I’d rather lick her.

The floor creaked beneath her feet. She was coming toward him. “Stop.”

The creaking paused.

Tanner glanced down at his chest. He’d always been a fast healer, but this—this was crazy. He’d been stabbed in the chest. That knife had hit his heart. Yet he was still standing.

Not just because of his panther, though, hell yeah, the beast had been what kept him going when that knife first plunged into him. A human would have died instantly. Good thing shifters had more fight in ’em than that.

The skin over his heart was red now, still mending. He was alive—because of her.

So he figured he owed her a warning. “If you don’t get out of here, I’ll have you on that bed beneath me.” Or against the wall. Or on the floor. Wherever he could get her.

His c**k shoved against the front of his jeans. Since he was used to Tanner shifting and hunting, Cody kept backup clothes for him in the truck. His brother had given him these faded jeans, but the denim did little to hide his arousal from her.

I could f**king eat her alive.

Not safe. Not normal. The lust he felt for her was raging out of control.

A woman like her needed control. Gentleness. Sweet promises in the dark.

He couldn’t give her anything but fire and fury right then.

The floor creaked, and his shoulders tensed. Another slow creak followed a few seconds later.

She wasn’t walking toward the door. His eyes closed. The panther roared inside of him.

She was coming to Tanner.

Then he felt the light feather of her lips on his bare back. Pressing against his old scars. Kissing him with such gentleness.

He was too far gone for that. Too. Far.

Tanner spun around, lifted her up, and in two steps, he had her on the bed. “Told you. Warned you,” he growled, and his mouth took hers. A red haze of lust seemed to surround him. His tongue pushed into her mouth, driving deep, even as his hands caught hers and locked them together over her head.

He’d given her gentleness before. Maybe, later, she’d remember that.

His kiss grew rougher, harder, more demanding.

He locked his left hand around her wrists, and his right hand pushed between their bodies. He yanked up her shirt and pushed his hand under her bra. Her nipple was tight, pebble hard, and he had to taste it, too.

Tanner tore his mouth from hers. He unhooked her bra and threw it to the floor. Then he took her breast. Tanner sucked it deep into his mouth and scored her flesh with his teeth.

“Tanner!” He liked it when she moaned his name. Liked it even more when she screamed it.

He’d make her scream.

He freed her hands and yanked down her jeans. She helped him, shoving away the denim and the delicate panties. Then her sex was open to him, pink, flushed, wet.

Taste.

He pushed her legs apart, and he put his mouth on her. When she tried to buck against him, telling him she couldn’t take it—

Tanner just tightened his hold. His mouth pressed harder. He licked her. Sucked her clit.

And felt the tremble in her thighs. He kept licking. Sucking. He thrust his tongue inside of her—

She came with a scream.

He liked that. Would have more.

Tanner shoved down his jeans. He positioned his c**k and drove balls-deep inside of her in one long thrust. The bed groaned. She gasped.

He withdrew.

Tanner thrust deep. Again. Again.

He caught her hands once more. Pushed them against the mattress. His claws dug into the bedding. Ripping and tearing it as he f**ked her hard and long.

But...

It wasn’t enough. The pleasure waited just out of his reach. He needed more.

“Tanner?” She licked her lips and looked up at him with wide eyes. With every heaving breath he took, he tasted her.

There was no taste like his angel.

And if anyone else ever thought they’d get a taste . . . he’d kill them. Every. Single. One.

The growl ripped from him. More beast than man because right then, the beast was taking his mate.

Tanner withdrew from Marna and rolled her over onto the bed. He lifted her up, positioning her just right so that he could push deep inside and—

“Stop.”

He froze.

Marna glanced over her shoulder at him, blond hair a curtain around her face. Her eyes . . .

Fear.

Now she saw him for what he was.

“Slow down,” she told him. “I can’t . . .”

The panther clawed inside, but the man jerked him back on a chain. He sucked in a breath.

Then he saw her back. The scars. Heavy red lines that trailed over her shoulder blades. Her wings had been there, until a panther’s claws had cut them away. He could almost see the dark shadows of wings that had once been.