She gave him a sultry smile. “Yes, I’m yours.”

His head lowered, and I closed my eyes, unable to watch him kiss her. I seriously needed to get out of this fucking room. There was simply no way I could –

Crack.

My eyes flipped open…just in time to watch Gina, whose head was hanging at an unnatural angle, burst into ashes. “Oh, thank God.” I rushed toward Salem, whose gaze then flew to mine. I instantly froze. Because it wasn’t Salem. It was still the predator. And he was totally pissed; probably because I’d repeatedly thwarted his attempts to harm me. As if to confirm that, he snarled. Uh-oh.

Slowly, I raised my hands in a gesture of peace as I backed up. The gesture didn’t appear to work. Not in the least bit placated, he followed me out of the bedroom. Shit. Clearly, he still intended to obey Gina’s order to kill me. “Wait. Salem.” I gulped, admittedly terrified at the rage now emanating from him. “Salem, you have to come back now.”

Another snarl. He made a grab for me, but I quickly backpedalled again. Maybe if I made a run for it and fled from the apartment…? No. He would surely follow me, and I couldn’t be certain that people wouldn’t attack him in an attempt to save me.

“Salem. Snap. The. Fuck. Out. Of. It!”

He dived at me, shackling my wrist in a harsh grip. But I easily broke free of his hold and retreated. Every muscle of his body seemed tense with fury as he advanced on me again.

Finding myself in the kitchen, I glimpsed the knife block in my peripheral vision. Out of any useful ideas, I snatched the chef knife and held it in front of me. I didn’t think it would, for even a fraction of a second, scare him. But I was hoping that the threat might pierce his daze, make his resolve falter for even a moment. It didn’t. He spared the knife the briefest glance, dismissing it, as he continued to stalk me around the kitchen.

“Don’t make me use this, Salem.” Like I ever could.

He lunged. Cursing, I leapt to the side and turned to make a dash for the living area. That attempt was hampered by the arm that looped around me, pulling me back against his chest. His fingers wrestled the knife out of my hand, and he slung it somewhere behind us. I kicked and punched, trying to get free despite that I was tired of running and trying to talk him out of a thrall – which, in hindsight, was ridiculous.

Suddenly I was twisted in his grip so that I was facing him; his irises were glowing red as he glared at me. “Ava,” he rumbled. “My Ava.”

“What?” The word rung with shock.

“You ran from me.” He bit down hard on my neck, no warning or finesse. Helplessly, I moaned. The breath slammed out of my lungs as he backed me into the counter, grinding against my stomach. What was it Gina had said? Predators are elemental at their core – they want to feed and fuck. Apparently, she was right. His hand dove down my shorts, his finger circled and flicked my clit until I was squirming. The circumstances of the moment didn’t matter; my body was trained to respond to him. It always would, it knew what he could give me, and it readied itself for him.

His teeth released my neck just as he tore off my shorts and panties. He plopped me on the counter, and unsnapped his fly. Without any preamble, he rammed into me so hard I almost yelped. I locked my arms and legs around him as he fucked in and out of me so deeply and ruthlessly that I knew I’d be aching afterwards. But I didn’t care. Because even under a thrall it was me who he’d come to, it was my body he was craving and taking.

He nipped my earlobe hard. “Mine, Ava.”

I would have agreed but his cock was hitting a really delicious spot inside me and his pelvis was teasing my clit with every thrust, and all I could do was moan and scratch at his back.

“Come all over my cock, Ava. Do it.”

A particularly hard slam of his cock sent my climax barrelling into me, tearing a scream from my throat. I felt as my body constricted and rippled around him, felt as he came deep inside me, biting out a harsh curse into my neck.

When he brought his face to mine, the rage was gone. It was Salem looking at me, disorientated and lost. It seemed that now his body had the relief it needed, the thrall had worn off. “It’s okay.” I wrapped myself around him again, comforting him this time. “It’s okay.”

(Salem)

What the fuck had happened?

The last clear memory I had was of standing outside the apartment building. I’d scented Gina, knew she was coming up behind me, and I’d intended to chase her off. Then nothing. There was this huge gap; it was like I’d gone into some kind of deep sleep. Most of it had been dreamless, but then I’d heard a voice saying Ava’s name. That same voice had told me I couldn’t have Ava, had wanted to keep me from what was mine, pissing off every instinct I had.

It had made me push for control, push to surface from the dream. Little by little, I’d then become aware of things around me. Saw I was face-to-face with a woman who I vaguely remembered – Gina, I now realised – and that same woman was saying Ava’s name, saying Ava didn’t belong to me. I’d wanted to argue, shout, and demand to know where Ava was. But my body hadn’t responded to me. Like I wasn’t behind the wheel right then, and still yet not completely out of the ‘dream’.

I’d then found my hand wrapped around that annoying woman’s throat. I’d wanted to growl my satisfaction, insist that Ava belonged to me. The only word, however, that had come out of my mouth was ‘Mine’ just before I’d snapped who I now knew was Gina’s neck. Then, suddenly, there was Ava…but she was backing away from me, denying me what belonged to me. Worse, she’d had fear in her eyes – like I’d ever fucking hurt her. All I could think about doing was grabbing her, biting her, and fucking her. But she was backing away. So I’d been pissed-the-fuck-off.

And then her blood was on my tongue, her skin was under my hands, and I could feel her wrapped around my cock. The more I’d fucked her, the more I’d rose from that ‘dream’, until I’d exploded inside her and then – just like that – I was awake.

It didn’t take a fucking genius to work out I’d been under Gina’s thrall. Considering I’d just fucked Ava like a damn animal, it was clear that Gina hadn’t forced me to cheat on Ava. So what had she made me do? An insidious suspicion crept into my mind as I recalled the fear that had earlier stained Ava’s eyes. I cupped her face. “Tell me I didn’t hurt you.”