Swallowing the wonder in my voice, I asked, “You can use magic?”
He smirked, backing me up into the wall, and folding his big frame around me. “No. I can counteract magic. The words just focus my thoughts. They amplify what’s already there.” A smile curved his lips.
My mind rifled through the instances where I’d seen shifters at school using words of light. Their natural shields against magic meant that their use of words of light and power were weak at best. Max was not weak. And now he’d caught hold of me.
We seemed to have that thought at the same time. He just wasn’t feeling very charitable about it. “It’s because of you that I can do it,” he said. “Because of the mating link.” His nose scrunched. “Do you get off on seeing me lose control?”
It was the last thing I expected. “Beg your pardon?” He splayed the palm that wasn’t holding my arm by my side against my throat. A lick of gold swept across the base of his irises.
“I’ve tried really hard to be nice,” he said, “But I’m not a kitten on a leash. You keep jerking me around like I don’t have claws and teeth.”
I saw that insanity was beginning to take hold of him. “I didn’t–”
He pressed his thumb into the column of my throat. The calloused pads on his fingers lightly compressed. It wasn’t my airways that he was constricting. The touch of his fingers created an unbearable friction against my arteries, making me feel like the blood rushing to my brain was bathed in fire.
“Then how come I can smell some kind of potion on your skin?” he snarled. “And that dead-vampire walking was covered in alcoholic stink!”
I swallowed and felt my throat bob against his palm. His mouth was just a fraction above my temple, his breath searing my skin. I reached up to remove his fingers, my hand trembling because if I didn’t get free soon, I was going to pass out.
He stepped into me. My cheek mashed up against his chest. Too close. I couldn’t get enough air. “Max.”
He growled in my ear. “Speak,” he said. “Now!”
“Stop ordering me around!”
I tried to claw at his hand around my throat. With almost an imperceptible speed, he let go of my throat, grabbed both my hands, and pinned them behind me. “Talk!”
Short of frying him to a crisp with his own blood, there was nothing more I could do to overpower him. I hated being so vulnerable. My own growl was full of blunt human frustration.
“Sophie!”
It came from the heart of the lion. It was only then that I noticed that he was shaking too. I’d thought it was my nerves betraying me, but every muscle in his body was wired.
“Diana slipped me a potion to calm me down,” I said.
“Why?”
In the gap between his hip and arm, I saw the remnants of my hard work splattered all over the destroyed kitchen. Worst of all, the double doors of the ingredients closet were caved in. No doubt some of the jars were broken too.
“Why do you think?” I snapped. “Because I love to take potions against my will and wake up to stupid self-destructive vampires ruining all my hard work!”
I struggled to get free. He clasped both my hands together with his left one. His right hand moved up to my shoulder where the bow was slipping down again. “Why did you do all this?”
“Are you bloody dense or what?” I grit.
“Yes.” There wasn’t any humour in it. Just the brutal honestly of a predator pushed to the limit of his control. “I’ve been running on instinct for so long, I’m on edge every second of the day. Right now, the lion wants out. All I know is that that vampire tried to creep on my friend and now he’s touched my mate. The only reason he’s not already dead is because I know he kept you safe when I couldn’t. So choose your words carefully, Sophie darling. His life depends on it.”
He plucked at the end of the bow, pulling the strap until the knot untied. Both sides unfolded, exposing my shoulder. Pressing his palm against my bare skin, his fingers closed over the back of my shoulder, his thumb brushing over the curve of my breast. Neither of us pretended not to notice how big his hand was. If he wanted to, he could brush his thumb over the aching point of my nipple.
The strain of the hard bulge in his jeans that crushed me to the wall said he really, really wanted to. But the iron-clad leash was around the lion again.
“I cooked you dinner,” I said as heat bloomed on my cheeks. Feeling stupid, I tried to turn away, but he snagged my chin and turned my head back. “I was going to call you, but then Andrei appeared drunk off his face and babbling something about Kai. And now –” I sniffed, “–now my house is destroyed.”
I hadn’t meant to voice that last part. It was probably materialistic, but the kitchen was so beautiful and now it was ruined. Shifters were nosy jerks. I’d had to share everything growing up. They found everything of value that I tried to hide and played with it anyway.
Max quirked a brow. “Your house?”
“Yes!” I pouted. “You gave it to me! So it’s mine.”
“I can rebuild it.”
“No. It’s not the same. I hate Andrei and I hate you and I wish all you supernat–”
That was about as far I got before he kissed me.
The world exploded in a rush of colour and light. I had about a millisecond of resistance in me before my mouth opened. Max smirked against my lips as he parted them with his tongue. His kiss was a possessive brand, the leash finally breaking to give way to a hunger for touch that had been riding him for too long. A flood of
