to rest on her shoulder. Fucking unbelievable. Lacey bit at his ear, hard enough to break the skin, and her words hissed in his ear as she stroked him. “You know you want me. Let’s just do this.”

He couldn’t take it. He wasn’t a gentleman. Nick was never the good guy. He was always the asshole and the bad guy who loved and left and half the time called the chick “baby” and “sweetheart” because he couldn’t be bothered to remember her name. But Lacey. Lacey. She was different. He ground his teeth until he could swear half of them cracked, but he caught her hands and pinned her arms over her head after a very brief, very arousing struggle. Fuck. She actually liked it. She wanted to wrestle.

Nick could hardly breathe, thinking of how easy it would be to shove his sweats down and her sweats down and then it would be a very short thrust into the warm clasp of her body and perfection...

Being in the woods for a week must have driven him out of his fucking mind. Nick tried not to be distracted as Lacey wiggled her shoulders and her T-shirt rode up an inch at a time, in a temptation even a better man couldn’t have walked away from. Nick tried to look away but couldn’t drag his gaze from the smooth, soft flesh of her stomach. “Tell me why, Lacey.”

“Tell you why, what?” A challenge lit her eyes, made them gold in bright flashes, and he wondered if the hyena took over. For once, his wolf took the back seat, ready to let Nick have his way. “I want to break something and tear the entire fucking city apart, and since I’m stuck in a cabin in the woods instead, I’ll settle for fucking you. What more do you need?”

Her lip curled in a snarl, and it grew a little easier to control himself. It wasn’t about him. She wanted to use him to forget something, maybe to punish herself. She’d settle for him. He was too selfish to put up with that bullshit. When they fucked, Lacey would know she slept with him, and he’d be there for her. He could be as nasty and kinky as she could possibly want—and probably beyond what she thought she wanted—but the punishments would be a fucking turn-on, not some weird guilt and rage-induced game.

“Say my name.” He locked eyes with her and didn’t look away. “You wanna fuck? Tell me why.”

“I didn’t think you’d be into the sweet and clean stuff,” she said, but with a hint of nerves in the way she gulped for air. “Fine. Nick. I want to fuck, Nick, because I’m about to go out of my mind, Nick, and I can’t let the hyena take control again, Nick, and if I don’t do something, I’ll fly apart and never get the pieces back together. Okay? Is that good enough?”

He wanted to say it was more than enough, that he’d be her stress relief any day, and that he looked forward to being used up and tossed aside.

Except it wasn’t and he didn’t.

Nick pinned her, hoping they’d be in the same position in the very near future but with far fewer clothes, and kissed the tip of her nose. “No.”

“No?” Her expression would have been priceless if he hadn’t wanted to smack himself stupid for being out of his mind. “What the fuck do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I mean,” he said, kissing her cheek, “that’s not good enough for me. I want more.” He kissed her other cheek, a ghost of a caress, since he knew she wanted a rough touch instead. “I want all of you. And not just for one angry roll in the hay.”

Lacey gulped for air or composure or something, and her full lips parted. He waited for the sweet declaration of love, or a demand to be freed, or something, but instead she just smiled.

He smiled back, taken in, and leaned to nuzzle behind her ear. She smelled amazing, all wild and passionate...

Her legs locked around his middle and she lunged, throwing herself up and to the side enough that she almost gained the upper hand. Nick let her think she’d pinned him, even waited for the triumph in her expression, then used an old judo trick to flip them around until Lacey ended up face-down on the mattress with her hands behind her back. She growled in fury and bucked, trying to turn the tables, and Nick let his weight press her down until she squirmed and gasped for air. The T-shirt pulled at the neck and gave him the opportunity to kiss the soft spot on her shoulder where he really wanted to bite her. The wolf growled in anticipation. Soon.

Lacey craned her neck to watch him over her shoulder, and she pushed her ass into his groin in invitation. “Come on, stud. You know you want to.”

He squeezed her hip, imagining all the fun they could have, then sighed and released her. He got off the bed and hobbled the two steps to the only chair in the cabin, and flopped into it, his dick still making a tent out of the damn sweats. She stared at him from the bed, looking rumpled and a little lost, and finally said, “I seriously can’t believe you won’t have sex with me.”

“That makes two of us.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and gestured at his lap. “Of course, if you still want to help me out, I wouldn’t say no...” And he waggled his eyebrows at her in a seductive invitation.

Lacey bit her lower lip as she slid to the edge of the bed, and Nick’s heart jumped to his throat. Holy fucking shit, maybe she really would...

Her hips swayed as she stepped over to him, leaning down to give him a look at her cleavage as she squeezed his thigh and let one hand drift up to brush against his cock. Nick groaned, reaching for her breasts, just as Lacey picked up the basin of wash water and dumped it in his lap. The cold water shocked through him and he jumped.

She arched an eyebrow and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, “No one rejects me, sweetheart. No one.”

He wanted to laugh and curse and drag her back to the bed to show her how he felt about that—and that the water did little to dampen his enthusiasm for how her ass filled out the sweatpants—but he gripped the arms of the chair and sighed. “You make me a better man, Lacey.”

“That isn’t hard,” she said, then her gaze drifted back to his groin. “You should go outside and take care of that, because if we’re not going to fuck, we have some planning to do.”

Nick smiled. “Sure you don’t want to watch?”

She almost laughed, though her lips thinned at the last moment and she only looked disapproving. Nick winked and went to stand outside the cabin, imagining her soft curves and the gentle give of her hips when he pinned her to the bed as he stroked himself. Soon they’d get back to business. He’d woo her the right way and instead of a hate-fuck in the woods, they’d get to enjoy each other. He could take his time with her, explore every inch of her skin, taste every tender spot...

Soon. Lacey Szdoka would know what it meant to be loved by him.