Dark Wolf Returning. Rhyannon Byrd

sensual lips curved in a way that would have made any other woman whose heart he hadn’t shredded light-headed with desire. “Sure you are, Rey. All those big bruisers in the Alley think of you as their little sister, which makes you the princess of the group.”

      “They think of me as their equal,” she snarled, wondering why he was goading her on purpose. Then she felt her nipples tightening in the cool air, and realized he’d managed to cut her bra off while she’d been growling at him. Argh! She must be woozier than she’d thought if she hadn’t caught on before he’d bared her to his dark, heavy-lidded gaze.

      He was staring at her naked breasts, hard, and she blushed clear to the roots of her hair, trying to cover herself with her right arm, her blood nearly boiling when she caught the crooked smirk on his lips.

      His hot gaze flicked up to hers. “After everything that happened between us that last night we were together, modesty is a little pointless now, don’t you think?”

      “It was dark in your room that night.” Not to mention it was three years ago, and he’d been drunk off his ass.

      “Yeah, but I’m a pure-blood. My night vision is even better than yours.” He flicked his tongue over his teeth, and his lips twitched into a wicked grin. “My sense of taste, too.”

      Lust shot through her in a burst so primal and potent it made her shudder, and it took every ounce of strength she possessed not to pant...or throw herself at him. “I would have thought you were too wasted to remember anything from those particular minutes, Eli.”

      He slowly arched one of his dark brows. “That night wasn’t the only time I had your taste in my mouth, Rey.”

      She blushed even hotter when she realized he was talking about the time he’d licked her juices from his fingers after they’d been inside her. He’d made her come with his hand during their last “sober” interaction together. It’d been two days before the drunken night at his house in Shadow Peak, and they’d met in the woods, as they so often had, carefully avoiding the prying eyes of the pack.

      A bitter laugh sounded inside her head as she thought about that telling fact. She should have known then that she was nothing more than his dirty little secret. Something he was too ashamed to admit to. But she’d been blinded by love and faith and foolish dreams. Dreams that had lived inside her heart for too many years to fight them.

      With perfect clarity, Carla could still remember the first time she’d ever set eyes on Eli Drake. She’d been no more than twelve, and he’d been...well, the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. He should have detested the sight of her, given his father’s virulent hatred of humans and half-breeds, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d grinned at her that day that they’d passed on a small street in Shadow Peak—but it’d been years before they’d ever spoken to each other. Ten, to be exact. And she could still recall the details of that night as if it’d happened only yesterday.

      Her mother had always had...issues. And she’d had dismal taste in men. After a string of abusive relationships with Lycan males, Nicole Cates had vowed to only date humans. But the relationships never lasted. The only lasting relationship Nicole had ever enjoyed was with a bottle.

      Carla was the result of a short-term affair her mother had had with a human named Antonio Reyes, and he’d disappeared from her life as quickly as he’d entered it. To her family’s surprise, and disgust, Nicole had decided to keep the child, thinking a baby might help her find some stability. But it was Carla who’d become the caretaker. Nicole’s family had made it clear they wanted nothing to do with their pathetic daughter and her half-human offspring, and so the two of them had been on their own. Though she’d had the support of her fellow Bloodrunners when she’d gotten older, no one from the pack had ever helped her and her mother, until the night she’d first spoken to Eli, less than a week after she’d turned twenty-two.

      She could still feel the hot slide of angry, frustrated tears slipping down her face as she’d struggled with her mother’s limp body that night, the salty taste of them on her lips. She’d had a call that Nicole was passed out on a sidewalk outside one of Shadow Peak’s bars. Too embarrassed to tell the other Runners, she’d left the Alley and gone up to town to handle it on her own. As she’d tried to get Nicole on her feet, shame had burned in her belly at the thought of the girls she’d gone to school with seeing her mother like this, knowing how horrible they would be. The derogatory names they would call them. The same names she’d heard her entire life.

      And then, out of nowhere, Eli had walked out of the darkness and taken her mother from her arms, carrying her home while a stunned and wary Carla had walked beside him. She’d been amazed to realize that he not only knew her name and where her mother lived, but that she was Bloodrunning partners with Wyatt. Afterward, they’d talked out in her mother’s backyard, and it had been the beginning. Of their friendship. Of her love. Of...of everything.

      Eli Drake had been her hero that night, coming to her rescue at a time when she’d desperately needed him. But now he was her nightmare. The thing in the world that could hurt her most. That could break her.

      Her mother had always warned her that a Lycan male would destroy her heart if she wasn’t careful. How awful to learn that Nicole had been right.

      Shattered by the memories flooding through her, Carla closed her eyes, determined to block them out—to block him out—hoping it would help her find some measure of control. Huge mistake. The sudden touch of his tongue to the sensitive skin over her ribs made her gasp, then whimper, and she flushed with mortification. God, she couldn’t have sounded more needy if she’d tried, and his hands flexed against her hips, holding her tighter.

      “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she choked out, when she felt the delicious rasp of his tongue gliding higher, until he was licking the flesh of her blood-smeared breast that she hadn’t managed to cover with her arm. Her breath seized in her lungs, her eyes shocked wide as she stared down at him, too stunned to do anything more than shiver as she watched him lick another smear of blood off her tingling skin, taking the crimson fluid into his mouth, like it was his right.

      “Christ,” he groaned, the hungry sound vibrating deep in his chest. “Like I could ever forget that taste.”

      “Eli?”

      * * *

      Pulling his head back, Eli looked up at Carla’s flushed face, and thought To hell with it. He needed this. No matter how dangerous it was to his sanity, he needed it. Craved it. Would have sold his damn soul for it.

      Not giving himself time to change his mind, he leaned in close again, wanting her mouth this time, but she jerked back from him, turning her head to the side, her chest heaving. He started to tell her to stop acting like a fucking child and just give him what they both needed after being apart for so long, then stopped when he caught sight of the tears spilling over her pale cheek.

      Shit.

      “Rey,” he breathed out, feeling like he’d just been gutted. In all the time that he’d known her, he couldn’t ever recall seeing her cry. Not since the night that he’d helped her with Nicole.

      Her throat worked as she swallowed. Then she turned her head to look at him and licked her lips. “From the moment we first realized there was something between us, you told me to wait, so I waited,” she whispered unsteadily. “To give it time, so I did. And do you know what I got for it? Nothing. Except your lying ass disappearing without a single goddamn word.”

      He wanted to look away from those tear-soaked eyes that were making him feel like the biggest son of a bitch who had ever walked the planet, but couldn’t. “I was banished,” he heard himself scrape from his tight throat. “What did you expect me to do? What the hell would I have said?”

      Years-old fury flamed beneath her tears, so bright it made him wince. “Maybe Come with me? Did that ever cross your pea-sized brain? If you ever meant a single damn word that you said to me, you would have asked—”

      “I had no idea where I was going,” he bit out, the familiar rise of