Page 7 of The Predator's Wolf Mate

“What?” He couldn’t be saying that. I’d come here partly to get away with him, and suddenly he wanted to come live with the omegas? No. I refused to even consider that as a possibility.

“Yeah, he’s going to be staying here and do perimeter runs and such.” Which made sense, even if I hated it.

“There’s no bedroom.” We’d filled every last one. Thank gods.

“He’s going to be taking the secondary office as his room.”

“Why?” I thought…I thought…gods, I didn’t even know what I thought. But the first week had gone fine the way we had done it. Change wasn’t necessary.

“Because we don’t know for sure that this place is as safe as it can be…as it needs to be. And who’s the best at sussing out the danger around us?”

He was right. That was Aziz. Gods, why had I just said all the things that I did. It was going to make everything ten times harder than it needed to be.

“But he’s not going to want to stay.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe his beast is broken. I don’t know how the goddess works. Maybe he didn’t sense you the way you sense him? Maybe it’s a hyena thing?”

Now, he was grasping at straws.

“No. I don’t think I’ve heard that about hyenas. I thought that was only platypuses.”

“The platypus thing is false. They sense it. People think they don’t because they find them weird. So, of course, everything about them has to be weird, including the mate pull.”

“That means, the chances are that it isn’t because he’s a hyena. It’s because of me.”

“Why don’t we go tell Nora you’re going to be a while and see if she minds keeping Bryant. You need to shift.”

“Sounds like a plan. And, Pop-Tart, I’m glad you came to visit today.”

“I am too.”

When I went to find Aziz later, he was gone, having told cook there was something he needed to take care of and he’d be a while.

Fuck. I’d scared him away completely.

Chapter Six

Aziz

“What happened?” I barked, phasing from my hyena to human legs in a seamless exchange. Several high-ranking females and males were at the cusp of the clan borders, already waiting for me.

Eliza stepped forward. She was Bella’s beta. One of the fiercest warriors I’d ever known. “Aziz, I tried, but I was not allowed to interfere in a formal challenge.”

“Who challenged her?” I asked. “Why?”

Eliza hung her head, as did the others. “Regina. A gamma. Always arguing with Bella’s decisions and becoming more and more insubordinate over time. She challenged her in a meeting of the tribes.”

“Bella said nothing to me about it. You know what? I can get the details later. Take me to my mate.”

I was led through the clan lands to the large house where Bella resided. Guilt and regret tore at my insides as I realized it had been over three months since I saw my lovely mate. She wasn’t my true mate, and Fate hadn’t chosen her for me, but she was mine nonetheless, and I did right by her as much as I could.

She truly didn’t mind me being away.

Bella was independent and strong, fierce to the core.

“Where is Regina?” I asked, my hyena gunning to rip her throat out. Besides Bella being our mate by rights, she was our best friend. Her hyena and mine had been playmates long before we were told of the promises our parents had made.

“They killed each other during the challenge. Neither was left alive.”

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