âAre you seriously threatening to take a lover, Sayre?â he demanded, his deep voice causing chills to race across the surface of her skin.
âTo let another man touch you?â
Lifting her chin, she kept her own narrowed gaze locked in tight on his burning one. âIâm not threatening. Iâm stating a fact. You either stop this archaic bullshit youâve been pulling, protecting my virginity like itâs something you expect me to keep for-freaking-ever, or Iâll end it for you.â
Cian drew in a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, his shoulders seeming even broader as he came another step. âYou really think Iâll allow that to happen?â he rasped in a low, almost silent slide of words.
âJust try to stop me,â she finally whispered, unable to shout when everything inside her was aching and raw. Incapable of enduring another moment in his presence, she turned and walked away from him. Though she was dying a little more with each step that she took, she kept her chin high, refusing to look back, even when he growled her name in that deep, delicious voice.
Prologue
If this was what falling for someone did to a personâwhat craving them felt likeâthen Sayre Murphy wanted no part of it. Ever. She might be young, as well as inexperienced, but she was a woman, damn it, and she knew when she was done.
When she had finally had enough!
With her back straight and her hands fisted at her sides, she stood in a moonlit Maryland forest, high on the mountain that the Silvercrest Lycans, her brethren, had owned for centuries. And she wasnât alone. Standing a few yards in front of her was the most magnificent, infuriating, arrogant male she had ever known. One who treated her as if she were nothing more than a child and interfered in her life time and again, making it painfully clear that he never had any intention of seeing her as an adult female capable of making her own choices. It was an antiquated attitudeâcompletely fitting with his dominant, alpha personalityâand one she was entirely sick of.
Honestly, who cared that she was only eighteen? Did that make her a child? Hell no. A handful of weeks ago, she had fought beside her loved ones in a bloodthirsty war to protect their homeland. Had used the unique powers she possessed as a rare Lycan witch and sent grown male werewolves to their deaths. If that didnât make her an adult in his eyes, then she wondered with frustration if anything ever would.
âIâve had enough of this insanity,â she told him, determined to keep her voice from shaking. âIt ends. Now.â
The tall Bloodrunner approached her, his dark-as-sin hair gleaming in the moonlight, narrowed silver eyes burning with fury. âYou do not dictate to me,â he snarled, his lilting Irish brogue thicker than sheâd ever heard it before. âNot now, not tomorrow and not the day after that. You will never control this. You understand me, lass?â
âIâm not interested in controlling you,â she shot back, fisting her hands even tighter, while deep within she felt the fiery heat of her power swirling with energy, desperate to break free. A rising power that she only managed to hang on to by a thread. âIâm simply making my position clear. Youâre the one whoâs been acting like a jealous ass. Not me!â
âIâm protecting you!â he roared in a voice that held dark, dangerous things that were so much more than human. As a male who was half werewolf, he was as deadly as he was beautiful. But she knew he would never cause her physical harm, even when he was glaring at her with such raw, seething fury.
The safety of her heart, however, was a different matter.
âI donât need your protection. I never have.â Words rushed up into her mouth that were revealing and intimateâwords she knew would make her vulnerable the moment they were spokenâand yet, she couldnât stop them. Couldnât hold them back. âI...I just need you,â she whispered, loving the way the muscles in his strong, corded throat moved beneath his skin as he gave a hard swallow, his blistering gaze fixed on her tongue as she nervously wet her lips. He watched her mouth with the hungry avidity of a predator who wanted to play and claim and mate, his body expanding with need, his rigid biceps straining the sleeves of his T-shirt. But the human half of him was too stubborn to give in.