Chapter Thirty-two

Sam could smell Glenna’s anger as she paced the small hotel room. She was nervous. He could smell that too. And something else that lay under the nerves in her sweat. Wolf.

She must be getting closer to the change but he had no idea how close, and that worried him. If it was coming soon, he needed to find somewhere to take her. Somewhere she could go through it in private. And this seedy room wasn’t it.

She stopped, turned fiery, deep blue eyes on him. “We’re in the roach hotel. The car is hidden. Is there anything else we need to do before you finally give me some information?”

“Just calm down...”

“Calm down.” She stepped closer to him, pushed her face up into his. “How can you tell me to be calm? I’m declared dead to my family, my ex-fiancé is sniffing after my sister, and now I almost die by plunging off a cliff in a car driven by an insane werewolf. What exactly is there to be calm about?”

Her pupils were dark and wild. Her pale skin flushed. The scent of the wolf grew stronger, more female. Hot. Memories of their kiss and how she tasted replayed in his head. Inside, his wolf began to push. His wolf wanted a mate and here was a strong one. New blood for the pack.

He knew how this went. It was how he’d gotten involved with Serena. The chemical call of the potential mate had sucked him in. And then it was too late, the fever had grown until he needed her to slake it. And Serena had chosen Gabe.

He shook his head and backed away from Glenna. Her flushed face, her high energy were products of her anger, not attraction. And her anger was a product of the surging adrenaline that came with the change.

“You never answer my questions.”

He took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

“You’re just putting me off.”

“Honestly, I’ll answer anything you want to know. But I need you to stop pacing and calm down.”

“Screw that!”

His need began to throb inside of him. He searched for a way to calm his wolf down and taper off the driving push for sex.

Already he could see the wolf in her in the way she stalked him across the room. Her hips swung, her gaze stayed pinned on him. This was why they isolated the adolescents. The fever drove them to the change—and it drove them to mate.

His instinct said push back. Dominate.

He backed up. She followed until he was pressed against the wall and his breathing came fast and hard. “Glenna, you’re playing with fire.”

“You can run and run, but I’ll stay with you until you answer me.” She poked him with a finger.

She thought she wanted answers, but he could smell the arousal growing under all the other Glenna scents. The change was too close and he couldn’t take her anywhere else. He had nowhere to lock her up. He only had one choice.

He broke and grabbed her wrists, pulling her in close until her breasts were squished between them and her mouth was inches away. “You can stop stalking me. You’ve got me.”

Her pupils flared and she struggled in his grip, but it was too late. He dove for the kill. His mouth skimmed hers. Light...then harder, demanding more from her than her resistance. He manipulated her lips, until she opened up with a moan.

“Yessss,” she hissed.

And that was all the permission he needed. She was all in now, her desire channeling all the adrenaline into the kiss. Their tongues tangled and played. He flipped them so she was against the wall and his erection pressed into her belly.

“More,” he demanded. “I want more.” It had been too long since he’d tasted a woman, and this one, with the aura of the change upon her, was more than he could resist.

“Sam,” she gasped, and opened her mouth further. He sucked and tasted all of it, exactly what he wanted. And none of it slaking his thirst.

He let go of her one wrist and cupped her breast, rolled her nipple between his fingers. She whimpered.

“Glenna, you don’t understand.” He understood, all too well. His body, his wolf, hell every single bit of him except for his common sense, wanted her. And he was tired of fighting.

“I do understand. I want you, I need you. My body is so hungry for you.” She growled and nipped him. “Don’t stop.”

“I shouldn’t do this, but you’re so damn sexy.”

“So don’t hold back.”

He’d been holding back for so long, holding back his wolf, his need, but now her need pushed him to the edge, and he could no longer resist. With a half howl he released her other wrist and pulled her t-shirt up, toss it on the bed and freeing her breasts. No bra. He dove for one of her nipples, pulling it into his mouth.

His tongue flicked her nipple. “Ahhh, yes.” She took hold of his head, gripping his hair in her fists, as if he’d move and leave the luscious feel of her in his mouth. He pushed a hand between them, found her sweet spot and rubbed.

“Oh, Sam. Sam.” The sound of his name penetrated the haze of lust that had built up around them.

“Shit.” He stopped. Stopped the sucking and the rubbing and held still, pressed against her breast, her body.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry. This is wrong.” He was the experienced one here and she was the victim of the hormones rushing through her bloodstream.” He went to move away, but her fingers dug into his head and she rubbed her breasts against his face.

“Please. It’s not wrong, it’s so right.”

He shuddered with the effort, but he stepped away, loosening her fingers from his hair. She pushed toward him and he held her wrists again. This time to hold her back.

“Glenna,” he said. “Glenna, we need to stop.”

“Sam, I don’t want to stop.”

“You’re killing me.” He took a ragged breath. “It’s the change, Glenna, it’s just the change. It plays havoc with your instincts. Your adrenaline surges, your hormones surge. It pushes you to find a mate, reproduce.”

“No, that’s not it. I want you, I need you.” She bumped her hips out, tried to rub against him, but he held her wrists between them.

His wolf pushed him to take her. He needed a mate. Had to have a mate. This mate. “No.” He let her go and moved across the room. “It’s the hormones talking. It’s not us.” He’d choose the next mate. If there ever was another mate. He wouldn’t let his wolf do this to him. Not again.

Glenna followed him, stalking him across the room, her bare nipples shining with the moisture from his mouth. “Are you saying that I’m not attracted to you? That I don’t want to rip your clothes off and do you right here in the cockroach motel?”

Sam swallowed. Sweat beaded on his back and the room grew hot and close. “I’m saying that the change pushes you to the next step, finding a mate. The virus doesn’t care that you haven’t settled yet, that you don’t even know if you’ll be a shifter or dreamwalker or whatever. It only knows the best way to survive is to mate and reproduce. It stimulates the sex hormones and the pheromones so males will flock to you and protect you.” She was too close. He grabbed her by the wrists again. Inside, his wolf howled with success. They had her, they’d keep her. Sam shoved the desire to throw her across the bed and fuck her down so deep, he shook with the effort. “You should have stayed at the cabin where Lana could keep you away from me.”

It took every ounce of willpower to let her go and move away. Away from her parted lips, rosy nipples, and hungry eyes.

“Glenna, right now, it’s just you. But if we have sex we could start the fever inside of me. And I won’t do that.”

She frowned. “You don’t like me.” She flung herself back on the bed, leaning on her elbows and pushing her taut nipples up.

“No. I like you.” He ran a hand over his face. The urge to take her, to rub his body against hers was strong. “I just won’t follow the hormones and the fever anymore. All it gets me is trouble. And I don’t know if I can come back from it if it happens again.”

How could he explain to her all the complex issues she brought out in him? The desire for a mate. The drive to have sex with her, even though he knew it would start the chain reaction of the fever and then the Bite and the claim. And what if they reached that point and she rejected him? She didn’t even want to be pack, let alone mate for life with a shifter. If Serena, a woman of the pack, hadn’t wanted him, how could Glenna possibly want him?

No. No sex, no mating bond, no future.

“We need a plan.”

Glenna patted the bed next to her. “Come sit down here and we’ll make one.”

“You’re killing me, Glenna. I’ll stay here.” He hooked the straight back chair out from under the rickety desk and straddled it backwards. “Now, can you put your shirt on?”

She pouted and pulled her shirt on. She seemed to have calmed down, a little. At least she wasn’t chasing him across the room anymore. That, more than anything else, told him he was right. This was just the change. Not her. He ignored the crushing disappointment.

She didn’t really want him—he had to remember that. Had to remember it or he would go right over there and start something that could end his life as a human and end up with him wild in the woods forever.