The air in the forest stank of danger, of threat. And not just the kind that came woth predators. No, it was deadlier, more still.
She was here, right in my arms. The little spitfire, the strange woman who had somehow decided to be more that the prey she had been brought here to be. The little woman who had dared to defy.
She glowed in the cursed light of the moon.
I could feel her trembling in my arms. Likely from fear, but also not entirely. Not if she could feel what I felt.
The bond.
It was there, faint as it was. Faint, but present.
If she could feel even a part of the bond that I could feel between us, this unmistakable bond…
It infuriated me.
"You've got terrible instincts, sweetheart." I murmured, brushing a leaf tangles in her hair. It was true. She had fought against being the prey, she had ran and escaped.
I tried hard to make my words seem casual, seem as if I was not weighing the tone and wording over and over in my mind. My heart trembled at her being so close to me, at her touch.
Her scent- warm, defiant, and mine!- sparred against every shed of control I had over myself.
She looked up at me, her eyes burning as she demanded, "Let go of me."
I scoffed. Terrible instincts, indeed.
"And watch while you trip headfirst into the first thing with teeth? No, thanks."
That's when I felt it. The shift in the air. I lifted my head as subtly as I could to scan my surrounding.
The shift in the air was palpable. Cold, sharp, and laced with something akin to danger, to bloodlust.
Thorien.
He stepped out of the shadows, moonlight cutting a sharp figure around him, bathing him in red. He looked inhuman. His gaze was locked on the woman in my arms. Not me, my mate.
The raw hunger I saw there almost made me growl.
"Mine." Thorien said, almost to himself in a trance.
I forced a laugh, very aware of what could happen should I decide to act as I wanted to. "You're late, brother. Already mine."
The woman in question stumbled at my words, looking up at me in beweilderment, "What are you-"
I shushed her, enjoying the irritation spreading across her face.
"You're standing between me and something that's mine, brother." Thorien stated, stepping forward threateningly. His voice was too calm, too controlled.
And there it was.
That glimpse of madness I was waiting for sparked in his eyes.
I'd seem him rip entirely through people, through other wolves with the madness he possessed.
I could handle the altercation…if I was by myself.
My arms tightened around the woman in my arms. No, I had to think of her.
"I think you're mistaken, Thorien. You see, I came across her first, and so she is under my protection."
His lips curved into a wicked and horrendous impersonation of a smile. I could feel the shiver that raced through the woman in my arms as she grew still. She had glimpsed it too.
"Protection or…" His smile grew until it was a full grin, as unhinged as he was, "…Possession?"
I didn't say anything, and I was beyond relieved that she didn't say anything either. The forest was quiet, as if holding its breath. It was just the three of us, standing in silence.
Her pulse raced under my fingers, the one holding her wrist from when she had been struggling against me a while ago. That felt days away now.
Mine raced similarly, and only I could tell.
Thorien's eyes had never left the woman in my arms. The woman, who I had recognised was my mate, the one whose name I didn't know.
And my mad brother was already fixated on her. Watching her, as if already imagining how pretty she would look when she would break. Like a child fascinated by breaking glass. I could tell by his eyes.
That was the last straw for me.
"You want her?" I asked him, my voice dropping low and filling with the venom I had worked so hard to keep out of it, "Come and take her."
The challenge was released, and it hung it the air. Here was I, the brother who had never tried to keep a possession safe from his younger mad sibling, finally, finally!, fighting for something.
The glee that entered Thorien's eyes was enough to warn me. He averted his gaze form where it had been trained on the woman, and to me. His brother.
In that instant, I became aware of the complete madness that had been hiding in him, as he let the emotion take him over.
He transformed.
It was visible in his entire face, the one he had been keeping away from the world, the one we had been making him keep away from the world.
"I will," He rasped, his breaths now coming in low pants, "But I will make her scream for it first."
She gasped, her cheeks flushing as she pressed herself against me, against the man she had been trying so hard to get away from. Away from my brother.
I felt a surge of protective instincts sweep over me, so powerful and demanding that they hurt. The bond was fiercelt pulled taut between us. Possessive. Electric.
Before I could reply, before I could decide between fighting with my brother or whisking my mate away from the danger, something rustled in the trees.
It was behind us. Heavy, fast. And dangerous.
The scent hit me next. It was the rogue wolves. Wolves that only lived for the Hunt. The slaves of the bloodlust.
And it was a lot of them.
I whipped around to face the clearing again, my jaw tense.
Thorien's expression didn't change. He couldn't look less bothered by the imminent threat. "Looks like we'll have to finish this the next time. The Hunt awaits."
I yanked her behind me. In the face of the imposing danger, my claws broke free, sliding and reminding the night that I was as much a beast as my brother, "Touch her, and you'll regret it."
The bushes behind us parted as the first rogue stepped into the clearing, drawn in by the scent of fresh prey.
And then- all hell broke loose.