Without looking, I start smacking. My first hand whiffs through the air, but the second hits something hard.

Someone speaks. “Shh... You’re okay.”

I cower from the gentle, deep voice. My pounding heartbeat nearly drowns out the stranger, but their words calm me just enough to be able to breathe.

“There you go. You’re okay.”

I open my eyes to find a large man. My heart flips. His stare flits away before I can see the color of his brooding eyes, but I’m hit by a sweet, luxurious scent from his hair. It’s pushed to one side - choppy and wild like his breath. With powerful arms shielding me, he scans the forest, revealing a sharp, scruffy jawline. The one I can never find in a magazine.

This isn’t my sexy dream guy. He looks, smells, and sounds even better.

But after what the last large man did to me when we were alone, I’m way more confused about why I’m not scared of this one. As we meet eyes, his soft, teal stare enraptures me. It’s rude to stare, but I can’t help it. Neither can he.

“What…” He clears his throat, his husky whisper quivering as much as my shoulders. “What are you?”

With that single, demeaning question, my developing emotions embarrass me too much to acknowledge, dropping to the floor with my jaw.

“Excuse me?! How mean!”

The man flinches, his gorgeous eyes crushed by my angry reaction, and frankly, I’m fine with that.

I can’t believe I just thought this guy was my soulmate. What kind of question was that? Did the wolves scramble his brain?

My ribcage locks. “Wolves!”

“...Yes.”

“All you have to say is ‘yes?!’ No, you don’t get it–”

With a crackle of dry leaves, another animal scrambles behind the man. I need to stay as quiet as possible, so I stifle my panicked breath with a sharp, vacuuming inhale.

Instead, I hyperventilate.

The man grips my cheeks, scanning my eyes for what’s wrong.

All I can say is, “Wolves! There are wolves!”

His eyes widen at my wheezing lungs. “Hey, breathe!”

“I - I can’t! I’m - I’m going to die–”

“I’m not letting you die.”

His voice is so final, but so soothing, that my body submits to his words before my mind, every muscle loosening into goo. The stranger slides a hand behind my neck, cupping my head in one big palm. My teeth chatter, but his teal eyes soften as if he’s relaxing in my presence despite being my lifeline.

With his fingers buried into the back of my hair, he strokes my scalp. “You don’t have to be scared anymore. I’m your Alpha.”

The urge in my heart explodes. I grip the man’s black Sherpa jacket, struggling to breathe as intense, unfamiliar emotions seal my heart to him. He drags his nose up the side of my neck, its cold tip releasing a soft cry from my heart. The second he caresses a particular golden spot on my neck, a wave of absolute peace washes over me.

“Breathe,” he whispers.

My knees buckle, forcing the man to wrap one arm around my waist. Pressed against his body, I grip for more of him, overcome by the need to let him nuzzle into that sweet, luscious spot on my neck. And he does, again and again, as we sink to the forest floor.

Just like in my dream.

In a bed of dry leaves, the truth spills out of me. “You are him. The one I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

His eyes fill with emotion as he pulls me in tighter. Grabbing fistfuls of his jacket, I drag my cheek across his chest, exposing my neck to him for more. When he gives it a delicate bite, a burst of heat flashes through my groin.

Oh, my God, I do want to get down and dirty in the leaves. This is the first time since–

No, I can’t think about what happened. I want to enjoy this, now that I’m finally feeling this way.

He redirects my mind easily, adjusting his embrace to give me a full-body squeeze. Pleasure tingles up my spine. His all-encompassing touch feels so good that I grind into his lap without a second thought. He shifts one hand to my hips, pressing me deeper into him with every tingling caress of my neck.

“Oh, Goddess… You’re so much more gorgeous than I imagined.” His deep voice breaks with desire. “I want you, I–”

I run my nose along his neck, returning the favor, but the man gasps. By the end of my touch, he’s shuddering, burying his expression in my shoulder.

“H-holy fuck. No one has ever...”

My heart sinks. “W-was that bad? Should I stop?”

“No. Fuck, no.” He cuddles me closer, but by the way he’s hiding his face, I’m certain he meant he’s only been on the giving end of whatever this golden spot on my neck is - and God, it’s good.

“D-do you like it?” I ask.

After an adorable pause filled with slow strokes of my back, he nods into my shoulder.

He wants it. Needs it, maybe.

“Then I’ll be gentle, okay? You deserve affection too.” My words raise his shoulders. But they also tilt his neck, bearing his pulsing jugular for more affection.

By the second time I run my nose along it, he gives what sounds like a low purr. It’s like a piece of him snaps, diving back in to trace my neck. Except it's not his nose that traces me - it's his hot, wet tongue. My breath restarts, my core flexing with each lick like we’re fucking. It widens my knees and tightens my grip on his back for more.

I have no idea why this feels so strong, but it’s the first time I’ve verged on climaxing with a man in years - and we’re still wearing clothes.

His hot breath thrums against my neck with the next lick. But this time, his love bite starts off a little too hard.

I cry out, and he jumps back like a scared animal.

“S-sorry! I thought you wanted me to…”

My heart flips as I stare at the man - his worried eyes locked on mine as I grip my nibbled neck. His stare is honest, revealing a tender innocence that doesn’t match the sexual prowess I just felt. I have no idea who he is, but one thing is undeniable: I want him. With every piece of my soul.

But that terrifies me. “W-who are you?”

He swallows hard. “N-Noah…”

That’s all he has to say?

He crawls closer on all fours, his cinched eyebrows tugging at my heartstrings. “How'd you get here? Omegas aren’t safe out here. You can’t shift?”

Noah’s hand draws near, and I flinch. He freezes, but the urge that drew me to him in the first place begs me to let him in. As I reach for his hand, he meets me halfway, tracing a soft line down my neck.

Whatever he’s doing to my neck makes me feel things I’ve never felt with a man in my life. My hips squirm, itching for me to strip bare and roll over for him.

I don’t even care that I moan in front of him. “W-why does that make me feel so good?”

Noah jerks back. “Why? Oh, no...”

It takes everything in me to fight the primal need to love on him, but his expression sobers me; despite being the bulkiest man I’ve ever seen, Noah shrinks by the second.

So does my heart. “What’s wrong? Do you not feel the same about me?”

“No, Goddess, of course I do. We're mates.”

Mates. The word feels like an endless field of rosebuds popping open in my chest. The word I’ve been searching for all along - why nothing ever felt right no matter how many dates I went on.

“Do you mean... Soulmates?”

“No. I mean mates.” Noah’s hopeful eyes falter, and it burns into my bones. “But you’re not another wolf, are you?”

Confusion strikes my heart, drowning my joy. “Wolf? You’re not making sense…”

Noah reaches for me again, and I hug his hand to my chest, desperate to understand.

“Oh, Goddess… This is so hard.”

The shivering pain in Noah’s voice churns my insides. “I’m not what you’re expecting, am I? You don't want me?”

Before Noah can respond, a glint of eyes appears behind him. I scream as the same massive, brown wolf lunges straight for us, sinking its teeth into Noah’s back.