Heart of the Wolf by D. B. Reynolds

vulnerable flesh, biting down, feeling the crunch of cartilage as the throat gave way, the rush of air escaping from the lungs, the chest heaving, no longer able to draw a new breath.
    Wolf twisted his head in a final tearing movement and jumped away, feeling the scrape of a knife blade on the bone of his foreleg. He snarled in fury and backed off, watching, but the hunter’s heartbeat slowed in his chest and already Wolf could smell the taint of death.
    A frightened howl rose over the woods, and deep inside Wolf, Ren turned, raising his snout to the air and scenting…Kathryn. He sent his own cry floating up over the trees and let instinct take over. Ren was gone. Once again there was only Wolf.

    * * * *

    Wolf raced through the forest, following her scent, sensing her fear and her need. He leaped through the trees into a clearing and there she was, the moon breaking through to gleam off her silver fur as she backed away from him, her teeth bared in warning. Wolf snarled. She was his. He had fought the battles, shed his blood.
    The female cowered beneath a snow-heavy tree, her scent driving him nearly mad as she shivered in the grip of her body’s demands as much as her fear.
    Wolf approached slowly, lifting one paw at a time. He made no attempt to staunch his bleeding, to lick it clean or stop the flow. It was proof of his fitness to claim her, that he had defeated her enemy and still stood. The female backed up as far as she could, watching him with eyes gone silver with fear, with anticipation, with a hunger of her own.
    Wolf began a low, rumbling growl, meant to soothe, to reassure. She cocked her head at him curiously. And he took another step.
    She ran.
    Wolf howled furiously and followed, pursuing her through the trees, catching glimpses of her silver coat. But he knew where she’d go. The female had been too long among the humans. She thought like they did. She would run for the only safety she knew. The house with its fences and gates, its doors and locks. Deep inside Wolf, Ren smiled.

Chapter Fourteen

    Ren let Kathryn get well ahead of him, giving her time, not wanting to frighten her into doing something foolish. He raced into the yard to see the door slam shut, to hear the locks click into place. She had lived with humans too long if she thought a locked door would keep him out.
    He loped up onto the porch and changed, giving his body a few moments to adjust to his human form. His leg throbbed where the knife had cut him, but he barely felt it, his heart pumping with victory over his enemy, with his pursuit of Kathryn, his mate whether she knew it or not. Coming down off the adrenaline high, his sweat-slicked skin shivered in the cold, despite the clouds of steam rolling off his body. He shook his head once, and again, then took a single step back and side-kicked the front door off its hinges.
    He heard Kathryn’s high-pitched scream of surprise, followed by the pounding of bare feet on the wooden floor upstairs. A door slammed loudly as he strode into the large living room and headed for the stairway, taking the time to find his pants and drag them up his bare legs, using his discarded T-shirt to wipe away the worst of the blood from his face and neck. Wolf knew only his hunger, the need to claim the female, to mate. Ren wanted her every bit as badly as Wolf did, but not for a quick joining. He wanted to take her and keep her. Which meant he had to first prove she had no reason to be afraid of him.

Chapter Fifteen

    Kathryn pressed her back against the wall, as far from the door as she could get. Her mind was filled with images of the hunt, of Ren, ferocious in his wolf form, black fur bristling in the cold, the tips silvered by moonlight to match the gleam in his black eyes. He’d smelled of the hunt and of lust, his muzzle stained with the blood of the human he’d killed to protect her, the hunter who’d wanted her dead.
    Her wolf had wanted to surrender to him, to stretch out her neck and lick away