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  Eve scooped up a spoonful of mash potatoes and shoved them into her mouth as she leveled her gaze at the blond. She was incredibly beautiful, of course. Eve wanted to fling her plate at the woman—her rival for Braden’s affection.

  When Braden sat down next to the blond, Eve ground her teeth. It was damned difficult to keep from jumping across the table and bitch-slapping them both.

  “Braden!” the woman said with a light and friendly tone. “Where’ve you been keeping yourself?”

  Eve could smell the woman’s arousal—not strong, but enough to put Eve on edge.

  “Hey Lizzy.” He gave her a brief smile. “Oh, I’ve been around.” He glanced nervously at Eve before turning his gaze to his plate.

  Lizzy. The bitch’s name was Lizzy. Well, if Lizzy didn’t quit touching Braden’s hair and his arms… Eve’s eyes widened as she watched Lizzy’s hand go under the table. She couldn’t stop her bounding pulse from climbing to her throat with a throbbing intensity. Her control circled the drain as the color in the room around them dimmed and a sharp pain in her palms drew her attention. She looked down—surprised to find blood seeping from the wounds in her hands from her own elongated claws.

  “Eve.” Tom’s hand clasped around her wrist, and she yanked her arm away from him, but never took her eyes off Lizzy.

  The blond raised a brow at her. “You all right?”

  Eve shoved her plate and stood up. She looked down at Tom. “I think I need some air.” She had to get away before she did something really stupid…like deflate Lizzy’s perky tits with her fork.

  “I’ll go with you.” Tom stood, but Eve held up her hand.

  “I really want to be alone right now.” Why was Braden making her so crazy? She’d only met him this morning, and she’d made the choice to stop him. She’d sent him packing, and he’d moved on. And why wouldn’t he? He was a beautiful, gorgeous, and sexy-as-hell man. Of course he had other options aside from Eve! Her knee-jerk reaction when they’d been alone had completely ruined her chances with him. In all her life, she’d never connected so fully with another person, and what did she do—she rejected him. She hated herself for being so stupid—and hated feeling out of control.

  She hadn’t walked too far out of the mess tent when a roar followed by a loud ruckus snapped Eve out of her self-pitying daze. She ran in and saw Tom and Braden, both partially transformed, their clothes mangled and mostly torn away as they grappled on the floor. They had flattened the table between them to the ground, and several people were trying to break them apart.

  Tom had Braden pinned, his elbow pressed hard into Braden’s jaw as his beastly fist pounded against the side of Braden’s head.

  Lizzy pushed against her shoulder. “I’m pretty sure this is all about you, darling.” She gave Eve a wink. “What are you going to do about it?”

  With no thought and no plan, Eve ran full out and leapt the last few feet. She landed on Tom’s back and tried to pry him away from Braden. His arm lashed at her. She cried out when the back of his fist caught her in the side of the head, knocking her away.

  “Eve!” Braden’s roar was deafening as he threw Tom off him. He stood to his full anthro-form height of over seven feet tall. He slashed his claws at Tom who came at him again when he tried to get to Eve. She noticed that while Tom might be the bigger of the two men, in this guise they were nearly equal in size. It took four lycanosapiens—fully shifted—to finally wrestle Tom to the ground, and another five to pin Braden who was still fighting to get to Eve.

  She crawled toward them both, ignoring the rocks and hard ground biting into her hands and knees. Tom snarled and snapped at the men holding him down, while Braden’s deep howls of frustration vibrated deep in her chest.

  Lizzy shouted to her over the commotion. “You can have one of them or neither of them, but you need to make a choice before someone gets really hurt.”

  Choose. She didn’t want to hurt or betray Tom, but her mother’s words echoed in her mind… the whole world disappeared around us…in that moment, I knew he’d be the man of my life. Tom might be the man who saved her life, but what if Braden was the man of her life? Of course, there was the third option… choose neither.

  Lizzy brushed past Eve and went to help the five men holding Braden. In his blind rage, he’d gotten an arm loose and had nearly gotten to his knees. Watching the blond touch Braden, even if it was just to get him under control, sent Eve spiraling. The irrational fury wound tightly in her chest causing her bones to shift and reform as her body lengthened and reshaped.

  They were holding Braden down, keeping him against his will. They were hurting him, and now that bitch, the one who wanted Braden for her own had her hands all over him. Well, she couldn’t fucking have him!

  “Get away from him,” she roared. The lycanosapiens holding both men down all looked at Eve with equal confusion. Only Lizzy was smart enough to get out of the way as Eve rushed the five holding Braden. She knocked into them like a bowling ball mowing down pins, giving Braden a chance to leap to his feet with a howling roar. Eve rejoiced when Braden ran straight to her, scooped her up in his arms, threw her over his shoulder, and sprinted out of the tent and deep into the woods.

  WHAT SHE REALLY WANTS

  Braden ran with Eve all the way to the creek. He jumped into the rushing water and trudged up stream for almost a mile before crossing back. He took Eve to a cave on the far side of the mountain property—a place he often went when he wanted to be alone. Not many lycanosapiens knew about the place, and he had to keep her away from Tom.

  He wasn’t afraid of Tom—not for himself—but he knew the others would let Ellis go soon, and Braden needed to get Eve as far away as possible. When the fight broke out, Tom had smashed his way across the table and held Braden down. Before they both shifted and while he had Braden pinned, Tom had whispered his plan to take Eve as his mate and that Braden was just another obstacle to kill.

  The menace in Tom’s declaration had made Braden’s wolf accept the challenge offered. Unfortunately, Tom, as a police officer, was a trained fighter and had been winning… until he hit Eve. When she screamed, a surge of power, unlike anything Braden had ever experienced, rushed through his body. It made him strong and powerful, but it also lessened his ability to think and reason. If he could’ve gotten loose when the five tribesmen tackled him to the ground, he’d have killed everyone in the room to get to Eve.

  In his hurry to keep her safe, he hadn’t even paid attention to her protests while he fireman carried her all the way to the small cavern. The interior dead-ended about twenty feet past the mouth. Billowing white curtains of flowstone lined the back wall and the temperature was always about ten degrees colder than the outside during the summer and ten degrees warmer in the winter.

  Satisfied they hadn’t been followed, Braden put Eve down. Gazing at her very human body with ample curves in all the right places, his cock stiffened. In the fight, he’d lost his jeans, but his stretchy boxer briefs had survived. The soft cotton kept his shaft from springing at Eve like a divining rod. Her transformation to anthro-form—and Gods! What a glorious transformation it had been—had torn her shirt at the edges and popped a few of the front buttons. He could see her black bra, the top strap broken, contrasting against the pale creaminess of her breasts.

  Originally, he’d planned to get Eve to safety then go find Tom to challenge him. Tom might very well kill Braden, but Braden had to try. Eve’s intense gaze stopped him in his tracks. Anger seeped from her every pore. She fisted her hands on her hips, and her lips pursed in a vexed pout.

  Had Braden read the situation wrong? Was she angry he’d taken her from the camp? Of course she was! She’d already thought he was a Neanderthal who wanted to own her, and what did Braden do to show he wasn’t? He threw her over his shoulder—caveman style—and carried her off into the woods without her permission. How could he be so stupid? He’d only wanted to keep her safe.

  “Eve.” He would explain his reasoning and make her underst
and. He’d done it for her, not for himself. Braden put his hand on her shoulder and she jerked away. He could smell her blood and saw the dark droplets dripping from her fists.

  Had she gotten hurt in the fight? Changing to anthro-form should have healed any minor injuries. He grabbed her hand and held on tight before she could yank away.

  “Let me go!” It had been the first words she’d said since he’d put her down.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “I don’t give a flying monkey if I have sparks shooting from my elbows. Let. Me. Go.” When she yanked again, her hands opened, and Braden could see her nails had cut into her palms.

  He released her. “I’m sorry.” Braden shook his head and turned his back to Eve. He couldn’t stand the look of animosity on her face. “I didn’t mean to just snatch you up. I know you don’t want me, but…”

  Before he could finish, Eve shoved him from behind.

  He stumbled forward, anger mixing with confusion as he turned back to Eve.

  Her eyes had gone wolfish again. “If you ever let that other woman touch you again, Braden Jackson, I will end her and you.”

  “What?”

  “That blond. Lizzy!” Eve spit out the name as if it’d been a hot coal sitting on her tongue. She continued, taking finger waving to a whole new level. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  Braden felt a surge of hope edged by irritation. Hope because Eve was jealous, possessively so, but still irritated because she had some fucking nerve. “You don’t want me, Eve. You’ve already made that clear, but no one else is allowed to want me either.” He made it a question.

  Eve’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t have looked more stricken if he’d actually slapped her across the face. “That’s not true.”

  “Which part?” Before she could answer, he threw his hands in the air with a huff of frustration. “And to add insult to injury, you’re wearing a shirt covered in another man’s scent.” The last words came out as a snarl. He could feel his own wolf close to the surface as the blue in Eve’s irises returned. She exasperated him. He desperately wanted Eve, but he didn’t think he could take another rejection.

  She ripped the shirt from her body, wadded it up, and ran to the cave entrance. With a scream of frustration, she chucked the bundle as far in to the woods as it would fly. She stalked back to Braden.

  Braden gawked at Eve. “What are you…?”

  She flung herself at him, throwing her legs around his waist, slanting her mouth over his, swallowing his question in a ferocious kiss.

  Instantly, her touch made his cock completely hard. He parted his lips, opening his mouth to her probing exploration. Gods, he craved her salty-sweetness—a unique taste that was Eve’s and Eve’s alone. Clamping his mouth to hers, Braden darted his tongue between her lips, meeting her need with his own.

  She rubbed against his erection until the sweet friction forced a moan from his lips. Her back arched, and Braden turned with her still latched around his waist, and pushed her against the cave wall. When the rough stone pressed into her back, she cried out.

  Braden broke from the kiss, his brain too lust-addled. He could barely think, barely breathe. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he murmured against her neck.

  She wrapped her arms and legs around him tighter and ground herself against him as she took his ear lobe between her teeth. The pain of her bite sent a surge of heat from her lips directly to his groin. If she kept it up, he’d lose control. “Stop. Eve.”

  “No.” Her voice had taken on a deeper tone, low and demanding.

  “What…” He had trouble forming a complete sentence because of her tongue sliding along his ear, but he tried again. “What are you doing, Eve? What do you really want?”

  She placed both her hands on either side of his face and stared directly into his eyes. “I want to make you mine.”

  Oh fuck. The weight of her words nearly took Braden out at the knees. The thumping of his heart grew to a roar, and he could swear it echoed against the walls of the small cave. Did Eve mean it? Did she even know what it meant? Braden didn’t believe in love at first sight—at least he hadn’t. He’d never been impulsive, especially not with his emotions. Until now. Lycanosapiens culled humans for one purpose, to add new blood and new fertility to the tribes. His grandmother had been one of the culled. She’d told him stories about how she’d met and fell instantly in love with his grandfather—a bond still strong and powerful after eighty years. He’d listened to her stories, but hadn’t really understood.

  Staring at Eve, drinking in her vibrant blue gaze, Braden now understood all too well. He had to make sure she understood what she was asking. He wouldn’t lie to Eve or hold anything back, even if it meant she might withdraw her claim. Even so, he knew he would never belong to anyone but her.

  “I want that, Eve. I want it so goddamn much it hurts.” He kissed her neck and cheek, nuzzling his face against hers. He wanted to rub himself all over her body, to scent her as part of his claim. “But it has to be mutual. I will be yours, Eve Taylor. Heart, mind, body, and soul. I will be yours, only yours. But in return, you will be mine. It will be a bond that only death can part.” Would she accept him? Would she allow him to claim her? To protect her?

  In response, Eve fingers kneaded their way up his back until they tangled in his hair. “Yes, Braden.” She breathed the words into his ear. “Yes, yes.”

  Inside his wolf howled, his human side rejoiced as he lifted Eve higher against the wall, kissing down her chest. He unsnapped her bra with one hand and took her nipple between his lips. He sucked her hard, tightly drawn nubs, with hungry draws on her flesh. She cried out, but when he tried to ease up, she fisted his hair and pushed him back to her breast. He could smell her arousal, fierce and sharp with lust and desire.

  Braden grabbed Eve’s ass with both hands, his hands sliding under the fabric of her cutoff jeans until his fingers brushed against the slick folds of her warm, lubricated sex.

  “Yes,” she moaned as he rubbed over her swollen clit. “Yes. Mine.”

  Braden reveled at her words. Eve would be his. Now and always.

  BY BITE AND BLOOD

  Eve’s pussy throbbed with heat and need. She arched and squirmed to meet Braden’s fingers. She tried to grasp at his shorts—at her shorts—desperate to get rid of the clothing creating an obstacle to her goal. When he’d first taken her from the mess tent, she’d been exhilarated, but on the way, all she could think about was Lizzy’s hands all over him, her flirty smile, and the way he’d smiled back. It had made her so unreasonably furious. She didn’t want another woman handling him. She didn’t want anyone to touch Braden but her.

  In his arms, her passion raged wild and unbound. She barely felt the cave wall scraping against her back as he kissed and sucked his way from her lips to her neck to her breasts. His muscles rippled and bunched beneath her hands, beneath her lips—his skin saturated with a burning fever. She had to have more of him. She unhooked her legs from his waist and dropped to the floor of the cave, her mouth never leaving his skin. She fumbled to get her pants off, but Braden somehow got there ahead of her. He pushed Eve’s shorts to her ankles as he kissed down her stomach and past her belly button, until he nudged her thighs apart with his chin.

  Eve watched as he spread her sex with his fingers. His hungry gaze—eyes half-slitted—dragged up her body. Braden met her stare as he flicked his tongue against her sensitive clit. He licked again. Her pussy flooded with liquid passion as a shudder of burning lust tore through her. Braden held her open with one hand while he thrust a finger inside her with his other. He sucked hard on her clitoris, thrusting his tongue in rhythm with his invading fingers, all the while watching her as he feasted with a voracious appetite.

  Her knees buckled and she collapsed, her legs straddling his kneeling thighs. He added another finger inside her, stroking quick and sure over the spot just inside her channel until mewling sounds fell from her lips. When he bit down on her b
reast— not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to create sharp pain. Eve’s pussy clenched in response.

  She could feel him smile against her skin. “You like that, yes?” He bit again for emphasis, and Eve found herself aching for the rush of heat brought on by the pain.

  “Yes,” she said, wanting more—so much more.

  “You’re so wet,” he murmured, licking and kissing where his teeth had created marks. “I love how wet you are for me, Eve.”

  “Only you.” The truth of her words astonished Eve. She wanted Braden to know how much he affected her, and not just her body.

  He licked his lips, his amber eyes glittering in the dark. “I love the way you taste. So sweet. So good.” He slanted his lips over hers, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth, taking as much as she could give while he continued to thrust his fingers inside her wet heat.

  She didn’t think her juices were all that sweet, but even so, tasting herself on his lips, as he conquered her with his hands and with his kisses, the slow burn of orgasm began to build, drawing warmth from her arms and legs to pool at her center. “Braden,” she muttered. “I’m going to—” Her words cut off when he swiped his thumb over her clitoris, shoving her over the edge.

  “Ah!” She quaked as her orgasm exploded and spasms wracked her body. Braden captured her moans with his mouth, drinking her ecstasy while his relentless ministrations with his fingers sent wave after wave of pleasure coursing through Eve until she thought she would disappear into a bundle of raw nerves. When she couldn’t take more, she tore her mouth from his in a gasping sob.

  Braden withdrew his fingers and tugged her close. His nose had widened, his brow had thickened, and his green eyes had turned completely amber. Eve leaned into him, trying to cover as much of his skin with her own. His shaft—long, thick, and hard—wedged between them. She gasped at the size. From what she’d seen and felt, Braden hadn’t been a small man, but he hadn’t been this big either.