But I’d never expected to experience anything like that since I was a hundred percent witch and not a wolf, but considering it was fairly common for male werewolves to mate with species outside of their own, I didn’t know why I’d never considered it. Hell, Carlos was a werewolf, so I knew all about the wolf species, even though he and I had never mated.

But if the hunter’s wolf had decided I was his mate, that would explain the Fire Wolf’s reaction to me in his man cave when he’d gotten his first hint of my true scent. It had awoken something in his wolf. And if he’d seen the text from Carlos, in which my ex referenced a night he’d spent with me, it could have stirred the Fire Wolf’s instincts which were to claim and possess the female his wolf had chosen.

But surely, this couldn’t be. What were the odds of me being the hunter’s chosen mate? I cocked my head. Didn’t the Fire Wolf understand what was happening here?

He still stood a yard away from me, his body so tensely coiled that he looked like a taut rubber band ready to snap. Given the confused and irritated expression rolling across his face, I had a feeling he had no clue. All he knew was that he felt an undeniable need to mate with me and claim me as his.

I crossed my arms and told my libido to cool it. Sex with this hot-as-fuck hunter was not happening, especially if the only reason he was suddenly attracted to me was because his wolf told him to be. Not because he, the man, actually wanted this. Ugh. Chosen mate? No thanks.

“How much time do you spend in your pack?” I asked briskly.

His head whipped up, that look of confusion still there. “My pack?”

“Yeah, don’t you have one? Surely if you’re part werewolf you have a pack somewhere.”

His jaw locked. “I don’t belong to a pack.”

Well, that explained it. The dude didn’t even know what was happening to him because he was too busy being the menace of the Underbelly.

“When was the last time you were around other wolves?”

A muscle in his jaw worked. “What does it matter?”

“Would you just answer the damn question?”

“Off and on. I have a few friends who are wolves.”

Friends? I could only imagine who his friends were. “Is that why you’re not rogue?”

“Rogue? What the fuck, Tala? Why are we talking about rogue wolves when I just jumped you in a fucking alleyway?”

Oh. So he knew enough to know this one-eighty with me was not normal.

I sighed. “Look, I know my scent did something super weird to you, but right now, none of that matters. How much time have we wasted here? Those fuckers in that club still have my sister.” Guilt flooded me. While I’d just experienced the best orgasm of my life, my sister was trapped underground by a sick asshole who could have ties to the European mafia.

Thank the lord baby Cheez-Its I still felt the bond with Tessa pulsing steady and strong or I seriously would be going mental.

The Fire Wolf’s hands fisted, and I saw again that he was so out of touch with his werewolf traits—hell, the man didn’t even associate with a pack—that he obviously didn’t understand what had just happened to him.

But now was not the time to enlighten him.

He stabbed a hand through his hair, taking another step back. “I’ll get your sister, and I apologize for that kiss, and . . . for what I did. I don’t know what came over me.”

What he did, right . . . I figured he was referring to the part where he laid claim to me and finger fucked me.

“It’s okay. Just find Tessa.”

The Fire Wolf gave a curt nod, a mask of resolve washing over his features before he disappeared silently from the alleyway.

Once I was alone, I sank against the concrete wall, my fingers going to my swollen lips as the memory of that orgasm scorched my mind.

Nope. Not going there. As much as I knew that sex with the hunter would blow my mind, I was not going down that rabbit hole. I never did understand the whole mates thing between male wolves and their women. I’d always assumed it was instinct driven and nothing more, and in this moment, I feared my assumptions were completely right.

If I let something develop with the Fire Wolf, while the lust between us would no doubt set the sheets on fire, I would always remember how he’d been before he’d gotten a hint of my true scent. While I’d been attracted to him from the second I’d laid eyes on him, he hadn’t felt the same for me. If anything, my arousal had amused him, or worse, he’d used it as a weapon against me. He hadn’t felt any lust until his wolf had gotten a whiff of the true power that flowed through my veins.

I made a face, scrunching my nose up. Yep, not interested. As soon as my sister was safely back in Chicago with me, it was sayonara to the sexy-as-fuck wolf from the Shadow Zone, ’cause this nine-to-five lady had no interest in a man who only wanted her because his wolf told him to.

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Chapter 17

“Seriously, what the hell is taking so long?” I shivered again as I stood in the alleyway. The Fire Wolf had been gone for at least twenty minutes, and I was freezing my ass off since I didn’t have his heat to warm me. “No way, girl, not thinking about that.”

But as much as I tried to suppress the memories of the passionate encounter we’d shared, they kept forming unbidden in my mind. Scorching tidbits pummeled me. His sweet breath. His large hands. The warmth of his chiseled chest. The feel of him finger fucking me, and then the fantasy of his cock plunging inside me. He would fill me completely. If only I allowed it.

I nearly came again in anticipation.

“Seriously, enough!” I hissed. “That was a one and done. And stop talking to yourself. You sound crazy.”

If anything good had come out of the Fire Wolf’s abrupt need to stamp me as his, it was that it was taking my mind off of what the fuck was happening inside that club.

Because the hunter had been gone for so long. Too long.

I closed my eyes and tuned into the bond with Tess. It hummed and vibrated. She was still there. They hadn’t transported her somewhere else, but maybe the Fire Wolf couldn’t reach her. Or what if he’d been caught trying to rescue her? Or he’d been killed?

“Oh gods.” I pushed away from the concrete wall in the alleyway and prowled on soft footsteps to the street.

The sun had dipped more. Twilight had arrived, and the glow of Manhattan lit the sky. I contemplated simply walking up to the club and waltzing inside. But as soon as that thought came, I paused because Tessa was my identical sister. If they saw me, they could think I was her.

I cocked my head. Could that work to my advantage?

No. Too risky.

But sitting here waiting wasn’t working either. An instinct or sixth sense told me that something was wrong.

“Fuck it.” I whispered a cloaking spell, and it clouded over me, settling beside the shroud that encased my witch scent. That weighted down feeling pressed upon me once more, but at least with the cloak I could move undetected, although if the bouncer was a powerful supernatural it was possible he would sense me.

Moving as quietly as I could, I snuck out of the alley to the club. A small line had formed, only a few people waited in the queue, but the bouncer was carding everyone, which gave off the impression that this was a legitimate business. Which just happened to harbor abducted women.

I stood inches away from a petite female standing on three-inch heels. She kept bouncing from foot to foot as she talked animatedly with her friend. A halter top covered her upper half and a miniskirt her lower. No wonder the chick was freezing. She’d be an icicle if she didn’t get inside soon.