What would she say if she could hear his thoughts right now?

He reached back to touch his shoulder, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips as old rage retreated under a wave of the most primal desire. If he’d known it would be this good between them, he’d have said to hell with self-control and gone after her months ago. That, he thought as he walked into the bathroom, was one mistake he wouldn’t be repeating.

By the time Drew dragged his sorry ass back through the door, Riley was dressed and eating scrambled eggs. “No visible bruises,” he said, eyes going to Drew’s chest. His brother had been shot through the heart last winter, his blood a scarlet flower across the snow—Riley’s wolf couldn’t help the near-automatic check. “Either Judd was in a good mood, or your ribs must hurt like hell.”

“Laugh if you will,” Drew said, an evil grin cracking his face. “But now Brenna knows something’s up, too.”

Great. If Drew was nosy, then Bren was relentless. “You have no life, Drew.”

“Then you won’t mind if I stick my nose into yours.”

Mercy lay in bed way past her usual wake-up time, staring at the ceiling of her cabin. She was sore as heck, marked up with bites, scratches, and bruises, and she felt like purring. Not that she’d tell him—ever—but Riley knew what he was doing in bed. Or on the forest floor.

The wolf had not only ridden her into damn near unconsciousness, he’d given her the best orgasms of her life. And that was plain embarrassing. Her best sex had been with a wolf. Pathetic. Except her body was telling her to shut up and wallow. ’Cause this felt gooooood. Good enough that she might even want to repeat it.

“No,” she told herself the instant the thought reared its head. “Once—and most of the night definitely counts as once—you can write off as a mistake. But you do this again and he’s going to start thinking he has rights over you.” She knew predatory changeling men. They liked control. They particularly liked their women to submit. And Riley was one big giant hunk of testosterone-fueled Neanderthal wolf—he probably thought her submission was his right. She snorted. “Not in this lifetime.”