PrimalFlavor by Danica Avet

was time to end this. Now.
    Zach launched himself at the wolf, covering the fifteen feet
between them in two bounding leaps. The canine must have realized this was
different because when they clashed, there was a new strength in the animal.
They wrapped up in each other, claws digging into fur and skin, fangs extended,
muscles straining for supremacy. Battle heat and bloodlust filled the air
around them. Someone was going home hu—
    Ice-cold water rained down on both of them. The shock of the
freezing water, complete with chunks of solid, square cubes, slapping him in
the face made him let out a ridiculous squeak. He would have been embarrassed
by the sound except the wolf yipped like a puppy spanked with a newspaper. Just
like that, the fight was over. He and the wolf separated, shaking and flinging
the icy water from their fur. If he had been in his human form, goose bumps
would have sprang up all over his body. It was like jumping into a cold shower
after being in the sun all day. Sudden, painful and unwelcome.
    “Now that I have your attention, do you mind getting the fuck
off my property before I call the police? Or my family?”
    The sweet, husky voice shouldn’t have surprised him. He’d
known she was crazy, but now he had proof. She’d stood up to him in the swamp
last week and marched through a crowd of predatory shifters as though they were
sheep in a petting zoo. But looking up to see Colette Robicheaux standing on
the stairs above them in nothing but a towel, a towel that did nothing to hide
her lush, pink charms from him since she was above him, left him wondering if
crazy wasn’t a good thing after all. Because she didn’t seem to realize, or
care, that she was flashing him and the wolf, that they could see straight up the
towel to the lush center of her body.
    The wolf. Zach shook off his pussy stupor and rounded on the
wolf still peering at the delicate petals of Colette’s sex. The cold water had
stopped the bloodlust, but it did nothing for the possessive jealousy that
raged through Zach. He slammed one massive paw across the wolf’s head, spinning
the canine around a hundred and eighty degrees. That was fine with him because
it meant he was no longer looking at Colette.
    “I swear to God if y’all start fighting again, I’m getting
my gun to shoot you both in the ass,” she threatened from above. “Now get the
hell out of here.”
    No, it wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. He heard it in the
calm steadiness of her voice. The wolf must’ve recognized it as well. He shot
Zach a look promising retribution, but he slinked away from her house, his body
low to the ground as though to avoid being seen. Zach stared after the
retreating canine. He was glad to see the bastard go, but there had been
something weird about the whole incident, something that—
    “You can carry your happy ass out of here too,” Colette
said, interrupting his thoughts. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re
doing here, but you’re not welcome and I really don’t want to have to shoot at
you. Again.”
    Zach forgot about the wolf’s intentions. If he knew what was
good for him, he wouldn’t come sniffing around Colette again. But his tiger
purred because in the animal world, any retreat meant the last shifter standing
won the prize. He swung his head around to look at his prize poised on the
stairs as though she were some beast master, her lightly muscled arms folded
across her chest and her face set in a scowl. The stance, which he supposed was
meant to be intimidating, was ruined by the peekaboo show she gave him with her
towel and the thick fall of hair spilling over her shoulders.
    Seeing her like this, her bare skin glistening from her
recent shower and the smothering heat, her hair fluffed around her head, Zach
felt like a conquering hero. And his prize was the crazy woman eyeing him the
way she would a slug.
    He sauntered to the foot of the stairs and looked up at her.
He wanted her to run, to take