Everyone's Mate (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 28

I was in a daze. Startled beyond all thought? Yes. Mortified...? No. The feel of his lips against mine were all I knew. For the moment, I was blissfully unaware of anything else; the war was at the back of my mind as he knotted his fingers in my hair, holding me brutally against him as he all but ravaged my mouth. His tongue forced its way between my lips to toy with my own, the taste of it sugar-sweet and addicting.

"Ah!" I gasped out, alarmed when I was lifted into a straddling position on his lap. I felt his hand snake up the backside of my shirt; his warm touch left my skin feeling scalded wherever it went. He released my mouth and trailed hungry kisses down my jaw line, shooting fire through my veins. I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath, inadvertently inhaling his addicting scent. I knew that if he went much further, we wouldn't be able to stop. Fear and adrenaline made me try to push away from him, but it was a feeble attempt at best.

The only argument I had died in my throat once he reached my neck; his mark. A single kiss there made me cry out – a sound I didn't even know I could make. It seemed that he had felt it, too, because this time he was biting into it. Having bit it before, and now again, I was suffering from sensory overload. For just a second I felt my wolf again, and I keened – a wanton, needy sound. I could feel his hardness pulsing underneath me, and could tell he was equally aroused –

And then I was on the floor, laying there, stunned, and he had shot up, away from me as if touching me had burned him. With a brain still fuzzy from our previous activities, I sat up, wondering what had happened, completely bewildered. The loss of his touch had me feeling empty.

"Merda," he murmured, wiping at his mouth. Bright golden eyes looked down on me, and a tingle went up my spine when I met them. Not for the first time I realized he was an Alpha wolf for a reason. His countenance was wide open, vulnerable, and then horrified. All at once I watched as his walls snapped up, guarding him once again. This time, he looked angry – ashamed, even.

He wrinkled his lip, looking down on me. "I'm not one of you," he spat. "This was a mistake."

This wasn't the man that had saved me. This wasn't the man that I knew I could trust; this was Alpha Riordan, a man who wouldn't bat an eyelash at killing anyone for the safety of his pack. I didn't understand the sudden change. He'd gone from affectionate man to cruel Alpha in 5.2 seconds and it was enough to give me whip lash. Despite the feeling of the ground slipping out from underneath me, I had known in the back of my mind that something like this would happen. It always does.

A familiar heavy weight settled inside of me. I pushed myself to a standing position, realizing that I must have looked quite the picture; messy hair, red lips from a kiss, a massive bruised mark on my neck. Inwardly I was reeling; I couldn't believe that I had let that happen. I'd let my walls down again, and god damnit, I never learned.

"Mistake, huh?" I said and smiled self-deprecatingly. "Yeah. That's what it was."

At first, he almost looked sorry for what he'd said, and then resolve made his expression steely. "I can't love you. I won't. Whatever is wrong with you – that's what caused this. I marked you to save you, not because I wanted you." His golden eyes turned back to amber. "Don't come looking for me again."

Despite feeling like I'd just died, I found myself nodding, having looked away in the middle of his speech. Each word sent a stabbing feeling through each of my limbs. It felt like a formal rejection. It felt like I'd just been hit by a bus. And I didn't know why, because everything he'd said was true, and I didn't blame him for not wanting to love me because even I wouldn't.