Marius slid his sharp canines along August’s neck while his hand slid inside the top of her nightgown, pulling her back harder against him.

“Your mate hasn’t even been able to taste you yet, it must be killing him,” he whispered to August as he glared at Graeme wickedly, drawing this moment out. What would it feel like to watch someone else mark you mate?

“You’re going to abuse someone innocent? You’re such a fucking coward, Marius,” Graeme snarled. “Don’t do this! Just fucking kill me, if that’s what you want. Tell the elders whatever you have to.”

Graeme’s whole body was tense as if bracing against some unseen weight, and Marius could tell he was suppressing the urge to shift.

Marius smiled. “If she’s your mate, she’s not innocent,” he said and bit into August’s skin just enough to draw blood, but he kept his mouth there—on her neck—his eyes flashing as he watched all of the color drain from Graeme’s face and waited for him to lunge. But fuck if Graeme wasn’t a master of control. His muscles were rippling with tension, but he was cautious—waiting—knowing that the moment he moved to attack, Marius would end her.

Marius drew back and licked the blood from her neck before chuckling darkly. “She tastes sweet, this one. You should have taken her when you had the chance. I don’t like sharing.” His hand was still in her nightgown, and he groped her roughly, kissing her shoulder as he did.

Silent tears slid down August’s face as she squeezed her eyes tighter, determined not to make any sound that would please him further. Images from Marius’s mind flickered relentlessly across the back of her eyelids like a horror reel repeating over and over again. She wasn’t sure what was real anymore and what was simply his twisted, depraved thoughts.

“Goddammit, take me!” Graeme’s voice made the glasses on the tray and the windows in their frames rattle. Marius was hurting her in his place, and Graeme wished he could rip the bastard’s head off with his mind.

August suddenly sensed another presence in the room, and her eyes flew open in hope, searching. But there was no one else there.

She saw Graeme across from her, the threatening intensity of his aura so palpable now that she could literally see it radiating off of him like his own personal galaxy. She was stunned. It was beautiful. It swirled and thrummed with a life of its own that seemed to recognize her, drifting her way. Why was Marius not reacting to this? She wanted to reach her hand out to touch it, but she was still restrained against the madman behind her.

As the breathtaking galaxy of Graeme’s aura approached her, she felt its fine, cool mist penetrate her skin, and she shivered. The pain that had engulfed her suddenly began subsiding, and in its place was the prickly feeling of a raw power that was not her own.

She looked at Graeme again and as she watched him, she felt his strength uncoil in her limbs. The waves of pain that were raging moments ago were replaced by waves of power from this man who had saved her in the forest just yesterday.

Feeling her watching him, Graeme shifted his eyes to meet August’s gaze. Instead of the fear and torment he imagined he would see there, her eyes burned a vivid gold as she looked at him knowingly, and for a moment Graeme felt like it was just the two of them in the room.

The fear that had gripped his heart watching Marius put his hands on her faded to be replaced by a swell of gratitude for this moment right now when they seemed to be able to embrace each other wordlessly from across the room.

‘Mate,’ it registered deep within every tissue of his being. He knew it when he found her in the forest, but he couldn’t allow himself to believe it. He was afraid to touch her since then—afraid of her weakness and of his vulnerability that would follow. But it was undeniable—this human belonged with him. He could see now that she recognized it, too.

Meanwhile, Marius sensed a change. Something was off. The mouth-watering scent of fear that had saturated the room began to cease. Graeme, who had appeared to be crumbling in front of him just a moment ago, had turned calm as he looked at August.

‘What did I miss? The fucker is smiling now?’ Marius wondered. Fearing he had miscalculated something while savoring an easy win, Marius grabbed August’s bandaged arm and ripped into it with his teeth. ‘Yeah, keep smiling, shithead.’

August sucked in a breath with the new bright pain of this intrusion, and her world became very small. The only two things that existed were her wrist and Marius who was attached to it. The monster who still held her. Her pain turned to rage, and she grabbed his neck behind her, flipping him over her shoulder and onto the bed as she grunted wildly with the effort of it.

Greta and Lucas heard the struggle and burst through the door, now accompanied by Finn behind them. Before anyone could react, August ripped deep into Marius’s neck with her teeth, unleashing a geyser of blood that pumped out in time with his heart.

Marius roared in pain, grasping at the wound with his hands and staring up in shock at the human.

August giggled at the ridiculous sight of this man who had held her captive with his perverse thoughts and hands now looking at her in horror as a red fountain squirted high above him. She stumbled back against the wall, barely aware of the arm that was dripping again at her side.

Everyone was stunned at the scene in front of them as August stood calmly like a goddess of death with blood dripping out of her mouth and down her neck, streams of red cascading down the front of her white chemise. Dust glistened in the beams of light falling around her.

“Holy f*” Lucas whispered.

Suddenly lightheaded, August swayed gently and collapsed, but not before Graeme leapt over the bed and caught her in his arms.