The intoxicating scent of her fear filled the room, waking the wolf inside him who howled to be free.

Something about this woman called to him and his wolf. He could still feel her body imprinted against his, and his balls ached for relief. He didn’t trust himself around her. Maybe he should hand her over to his men, but the thought of anyone else touching her, roughing her up, marring that flawless skin, made him grit his teeth in denial.

He’d studied many people in his time. Just because she feared did not mean she would break under torture. Many of the toughest people experienced fear but did not give in to it.

She moved suddenly, pushing off from the bars and high kicked him in the chest. He shuddered beneath the force of the blow but stood his ground. Any ordinary man would have been down. Unfortunately for her, he was about as far from ordinary as it was possible to get. Her eyes widened when she took in his lack of response, but she whirled around in the confined space and kicked out again. He grabbed her ankle and pulled her off balance so she crashed to the floor, her skull cracking against the hard concrete.

She put a hand to her head then stared up, her brow furrowing as she studied him. “What are you?”

“You don’t know?”

She blinked and shook her head.

Maybe this was the way to make her talk. Sebastian fell to his knees beside her. He put a hand on either side of her head and lowered his face to hers. Wolf rose up inside him, peered out of his eyes, and a growl trickled from his throat. Wolf wanted to smell her, and Sebastian buried his nose against her neck. She smelled divine, and he gave in to the urge and tasted her, licking his tongue along the length of her throat. She flinched beneath him then held herself immobile as he crouched over her. He could feel his hunger mounting. Forcing it down, he rose to stand beside her.

She lay at his feet, her eyes huge. “It was you in the forest. I thought I’d dreamed you.”