Felix Read online

  She was wearing only a tee shirt and jeans and a light jacket, and Felix winced at how unprotected she’d been, considering who she’d snuck up on.

  “I would tell you who I am, but I’m guessing you already know,” the leader said, circling Felix as he stood with his hands bound in front of him. “And we know who you are, of course. It’s good that the Tribunal is taking us seriously. Hopefully, we won’t have to kill you to make our point.”

  He seemed reluctant to kill Felix. He had to begrudgingly give them a point for that.

  The girl turned to her father, scowling. “What should we do with him now?”

  “Bernard and I need to go into town to discuss this further with our contacts. Do you think you could keep an eye on him while we’re gone?”

  She nodded fiercely. “I won’t let him leave my sight.”

  The girl was brave.

  Two points.

  “Take him inside,” the leader said to his henchmen as they grabbed Felix roughly by each arm and frog-marched him toward the door to the cabin.

  Felix maintained his usual good humor as they pushed him inside and only felt slightly enraged as they shoved him onto a chair and bound him to it. They used a rope around his chest to hold him back and tied each of his ankles to the chair legs.

  Felix looked up at them warily, noting how their eyes moved over him, how their jaws worked as they took in how he looked.

  When they turned away to follow the leader out, he let out a sigh of relief.

  If they had acted on some of the things he’d seen in their eyes, he would have had to kill them. Rape, even the desire for it, was something he hated most.

  The door slammed, and Felix could hear them all discussing something, the girl as well. Her voice was raised slightly, and Felix’s protective instincts flared against his will upon hearing her distress.

  He didn’t have time to feel protective over some random wolf girl, no matter how much he might admire her spunk.

  He would finish his mission here, determine the threat and who needed to be eliminated, and then go back to the dark hole that was his life so no one got hurt because of him.

  When the door opened, Felix saw the girl walk in again, slamming the door behind her and muttering to herself.

  “Problems?” he asked casually. “Something I can help with?”

  She looked at him like he was insane. People did that a lot.

  What they didn’t realize was he just didn’t fear them. Or anyone. And that meant he could say whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to, without regard for how it might come off.

  “You could untie me,” Felix said. “I could get you out of here. It doesn’t sound like things are going well.”

  She sat in a chair across from him, putting her booted feet out in front of her with a huff. “I don’t need to hear from a Tribunal lackey.” She sent him a glare. “Don’t make me gag you.”

  “Alpha females are rare,” Felix said. “Are they planning to find someone to mate you?”

  She shook her head, but Felix saw the panic that flared in her eyes at his guess.

  “Against your will?” The thought sickened him but wasn’t uncommon, especially in these backwoods packs. If they had an alpha female, it was their highest commodity. Even the Tribunal didn’t have enough of them.

  She bit her lip and turned away from him, and he found he liked the view of her stubborn profile. “I’ll do what’s expected of me.”

  He cocked his head. “Are you sure? You deserve better, you know.”

  “It’s not about what’s better,” she said softly. “It’s about doing as I’m told.”

  “Hm, I suppose I can understand that, being a Tribunal lackey, as you said.”

  “You’re not what I thought you’d be.” She flicked her eyes to him, narrowed into slits. Her lashes were surprisingly long, her lips surprisingly full.

  He imagined when she wasn’t enraged, she would be beautiful.

  Hell, she was beautiful even now.

  “What did you expect?”

  She bit her lower lip. “Something different.”

  “You didn’t expect me to be so sexy, did you?”

  She gaped at him for a second, then averted her eyes, looking embarrassed as blood rushed into her face. “I wouldn’t care about that.”

  But as she sent a curious look over at him, he thought she might.

  “What’s your name?”

  She stared at him hesitantly.

  “Oh, come on, I’m tied up and harmless, right? Might as well tell me, since we’ll be here together for a while.”

  “I’m just guarding you,” she snapped. “But since I’m not afraid of you, fine. My name is Diana.”

  He leaned back with a smile. “Ah. That checks out. Goddess of the hunt. No wonder you caught me.”

  Her lips quirked up for a second, almost breaking through her severe frown. “And what does Fifi mean?”

  He grinned. “You know my nickname? I’m flattered.”

  She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m trying to figure out how someone named Fifi and someone named Darkness could be the same person.”

  “We are all multifaceted, are we not?”

  She turned away from him, but he could swear he saw a blush on her face. “No, we aren’t.”

  “My real name is Felix,” he said abruptly. “Though, I don’t tell most people.”

  She turned back to him, looking confused. “Then why tell me?”

  “Because I like you,” he said with a smirk. “And also because I thought someone should call me by my real name before I die.”

  “Die?”

  His lips quirked up at the corner. “Ah, so no one is planning to kill me?”

  She shook her head. “No. My father is not insane.”

  “Then what is the plan here?”

  She shrugged. “Probably to use you as leverage. Just like he’s going to use me.”

  Felix’s chest tightened. “You mean by finding someone to mate you.”

  She nodded.

  “That’s too bad,” Felix said. “I’ve seen a lot of matings arranged for connections. It never seems to go well.”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about it,” she snapped back. “Who would mate an assassin?”

  He grinned because no one had ever talked back to him like that. “Who indeed?”

  “Anyway, don’t worry about me,” she said. “Worry about yourself.”

  “Nope,” Felix said. “I never worry about myself. Anyway, so you’re going to be mated off sometime soon. Are you a virgin?”

  She sputtered and composed herself with a cough. “Am I what?”

  “I just think it’s a shame. You being a beautiful, young, vibrant wolf, and your father is going to make sure your only experience is with some old, gross wolf.”

  She slanted him a glance. “As opposed to a pretty one like you.”

  Felix shrugged one shoulder.

  She sighed. “It doesn’t matter. All men are the same.”

  “Oh, I can assure you that’s not true,” he said eagerly. “If you want to test me on that, just touch me.”

  Her brows lowered. “Why?”

  “I want you to see it does matter, Diana. It matters very much.”

  “I don’t want to touch you,” she said, turning away from him, though he could hear the little catch in her breath.

  She was drawn to him; he could tell. Which worked for him because he was drawn to her as well.

  “Go on. Explore me,” he said. “I’m helpless, after all.”

  He watched her try to fight the suggestion. But when she turned to him, cheeks burning, hands clasped together in her lap, he knew he had won.

  He grinned despite himself.

  “Don’t look so happy,” she said, standing up and walking toward him, running a finger along the back of her knife.

  “I’m immensely happy,” he said. “Teasing a beautiful woman is much better than having to kill someone.”


  “I can’t picture you killing someone,” she said softly, looking him over. “Not with how easy it was to catch you. Not with how you look.”

  “Appearances can be deceiving,” he said quietly.

  “Apparently,” she retorted.

  The tension in the room was growing thicker, heating the air around them in a way that made it increasingly harder to breathe.

  Felix knew there would be tension between him and any alpha female, but for some reason, this was different.

  Stronger.

  People had always been drawn to him, men and women. There had been no shortage of people who wanted to touch him.

  But this was the first time he wanted to touch someone else. He wanted her the way others wanted him. His body was fairly on fire with it.

  He could see when she sensed it as well.

  The scent of desire was in the air.

  She glared at him. “Stop doing that.”

  “Doing what?”

  She waved a hand. “That. You know… making me…”

  He laughed. “I’m afraid it’s you making me… Well, you know.”

  “No, I don’t.” She stepped closer as if to prove she wasn’t afraid of this thing happening between them. She put her hands on the arms of the chair, his hands still bound in front of him.

  She leaned in so they were nearly face to face. He’d never seen anything as beautiful as her irises. “I’d rather mate anyone than you.”

  He laughed, slightly hoarse from the sheer feeling of being so close to her. “I don’t think so. I can smell you.”

  Her eyes widened, and Felix sensed that she both wanted to pull away from him and couldn’t.

  He wriggled slightly in his chair. “Take off my jacket. At least examine the goods before you judge me so harshly.”

  She stepped back in surprise. “You want me to…”

  He smirked, cocking his head at her. “Come on, don’t act like you aren’t curious to see more.”

  She bit down on her lower lip, worrying it slightly, but didn’t correct him.

  “You’re an alpha female,” he said eagerly. “Don’t you want to see the caliber of male you should have had, not the one you’ll be given to?”

  A slight blink of her eyes, and he knew he’d gotten her interest.

  They were both young, in their prime, and like him, she was probably horny as hell.

  “I shouldn’t,” she said, even as she stepped closer, still holding her knife. Her tee shirt dipped in the front, showing off tantalizing cleavage.

  “But you could. I mean, I’m at your mercy, and it does seem to be an interesting opportunity. You can just look if you want.”

  She took another step forward, standing between his legs now, the temptation too great to resist.

  Felix was equal to any of the highest genetic quality that his species could produce, practically designed to be irresistible based on his scent, his height, his strength, his beauty.

  So it was no surprise that the wolf girl couldn’t resist him and put her knife up to his chest, poking at the zipper of his jacket.

  Hooking the tip of her knife into the zipper hole, she drew it down slowly.

  Felix’s white undershirt was revealed as she pulled back the sides of his jacket.

  Her eyes moved to his pecs, and her lips twitched hungrily. Her knife moved to the neck of his shirt, and she slowly drew it down, cutting it down the center, exposing more of Felix’s skin.

  For some reason, he found the whole experience unbearably erotic. The way this innocent, brave alpha female looked at him. The way she didn’t seem to even understand her own wants.

  The way he wanted to burst out of his restraints and show her everything she was missing. Heaven knew her life was going to be bleak, no matter what Felix decided to do about her pack.

  Her hand moved to his chest, resting on it, and Felix could feel his own heart beat under her warm, soft little fingers.

  Looking up at her, he saw the vulnerability she was so clearly trying to hide.

  Saw a part of himself that he never acknowledged. The young person inside him who had never had any hope.

  How pathetic that this was happening to both of them at a time it wouldn’t do either of them any good.

  He would make his judgment and return to the Tribunal, and she would…

  She would…

  He winced as he thought of this beautiful, fierce creature forced to mate some horrible old wolf.

  If only he hadn’t been born in the Tribunal. If only they had met any other way…

  “You… you feel…” She trailed off. “I feel something when I touch you.” Her eyes met his, and there was desperation. Desperation to understand what she was feeling and desperation to feel more of it.

  “What are you feeling?”

  She closed her eyes and moved her hand lower, over his abs. He was muscled by necessity, but he liked when it got a reaction like this.

  She moaned slightly. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt it.”

  “You’ve never been around an alpha male your age.”

  She shook her head, keeping her eyes closed as her hand stayed frozen on his stomach as if she were afraid to go lower, where he was aching for her touch.

  Her ears perked up as they both heard voices.

  Felix cursed to himself as she quickly put his shirt together as well as she could and zipped his jacket back up.

  She was still finding it hard to breathe as she stood up, clearly hoping to calm herself.

  Felix looked up at her, hating that what had been happening between them couldn’t go on, at least for now.

  But as the voices came closer, he came to a calm resolution.

  No matter what he decided about her pack, he was going to protect this girl.

  Chapter 3

  The Present

  Diana was in front of him.

  Felix could scarcely believe it, and it was such a gift from the heavens that he didn’t even want to stop and think.

  Since he’d left the Tribunal, everything had been empty, though Felix tried not to let anyone else around him see the despair in his heart.

  Now fate had somehow decided to gift him with one last moment with the woman he’d wanted more than anyone else.

  The woman he’d embraced and saved and loved in that short time of his life when he’d been allowed to live.

  Before he’d locked up his heart and tried to go on.

  God, she felt amazing. Even his memories didn’t hold a candle to the feel of her soft body, the curves under his hands as he pressed her up against the wall, afraid she could vanish if he let her go.

  She moaned against him, her voice so familiar and real that his whole world seemed to slow around him.

  He didn’t know if he was drunk or hallucinating or both, and he didn’t care as long as it kept on happening.

  He just wanted to stay outside with her, marvel at how the rain bounced off her soft, dark skin, at how her eyes were the same and yet not the same at all.

  Some of the innocence was gone. Did death do that?

  He smiled at the fact she’d pulled a knife on him even in a hallucination. It was so Diana to do that.

  She’d been a fighter from the start.

  A life with her would have been amazing, full of adventure and love and hope… all things that had been denied him.

  All things it was too late to have now.

  But sex with the woman he loved, up against a wall in the rain, as if she’d never been taken away from him?

  That was everything.

  He kissed her everywhere, her cheeks, her shoulders, loving the cold rain against her warm skin, how real everything seemed as she moaned again in his arms.

  “Felix,” she said softly, and he felt his whole body react to the sound of her saying his full name.

  He let everyone else call him Fifi because it made him seem harmless, but he loved that she called him Felix.

  God, it was heaven. He knew he couldn’t be
dying because heaven wasn’t where someone like him was meant to go.

  “Diana,” he breathed out, because it felt so good to say her name again.

  He’d never even been able to consciously face how much he had wanted to hear her say his name and say hers in return.

  His hands cupped her breasts as she arched against him. He wanted fucking everything.

  He shoved her shirt aside, freeing one breast and letting rain fall on it as he suckled it, using his big body to hide her from anyone who might stumble onto the street.

  It was taboo, making love to her like this, but he couldn’t risk her disappearing if he tried to relocate.

  The taste of her nipple, the sound of her pleasure as she arched, the rain falling around him, grounding him—all of it was more than he’d ever imagined.

  He grabbed her other breast, freeing and kissing it as well, as he felt her hands push up against his shoulders helplessly.

  God, he’d forgotten how her eyes could look so lost in pleasure, so dark and fathomless he could lose himself there.

  “Diana, how can you be back with me?” He grazed his teeth against her nipple gently, unable to believe how accurate the sensual moan she gave was. “How is it you feel so real?”

  “I am real,” she said, giving him hope he had no right to. He’d left her alone, after all.

  He curled a hand around her back and pulled her into him for another kiss, pushing her shirt back into place to guard her.

  Rain fell around them, rhythmic and cleansing, contrasting the heat of their tongues intertwining, the way their bodies strained so hard to be closer that they were crushed together.

  The way they pulled apart and crashed together again, kissing each other on any part of available skin.

  Her hand dipped to his zipper as his mouth dipped to her earlobe, and he froze as she opened his pants and took him in her hand.

  Could a ghost really do that?

  She stroked slowly down him. “You’re beautiful, Felix. But I still hate you.”

  He nodded. “I know, Di.” His hand found her center, cupped over her jeans, loved the heat he could feel there. If he unzipped her pants, he knew she’d be wet.

  She was always wet for him.

  He stroked slightly, loving the way she was forced to release him as her legs threatened to give out.