RAE My resolutions crumbled at the chance to sleep with Rhys. I sold Vickie out so I could get railed by a playboy bastard. Heat flooded through my veins like I was a nymphomaniac. My core clenched as if it had a life of its own. I tried to keep calm when his fingers bit into my chin, but my heart beat sideways when I met that cold gaze. He towered over me, but the fear I’d once felt around him had long since disappeared. His anger matched mine, but he couldn’t hide that he wanted me, too. I could sense it. “Are you going to deny you’re getting wet right now?” Rhys growled. Despite my body going crazy, I knocked his fingers off me. “Whatever madness this is doesn’t matter. I have more important things to worry about, something you’re well aware of,” I said through my teeth. “You said I was nothing to you. We’ll keep it that way—” I hadn’t finished speaking when Rhys pushed me against the wall and caged me with his arms on either side of my head. His eyes glittered in the late af
SIX YEARS AGO RHYS My balls tightened as her muscles gripped me, and I shot my load inside her. Whatever was left, anyway. I’d made love to Rae most of the night despite how exhausting the mindblowing orgasms were. I kissed her lips gently before I rolled over, taking her with me so she lay on top of me. Her contented sigh was enough to quell some of my anxieties. The supermoon was coming. I could already feel the stronger pull in the air, even though it would be days before the moon was full. And on that night, Rae would shift and feel what I felt. I tightened my arms around her and kissed her head before looking up at the sky. I liked that spot. The trees provided some cover in case some fool decided to wander too close to me while I was with Rae, and the grassy patch I’d taken her on was as soft as a mattress. The lake was calm even though it held such monstrous things. But then again, since Ares had claimed Rae, even the strange wildlife in the forest didn’t dare get too clos
RAEHow could I fall for that? Why had I let him touch me?I couldn’t stop scrubbing my skin. Rhys’ touch had branded me, and I could still feel him between my legs. My body still hummed and was overheated. Whatever he had done had awoken something terrifying in me. The anger was still there, but so was the hunger. I’d truly lost my mind.But I’d be damned if I let him touch me again.How could he just walk out like that? How could he look at me as if I was disgusting after he’d done that to me?His words flittered over and over in my mind. I was nothing, and he wanted me to remember that. My chest squeezed even when I knew his hatred was irrational. He was the one who’d rolled up into my life and knocked everything sideways. I stopped scrubbing when I realised my skin was raw and bleeding. It matched the handprints Rhys had left on my wrists and thigh. My neck was marked, too. Again, my core clenched. After all these years with my head straight, why had it turned like that? He wasn’
RAE “Are you wearing contacts?” I self-consciously brought a hand up to my bare face. I’d tried to wear my glasses so I wouldn’t get any awkward questions, but they had made everything blurry and my eyes hurt. My head already pounded from the lack of sleep due to the nightmares. “Your eyes are quite stunning,” Dr Whitman said. “I don’t know why I’ve never noticed that.” My cheeks warmed up. I wasn’t used to compliments. “You’re still not sleeping?” Unlike at our last appointment, Dr Whitman had come to sit opposite me. She'd crossed her legs as she sipped on a cup of coffee. Her writing pad was on the chair beside her, but her recorder was going on the table between us. I hadn’t seen that recorder out in a long time. It was the only technology the doctor used, indicating that she knew something was wrong with me. As relaxed as she was right now, I knew the doctor would pour over every word I would say and every tone I’d use once I was gone. “Not very well,” I admitted. “Are yo
RHYSAfter following Rae all morning, I assumed they were ditching classes to return home. My fucking mistake. I hadn’t slept all weekend and was close to smashing the whole place up. I’d gone hunting every night on the other side of town, but letting the beast run free had done nothing to settle my nerves. Especially with my prey playing cat and mouse.But that wasn’t even close to being my biggest issue.My body was burning up. I shouldn’t have touched Rae. Sex had strengthened our bond the first time; I should have known what it would do to me. Why had I let my anger push me that far? The beast had gloated all weekend, but I wanted to forget how that woman made me feel.Her scent, the softness of her skin, the little breathy moans she made when I hit the spot. Everything was imprinted in my head. Cold showers weren’t working anymore, and jerking off only brought relief for a few minutes. I was fucked. The only thing that would help now was if I took her back immediately. Why woul
RAEThe weekend away centred me in a way I hadn’t expected. Sitting by the lake with cold beers and my best friend beside me relaxed me; I no longer felt inexplicably angry. If it weren’t for the lingering, almost phantom emotions, I would have wondered if I had imagined how overwhelming everything had been. Dr Whitman might have been right. It was all stress-related, and my lack of sleep worsened my mental state and caused the sleepwalking. I’d probably hallucinated the size of the thing that had chased me. Not a ‘thing’; it had been that black wolf that had chased me. Thinking it was anything else was just crazy.None of that explained the blood, but it was the only rational explanation. Rhys had probably been as freaked out as I had been to react like that. The same stress and mental exhaustion probably caused what happened with Rhys in my apartment. It had been days, but I still felt him. I still smelled him. Still saw him every time I closed my eyes. I know that was because it
RAE I hadn’t slept for even a second. My anger vanished as soon as Vickie left, and I was left with a big hole in my heart because I’d ruined our friendship. I racked my brain all night to understand why I would want to hurt her, my only real friend. Rhys knocked on my door most of the night, demanding I let him in. I knew he could break my door down again like he had the night he found me covered in blood, but he hadn’t tried. I felt like he was holding back. Even his anger towards me had cooled down. A big part of me had wanted to let him in because, even after all that madness, my body craved his touch. I wanted something to dull my self-inflicted pain, but being with the cause of all the mess wouldn’t solve anything. So I ignored him all night and snuck out of my apartment like a thief the second the sun rose. Vickie didn’t come to find me in my usual place in the library. I waited until I was almost late for my exam, and my heart broke under the weight of my pain. I shattere
RAEVickie didn’t react to my revelation. Her gaze remained on me, unflinching, unforgiving. She was showing her Montgomery backbone.Vickie had steamrolled me enough times for me to know that I wouldn’t get out of this one so easily.“I haven’t been sleeping,” I revealed.Sitting across from her felt like an appointment with Doctor Whitman. There was the same wall between us that shouldn’t have been there with Vickie.“The nightmares?” she asked.Vickie had seen them herself when she’d slept over.“Not just that. I’ve been sleepwalking for months. I wake up naked in the middle of the park and I never know if I’ve done something…”Vickie’s eyes softened again as she brought her hand to her mouth.“Months? And you never told me?”“I didn’t want to worry you. You do so much for me already,” I said quietly, lowering my gaze.“So rather than just talk to me, you told me to ‘go back to my privileged life’?”There was steel in her voice. My sixth sense was buzzing with her disappointment, an