Moon Bound

(47) No Mercy Served |Scarlet's POV|

The scent of raw male and spring rain compelling my senses until there was no air for me to breathe in but that unmistakable fragrance, a scent that was... his. A demon was letting my head rest on his strong chest. A heart beating wildly underneath, it was as affected by my touch as I was by his.

As soon as I lifted my head up it was going to end, slip under a reality I no longer wanted to accept as mine.

What are we? Who are we to each other?

His touch was so gentle, a promise-filled caress only he could give me. I wanted to sink under, fall deeper under the illusion.

Is that what this is – and illusion? Or have I just turned... willing?

Like waking up from a dream, my head rose from the warm chest. I wanted to rejoice under his feather-like touch, let go of the past and just be there – with him. I had to press my lips together not to scream. Everything in me was crying from the breach in contact. Never aloud.

The tears were drying off of my face. The blur was fading.

The moment disappeared. My hands withdrew from around his waist with sheer will twisting bones and muscle tissue just to make them move another inch away and then another.

I had to remember. There was a battle to fight before we could explore these new sensations, dive into these wrong and hopeless feelings. Helpless to stop it.

Enticed by a force I found impossible to acknowledge, my eyes met his. Green pools of swarming emotions, there was compassion, understanding, and something else in them. They were undoing me completely, those eyes of his.

"We need to fight," my shaky voice reverberated through my chest, barely audible even in the ascended silence. The voice didn't sound like mine but foreign.

"We need," he echoed back. His fingers traced the side of my face, brushing against the skin in the softest caress until I became aware of something I'd been refusing to admit.

He was the same man and he wasn't. The fact was suddenly crystallized to undeniable clarity.

"And we will," he went on. His hand traveled down to my neck, sneaking to my shoulder and finally, trekking down to my hand, enveloping it within.

"Together," he whispered quietly, taking a hold of me once again.

His touch was so much more intense now, giving me strength I never knew I needed, mending wounds until I forgot they existed and then, it started doing things to me...

My body trembled like a shaking leaf gripped by the merciless wind just before it would be ripped off from the home it grew on as more shivers erupted from inside. My knees weakened. Blood rushed to my head as muscles low in my belly clenched and flowed in a violent response to his touch. The sensation reached my core and I felt it give out that liquid.

Dizzy, for a minute I had to fight for balance.

Sanity returned and I heaved out a sigh only to find myself mortified in front of the man standing a few inches from me. He had a knowing look on his face as he inhaled air like it was a means for his own survival. A tremor raked across his own body and the grip of his hand wrapped around mine tightened.

The haunting Moon was whispering. Quiet, sensual promise of a future I never wanted to have with him, it was there, laying underneath my chest, beating with excitement and something I was not ready to name yet.

I turned toward my friends to find them waiting at the verge of the clearing, watching just like the wolves in the circle were watching us. There were only a few steps separating me from the people who I still considered my family but, now, along with the bond to my mate, the pack bond was restored too.