“That’s it. Stay with me.”

When I finally cleaved them open a bit more, I saw darkness, and a sliver of pale moon. Then a pitiful sounding moan filled my ears before a blurry face appeared in my line of vision. A man hovered above me.

My eyelids slammed closed when the pain hit me. Such pain. Burning, aching, stabbing pain. It was everywhere.

I’m dying.

“Tala, fucking drink!” the voice snarled.

A hand tightly gripped my neck and yanked me forward as hazy darkness filled my mind. Something warm and wet pressed against my lips. The thick wetness coated my face, and a bead of it slipped into my mouth.

Rich, decadent spice rolled across my tongue in that one single drop.

“Tala, you need to drink.”

I was floating. Hovering. Between this world and the next. But that rich liquid beckoned to me.

“Drink, Tala. Drink!” That voice called to me with so much agony but that last word was imbued with power. Alpha power. Commanding power.

Obey. You must obey.

I opened my mouth, my tongue lazily darting out, sluggishly, but then another drop of that sweet nectar hit my senses. A thimbleful of life flared inside me. I cracked my mouth open more, then lapped slowly at the rich liquid that was being held against my mouth. I swallowed. The liquid warmth coated my throat, burning down into my body as more of the sweet nectar filled me.

“That’s it. Drink again.” The man’s command was filled with razor-sharp precision and rippled with power. It was the voice of a general, a warrior, an alpha leading a pack of thousands, a force to be reckoned with.

Fire Wolf.

I faintly recognized him in the floating darkness. He forced me to drink, commanded it of me, over and over, so I did.

I didn’t know where I was. None of this made sense because it felt as if I hovered between worlds. On one side, pain-free bliss stretched for eternity, only a hair’s breadth away. All I would have to do is reach for it, touch it, and this pain would vanish. It would be so easy, so peaceful, because on the other side was a world of icy coldness, never-ending darkness, and such raw pain.

“Tala!” the Fire Wolf snarled again. “Don’t you dare die on me, you hear me? You’re not dying today. Drink more!”

His thick hand cupping my neck squeezed. My jaw hinged open, and a gush of rich nectar flowed into my mouth again. Gods, its taste was addictive, like honey wrapped in decadent chocolate with the zing of berries. It consumed me.

More of the liquid rushed forward as I swallowed, and another surge of strength flowed into me, the need to devour the liquid suddenly entrancing me.

I clamped onto the source, my lips wrapping around it as I sucked and pulled desperately. The nectar sprang forth under my greedy lips, rushing into my mouth like a fast-flowing river as I drank mouthful after blissful mouthful.

“Yes,” the Fire Wolf said in relief. “That’s it.”

I drank and drank and drank. It was only after my belly sloshed with the liquid that I realized somebody was holding me. The beckoning scent of citrusy cedar wafted toward me. Strong arms enveloped me.

The pain began to ebb as I became more aware of my body. The hunter held me. No, he cradled me to his chest, and the pain didn’t hurt as sharply as it had before. My lungs filled more easily with each breath, and the throbbing in my head eased. As my sucking became languid on the liquid’s sweet source, my bones shifted. The sounds of cracking and snapping followed. Brief flares of pain accompanied those, but then they were gone and a dash of soothing coolness followed. All the while, the sweet nectar continued to gush forward and I lapped and sucked at it like a woman dying of thirst.

“How much more does she need? Is she going to be okay?” a woman asked.

“She’ll live,” the Fire Wolf replied.

“What about you? How much have you lost?” Tessa. That voice belonged to my sister. She was here too.

“I’ll lose as much as she needs,” the Fire Wolf rumbled against me.

I swallowed more as the aching and stabbing pains lifted from my body, as though an angel had descended from heaven and was healing all of my wounds.

Another man said, “Her bruises are disappearing, and her legs are no longer bent at odd angles.”

That voice. I knew that voice too. Carlos.

But I kept my eyes closed, letting myself fall back into the fog of the sweet nectar, relishing every second of the sustenance filling me and the feel of the Fire Wolf’s warm hard body pressed against mine.

“Is she healed?” Tessa asked in a small, scared voice.

Another deep rumble vibrated against me, the sound reminding me of a giant purring cat. “Almost.”

I wrapped my arms around the hunter, pressing my body flush against his. Whatever he was feeding me was like nothing I’d ever tasted. A swell of magic accompanied it, wrapping me in a cloud, caressing me in its warmth. I wanted to drink and drink and never stop. I wanted it, craved it, needed it to continue for eternity.

It was only as the pain completely abated that I became aware of myself straddling the hunter. My legs were wrapped around his waist, my arms entwined around his neck. He sat on the ground holding me as my head was dipped below his ear, just above his collarbone, and my mouth was—

My mouth was on his neck.

The decadent drink was coming from his skin. It was coming from the hunter’s . . . neck.

My eyes flashed open as I took in my surroundings. My body felt strangely energized, as if I could climb a hundred mountains or run a thousand miles. Strength flowed through my veins, and amazingly, the pain had completely evaporated.

I broke contact with his skin as my head whipped back. “What the hell?” I whispered. I was in the middle of a concrete alleyway between two buildings in the dead of night. A carpet lay on the ground to my left, along with shattered metallic pieces that were a dull blue. I blinked. Above me, the sliver of moon hovered in the sky. “Where am I?”

“In the alley outside of our apartment,” Tessa said quietly. A shiver struck her. “You . . . you fell from your window.”

My head cocked, the movement not hurting in the slightest as my gaze flew upward.

Three stories up, my bedroom window was open, the curtains fluttering in the breeze through the open pane.

It all came flooding back then.

Waking from the delicious dream with Fire Wolf. Two figures diving into my room. The struggle as they tried to abduct me.

My eyes widened in horror. Carlos and Tessa stared down at me. Concern twisted their features.

I was still wrapped around the Fire Wolf. He continued to hold me in his arms as my limbs folded around him, but he was bleeding. A trickle of blood streamed down his neck, and my nostrils flared.

I could smell it. I could scent his blood—rich honey, molten chocolate, decadent berries.

I brought a fingertip to my lips, feeling wet stickiness coating my skin. I looked back at the Fire Wolf’s neck, at the cut that was sealing over as I stared at it. “Did I . . . Did you . . .”

But I couldn’t get the sentence out. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

No, I had to know if this was real. “Did I just drink your blood?”

The Fire Wolf’s blazing eyes flamed to life, the irises glowing like embers as his arms refused to loosen their grip. He was like a rock, a heavy immobile mountain that had positioned itself around me and was refusing to budge.

“Yes,” he replied quietly.

I gasped and wiped at my mouth. Blood. I’d drunk his blood. Crimson droplets were smeared along my hand.

But I’d never heard of such a thing. The only supernaturals that gave blood were vampires who were transforming another. No other species did that, and the hunter wasn’t a vampire. Or was he? No. He wasn’t. I hadn’t seen any vampiric traits in him.