The Bite (Book 1)

Original Edition - Chapter 55: My Neck

I felt better.

It sounds insane, but I did. It was like I had been woken up from a peaceful sleep or given an extra shot of an everlasting espresso. My blood was humming loud, burning like a delicious fire that licked its way throughout my body.

The more it hummed the more Evan's hummed. His beast reached out and met mine, testing it and challenging it. My beast loved it, she loved pushing our younger brother, she loved how his veins hummed even louder when we pushed him.

We ran quickly home and we were coming close to the cabins, I felt him.

Ethan.

Soon I saw his beast furiously running towards us. Shit. He knew. He knew that I had been gone.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

He skidded to a halt as a low growl vibrated off of him. He flickered his eyes to Evan, Ryder, then to me before he rumbled some more. My female wasn't in the mood though. She rumbled back. Our male needed to get over himself.

"Where were you?" His anger was hard to hide. I couldn't blame him in a way. He probably panicked when he realized that I wasn't there.

I sighed and looked at Evan and Ryder. "Go home, I need to talk to him." Ethan cocked his head as his brother trotted off with an amused glint in his eye. He looked back at me with blue-green eyes that were full or fury and fear. Fear from his mate that had gone missing in the night. "Take me somewhere we can talk."

He looked at me for a while then turned and ran in a direction that I knew. To the treehouse. We ran hard there, he was sparing me no mercy and I wasn't going to spare him any either.

My mate was an alpha male and after my little tumble with Levi, I was damn well determined to make sure he knew what kind of blood he had. Oh, he had an ass beating coming. A Thorne ass beating. No more beating around the bushes or hand holding, it was time to put all our cards on the table.

We made it to the treehouse as the night breeze ran through my fur. My wolf growled in approval. She may have injuries old and new, but it didn't matter. We were an alpha female, a female that would one day look over this pack, and we wouldn't let our wounds hold us back from what must be done.

I ran to a familiar burrow and pulled out a shirt and some spandex shorts with my teeth then quickly shifted to my skin and pulled them on before Ethan came marching out from another set of trees with some shorts on.

"Where the hell were you!?" he growled out. He was pissed and he was mildly entitled to be, maybe really entitled...

"What does it smell like?

He sniffed the air and snarled. "You smell like Levi and another male, now tell me sunshine, who the hell were you with?!"

I started to slowly walk around him. God, I wondered if this is how Levi felt? He was fuming, he was fuming and his veins started to hum. I could feel the energy from here and I wondered if he even realized it.

"Well, I was with Levi," I answered honestly. "The other male is Liam." He growled a little which made me roll my eyes. "Easy Ethan. He's nothing. There was a potential bond but nothing more, I feel nothing for him but friendship. He's like a brother to me."

I said the words but I felt guilt. I should have told him about Liam before. He tugged at his hair and started to walk slowly as well. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

"I should have told you, I'm sorry. I would have eventually, it just didn't seem important after I met you, the bond felt so insignificant with him."

"So why were you with him tonight?" He snapped out. I could hear the jealousy. My beast rolled her eyes at him as he looked us over and snarled so more. "Why were you with him and why do you look like you got the shit beat out of you sunshine?"