“Gunnar!” Jett’s palm stung my cheek and rattled my jaw as she slapped me for all she was worth. I’d shifted. I don’t even remember doing it. Bile clogged my throat and I swayed on my hands and knees trying to clear my head.

I came back into myself, shuddering, panting. Jett stood before me, her rifle trained on me. Good girl, I thought. Slowly, I found the strength to stand. I put a hand up. Taking one step forward, the world spun and I doubled over again.

“Don’t you dare,” Jett said. She lowered her weapon and put a hand on my back. “Don’t you dare go away again. Look at me.”

I couldn’t do it. He was close. So close. I was afraid to look at her again and give him another chance to see her.

“No!” Jett said. It was as if she were in my head as much as Able was. “Gunnar, he isn’t going to win. Do you hear me? I won’t let it happen. You won’t let it happen.”

“Run,” I said. “Jett, get away from me. Get as far away from me as you can.”

Her breath came hot, making her breasts heave. We stood inches apart. She had every reason to be afraid. I knew my wolf eyes faded in and out. I’d seen her through a red haze and knew exactly what that meant. So did she. Still, she stood her ground.

“You don’t belong to him. Listen to me, dammit!” She grabbed my face in her hands, forcing me to meet her gaze. Jett’s brown eyes narrowed with fierce determination. “Are you listening to me, you fucking bastard? You can’t have him!”

A murderous growl filled my head, but it wasn’t coming from me. It was coming from Able. But, his grip was loosening. “You’re mine,” Jett whispered as her tears fell again.

“Jett, no,” I said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing. And we should have done it a long time ago.”

A beat passed. The wilderness around us went still as if it too had been waiting for this moment all along. I brought my hands up, circling them around Jett’s small waist. Her eyes darted over my face. Her lips parted.

I kissed her. For years I’d been starving and I didn’t even know it. When Jett leaned into the kiss and pulled me down to her, everything else fell away. She fed me her strength as her tongue darted into my mouth. I devoured her. The press of her hard nipples against my chest undid me.

Down and down we went, falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. “Gunnar!” she gasped. Her hands were everywhere. She closed her fingers around my turgid cock and my inner wolf roared with lust.

I’d held back for so long, now the floodgates of desire opened. There was no going back. I felt Able’s grip fall away like rotting vines as I gave in to my truest nature.

This. Now. I was an Alpha. Jett was my mate. We had both been born for this. Our bodies, our souls knew the way. Jett scrambled back on all fours. I took one ankle and pulled her boot off, then the other. She unfastened her pants and slid them down. I held back just enough to keep from tearing the rest of her clothes away. She yanked her top off. With it, her long, sable hair fell from the tie she’d used to keep it back, tumbling over her shoulders.

I had enough self-control to go back on my heels and look at her, truly look at her. Jett. My Jett. Every inch of her was beautiful perfection. Her heavy breasts quivered as she panted with lust. Her wine-colored nipples pebbled as the cool breeze hit them. As I crawled forward, Jett went to her back, her knees falling to the side.

A rumble of raw lust came out of me. Jett’s eyes widened and her cheeks colored. I reached for her. With two fingers, I spread her soft petals and found her slick and swollen for me. Her juices flowed and she threw her head back. If she had wolf in her, she would have howled. I worked the hard little bud of her sex and she rolled her hips, beginning the ancient undulation that would bring me to her.

“Baby,” I whispered, stunned I could even form words. She reached for me, closing her fingers around my cock again and drawing me close. She spread her legs wide, hooking them around my hips.

“Gunnar,” she gasped. “Oh, God. You’re mine!”

I was. I couldn’t hold back a second longer. Jett arched her back and I plunged inside of her. I was huge and hard. Her breath caught as her walls stretched to accommodate me. I slid my hands beneath her buttocks, angling her even higher so she took me deep.

Jett slid her hands up my arms then wrapped them around my neck. I was in her all the way. Her sweet warmth enveloped me. She was home. She was safe. She was mine. Jett threw her head back and bit her lip. Her sex jumped and she thrust her hips wildly, unable to control her growing need.

I wanted more time. I wanted to draw her out, make her beg, send her to heights of pleasure she’d never known. I prayed we’d have time for it. For now, this was something different and primal.

I fucked her. Pumping my hips, I drove into her as far as she could take me. With each pounding thrust, Jett grew even wetter. She clawed my back, bringing out her own wild side. I roared with lust, my inner wolf driving me.

Yes. This. Mine.

Jett was everything. On and on I fucked her. She rose and matched me thrust for thrust, her juices coating us both. I was so full, so hard. She came suddenly, jerking around me as she sank her teeth into my shoulder, drawing blood. The pleasure and pain of it set off a chain reaction inside of me. My need thundered in my pulse and through her.

She screamed her pleasure to the trees. Every wild thing had to have heard her. It didn’t matter. It was as if the world narrowed to just the two of us. As she shuddered through her climax, her limbs went slack. But I wasn’t done. Oh, I was far from done.

I slid out of her. Jett’s arms dropped to her sides. She caught my eyes and knew on instinct what I needed. What we both needed.

Quickly, she scrambled to her hands and knees and spread her legs wide. Oh, God. The sight of her. Gaping, wet, inviting. Light and heat seemed to pour out of me as I put a hand on her buttocks and guided her into position.

“Yes!” she cried as I entered her again. Deeper this time. Oh, so deep.

Jett’s hair fell to the side, exposing the nape of her neck. As I arched my back and drove into her, my feral nature took over.

“Gunnar, please!” she begged. There was no going back. Not now. Not ever. The time for reason had passed. She seemed to understand I couldn’t stop unless she asked me too. She didn’t. Instead, Jett reached back and gathered her hair in one hand. She arched her back and presented her neck to me.

“Please,” she gasped one last time.

As my seed poured into her, I leaned far forward. Jett dropped her hair and gripped the ground, bracing herself. My fangs dropped just enough and I sank them into the soft spot at the nape of her neck.

The world opened up. Colors became brighter. Electricity sparked between us, kindling my nerve endings. I felt Jett’s do the same. I felt everything about her as I made my mark and bound her to me forever.