APEX

Ch. 20: What Happens in the Wild Stays in the Wild

"How do you think he'd take the news that I met my noble end fighting off your mate."

"He's not my mate! I'm livid that he showed up here."

Rhys's lips puckered. "I could smell you on him. He's lucky to still be alive, and I'm not talking about surviving the fall."

"I get that he's an unknown wolf intruding onto your territory. That's reason enough for you to have fought him. But why would my scent on him make any difference to you? You've made it clear you don't care for me. You resent my presence. You make jokes and sometimes you let your dick do the talking but underneath it all, you hate me. I'd think you'd be glad to have some other shifter claim me."

He sat up fully now, freeing his arms so he could grab me around the back of my legs, his hands sliding upwards towards my ass. "When did I seem glad? Was it when I ripped a hole in his neck? Or maybe it was when I made sure he went over the cliff with me so I could attempt to gorge him onto the top of an evergreen."

He gripped onto me, bringing me close to him so he could nuzzle the inside of my thigh with his nose. A few inches over and his mouth would be right at the entrance to my honey pot, which had begun to pulsate in anticipation of his touch. I couldn't help it—I leaned towards him to bring him closer to where I wanted him to be. The forgotten hours were a fragile time when the shift was over but primal desires remained heightened. And here we were, two opposites with a magnetic force pulling us towards each other.

Rhys took a deep breath. "God, your smell." His body shook and he let out a low moan. "Tell me you want this."

I did. Fuck, I couldn't think of one other thing I'd ever wanted more. My pull to him was like the pull of the moon on the tides.

"We can't do this." Damn the intrusion of my rational mind. It didn't belong here, threatening to ruin what every other part of me wanted. "Your family. Mine. My job, everything."

"I know all of that." He lifted himself off the ground without letting go of me, then hoisted me up and onto him so that I wrapped my legs around his torso. "And I don't care. Not right now. Not during the forgotten hours. We can go back to hating each other when they've passed."

He spun me around and before I had a moment to think of a reply, I was down on the bed of moss, and Rhys was on top of me. He brought his mouth to my neck and grazed a trail with his teeth down the length of it, pausing when he got to the spot where Barnett had bitten me. The sensation made me quiver. The thought of him biting me, claiming the spot Barnett had tried to steal, forced my desire into hyper mode.

I nudged him away. "Not that," I said. I couldn't let him. It would mean something I wasn't ready to interpret. It would be something more real than either of us wanted.

"What then?" He asked.

I brought his face to mine. "Everything else. Just not that. And just this once. We leave this in the forgotten hours."

That was all the permission he needed. He couldn't bite my neck, but the rest of me was up for grabs. He took my mouth with his, nipping my lip and locking me in a kiss I didn't ever want to be released from.

My body arched towards him. I flashed back to my dream—how I'd wanted him, the pressure of his fingers on me and his cock in me. And now here we were, he was right there. I could feel the length of his hard cock as he rocked it against my leg. He knew what I wanted, I'd given him permission, he could take me now. God, I wanted him to. But he was waiting, and it could be for no other reason than to drive me mad.

He broke the kiss. "Do you know what I'm going to do to you?"

I could barely speak now. I nodded as I let out a gasp. "Yes."