Page 10 of The Predator's Wolf Mate

“Okay.”

“Let’s talk later.”

How many times was he going to say a version of “talk later.” My stomach clenched. Nothing good ever came of talking later. Nothing.

“Sounds like a plan.” One I hated. But, with Bryant here, it made sense. “If you change your mind on the milk, we’ll be down here for a while.”

He gave a nod and started to leave.

“I really am sorry,” I called after him.

“Sorry” never seemed like enough. I wanted to make him feel better, but after a quick nod of acknowledgement, he kept walking.

Chapter Eight

Aziz

Jack is my mate.

Jack.

The omega.

My mate.

Gods, no wonder my hyena was hot and bothered any time I was around him. I had Bella’s mark on my thigh but, as soon as Bella passed, something clicked inside me. Almost as if her mark had been blocking my realization that Jack was my mate.

More than just a mate. That beautiful, stunning, brave omega was my fated.

Someone I’d always dreamed of but who was out of reach.

What in the fuck was I supposed to do now? Would he even accept me once he knew I’d only a day or so ago still been mated to another? To a female?

What would he think of me?

I’d been pacing the perimeter of the land where the omega safehouse was, both doing my job and driving myself batshit crazy with all the what-ifs. Losing Bella felt like someone had cut me off at the knees. A piece of me had gone. No time to say goodbye. She must’ve thought it would be no problem to win the challenge, or she would’ve called to tell me so we could say what we meant to each other before the time came.

She underestimated Regina to her demise.

Gods, what I wouldn’t give to talk to her once more. Tell her I loved her. I loved her as my best friend and for who she was. We didn’t have a romance, but we’d played the hand we were dealt as best we could.

Was I betraying Bella by already wishing Jack was in my arms?

Bella would’ve told me to move forward, just as she would’ve wanted the clan to push ahead with a new leader.

Above all, we wanted the best for each other.

Still, I couldn’t deny how stricken I was with regret and guilt. I had gone to my room to take a quick shower when someone knocked on the door only moments afterward. Hope sprang up inside me, wishing it was Jack but, when I opened the door, the younger brother of Hammer was there.

“Pop-Tart? Is everything okay?” I asked.

“What’s going on with you?” He came in without being asked. We had a bond that the others didn’t and become confidantes, but not even he knew about Bella. “Where did you go?”

I shut the door behind him, and we sat down on the edge of the bed side by side. “I don’t know how to tell you,” I confessed.

“We tell each other everything, man. Tell me. I’m the last person in the world who would judge you.”

I did know that. Pop-Tart was a great listener and an even better friend. “My mate died, and I had to go to the clan. She had already been buried. We don’t do funerals in our clan. They wanted me to be the next alpha, since we were mated, but I named someone else, and now I think Jack is my fated mate.”

---