GIFTED RILEY by Lacy Mierr

Chapter 36: Mine

*Riley*

I was on fire. How dare that she-wolf touch Nicolas, putting her scent. on him, trying to mate with him. Watching her try to drape herself over him, had my insides fuming. The more Nicolas tried to push her away, the harder she fought for his attention. I was fixed on her, my rage. building the longer I watched.

Then she grabbed for his arm, slid her hand up to his shoulder, and oh goddess, she was pressing her bare chest against his back!

I felt myself fade into myself. It was the oddest feeling and yet I wasn’t scared. I welcomed this sensation and allowed it to take over because it mirrored what I was feeling. That she-wolf was touching what belonged to me.

I dropped my jaw and a sound came out of my mouth that I couldn’t describe. It wasn’t quite human, in truth, it sounded more like a roar.

“Mine,” I roared. Two heads turned to look at me, one was confused, and the other one looked more concerned. I don’t remember how I managed to cross over towards Nicolas and the she-wolf but within the blink of an eye, I was standing before them, yanking Nicolas free from her hold.

However, my yank ended up being more of a toss as I hadn’t realized how much power I put into grabbing the she-wolf. I tossed her aside and sent her sliding across the floor, I was unbothered as to where she landed, but at least she was away from Nicolas.

“Riley!” he called my name, “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

I turned to look at him, my breath panting as the heat raged on inside

me.

“Your eyes,” he said, then reached out to touch my chin, “They’re red,”

he finished.

His touch was bringing me back. With the heat leaving me almost as quickly as it came, I felt dizzy. I reached out and of course, he was there and caught me. A part of me wanted to stay in his arms, but another part was holding on to that anger.

It takes two to flirt and he hadn’t done anything to keep her filthy breast off of him. He was barely out of my sight and yet within that time he managed to have a woman crawling all over him.

I gathered myself and shoved away from him. I wanted to hold on to this anger, though I didn’t know why.

“Riley, look at me,” he said. I didn’t want to, but I ended up sending him a glare anyway.

“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice soft as if I could snap at any

moment. He wasn’t wrong in that assumption, I felt so close to the edge and I hated that I didn’t understand why myself.

“Is that the kind of she-wolf’ you desire?” I heard myself asking, my voice shaking with anger.

He glanced at the she-wolf, who had gotten up and was smart enough to back away from us.

“You missed me trying to dismiss her, and the disgust on my face,” he

said.

I gawked at him, was he trying to tease me, at a time like this? I almost called forth that heat again just to show him how not funny this

situation was.

“So her breasts just got on your chest all on their own?” I snapped.

His face cracked and a small smile nearly took over his face, but when I c**d my head at him, he pulled himself together.

“Kind of,” he answered.

“Nicolas!” I yelled and gave him a push that ended up backfiring and sending me back. He held up his hands to try to stop my pitiful attempts to shove him.

“Listen just let me explain. I was on my way back from getting you a dessert,” he sighed and then looked around awkwardly. “I know you like to eat,” he whispered, even though it was just the two of us.

I was about to call b**t when something fell from his hand. I looked down to see pink frosting mixed with black covering his fingers, the piece that fell was crumbs of the crushed cake in his hands.

I glanced at him, then at the cake, back at him and then my stomach rumbled.

“Was that for me?” I asked.

“It had a little black wolf on it,” he said. He sounded so defeated that I couldn’t help but chuckle, and then my chuckle turned into a sort of

s b mixture.

“You were getting me cake,” I said mostly to myself. He wasn’t joining in my laughter.

“Yeah, and now I’ve crushed it,” he said, then turned towards the trash

bin by the door.

“No wait,” I called after him. I grabbed his messy cake hand and brought it up to my mouth. Without thinking I take a bite of the cake. Using my tongue I fold the frosting into my mouth then lick my lips.

“Mmm yummy,” I said. I looked up at him and that look he had before

was replaced by a small smile. He looked so handsome with this smile. and I noticed he only showed it to me. The only problem with it was that it never lasted long. If you blinked, it would be gone.

“More?” he asked, holding his hand out to me. That tender smile was quickly replaced with a c**y one. I knew I wanted that c**y smile off his face but when I realized I had taken his cake hand and smeared it on his face I froze with fear.

The lycan king lost his smile and caught my eyes. I swallowed loudly as his face darkened. What have I done? I allowed myself to get too relaxed about him and thought we could tease each other and yet, once again, I was wrong.

t R il y, you’ve done it now. My heart was racing as I looked up at him. A piece of cake fell between us and it hitting the ground was the loudest sound I’d ever heard.

So this was how I died.