Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 62

Flinching away, I can only fight to gain control of the creature that wished to maul my soul mate. The voice rattles in my skull, a compulsion to finally answer the question of which of us wanted the position more. Could I best him? I doubted it but the voice seemed willing to try. Hungry, tired, overwhelmed, the creature lurking under the surface of my consciousness licked his lips at the opportunity. 

Verando's gaze meets mine as I wheel around, he's so close to me, his muzzle only inches from mine as the light eyes scan over me. To close, I take a step back, much as it physically hurts me to lose ground. The hues of the grays reflect the light of the dense canopy of greenery, almost erasing his outline from the surrounding brush. Icy glimmering pools surrounded by a dark ring of stormy blue make me swallow back the building snarl. 

I truly did love him. It's a pull, deeper than anything I could fathom, stronger than any impulse that I'd felt. The universe itself had chained us to one another, a celestial link that bound me to him for life. It didn't matter if my wolf wanted to be his submissive or not, it could not deny that he was mine and we belonged to him. 

 "Are you alright?" I manage, bringing a sigh of relief from his lips. He must have been expecting me to attack him, hell, I still wasn't certain I'd given up the notion. My legs shudder, struggling to maintain my balance on four legs. This was the longest I'd been in this form, it was fatiguing my body surprisingly quickly. I note that while he's rough around the edges with leaf litter and dirt, he's not worse for wear. Helen had hardly made a mark on him.

"Of course I am. Helen is half my size, give me just a touch more credit than that. Perhaps if she'd spent more time training I'd be in much greater trouble." 

"You cheated." Malka barks at me, flashing her teeth as she surfaces out of the brush. "That wasn't your fight and you know it. How dare you interfere, half-ling."

Cutting me like a hot knife, I act without thinking, lunging forward to tackle the white female to the ground. Over the crest of the hill, I fight to remain on top, shoving her underneath me as we roll down the embankment, towards the roaring river below. Colliding with trees and brush, we separate as I crash into an oak, yelping in shock at the impact to my ribs. Before I can right myself, Verando skids down the hill. 

He comes to a stop before me, flashing his fangs at the female then allowing me to use his body to stand.

"Savage." She spits at me, shaking out her dirtied coat. "You fight like a child."

"Don't touch what belongs to me." I retort sharply. "I could say the same for you, traitor."

"Stop entertaining her. She's a rogue, we have no reason to even speak to her. That's not Helen."

 Flinching back from the command, I wrinkle my nose at him. While it might be Helen's wolf speaking for her, beneath that, she was still the woman we'd spoken with not hours before. "And let her attack you again?" I clip back at him, flattening my ears. 

His jaws are on me faster than I can blink, gripping the back of my neck, pinning me to the ground with such force that I yip in surprise. Much as I scramble to right myself, he's relentless as his paw lands between my shoulders with throaty growl. "I said we're done here."

"I'm not done." Malka snarls at him. 

Releasing me, I jerk away from him as he stares down the snowy female. 

"Your opportunity to speak ended when you acted against me. I'm not sure what you were hoping to accomplish here but you obviously failed. Don't cost your vessel her family, release her and be gone." The command is sharp, final. There would be no forgiveness for the one who decided to act on her own. There couldn't be, no matter how much he might want to, we could not reward behavior such as hers.