I know Tyran can feel the disgust and anger coursing through me, because he asks Britton and Harlan to give us a minute.
The next thing I know, he grabs my arm and tugs it around him, away from my nails, and then I’m being pulled down into his lap. “Breathe,” he murmurs, cradling my face. But a wall of red has slammed down over me, the untamable rabidness rearing its head and demanding blood and vengeance. “Just breathe, Vicious. If you need to shift, we can. We can run it off. You just tell me what you want to do,” he encourages softly, raw power running like an electric current through every word.
“I want to rip this off,” I declare, my voice more a frantic snarl than anything else. I call on my wolf’s claws, determined to scratch Burke’s bite from my body.
Tyran tugs my arm forward to look at it, and understanding darkens his gaze as he bites back a menacing growl. He stares at my arm as though the mark is now the most offensive thing he’s ever seen. That makes two of us.
When he glances up at me again, his eyes are angry, but it’s on my behalf, not aimed at me. “May I?” he asks, and it takes me a moment to understand what he’s asking. His mouth slowly morphs into the half-shift of his wolf’s muzzle, and it dawns on me what he wants to do.
My throat grows tight with emotion, and I nod, unable to speak.
I watch with bated breath as Tyran aligns his teeth with the marks. I feel the passion and affection he has for me swelling in his chest as he does what he can to right this wrong. I gasp as his sharp teeth sink into my arm, then throw my head back when I’m suddenly flooded by sensation as a rush of wind whirls around us.
My wolf howls inside of me, the sound both a celebration and a lament. Tyran holds us tightly against him, his fangs digging in deeper, ensuring that everything he is replaces what was forcibly taken from us before. Images fill my mind of flashes of my wolf, but I’m not looking out through her eyes, I’m seeing her through Tyran’s and his wolf’s perspective.
I see her standing strong, formidable, a force to be reckoned with. Then suddenly she’s running, her eyes glowing violet, beauty and strength pouring off her in waves. And then out of nowhere, there’s me, staring up with savage fury in my shattered eyes, desire dripping from the snarl on my face.
I can feel what Tyran felt the first time he saw me. Feel the awe and need that coursed through him as I fought the rabid parts of me and saw the salvation in him. Devotion and hunger pound through him as he watches me throw my head back and shout out my release, our bodies fused together while my claws rake up his back. He craved me more than his next breath. Through his eyes, we’ve never been anything but pure beauty and raw power personified.
The moment Tyran’s fangs retract, the connection snaps, and I’m back in my body, sitting in Tyran’s lap, tears dripping silently down my cheeks. His warm tongue laps up the blood until my wolf healing kicks in and stops the flow.
“Did you see that?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
A stunning smile crawls across his face before he nuzzles his new mark on my arm. “I didn’t need to see it, Vicious. I lived it,” he tells me, voice laced with all the emotions swirling inside of me and calling to our bond, strengthening it, deepening it, until it feels infinite and invincible.
“Better?” he asks, his eyes jumping from mine to my arm and back again.
I lean in to claim his mouth, letting him feel my thank you and just how much what he did means to me. “The best,” I tell him against his lips before I move to get up. “Now, show me the rest of our pack, Alpha,” I declare, helping him up from the ground. “And hurry, because I really need to get back so I can fuck my mate until he can’t walk.” A laugh spills out of me when he groans and tries to pull me back.
“One extra-quick tour coming right up,” he announces, grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the circle. My laughter bounces off the large tree trunks like it’s wrapping around