I try to scratch at him, but I can’t find any of his skin.

“You wanted to be caught, didn’t you?” He yanks my hair to bare my neck and brushes his lips over my thundering pulse.

“I wanted to kill you. Was my blade in your chest not obvious enough?” I snap.

He smiles against my skin. “You’re too well-trained to have missed my heart.”

“You’d have to have a heart to be maimed by such a blow. I aimed elsewhere in the hope of hitting something more vital.”

He sighs into my ear. “And yet that is an end I’ve met before and cannot meet again, thank the Divine.”

I stop my fighting. “They stabbed you in the heart?”

“They did what they had to.”

I squirm, but his arm wrapped around my ribs has me in an almost bruising hold and his other hand is fisted in my hair.

“There’s no getting away now.” He clicks his tongue. “I told you never to run from me, Harlow. I know which story you heard at the Raining Star Bar.”

The meaning of his words hits me. My mind flies to the tale of the hunt and the biting and the public fucking—the complete possession. Henry is Deathless, and he’s caught me here during a hunt. They aren’t mindless animals like the Drained, but they still have a wild side and a taste for blood.

I shake my head—because as exhausted as I am, as afraid as I am, I’m more curious and exhilarated. I’m not ready to stop fighting.

“If I drink from you now, you’re mine.”

I shudder against him, warmth rushing through my body in a mixture of hate and desire. How these two feelings can be so close and so conflicting is beyond my comprehension.

Henry skims his nose from the junction of my shoulder up my neck, breathing me in. “Is that why you ran out here on a hunt night, Harlow? You wanted me to claim you. You wanted to belong to me, but you couldn’t say it.”

“I hate you,” I growl.

“Hmm. Perhaps you wanted someone else to claim you. Should I leave you here and see who comes to taste you? You only have to say the word and I won’t do this.”

I still. He’s giving me a way out.

It’s on the tip of my tongue. Stars. I could surrender here, and for all his lies, I know he would master this animal side of himself. But I don’t want to.

He chuckles. “Oh, you don’t like that idea? That’s good because I’m going to fuck you into the ground and sink my fangs into you when you come.” I shiver, clenching my thighs together, and Henry wrenches my head back farther so his dark blue eyes meet mine. “Do you know the only thing that tastes better than blood laced with fear?” He nips at my neck, not enough to break the skin, but enough to make me twitch. “Blood laced with pleasure and fear, and I want all of yours. You’ve stabbed me and made me chase you out here and now I’m going to take what I want.”

I want to run. I want to stay right here. I want him to claim me, and also I want to take my chance in the Drained Wood.

“If you hadn’t stabbed me, I would have let you run, made a game of it—maybe I wouldn’t have fucked you,” Henry growls. “Maybe I wouldn’t have made it official, but now I’ve lost a bunch of blood and I’m hungry and your scent has been torture since we met.”

Goosebumps rush along my skin as his breath ghosts over the pulse point in my neck.

“Should I bite you here?” he murmurs.

He releases my head and slides his hand slowly down the front of my body, cupping my right breast. “Or here? I know how you love when I bite your nipples.”

His hand continues its slow path down my stomach, over my hip, until he grabs my inner thigh. “Or here. I think that will be your favorite.”

“Let me go,” I rasp, but it doesn’t even sound convincing to me.

I don’t want to give him this win. How can I have escaped my parents’ control only to end up in someone else’s? Can I not just be free?

And yet, being with him doesn’t feel like a trap. I know better, but I am so tired of fighting, and I can’t even begin to touch the betrayal I feel that he kept this from me. I feel like I’ve wandered into the forest too far and can’t find my way out. This is so dangerous and I want it.

Henry spins me suddenly and pulls me into a kiss. I want to scratch and claw at him—to shove him away and run forever—pursued but not caught. Instead, I kiss him back. I open, letting him take what he wants. His shirt is slick with his blood. I press against the place I stabbed him. I want to hurt him in any way I can. I want him to feel sorry.

Henry groans and kisses me harder.

I have never met a man who liked this monstrous side of me. This is what I’ve wanted the whole time. Not the soft, delicate things. I want this raw, unbridled need.

He picks me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. He slams my back into a tree trunk, and I bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. I lick it away, and that breaks all of his control.

“Fuck, Harlow,” he groans, kissing down my neck, rocking his hips against me. “I can’t be gentle.”

But I don’t want gentle.

He shoves a hand under my dress and rips my panties away before fumbling with his pants. A second later, his cock is pressed against me. He rubs it over my clit, and I shudder. I swear it feels different, but he just waits.

“Anything to say, lovely?”

It takes my brain a full minute to understand he’s giving me a chance to say the word and stop him. Stars. The part of me that wants control above anything else screams the safe word in my head.

But the stronger part of me that wants so badly to surrender just once wins.

Henry searches my face for any hesitation. I narrow my eyes, and that’s all it takes. That small hint of a challenge and he thrusts his cock inside me to the hilt. I grunt a guttural sound from being overwhelmed by the fullness. Something is different—he’s big, but not the kind of big that edges on painful.

“Does it ache?” Henry asks with a smug smile that shows off a hint of sharp fangs. “Claiming makes the teeth come out and my cock swell. I’m in my full form for you, teeth, cock, and all. So I can be sure there’s no part of you I don’t reach.”

He offers no time to adjust, immediately pulling out and thrusting in again. His hands on my hips are bruising, holding me in place and forcing me to take every inch of him.

There’s a satisfied, glazed look in his eyes, like he knew I’d be wet enough to take him, but it makes me hotter that he wants me so much that he doesn’t care. It feels good to be out of control—to let Henry take over. His sharp teeth scrape down my neck, and my whole body clenches.

Henry grunts a curse.

There’s something about being able to control the pain in my body, to see the place it’s coming from, to feel it given with pleasure. I’m not in control, but somehow choosing to surrender makes me feel powerful. This is a thing I can choose to give away without risking losing something, or maybe it’s that I’m losing something I never wanted.

Henry growls into the curve of my neck as he picks up his pace. My skin is covered in goosebumps, my nipples so sensitive they ache. Pleasure rushes through my blood. It’s freeing to be wanted like this, to be taken without judgment.

With no warning, Henry spins and takes me to the ground. He pulls back for a moment and rips my white dress down the center, baring the green lace undergarments.

He pauses to take me in, his eyes passing slowly over the lace. He yanks the cups down and tweaks my nipples. I arch off the ground and groan, and his grin turns feral. Then he strikes, biting my right nipple.

My scream turns into a groan as he thrusts into me and sucks the nipple hard. He does the same thing to the left nipple, and I’m stunned with pleasure and pain and fear that I’m his now. I wait for something to happen—some sign that I’m not myself.

“I didn’t draw blood,” he says, pinching the sore flesh.

He pulls back and thrusts into me, his gaze fixed to where we’re joined. He does it again, harder, and I slide along the leafy ground, twigs and stones scraping the backs of my arms.