Inescapable Bond

Jaxon

Where in the ~world~ was she off to? This girl who was supposed to be my mate? This...~Quinn~.

I was stunned by her audacity. Dashing out of the hospital when she should be resting. Running off to God-knows-where, away from the pack, away from ~me~.

She was aware we were mated, yet she ran! It shook me to my core and filled me with fury. No one had ever dared to defy me before. My pack members knew the cost was their life.

Their Alpha was supreme.

But this girl, this nobody, this ~human~ who had barely started her transformation, she thought she could defy me?

I felt anger coursing through my veins, making my muscles tighten, my hands tremble, my bones start to split and crack open. I was shifting out of sheer, blinding, primal rage.

My fingernails split as sharp claws replaced them. My canines erupted from my gums, growing longer. My head felt like it was about to split open…

Shifting was always painful...but this time it was even worse. Because the look in the girl’s eyes, the shock in them—no, the ~fear~—was making me hesitate.

For some reason, I didn’t want to frighten or harm her. A deep, unfamiliar feeling, one I had never experienced before, was welling up inside me. Like a blend of desire and…could it be…affection?

Even though Quinn was nothing more than a stranger to me, nothing more than a lost little lamb we’d found in the woods, it felt as if somehow...I had ~known her~ and ~cared for her~ my entire life.

A side-effect of the mating bond, no doubt.

I cursed it, clenching my fists, feeling the claws retract and my fingers return to normal. My wolf’s teeth withdrew into the gums.

Only my eyes still glowed gold, a remnant of my predatory inner beast. Part of my wolf wanted to rip this girl apart for her insolence. While the other part…

The other part wanted me to rip her clothes off and claim her right here in this deserted alley.

Those full, quivering lips. That long, jet-black hair. The body, so young and untouched and yearning for mine, I could feel it. The desire inside me was threatening to overflow at any moment.

I started pacing just to take my eyes off her and to clear my head. It wasn’t working.

“You’re really…” Quinn whispered in disbelief. “You’re really a wolf…”

“A ~werewolf~,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.”

“How…?” she asked, shaking her head, looking overwhelmed. “How can this be real? How can this be happening?!”

The naive girl. She was like a child.

To think, of all the worthy women in the world, the Moon Goddess had chosen ~this one~ to be my mate. It felt like some cruel fucking joke.

Deep down, I knew, no one, certainly not this Quinn, could replace what I had lost. I brushed off the thought, suppressing it like I always did, to avoid getting emotional.

“You will understand soon enough,” I said. “Once you have shifted.”

She looked down at her bandaged leg as if she was finally realizing this wasn’t a prank. This was her life now.

She’d better get fucking used to it.

“What if…?” she asked breathily. “What if I don’t want it? To be like you?”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Too late for that.”

There was no reversing the transformation into a shifter.

Once bitten, she would become one of us or die.

Although I found myself filled with disdain and disgust for everything Quinn represented—her childish innocence, her instinct to flee instead of fight—I had to admit... I did not want her to die.

Maybe it was just the mating bond, or maybe it was something more. I couldn’t tell. But what she said next left me even more perplexed.

“Tell me your name,” she pleaded. “Please. I need to know your name.”

Why did it matter so much to her? I’d already left her hanging in the hospital room. Maybe it would soothe her just to spit it out already.

“I am the Alpha of the Shadow Moon Pack—” I began.

“Your name,” she interrupted.

“I was getting there,” I said, irritated. Was she always this bold? “My name is Jaxon.”

She blinked, her cheeks flushing with color as if the name was having some physical effect on her.

Maybe it was. When she’d told me hers, it had done the same to me.

“Jaxon,” she said slowly, testing it out on her tongue.

The way she said it... gave me fucking chills. The longer I looked at her, the harder I became. My golden eyes undressing her, imagining what it’d be like to ravage her.

I tried to shake these cravings off. They made no sense. They were instinctual and nothing more. But the more I tried to deny them, the stronger they became.

From a quiet whisper in my mind: ~Kiss her. Taste her. Touch her.~

...To a full-throated shout: ~Fuck her. Fuck her! FUCK HER!!!~

~No~, I scolded myself. ~No fucking anyone or anything right now.~ The girl needed to be taken back to the hospital first and foremost.

“Jaxon, will you please...?” she said, looking more and more distressed. “Will you just let me go home?”

For a moment, I wondered if I should try to comfort her. Wrap my arms around her. Tell her everything was going to be okay.

But that was a pathetic whim of sentiment. Not the action of a powerful Alpha.

“No,” I growled. “Your home is with our pack now. Try to run all you want, you won’t get far. Our bond is like an elastic band. The more you pull away, the more powerfully you will feel the urge to return.”

Her lip curled. It seemed she didn’t like me much either.

“We’ll see about that,” she huffed.

Quinn spun on her heel and stormed off, leaving the hospital behind. ~The nerve of her!~ I thought. I should’ve run after her, forced her back into a hospital bed.

But, truth be told, I found her defiance amusing.

So, Quinn wanted to play the rebel?

Let’s see how she liked a taste of rebellion.

Quinn

~That jerk!~

I couldn’t believe I’d ever been attracted to him.

Sure, his golden eyes were mesmerizing. And, yes, his ash-blond hair framed his strong jawline perfectly. And, okay, fine, his muscles, his abs, his entire body was drool-worthy, to say the least.

But the moment he’d opened his mouth, I’d seen just how obnoxious and unpleasant Jaxon really was.

Werewolf or not.

Whatever.

My head was still reeling. Even though I’d seen him morph into that…that creature with my own eyes, I wasn’t entirely sold on the rest of it.

The notion that I couldn’t leave his side, for instance. That sounded like a crazy excuse to keep me close. As if kidnapping me wasn’t enough.

And the idea, the ludicrous idea, the ~insane~ idea, that I was going to become one of them? A werewolf? No way. I refused to believe it.

~I should’ve listened to you, Mom~, I thought.

Thinking about her stirred up a wave of guilt. Even though I’d grown up feeling trapped in my own home, it turned out all my mom’s warnings had been right.

There ~was~ something to fear out there in the woods. And the one time I’d ignored my mom’s advice, this was the result.

Maybe I deserved it.

I longed for the comfort of my books and bedroom and mom’s cooking right now. Even if she was overbearing and a bit eccentric, I would take her brand of crazy over ~this~ crazy any day.

I stood at the side of the road and stuck out my thumb, hoping someone would stop and give me a lift.

I’d only ever read about hitchhiking in books, never tried it in real life, but I figured if there was any chance I could get back to my mom’s cottage, I had to try.

A couple in a worn-out station wagon pulled over and the woman rolled down the window, smiling.

“Heading North?” she asked.

I nodded, suddenly feeling shy and scared. For all I knew, these two were serial killers. Even though they looked pretty harmless.

“Jump in!” she said. “We can drop you off in Maysville.”

I took a deep breath, glanced back once at the distant hospital, then made up my mind. I didn’t have to believe a word Jaxon said. I could make it home on my own.

“Thanks!” I said, hopping in the car and sighing with relief as it sped down the road, taking me away.

***

We were half an hour away when I felt the first jolt. It felt like someone had taken a fork and jabbed it into my ribcage, twisting my insides like spaghetti.

“Ahhh!” I cried out, startled.

“Are you okay?” the woman asked, turning to look at me with concern.

I was clutching my stomach. Another jolt hit me. This one felt like someone had grabbed my belly button and yanked it upward.

I grimaced in pain, gripping the seat in front of me, squeezing it tight. I had never experienced anything this excruciating before. What was happening?!

And then I saw them. When I closed my eyes, his golden pair flashed in my mind.

Jaxon’s.

This was what he had called the mating bond.

The distance was literally tearing me apart from the inside out. And, for some reason I couldn’t explain, mixed with the pain…was a pure, insatiable craving for ~him~.

For his hands on my body. His lips against my neck. His erection growing, throbbing, pressing against me.

Inside me.

My core tightened and grew wet. My eyes were rolling back. What on earth was happening to me?!

“Pull over,” I gasped. “PLEASE!”

***

Once they’d pulled over and helped me out of the car, I assured the kind couple I would be okay and could take care of myself. But as soon as they drove away, I doubled over, struggling to breathe.

As I lay by the side of the road, Jaxon’s eyes kept flashing in my mind, over and over. And now, I realized…it was more than just pain and desire.

It was ~longing~.

The jolts in my stomach were my body yearning for his touch. I found myself imagining things I’d never imagined about any man, even in my wildest dreams.

Jaxon unzipping his pants.

Jaxon pulling down his boxers.

Jaxon stroking his perfect, massive…

“STOP!” I cried out.

I couldn’t believe what was happening to me.

But I knew that if I didn’t get back to Jaxon soon, I might explode in more ways than one…