Page 15 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

My fangs descended, the urge to mark her lush, perfect skin and claim her a physicalneed. One that I could absolutely, underno circumstances, give in to. Here, in a public hall.

I was going to white-knuckle it through this activity and ask to speak with her like a civilized man, not a feral rogue.We already had one of those to deal with. I couldn’t become the second.

That thought sobered me slightly, allowing my claws to finally retract. Reed’s brother Dirge had suddenly gone feral two summers back. Nobody knew why, as he’d stayed in fur this entire time and wouldn’t let anyone near him—in human or wolf form—despite Reed’s monthly attempts to communicate with him.

I was too powerful to get anywherenearthat ledge. With as much dominance as I had… I could wipe out entire towns. In the modern world, that would be a disaster the likes of which had never been seen before. Dirge was only kept close by the presence of another, more dominant wolf. If I lost it…

I shook the thought from my head. I would deal with this, with her,today.

Gracelyn blew a short blast on her whistle to signal the end of this round, and I stood, grateful for a reprieve. It wasn’t ideal watching Brielle work her way down a line of other men, but at least she’d be away from the Russo mutt.

A strawberry-blonde she-wolf in a long, billowy skirt approached my table, and it took everything in my power to offer her a passable smile.

“Hi, Alpha Kane. I’m Bianca. It’s nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand for a shake first, and a small part of me admired her directness. She wasn’t my mate, but she’d be a good match for another dominant male here, I had no doubt. Perhaps I’d mention her to Reed. He needed someone to take his sharp edges off.

A gasp, soft as a whisper, sent my hackles rising and my teeth baring as I looked past Bianca to where Brielle had stood to leave Shane’s table.

They’d had to shake hands—it was part of the exercise—but he’d taken it a step further. When he’d come around the table for the shake and she’d offered her palm, he’d used it to drag her against his chest. She was wide-eyed and raised her hands as if to push herself back off him, but she didn’t make it that far before my wolf tore himself out of my skin.

TEN

Brielle

There was a brief tearing sound, then the hall filled with snarls, and a blur of fur and glinting teeth came barreling straight toward me. No, not toward me—towardhim, Shane. He had crossed about twelve lines when instead of just accepting the amicable handshake required for the activity, he’d snatched me into his chest.

His scent was all wrong, my wolf’s hackles were raised, and before I could even begin to think of how to politely extricate myself—or impolitely, becausewhat an asshole—Kane was rocketing our way. Shane shoved me ruthlessly to the side, and I stumbled, almost falling were it not for Reed appearing in front of me with preternatural speed. He righted me with the barest of touches under my elbows, then spun us so that his towering frame was between me and the nowtwosnarling, circling wolves in the aisle. Gael was by his side a half second later, the two of them an impenetrable shield.

But I didn’t want to be shielded. I wanted to see what the hell was going on. I peered like a child between their massive, muscle-corded arms, getting a glimpse of a steel-gray wolf with eyes that were flat rage, and an even bigger one circling him, lips peeled back to show off an impressive display of fangs. The larger wolf was Kane. My wolf recognized him and howled her approval of his strength and dominance.

In wolf form, he was as tall as my shoulders, utterly massive, his coat a gorgeous mix of colors. He was a dark wolf, with black over most of his face and back, and soft striations of brown and silver shot throughout. His fur was thick and shiny, and some part of my brain wanted me to walk up and sink my fingers in and squinch it in my hands. I just knew he’d be soft under my touch, though nothing about him was soft right now, and that was an utterlyinsanereaction.

I should be freaking out. These two males were fighting—over me, for some reason—like complete idiots.

My runaway thought train was derailed when Shane decided it was time to stop messing around and leapt toward Kane’s flank. Kane spun effortlessly out of the way and lunged low, snapping deadly jaws at Shane’s exposed underbelly.

He missed by inches, and I caught my breath. There wasn’t much that could kill a shifter. We healed so fast, it would take a lot for either of these two to do serious damage, but a total evisceration? That would do it, unless emergency surgery was involved to stabilize the wolf until his natural healing abilities took over. Even a shifter couldn’t handle losing all the blood in his bodythatquickly. So why was Kane going for his gut over such a small thing?

I hadn’t wanted a hug, no—but I also didn’t want to watch the idiot getguttedin front of me. I stood on my tiptoes, but couldn’t get anywhere near the tops of my self-appointed guards’ shoulders.Stupid, freakishly tall wolf-men.

The two began snapping and clawing more in earnest, circling closer and closer, like two halves of a twisted, angry puzzle, and Shane let out a loud yelp when Kane connected with his back leg, drawing blood and eliciting a vicious crunching sound that made me cringe. That was at least one broken bone—maybe shattered.

That wasenough. This had to end before somebody went for the throat. I was not going to be responsible for anybody dying.

Especially not Kane, though it seemed he had a solid upper hand.

I elbowed Gael to try to get a gap I could push through, but he held fast with a grunt, and didn’t even spare me a glance. So, instead of trying to budge Reed, I made a split-second decision and bolted to the side, darting around Reed’s far elbow and straight into the fray.

Their twin growls had no effect on me, their dominance rolling off me like rain off a good slicker—I’d process that later—and I flung myself between Kane and Shane, holding up my hands to stop them. Kane barked, the sound a clear alpha command that made my hands shake. Even without a pack bond for him to convey words, the message wascrystalfriggin’ clear.

Move.

He wanted to finish the fight. And I could see it too. Kane with a bloodied muzzle standing over Shane’s limp body as his eyes turned glassy, and his blood soaked into the sawdust-covered floors while I tried fruitlessly to stabilize him and put his intestines back into his body.

Yeah, no. I wasn’t signing on for that. I’d felt no connection whatsoever to Shane, so this fight was utterly pointless, and killing a shifter over it was beyond comprehension.

I held fast against Kane’s command, even though my legs wanted to run straight for the barn doors, and not stop until I hit my sweet, sweet Texan home turf. I leveled a glare on each of them, making very dangerous eye contact in the process.

“There is no reason to fight like this. I’m fine, and I’m right here. Both of you need to shift back, so Shane’s wounds can heal, and we can all put this behind us.”

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