Wild at Heart

I tasted a stream of metallic in the back of my throat as my canine pierced my lip. I was nervous and I was trying to hide it. Where would Octavia have gone? Was she okay? Why did she leave so suddenly? I had no answers, and I didn’t know how to get them. I sidestepped my mate to leave the room, but his hand reached out and gripped my arm, turning me to face him so effortlessly. I looked up at him and stared, waiting for his explanation, but he fell silent. I turned from him in an attempt to leave again, but his words stopped me in my tracks.

“Stop it.” The alpha tone that coated his words sent shivers down my spine.

“Stop what?” I asked innocently without facing him.

“Stop running from me.” He growled, but I wasn’t frightened. My breath caught in my throat and I couldn’t remember how to inhale or exhale. I stared at the bedroom door, unable to move. Little bumps covered my arms as he ran his fingertips over the fabric of my sleeves. My arms were set on fire and the heat only spread as he traced my biceps to my shoulders. My entire body was soon engulfed in flames and I couldn’t form a single coherent thought. I was jumping out of my skin, torn between the worry of my friend and the lust that was attempting to consume my body. His fingers slid under the silk and began to side my robe off my shoulders. I shivered and he let out a soft chuckle by my ear. “You run into war without hesitation, but you flinch at my gentle touch.” Nick whispered in my ear. I couldn’t stop the corner of my mouth lifting to a grin. He knew me better than I knew myself. The soft pressure of his lips against my neck had me finally exhaling slowly. “Relax,” Nick whispered. “I’ll take care of you, little wolf.” I let my eyes close and believed every word. “I’ll take care of the pack, the old and new.” He turned me around to face him and I opened my eyes to lock them with his. “Do you trust me?” He asked.

“With every ounce of my being.” I answered with no hesitation. He lifted his hand to my face and brushed his fingertips across my cheek.

“Daniel is looking for Octavia.” My eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “I knew you’d be worried, so I asked him to take some Omegas and locate her.” I felt a weight lift from my chest.

“You did that for me?” I questioned.

“There isn’t a thing I could think of that I wouldn’t do for you, Emma.” I reached my hands up and cupped his face, pulling his lips down to mine in a gentle kiss.

“I love you.” I whispered. He rested his forehead on mine and smiled.

“I love you too, little wolf.” His hand reached down in between us and softly pulled on the tie of my robe. My nipples tightened as the cool air kissed my skin. I could feel my breathing starting to stagger as Nick’s hands pushed the silk robe over my shoulders. I pointed my hands to the ground and allowed the smooth fabric to slide off my arms and fall into a ball at my feet. I no longer wanted to look at the cotton threads that covered my mate. I wanted to see his skin: I needed to see it. I reached to my tippy toes to stretch his t-shirt over his head and tossed it to the ground with the other heaps of fabric. It was almost too easy to release his erection from the sweatpants that hugged his hips all too loosely. He placed his hand on the small of my back and pulled me close to him. His hands were slightly rough to the touch; hands of a man that worked with them daily. The calicles on his thumbs were caused by hours of handling his ax cutting the wood that fueled the fireplace, but I didn’t mind one bit.

I was so drunk on the lust of the man in front of me that I didn’t notice how I came to be on the bed. The soft pillow cushioned my head, and the fluff of the comforter tickled the bare skin of my back. Nick’s body hovered over my own, his head tilted like a curious puppy as his eyes drank my flesh in. I slid my hands up over my head and interlocked them together, submitting fully to the wolf in above me. A soft growl escaped his lips as he leaned his head down and captured my breast in his mouth. I sucked in a breath and bit my lower lip until it bled. My eyes sank shut and I rolled my head back as the pleasure washed over my body, sending shivers through my muscles. My hands reached out to Nick, but he held them down over my head, taking full control. I’m not one to shy away from admitting that I am a total control freak, but in this moment, I would relinquish all control to my mate. He released my breast from his mouth only to find my lips with his and I gladly returned his kiss. A moan escaped my lips as he slid ever-so gently inside me. I bucked my hips to meet him, wanting the feeling of being whole. We matched each other’s motions, but Nick could only hold my hands back for so long. I needed to feel him. My hands roamed his body freely as his did mine until I gripped his shoulders so tightly he bled from my nails. The pressure welling up in me was getting to be too much and I was going to explode like a volcano erupting violently across the land.

“Dammit Nick…” I moaned as I leaned up and bit down into his collarbone. He groaned with pleasure and rocked into my hips more urgently. I practically screamed into Nick’s skin as my eyes rolled in the back of my head, wasted on pleasure and lust. The entire room stunk of sex, but my wolf senses didn’t turn away from it. I drank it all in and I fell back into the pillow, completely out of breath and satisfied. I purred and leaned into Nick’s touch as he caressed my cheek with his hand. He laid beside me and pulled my limp body over to him until I was tucked perfectly in the nook of his neck. He wrapped his huge arms around my tiny frame like the protector he was and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

“Sleep peacefully, little wolf.” His whisper barely touched my ears as I fell into the darkness of sleep.

I stared off into the darkness and squinted my eyes, trying to find a solid image in the black abyss. I could smell burnt flesh and it crinkled my nose in disgust, but I still walked closer to the smell. I found the body in the corner of a burnt cell and all I could do was sit and stare. I gasped and jumped back when the body twitched. A reflex perhaps? The burnt skin was slowly regenerating in front of my eyes and as terrifying as it was, I couldn’t move. Fresh pink skin now covered the naked man as he slowly began healing before me. Dirty blonde hair gradually grew from his scalp. The man was familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him as he revived in front of me. Suddenly, the man got up on all fours, but he didn’t stand for long. The man collapsed and fell to his side. A gapping hole covered his chest where his heart once was and he reached for me with one hand, but a scream echoed throughout the chamber and I shot upright in a sweat. Nick’s arms grabbed me once more and he searched my body for wounds frantically.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“It was nothing.” My breath was rigid, and I was soaked in sweat. “I’m sorry.” I muttered. “It was just a nightmare.” I grabbed his hand to show him I was okay. “I’m fine, it was all just a nightmare.” Nick pulled me back down to the bed and held me a little tighter. But I wasn’t fine. I was shaken to my core. I knew it was just a vision of my sleep, but why did it feel so real? Why did it feel like Derek was trying to come back to me?