Page 34 of Alpha Marked

A slight smirk crossed his lips. "A smart-ass as well as a runner. Interesting."

River couldn't make her brain work. Every fiber of his body pulled on hers like a magnet, forcing her to focus on him and only him. She didn't like feeling so out of control.

He scoured her face as if committing it to memory in case she got away again.

"Please let go of me," she said.

He lowered his mouth to her neck again and placed a hot kiss on her skin. "Why?"

The sensation snapped River back to reality like a lightning jolt to the lady parts. She wriggled in his grasp as anger bubbled inside her.

"Because I asked you to." Her voice came out stronger than anticipated, and his head whipped up. "You do know about consent, right? You say you want to do something to me; I say no, you comply."

"But you're mine, Little Wolf. You can't say no to me."

River clenched her jaw. "I can, and I do. Now let me go before I scream bloody murder."

His gaze steeled. "I could have marked you the other night or the moment I got you in this room. As heir to the Lycan throne, there are few rules about what I can and cannot do."

Seriously? Shifter rules didn't apply to him? Human decency didn't apply either, presumably.

"Your point?" she asked, wrenching her wrists from his grasp.

He blew out a harsh breath and took a step back from her. "My point is I didn't do those things. I didn't rip apart your pack and demand they find you for me. I waited. Hell knows it's the hardest thing I've ever endured, but I did. I waited for you to come out of the shadows."

"And what? I'm supposed to thank you for not being a monster?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Thank you for doing what any normal person would do, not being an asshole rapist like the last one."

He was back on her in a flash, teeth bared, eyes black as pitch, but to River's surprise, the sight didn't scare her like last time.

"What do you mean the last one?" His Alpha aura and rage flowed off him like molten lava.

River moved her hair to the side, revealing the ragged scar on the side of her throat.

A painful whine cut off the roar rumbling through him. "Who did that?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

She shrugged, but his eyes flashed. It wasn't time to be flippant. She had to knock it off if she wanted to make it through the story without him destroying everything in the room.

"I don't know," she whispered. "A rogue. He showed up about four and a half years ago. He found me in the kitchen with the pack wives preparing a meal. He bit me without consent. Until then, I'd not known I was an Omega."

He watched her, his breath drawing in and out in sharp bursts. "What did you do?"

"Well, first, I stabbed his ass with a potato peeler about half a dozen times. Then my pack Alpha came in with his Betas, and they pulled him off me. My mom shot him, I slashed his face open, rejected him, and stabbed him again."

She couldn't tell if Ares wanted to kiss her or kill her from the deadly confused gleam in his eyes.

"You rejected him," he repeated.

"Of course. My wolf screamed he wasn't the one. Plus, you heard the part where the asshole tore into me without permission, right? Yeah, I'm kind of funny about things like that."

His eye twitched, and he swallowed hard. "And what does your wolf say about me?" His voice came out gentler than she'd expected it.

"She hasn't made up her mind yet."

A low chuckle escaped him. He took in her face for a moment and then sniffed her. "Doesn't smell that way to me, Little Wolf."