Page 20 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

“I… I don’t know, Kane. There are only legends, and none of them that I’ve read mentioned this. Omegas have extra gifts from the moon Goddess, but nothing mentioned—”

Kane snarled, and I lifted my hand to tangle in his close-cropped hair. “Shh, Kane. I’m sure I’ll be okay. It was just a lot today.”

His eyes fell closed, and he leaned into my palm as if he was a parched desert and I was summer rain for him to soak up. And I never, ever wanted him to stop.

Which was insane. But perfect too.

“The mate bond does seem to be progressing differently than typical. Perhaps it’s a side effect? Usually, physical intimacy would precede this level of bond, but… no, I don’t know. I don’t want to make a guess and be wrong.”

Kane growled, the sound a low rumble in his throat, but something had clicked into place for me. Our mate bond was progressing with unusual speed. Usually, it was a slow unfurling of weeks or months, sometimesyearsmates could know each other, before the bond progressed past a strong attraction and the physical pull.

My stomach pains… If I were sick like my mother, would my wolf somehow be able to accelerate the bond, tie me to Kane? She’d never been very strong, but she had been pushing constantly when he was around, in a way she never had before.

Oh, Goddess. No. I could hear Gael, Reed, and Leigh all talking, but their voices were a background hum to the sick realizations spinning through my mind.

Wolves rarely fell ill, our pack healers primarily setting bones, cleaning up fight injuries, and helping deliver pups when a mated pair was blessed with them. But my mother… my mother had been sickly my whole life.

It was strange, and we lived a life secluded from our pack due to her illness. My father did everything for her, tried everything to save her, even increasingly involved spells and potions from her best friend, a witch, Karissma. It was why I studied medicine, why I wanted to see what differences existed between humans and wolves, to finally figure out why my mother’s wolf geneshadn’tworked like everyone else’s.

But now, I’d found my mate—that word still felt so foreign, but it was rapidly growing on me—and at the same time, developed awful, racking stomach pains.

Just like my mother.

I needed a lab. I needed to look at my blood, see if anything had changed from my last sample, what was causing this. See if I could spot any disease markers not present in the other samples from my friends and pack who’d been willing to trust me with them. I needed—

“Everyone out. Leave us.” Kane’s voice held an alpha command, and four sets of feet began shuffling toward the door, none of them quickly.

“Brielle! Do you want to come with us? You don’t have to stay with him. He can’t force you. Brielle, look at me!” Leigh’s tone snapped me from my panicked train of thought, and I spun around on the bed to where she was gripping the doorframe with white knuckles.

“It’s okay, guys. I’m fine. I think I just need rest.”

“Did you not hear anything we just discussed? You’re not going to getrest. We think you need to deepen the physical connection to fix your mate bond, and if that doesn’t work, they’re going to— Ahh!” She lost her grip, and the last thing I saw was Gael’s grim face as he settled a hand on the doorknob.

“I’ll take one of the hallway positions, Alpha. If you need me, I won’t be far.” With a nod, he turned the lock and shut the door with a resolute click.

And just like that, I was alone with the wolf prince.

FOURTEEN

Kane

“No, we can’t. I won’t let you deepen the bond, Kane. It’s not safe.” She tried to scoot away from me, back herself across the bed out of reach, but I pinned her thighs to the bed with my forearm. What did she mean, it wasn’tsafe? Did she think I was going to hurt her because she might be omega?

My wolf growled angrily at the thought. I could never. To raise a hand to your mate was to hurt yourself, the other half of your soul. She was more precious to me than any other person on the planet, and I would lay down my life for hers. Hurt her? Never.

“Shh, Brielle. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, but don’t run away from me.” She stilled under my touch like a rabbit in a wolf’s sights. Her chest heaved, pressing her beautiful breasts tightly against the thin shirt she wore. Wholly inappropriate for Alaska weather, but so stunning. I couldn’t let myself get distracted by her body right now, though, when something was wrong.

She had stopped trying to escape me, so I eased the pressure, sliding my hands to her thighs instead, rubbing gentle circles with my thumbs over the denim of her jeans. The heaving stopped as I traced the seam along her inner thigh.

“Breathe, my heart, and talk to me. Why do you think it’s unsafe to follow this bond between us? Our wolves have chosen. Tell me you feel it.”

Her eyes were glowing again, and I knew I was right. Her wolf wanted mine, even if the woman hadn’t yet acknowledged it. She was intelligent; she just needed time to come to grips with what it meant, work through all the details.

Goddess, I hoped that was all. My cock was aching, being this close to her, but unable to ravage her like I wanted, no,neededto. To slide the white T-shirt up and over her flat stomach, kiss a trail up to those gorgeous breasts and free them from the confines of her bra, suck and kiss them until she was crying for me to take her, make love to her, claim her.

The wolf was riding me hard, but he’d never hurt her either. And so, we waited. With an ache in my balls and an iron fist on my control. For this was the truth of wolf mates: the female had the power. She could deny me, or she could make my dreams a reality. But either way, I was hers. Even were she to reject me, there would be no other for my wolf.

Which meant I had no choice but to win her over, because not having her was not an option.

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