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mechanically. "When we were on the run, there was a man who witnessed us changing into

wolves. My father killed him to keep him from telling anyone. We were starving, so..."

Riley used gauze with Peroxide to clean the cuts on my face. He was so gentle with me

that my heart swelled with a familiar warm feeling.

"What about Zoë? Does she eat humans?"

He put the medical tape in the kit and closed it. I cradled my arm to my chest and stared

at him. I anticipated his answer, but he walked away. I followed him into the living room and he

stood motionless in front of the fireplace.

His voice sounded weary and a bit detached. "When I was a teenager, some of my mates

and I used to hunt in Denver."

"Hunt
what
?"

"Guess." He put his arms on the hearth and leaned against it. "We'd go after drug dealers, rapists, murderers, and pedophiles. You know…the bad sort."

"How did you find these people?"

Riley turned to face me. Strangely, his eyes had lost their youthful sparkle, and I felt as if

I was looking at Aidan. "We'd read newspapers, watch the telly, and observe the city." He

smirked and let out a harsh breath through his nose before he said, "We'd have a stakeout…and

then we'd have a
steak
…
out
."

I gulped nervously. My heart whispered to me, ‘
You don’t need to hear the rest of this
.

Just
go upstairs and get in bed
.’ But it was too late; Riley had already sucked me in. My brain forced me to ask, "Was Zoë part of your hunting pack?" He nodded. "What about Quinn?"

His expression turned grim. "No, she didn't agree with what we were doing."

I sat on the sofa and stared at him with new eyes. I had no idea this gentle young man

was a cold-blooded killer.

"So, because these people were bad, you felt killing them was justified?"

“Yes. We were doing humanity a favor.” He spoke faster as his anger quickly rose to the

surface. “The authorities weren't doing anything to get those bastards off the street to keep them

from hurting more people. They didn't help the families of the victims or the people who suffered

at the hands of those monsters.”

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I approached him cautiously. "Were you the leader of this vigilante wolf pack?"

He lowered his head, but his gaze never left mine. "Yes," he answered, teeth clenched.

"People like that killed my mother. They deserved to die."

I swallowed hard again. "But your father avenged her by killing the men responsible for

her death. Wasn't that enough?"

"No. I wanted to do something to make sure no one else suffered like I did."

"So, do you still go to Denver and hunt for bad people?"

He moved to sit on the sofa and I sat beside him. He looked at me through tired eyes. "No,

when my father found out, he put a stop to it."

"How?"

"He punished us, and it worked because we never hunted bad humans again."

"Punished you? How?" He gave me a long look. When he didn't respond, I got nervous

again. "Did your father physically hurt you?"

He turned his head away. "We were all lying next to each other in the infirmary. My

father said we risked exposure of our kind because the Denver media started reporting wolf

attacks. We usually cleaned all the evidence, but I guess we got careless."

I was truly amazed Riley showed no remorse for his past actions. He leaned back against

the sofa and stared into the fireplace again.

"Don't worry about Zoë. She's fancied me since we were pups. I'm with you now, so she's

going to have to accept it and move on." He looked at me and grinned. "I'll help you clean the cabin and make it nice." His eyes darted around the room with a wishful expression. "I want to make this our home."

I considered his thoughtful words, but I still brooded about his murderous hunting spree.

That's when I realized I didn't really know him. I wondered how much more he would reveal

about his past…and his personality.

Before we went to bed, I decided to take a risk. Riley stood on his makeshift bed when I

extended a bold invitation. "Um, do you want to sleep in the bed with me?"

His face lit up with joy and he jumped excitedly on the bed. His naked body crawled

beside me, a seductive look in his eyes.

"What do you think?" He kissed my lips and we scooted under the quilt.

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After I turned off light, we lay in a spooning position and I felt his penis against my butt.

I wore a nightgown, but the flimsy material did nothing to block my temptation. I wondered if

Bobby's store was open twenty-four hours, and how fast Riley could get there to buy condoms,

and then come back so I could finally have him inside me.

He whispered in the moonlight-shrouded bedroom. "Paige?"

"Yes?"

"When I fall asleep, my body is going to change. Please don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."

I turned in his arms and rested my head against his bare chest. "I know."

I placed a tender kiss over his heart, and he tightened his embrace.

Riley fell asleep first and I felt his soft fur on my face. His body temperature was warmer.

His front paws wrapped around me, and I realized this was the most intimate I'd been with his

animal form. He would never sleep with me as a human and I had to accept it if I was going to be

with him.

Hours passed, but I hadn't fallen into a deep slumber yet. I heard the wood floor creak

and opened my eyes to find myself sleeping alone. I looked toward the sound and saw someone

standing a few feet from the bed, the moonlight casting a long shadow on the floor. With a gasp,

I sat up and turned on the light. My wide eyes stared at Riley standing naked and wet.

"What are you doing?"

He just looked at me.

I leaned toward him, looking down at the floor, and saw dirty paw prints. I followed the

trail from the open window to where they turned into human footprints and ended where he stood.

I concluded he'd been outside. "Where did you go?"

He approached the bed and got in next to me. I sat with my back against the headboard,

too bewildered to scold him about his dirty feet. He rested his head on the pillow with his arm

tucked underneath.

"I had to sort Zoë out."

I swallowed hard. "What did you do?"

He blinked once. "I punished her."

I released a haggard breath when I noticed the smeared blood on his chest. Fear laced my

words. "Why do you have blood on you?"

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He looked down at himself. Then he sat up and wiped the blood from his chest. "Oh, I

thought I washed it all off in the river." He pulled the quilt back. "I'll go take a shower."

He was about to get out of bed, but I grabbed his arm. "What did you do, Riley?"

He looked at me calmly. "She tried to kill you, so I defended you."

"Yeah, you saved me from a vicious mauling. Thank you. But I remember telling you to

let it go."

"I couldn't let her get away with attempted murder. I won't tolerate that behavior toward

my mate." He shrugged, and his tone sounded carefree. "So I made an example out of her." I gaped at him because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "It's within my authority to punish

my subordinates any way I see fit." His voice was ice cold. He had no sympathy for Zoë.

"Did you hurt her?" I asked meekly as I gathered the quilt against my chest.

He pressed his soft lips to mine. "The important thing is...she'll never hurt
you
again," he whispered.

This time I let him leave the bed. He walked out of the room, and minutes later, I heard

the rushing water from the shower.

I turned off the light and lay motionless, staring at the ceiling thinking about Zoë. I knew

the blood on Riley's chest belonged to her and wondered how it got there. How did he exact his

punishment and make an example out of her?

He rejoined me in the bed after his shower, smelling of clean soap. He kissed my lips

again and snuggled next to me under the quilt. His warm body enveloped me like a second

blanket.

"Go to sleep," he murmured.

Once his breathing evened out, his human body flashed into a wolf.

I didn't sleep peacefully because the sound of whimpering awakened me. I opened my

eyes to see Riley suffering a nightmare. He panted rapidly, his wolf body twitched and his head

jerked against the pillow. I propped myself on my elbow and touched him gently to rouse him.

"Riley, wake up," I whispered in the darkness.

His glowing yellow eyes shot open. Then he blinked a few times before he settled them

on me. He flashed into his human form, still breathing fast. The moonlight revealed a thin sheen

of sweat covering his naked torso.

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I threaded his hair through my fingers, the pads of my fingertips massaging his scalp. "It's

okay baby, you were just having a nightmare."

He was breathless, his eyes wide with fear, almost as if he was reliving the nightmare

awake. "I saw Mum. We were running from the hunters. She was right behind me. This time I

thought I saved her. Then I heard a gunshot. I turned around and she was gone."

He closed his eyes and a pained expression crossed his face. When he opened his eyes, I

saw unshed tears behind them.

His voice cracked when he said, "Every time I try to save her, they take her from me." He

paused, and his lips trembled. "I still see the hunters’ faces. They laugh and hoist my mother up like a prize." Tears leaked from his eyes and I instinctively gathered him in my arms and kissed

the top of his head. His voice had lost all of its strength as he wept. "I miss her so much."

I rubbed his back to soothe him. I felt his pain because I shared it too.

"I know how you feel. I understand." For the first time in our relationship, I opened up to

him and shared one of my secrets. "I dream about my dad. I visit him in his office and he talks to me the way we used to do. Sometimes I meet him at our favorite bistro for lunch." I smiled at the thought. "We laugh together and reminisce about my childhood." Suddenly, my emotions

overpowered me and my vision blurred with tears. "I miss him too...so much it hurts."

Riley pulled back to look in my eyes. His grief-stricken face mirrored mine. The sadness

we felt over the loss of our parents had bonded us. His head moved closer and I met him halfway

until our lips sealed.

The kiss deepened quickly as we poured our emotions into it. His tongue invaded my

mouth and I surrendered to it. I let him taste my suffering and I tasted his. We moaned together

and his fingers entwined in my hair, tilting my head back so he could delve deeper inside.

I needed to feel more of him---all of him---so I pulled his body on top of mine without

breaking the kiss. His cock stiffened and I opened my legs wide, allowing it to nestle perfectly

where I wanted it. I grabbed his bare ass and ground my hips against him, relishing the entire

length of his hard steel.

He slipped his hand between my thighs, and I moaned deeply as he cupped my pussy

through my panties. The cotton material felt rough against my swollen lips like a heavenly

torture.

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We ended the kiss breathing hard. Riley's eyes glowed so brightly, they illuminated his

face. "You're so wet." Then he sniffed the air, a growl of pleasure rumbling in this throat. "I can smell you." He licked my lips in a loving wolf's kiss, his soft hair tickling my forehead. "You smell
so
good, Paige."

He put his mouth on mine and attacked it with a heated passion. When he released me, I

felt frustrated because I wanted more.

"Open your mouth." He obeyed my command and I darted my tongue out and slowly

licked his canines.

"Be careful, love. They're sharp."

"I know," I purred. I didn't care either because I tasted all four of his lethal weapons.

He growled, and his body pressed me deeper into the mattress to make me feel his

arousal. I bucked against him and wrapped my legs around his torso, my heels rubbing intimately

against his ass. There would be no more assuming tonight.

"Do you have a condom? I want to make love to you
right
now. I can't take it anymore."

I didn't try to hide the urgency in my voice. I had to have this gorgeous wolf tonight or

else I'd burst. I grew tired of foreplay. We were way past that. I wanted Riley to quench my

sexual desire, and I desperately needed him to relieve the throbbing sensation between my legs. I