Page 14 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

Iground my teeth, and counted to ten as the woman across from me continued talking about her twin sister’s second set of twin girls. I’m sure they were lovely, but if I looked up, I was going to see her very ample cleavage practically spilling out of her lacy, see-through top, and at the moment, it just didn’t appeal. There was only one woman’s cleavage I was interested in, and the she-wolf it belonged to wanted nothing to do with me.

Granted, I’d earned that.

But watching her across the room, exchanging pleasantries with man after man, was starting to grate. She hadn’t done more than shake hands, the same as I’d been forced to do over and over all morning, but each time her hand touched another man’s, my wolf snarled. So loudly, in fact, that Gael and Reed were both feeling it down the pack bonds. When Gael had been about to shake her hand this morning, my wolf had snarledsoloudly, he’d winced and tried to avoid the contact. Now she probably thought my pack mate was a jerk, but… I wasn’t mad about that.

I wanted all her affection, all her attention. It was royally unfair, I was an ass, and I didn’t see a damn thing I could do about it.

I could no more stop wanting her than I could stop breathing; but I also couldn’t see a way forward in which she was fit to lead alpha females. It was our very nature, to follow the strong and protect the weak. She deserved my protection, yes. But she didn’t deserve to lead.

It grated, but it was the way of the packs. I forced my eyes up when the stream of words stopped, pointedly ignoring the blatant display of her chest and fixing my attention on her face. The she-wolf in front of me might have been pretty, if I were capable of seeing anyone else that way now. But I wasn’t, and her lips were pursed angrily. They couldn’t compare to Brielle’s, which were a soft pink invitation across the room, and completely, wholly unavailable.

Shoot. Had she asked me a question when I’d been counting?

“Are you even listening?”

“My apologies, did I miss a question?” I pushed all the contrition I had into my voice, but she still wasn’t appeased, shoving her chair back and standing, arms crossed, before the whistle even blew.

She glared angrily across the crowd, eyeing her next match and pointedly ignoring me. Thankfully, within a few seconds, Gracelyn blew her little dictator’s whistle, and I proffered a hand. She was reluctant, but she shook it anyway, digging in her nails a bittoohard.

“It was nice talking with you, Kaley,” I murmured, already glancing over her shoulder to see who Brielle was shaking hands with.

“It’s Kylie, you asshole. I’ll be notifying my Alpha of your rude behavior.”

I couldn’t argue, and didn’t try as she walked off, already beaming a megawatt smile at the wolf to my left. I was ninety-percent sure that she’d told me she was a member of the Northern Territories Pack, which tracked. They were the most aggressive she-wolves I’d encountered so far. Yet for all her offense at my behavior, she’d come to meet me reeking of their Alpha wolf, Vance.

The next she-wolf walked up, and I could smell the fear rolling off her, the emotion a sharp, sour smell polluting her normal… daisy? Petunia? I couldn’t tell. It was floral and sour, and I had to resist the urge to sneeze. At least that I could blame on allergies.

“Hello, I’m Alpha Kane. It’s nice to meet you,” I said.

She quivered, but didn’t respond.

“And you are?” I inclined my head, attempting to get an answer, but the poor, nervous woman bolted straight for the door, not looking back.

I could feel Reed’s amused cackle over the pack bond, and I cut my eyes his way in annoyance. He was only a few seats away from his turn with Brielle, and I had to bite back a jealous glare. It wasn’t his fault. I’d made sure one of my men was on her row for every turn. I hadn’t made it myself, but they were the next best thing.So long as they didn’t touch her.My wolf’s hackles rose, and for a moment, I mistook the sudden motion as a reaction to the idea of my pack mates touching my mate.Not our mate, calm down.

Of course, my eyes rolled back to Brielle like stubborn magnets, pulled to her like the planets are pulled toward the sun. Constantly, irrevocably. And what I saw made my muscles feel like molten lead, hot and burning and ready to lunge. Shane Russo. Brielle had just approached his table, and he was smiling at her, leaning forward and motioning to the seat with a barely hidden leer.

I growled, low in my throat, unable to control the sound. His eyes flicked my way briefly—we were all wolves; no one within a fifty-foot radius was unaware I was angry, despite the low volume—and I saw a glint of interest and, dare I say,gleespark in their unholy depths as he turned his full attention back on Brielle.

Mine!Not his!my wolf demanded, pacing angrily for a second before clawing at the ground and sending dirt flying everywhere. It took all my will, my many years of practiced control, not to shift on the spot. I realized after a few rounds of deep breaths that my fingernails had shifted to claws, and I was digging holes into the wood table in front of me with how hard I was clutching it.

Forcing my hands off the defenseless table, I sucked in a deep lungful of the timid female’s waning sour petunia scent, but it did nothing, absolutely nothing, for my wolf.

Or my calm.

Becauseshewasn’t my mate.

Brielle was. And the time I’d spent denying it? Her weakness, the fact that she pushed me away, the fact that it was too soon… the fact that I wasn’t damn wellreadyfor a mate yet?

None of it mattered. Because what my wolf knew, I could no longer deny when I could feel it down in the marrow of my bones.

She. Was. Mine.

My wolf flung back his head and howled at my agreement.

A tinkling laugh filled the room, dragging my attention back to Brielle. Her back was to me, but I could see her shoulders shaking lightly and the cocky smile on Russo’s face. My hands began to shake as the acceptance rolled through me like a wave of burning awareness. Her scent. Her proximity.

I stayed in my seat, riveted by the sight of her, even from behind when she wasn’t aware I existed. Her gorgeous, shining, russet hair. The delicate line of her neck.

---