Drawing a sharp breath, she stepped away from him, and he braced himself for a refusal. So he was shocked as shit when she stepped inside the stone circle and shed her coat, dropping it onto the wet grass. Before he even had time to process what she was doing, she peeled off her sweater.

But it was when she dropped her bra on the ground, revealing creamy, strawberry-tipped br**sts, that he understood just how difficult this quest was going to be. Screw the challenges and the danger and the demon.

He had a feeling that Aylin was the true menace to his future.

Aylin had been na**d in front of males before, but only for punishment, and none of them had ever looked at her the way Hunter was looking at her. In the past, she’d seen only contempt and disgust in onlookers’ expressions.

Now she saw hunger.

Hunter’s gaze was as hot as the air was cold, scorching her as he scanned her body. The memory of being with him at the cabin flooded her, making her tummy flutter and her knees wobble. It also made her bold.

Back then, Hunter had believed she was Rasha. This time, there was no confusion. This time, he was very well aware that it was Aylin he was staring at.

And it was Aylin who had put the extremely large bulge behind the fly of his jeans.

Confidence swelled, and she shimmied out of her jeans and panties. She stole a few glances in Hunter’s direction, and what she saw took her breath away.

He wasn’t stripping. She should have been horrified that she was na**d and he was fully clothed, but the way he was looking at her, his eyes dark, his teeth clenched, his hands balled into fists… it was as if he was mesmerized.

Aylin’s confidence bloomed even more, and suddenly, she knew what her sister felt like when she was walking through ShadowSpawn’s halls in her skimpy outfits, her h*ps swinging with extra flair when a male came into view.

This was… exhilarating.

Until she remembered how ugly and twisted her leg was. But Hunter didn’t focus on her leg. His gaze was locked on hers, holding her in place as he shed his own clothes.

She didn’t feel the cold air swirling around her or the snowflakes that began to fall. All she could feel was heat spreading through her muscles and her pulse pounding in her veins. Right now, she’d love for an arctic wind to scream out of the north and ease the hot ache that throbbed in her pelvis.

The pile of clothes at Hunter’s feet grew larger as he stripped off his weapons harness, his black sweatshirt and matching T-shirt, and his boots. Next, with agonizing slowness, he shoved his jeans to his ankles and stepped out of them.

A whimper of pure admiration escaped her as he straightened. At his full height, he towered over her, and his broad shoulders blocked out the scenery behind him. His bare chest rippled with hard-cut muscles under smooth, tan skin that begged for her touch. He was so beautifully male, a savage beast that belonged out here in the wilderness, as bound to the forest as the wolves and the deer.

She knew she shouldn’t look lower, but she only had so much willpower. Sliding her gaze down, over the rolling hills and valleys of his abs, she let out another whimper. He was magnificently hard, jutting upward in a dusky, thick column marbled with pulsing veins.

Her throat closed, and her br**sts ached, and suddenly, she could picture herself taking him into her mouth. Of all the sexual acts she’d witnessed in the close confines of clan life, that was the one she’d found incredibly distasteful, especially the way males seemed to use it to dominate females. Pleasure and power seemed decidedly one-sided, but as Hunter stood there, a proud warrior with a rock-hard exterior, she understood that for a willing female, the power could be all hers.

“Are you ready?” The velvety purr of his voice was a stroke of pure ecstasy.

“Yes,” she breathed. And it didn’t even matter what it was he was asking if she was ready for. He could have been asking if she was ready to have her throat slit, and she was too far gone with lust to care.

Naked and fully erect, he came at her. She stood her ground, anticipating his touch so eagerly that she trembled.

He stepped inside the circle and stopped a mere whisper away, their bodies not touching but so close a feather wouldn’t fit between them. She had to crane her neck to meet his gaze.

His palm came up to cup her cheek, and an instant, maddening pressure built under her skin. Good Lord, if he could do that to her with a simple caress on her face, what would happen to her if he touched her intimately?

There was a menacing glint in his eyes that didn’t match the sensual undercurrent in his voice. “Before I put our lives on the line, I need to know if your offer to come with me was genuine, or if this is part of a ShadowSpawn plot.”

Her first instinct was to get angry at the accusation, but almost instantly, she realized that his suspicion was warranted. ShadowSpawn didn’t play by the rules, and they never had. She could be the enemy, one MoonBound would least suspect.

“On my honor,” she said softly, “I only want to help.”

His dark gaze searched her face, and she shivered at the cold resolve she saw lurking there. She was suddenly very glad she was telling the truth, because she had no doubt that crossing this male could end very badly for her. And worse for Rasha.

Finally, he nodded. “Then thank you, Aylin,” he murmured as he lowered his head. His silky lips grazed her ear, drawing a shudder of pure desire from her. “You’re as beautiful inside as you are on the outside.”

A sob formed in her throat but never made it past her lips, lodged there by Hunter’s fangs as they sank deep into her neck.

She gasped at the searing pleasure, her fangs punching down hard with an intense hunger that made her mouth water. Twisting, she flicked her tongue over the pleasure glands at the top of her fangs and opened her mouth over his shoulder. Warm, decadent blood filled her mouth as Hunter groaned and arched against her, pressing his erection into her belly.

Fluid heat unfurled between her legs and spread outward in electric tingles. It was as if her entire body was plugged into a giant erotic battery. Every cell vibrated and pulsed in a coordinated wave of euphoria that started at her scalp and ended at her curled toes. Was this what would have happened with Hunter back at the cabin if they hadn’t stopped?

Great Spirit, now she understood the obsession with sex. If this was what it was like, she’d want it all the time.

Tightening her grip, she wrapped herself around Hunter, her body moving on its own, rubbing against him, needing even more, although she wasn’t sure what more could be. This was an orgasm, was it not?

Hunter’s hand dropped to her ass and lifted her so his shaft slid between her folds. He didn’t penetrate her, but in her mind, he was inside her, pumping deep, his c**k sliding over places so sensitive that she jerked with every delicious stroke.

Something pulled taut in her core, a white-hot need that skated the edge of torment. She thrashed and cried out at the pain-pleasure, her body screaming for… she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she couldn’t stop writhing, couldn’t concentrate on anything but the relentless, building pressure in her sex.

What was happening? She’d already cl**axed… at least, she thought she had. So what was this new torture? Panic welled up, but she couldn’t stop moving or feeding or —

The pressure peaked, and without warning, the most intense explosion of bliss blasted through her, blowing apart her thoughts. Wrecking her. Devastating her.

This, she realized dazedly, was an orgasm. She surrendered to the salisheye, moaning and grinding against Hunter as the cl**ax continued to pulse between her legs. As it waned, her legs went wobbly, but Hunter’s strong arms tightened to hold her solidly against him.

But even as the last wondrous waves of pleasure ebbed, she noticed that something wasn’t right. The warmth of the sun’s rays beat down on her bare skin, and soft, warm grass tickled her feet. And at some point, she’d disengaged her fangs and buried her face in Hunter’s throat. He was no longer feeding from her, either.

Exhausted, barely coherent, she cracked open her eyes, squinting at the bright sunlight. “Hunter?” she rasped.

“Yeah. I know. We’re on the other side.” He pulled away, his breathing as ragged as hers, and she felt a warm stickiness against her belly.

Hunter had orgasmed, too.

Savoring the feminine pride that arced through her, she looked up at him. Abruptly, her feeling of satisfaction died. She wasn’t sure what she had expected to find in his expression, but what she saw made it very clear that he wasn’t happy about what had just happened. Not at all.

17

Well, this was humiliating as shit.

Not since Hunter was a youngling with his first female, a seductress his father had given him for his salisheye, had he gotten so worked up that he’d come without warning. And outside a female.

Now he had to reconcile that with the fact that it had been the most amazing orgasm ever.

But so… damned… embarrassing.

Hunter stepped back, cringing at the evidence of his cl**ax on Aylin’s belly. Naturally, their clothes hadn’t made the trip through the portal, so he couldn’t so much as offer a T-shirt to wipe up his mess. And didn’t it just figure that there weren’t even any f**king leaves on the ground, because apparently, this realm was nothing but endless green meadows and blazingly bright sunshine.

“I… ah…” Oh, great, he even sounded like a youngling with his first female. Summoning his command voice, he started again. “I’m… um…”

Excellent. Now he came off as flustered and authoritative. Nothing like sounding very sure that you couldn’t put together a coherent sentence. Fuck. But then Samnult saved them both from more awkwardness by appearing from out of nowhere.

Hunter would never have believed he’d be happy to see a demon. Aylin, however, wasn’t as thrilled, and she let out a squeak of surprise and made a futile effort to cover herself. Hunter stepped in front of her, allowing her some cover and also, selfishly, not wanting the demon to ogle her. If anyone got to ogle Aylin, it would be him.

Samnult looked mostly human today, with short black hair, tan skin, white teeth, and a pair of black jeans with some sort of leathery shirt. Then there were the ram-like horns that jutted out from his forehead and curled over his head and behind his ears.

So, yeah, mostly human.

“Maybe,” Hunter suggested, “you could have mentioned the side effects of using the portal?”

One of Samnult’s horns twitched. “If you’d known, would you have changed your mind?”

“No, but —”

“Then stop whining. The experience helps bond the two people who come to navigate the tests, and believe it or not, I want every couple to succeed. But this is the first time the female taking the challenge isn’t the male’s intended mate. Should be interesting.” He craned his head to get a peek at Aylin, and Hunter shifted to block the view even as a growl rumbled in his chest. Shrugging in defeat, Samnult gestured to the ground, where two piles of clothes, a wooden bowl full of water, and two cloths had materialized from out of thin air. “Dress, and we’ll begin.”

He disappeared behind a copse of trees that hadn’t been there a second ago.

Hunter pivoted around to Aylin and tried his best not to stare. Gods, she was gorgeous. She was tantalizingly, unintentionally sexy, with full, high br**sts, a narrow waist that flared into rounded h*ps made for a male to grip, and delicate, sandy ringlets between her thighs that teased his gaze. Most born vampires lacked body hair, but not always, if one of the parents had been turned.

Hunter didn’t mind at all, and his fingers itched to know how soft Aylin’s feminine curls would be to his touch.

Way to not stare.

Cheeks heating, he crouched on his heels, dipped a towel in the warm water, and gently wiped Aylin’s taut belly. When she gasped and stepped back, he caught her around the thigh and held her steady for the sweep of the cloth over her skin.

Her face turned the color of a ripe apple. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, “I do.”

His position put him at eye level with her navel, temptingly close to rosy ni**les that made his mouth water. He lingered longer than he needed to, wiping away the last traces of himself as he admired the suppleness of her skin and the tight muscles that leaped under his touch. His fingers brushed the underside of her breast, and as if he hadn’t just come all over her, his dick stirred to life again.

Before his errant c**k embarrassed them both, he handed Aylin the buttery-soft buckskin dress trimmed with fringe and the knee-high moccasin boots that were clearly meant for her, leaving him to don the breechcloth, belt, buckskin leggings, and moccasins. He hadn’t worn traditional Indian garb for anything nonceremonial in decades, and he wondered what, exactly, was in store for them.

As he pulled on the pair of moccasins, he glanced over at Aylin, who was tying her hair up in a high ponytail. Until now, when he looked at her, he had seen her mother’s reportedly Scandinavian lineage in her blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. But standing there in the tan dress that fell to mid-thigh and knee-high boots that emphasized the curve of her slim calves, she was every inch the Comanche of her ancestors. Between her slightly parted lips, the glinting tips of her fangs brought all of her mixed heritage together into a mouthwatering combination.

He dropped his gaze low, taking in the expanse of bare leg between boot and dress that made his palm itch with the desire to caress it. And to keep going upward, because he knew she wasn’t wearing panties beneath the dress.

With a fierce reminder that she wasn’t his, he swung around to the grove of trees Samnult had disappeared into, and as luck would have it, the demon was walking toward them.

“Now,” Samnult said, “the first challenge will test your self-control and willpower.”