Wolf's Hunger (Mafia Monsters #5) - Atlas Rose Page 0,25

growled, desperate for release. Please.

That was what he needed…what he’d hidden from me…that was why he’d run. “Part of me is still real, and it’s that part that’ll do whatever you need.”

His eyes were wide, his body frozen in place.

“You want me to submit to you?” The darkness rose faster, and even as I said the words, I knew that wasn’t what he wanted.

He jerked his gaze back to me as sweat beaded on his top lip. “What did you say?”

And that knowing rose inside me like a deadly storm. Hunger. Lust. Control…so much control. “Just tell me what you want, Church.” He flinched as I stepped closer, my voice deepening with that sadistic hunger. “You want me on my knees?”

“No.” He was shutting down.

My throat tightened as that deep throb in my chest turned ravenous. “I will, if that’s what it takes.” My voice quietened as I lifted my gaze to his. “I’ll be whatever you need.”

Emerald green glowed in the center of my chest. I didn’t need to look down to know. Desire lashed like a lover’s tongue, swirling and marking, searing that Unseelie hunger deeper inside me. It wanted more, that need…more than the others…it wanted Church…

His hand around my throat. Savage and terrified. That heady scent of lust in the air as I gave him what he needed. I was rocked by the image, catching the panicked flinch of his body. He was wound tight, too tight…like he was ready to explode. “Church—”

“I ahh…” he started, then stumbled as he moved. “I can’t do this…not with you.”

He kicked a plate, scattering the picked-clean hare bones as he turned…and ran.

“I’m sorry.” My tortured words burned like acid. “Church, I’m—” But he was already gone, leaving me standing there…alone. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”

I don’t know how long I stood there while the fire crackled and dimmed, until that darkness slowly sank down inside me. My darkness. “Fuck!” I screamed, and the word resounded inside the mountain.

Slowly, I strode toward the scattered bones and bent, gathering the rest of the meat and the plates, doing something at least, instead of feeling pissed off and sorry for myself. I didn’t belong here, not with the Wolves, or with my own kind anymore. I belonged nowhere.

Bad apple…fallen not too far from the tree. Hell, all I’d need was a few bottles of the cheapest Scotch I could find and a piss-stained sofa right next to my old man. Maybe then I could slowly drown myself. Maybe then I could think of all the fucking ways this had gone so goddamn sideways.

An accomplice to murder. That’s what they’d say. But I wasn’t just that, was I? I was…

Unseelie. The thought was chilling. I glanced down to the glow in my chest. It was a lot more than lust now, a lot fucking more.

“He’ll come back.”

I jumped at the words and spun, finding Arran standing in the doorway. His hands were curled into fists, deep breaths drawing in the scent of chaos and hunger. My throat tightened, hardening around a lump. “Yeah, well…maybe if I’m gone.”

“It’s not you he’s running from.”

A hard bark of laughter tore free. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“We all have our demons, Carina.”

I snarled at those words, raging at the Wolf. “I terrified hi,.” I growled, hate and pain a fist in the center of my chest. I moaned and rubbed the ache. “I fucking terrified him. No wonder he ran.”

“He ran because he can’t get what he needs from us.” The Wolf’s tone deepened, sorrow tainting every word. “Because like you, he’s desperate not to be what he is.”

I lowered my hand, my body searching for cold clarity. “And what is he?”

“Tortured.” Arran stepped closer and grasped the back of my neck. “Tortured is what he is, special agent. Just like you.”

I fought the Wolf’s hold, turning my head toward the cavern’s opening. “A storm’s coming, Arran. It’s like nothing I’ve felt before. A darkness…” I turned back to his gaze. “Darker than this Unseelie hold.”

He swallowed hard as that flicker of fear rose in his midnight eyes. “Then we’ll need to make sure we’re ready, won’t we?”

All five of us against how many? A shudder tore through me, blooming into pain that gripped my bladder tight.

“The cavern opens up through there.” Arran lifted his hand to the back wall. “There’s a stream, it flows away from the mountain. It’s perfect if you need a little privacy, God knows you won’t get much of that once you step