Page 16 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

Neither stopped their endless circling, like sharks who’d scented blood in the water, and a wave of irrational anger nearly bowled me over.

They were just going to ignore me?Hellnaw.

“Stop!”I snarled the words, and both of them froze as if stuck in a block of ice. “This ends now.” Kane was the first to regain motion, and as he stalked slowly toward me, my knees started shaking too. What was wrong with me? More importantly, how the heck was I, a bottom-of-the-barrel psi, holding eye contact with a dominant alpha?

His eyes glowed a greenish hazel and bored into mine with… was that a hint of respect? It was hard to read emotions on a wolf’s face.

He stalked in front of me, brushing hard against my torso as he put himself between me and Shane, who still hadn’t moved a muscle. The contact had me rocking on my heels to stay upright, and my hands sank into his thick fur on reflex.

Goddess, he wassoft. Powerful, muscular, and so dominant, being this close to him made the hairs on my arms stand on end. But standing there with my hands buried in his fur, as he put himself between me and the wolf he considered a threat? It was heady, and I wanted to wrap myself around him like a cat in heat.

Basically, I’d punched a one-way ticket to crazy town right alongside these two testosterone-riddled males. Joy.

Kane drew himself up to his full height and towered over Shane. As soon as their eyes met, it was as if whatever spell held Shane frozen dissolved, and the steel-gray wolf crumpled to the ground under the power in Kane’s eyes.

The darker wolf’s lips were pulled back in a ferocious threat, saliva dripping from the wicked canines onto Shane’s snout. The seconds stretched long and tense, and I held my breath as Shane made his decision.

If he didn’t submit, I had no doubt that Kane would rip his throat out, right here, and right now.

The only other wound I likely couldn’t fix on a wolf. I balled my hands into fists, probably pulling some of Kane’s hair, but he didn’t flinch, his whole focus on Shane.

Finally,finally, Shane bent his head back, averting his eyes and baring his neck to Kane.

Kane barked one more time, and forced Shane’s shift back into human flesh. I closed my eyes at the horrid sounds he made—it hurt like the devil’s own sunburn shifting with a broken bone, or so I’d been told by other shifters I’d treated back home—and I didn’t envy him one bit.

It was only a few seconds, though, and then his pack mates were surging forward, surrounding his naked form, and hoisting him up under the arms to carry him from the barn.

Kane stood sentry, with Gael and Reed coming to stand on either side of us, but I averted my eyes, not intent on ogling Shane’s naked backside as they carried him off to lick his wounds in private. Though, the gathered crowd didn’t seem to have the same compunctions, and the whispers started up before he’d even cleared the double barn doors. Reed passed Kane a pair of sweatpants, and I swear there were several disappointed groans from women in the crowd.

Nausea rolled through me with the force of a tsunami, and I must have moaned or something, because Kane’s wolf snapped his head around to stare at me.

“I have to get out of here,” I croaked out before bolting for the exit too. I was going to throw up if I didn’t get some air. Water. Something.

“Brielle, wait!” Leigh’s shout was lost to the crowd, and I didn’t slow—I couldn’t, or else I was going to toss my cookies right there for the whole crowd to see. Hopefully, she and Shay would find me, after I got my stomach under control.

I clutched my belly and ran, blindly unaware of the different outbuildings I passed, focused only on getting back to my dorm room. It wasn’t much, but it was the closest my wolf had to a den while we were here, and my wolf instinctively wanted the safety that only holing up behind a locked door could bring.

Charging through the front door of the dorms, I didn’t slow as I hit the stairs, at least until I hit the top. A spearing pain lanced through my belly, and I doubled over, clutching it harder. What was wrong with me? Was this the consequence of going toe to toe with an alpha? It felt like my body was trying to tear itself apart from the inside.

As soon as I could breathe again, I hunch-ran the rest of the way down the hall to my door. My hands shook as I tried to unlock it, and fumbled the keys.

Tears flooded my eyes as they clanked to the wood floor, the weight of everything that had happened today crashing in on me all at once. But before I could try to retrieve them, a masculine hand was there, scooping them up, and lifting me up against his chest.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you. You’re safe.” The words were a soothing murmur against my hair. With my next breath, Kane’s scent washed over me in a beautiful blur of cinnamon-orange, and my whole body turned to putty in his arms.

ELEVEN

Brielle

What was it about his scent that drove my wolf wild with need? She was pacing again, pushing hard to come out to play, which was so far beyond unusual.

He effortlessly opened the door with one hand, cradling me against his chest like I weighed nothing with the other.That is definitely not true, which means he is hella strong.Before he could swing it shut, though, Leigh’s hand slapped against the wood, stopping it on its hinges.

“Hold on there, buddy. I get that you’re head honcho around here, but that right there ismy girl, and if you hurt her, I will rip the hairy balls right off your body with my bare hands, you feel me? We are a trio, and we’re not leaving.” Shay was behind her, shoulders hunched with ill-repressed terror, but she was there.

If I hadn’t already loved them both like blood sisters, that moment would have clinched it. But I did, and they were already my sisters in every way that mattered.

Leigh glared defiantly at his eyebrows, not daring to make eye contact despite her bold statement.

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