Lovers' Tussle Read Online Free Page B

the moment she took the wild bend in the path. The alley was dark and ominous before her. Her claws dug in, her nostrils flared, sniffing the air for a way out. There was none. Up ahead was a solid wall. She was trapped. Tienna turned toward the entrance. She would have to fight.
    Like a dark demon, Roth’s presence filled the entrance, cutting off the dim lighting of the streetlamp. Tienna swallowed down her fear, but she clung to the desperation in her. There was nothing more ruthless than a cornered dog, and she was willing to tear her way to freedom if need be. She stood as tall as her short legs would allow, daring the enemy to advance. Unfortunately, he did not disappoint.
    His eyes glowed unholy amber as he stepped forward. His movement was liquid, smooth. He stalked. The growl emitted was low but no less menacing. Tienna trembled as she watched the corded muscles of his back bunch, the hair of his nape stand on agitated ends. The glorious mane of gray and black was more sinfully dark yet hypnotizing in its majestic sheen. His teeth flashed an unrelenting, contradictory pure white against the malevolence in his dark face. The smile of a predator was anything but warm.
    Tienna ducked down just as he leapt. By the way the wolf landed on her, she knew he had not allowed his full weight to fall. Avoiding her crushing was his mistake, one she chose to use to her advantage. She sidled out, pressing her belly flat against the cold surface of the ground and wiggling her fanny until she smelt freedom. The sweet taste of fresh air greeted her face and then her whole body as she finally pulled free.
    Her smaller, more compact size allowed her greater speed and maneuverability. Another advantage she did not waste time in using. Before Roth was fully turned, she was once again on her fleet feet, ready to make another courageous dash for her life. She got three leaps until she was stopped.
    He had not jumped on her. He had not moved at all. His voice, clear and compelling, cut into her mind. “Wait.” It was hard and unbending, but that was not what had sprung the stone wall that suddenly halted her escape and held her immobile. It was the faint quiver of pain and desperation that he had let be known. It sliced a path straight through her heart and rendered her motionless. He was hurt by what she’d done with Aiden, and his voice did nothing to conceal his torment.
    She turned slowly, unwilling to face him but unable to do anything else. She concealed nothing from her own voice of her own desperation, her confusion. “He is my mate.”
    “You are also mine.” He shifted. In place of the wolf now stood the man she had only thus far spied from a distance. Up close he was so much taller, muscular, so much more man. He possessed the talent of clothing himself, a talent that so many others had learnt over this past century. But while he was fully clothed, he remained disheveled, feral.
    This was no gentleman who stood before her. His hair was not carefully groomed and powdered or wigged. It was wild and tousled. His feet were not encased in stockings or shiny, buckled shoes. The length of his trousers was dark, molding to his muscles from boots to slim hips, and his shirt a snowy white in contrast to it. No neck cloth held the collar stiff and safely shut. The opening of his shirt revealed his dark chest and a tempting glimpse of curling hair. “Come here.”
    “Tienna.” That was all she could form in her head. It was so clouded, envisioning her hand upon that enticing scrap of flesh showing at his throat, her legs wrapped around the powerful thighs and bulging fly. She wanted to hear her name fall from his lips.
    “Come to me, Tienna.”
    Powerless . That was all she felt. While Aiden had taken the time in spinning a masterful web to coyly trap her, this man simply engulfed her whole. Her breath left her in hot, shallow pants as she moved toward him, shifting into her human form simultaneously. Her mind was much too flustered