Page 30 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

My wolf howled, and I fought to ignore her anguished denial. She wanted him with a passion that eclipsed even my inner horny goddess.

“So serious. Not a fan of running?” Kane’s whispered words brushed my ear and sent an electric jolt straight through me, as if his tongue was already connected to my clit, even though he didn’t touch me.

Jerk.

Irritation at my body’s reaction to him even when I was angry rose, staving off the lust. I spun to answer, realizing my mistake a split second before I crashed straight into his chest. He steadied me with surprisingly gentle hands, one at my shoulder and one at my hip. I felt his heat like a brand, marking me irrevocably.

Had anyone touched that hip before? I couldn’t remember. All I could feel was him, hot and enveloping and—

“Get your grubby mitts off her, you jackass!” Leigh snarled, fangs lengthening as she stepped up to theliteral prince of all the wolveslike she was about to throw down.

Before I could talk her off the ledge, I was shocked by a harsh alpha bark.

“Leigh!” Gael appeared like an avenging angel over her left shoulder. His face was all thunderclouds, and I couldn’t help myself from shrinking back from his thick, rolling alpha energy. Kane was stronger—my wolf preened at the thought—but his alpha energy felt like electricity. Gael’s felt like somebody rubbed my fur the wrong way, plucking at my nerves and sending unpleasant jitters through me.

Kane growled low in his throat and tucked me against his chest. The hand on my shoulder floated up to cradle the back of my head, tucking my nose against his neck, where all I could feel, smell was him. I calmed instantly even as Leigh and Gael squared off three feet away.

“He doesn’t get to just lay hands on her! I don’t care who he is! She’s mad at him, and he needs to respect her space!”

“If she wants space, all she has to do is say so and his wolf will comply. Immediately. You know it as well as I do.”

“You’reinfuriating! Why are you even here? Nobody asked you to be here, and this has nothing to do with you.”

“Right, because as the alpha’s second, I should stand by and let you deck him?” I couldhearthe eye roll, even though I couldn’t see anything but the tanned expanse of Kane’s neck. I sucked in another lungful of his glorious cinnamon-orange scent, and to my surprise, my mouth started watering as, for the first time in my life, my fangs dropped.

Holy hell on a double helix.

Fangs.

Neck.

Mate.

My wolf snarled again, and I jerked back out of Kane’s arms. He let me go, and I caught the briefest glimpse of sorrow on his face before he pulled his alpha mask back into place.

I couldn’t speak, my wolf’s fangs still low and awkward in my mouth, the desire to leap into his arms and sink them into his perfectly golden neck still pulsing in my veins. It took everything in me to resist, as the polite aide interrupted our little spat.

“Everything okay over here, Alpha? Some of the other males are getting antsy.” She cast a nervous glance at the ruffled group of shifters, more than half with their wolves shining through their eyes as they watched our ridiculously public show.

So humiliating. I’m a doctor, for Goddess’s sake, not a teenager!

I was as horny as one, but that was neither here nor there.

“Everything’s fine, thank you, Emory. Please, go ahead and get things started. We won’t be any more trouble, right, everyone?” His eyes hardened as he skated past me and into Leigh and Gael.

“Yes, Alpha,” Gael said, dropping into a fighter’s rest stance, hands behind the small of his back and shoulders straight.

Leigh’s jaw was set in that way that saidthis isn’t over, but she also nodded tightly in response.

“Greeeeeeat,” Emory drawled, but she hurried back to the center of the group to get things rolling as she was told.

“Okay, everybody! Show’s over. This is a group run, but there are still rules. Keep it friendly. No hunting inside the camp perimeter. Mix and mingle, but keep physical contact friendly and minimal. If you wouldn’t want your mother to see you do it”—she shot a pointed glance at the five of us, and I resisted the urge to hang my head—“don’t do it. You’re all adults. Don’t make your Alphas whoop your asses. Now, run along and have fun.”

She waved her clipboard vaguely toward the woods with far less chipper enthusiasm than Gracelyn, and then stepped back quickly as people started shucking clothes to the ground, modesty forgotten in typical shifter fashion. Nudity was a fact of life.

Leigh cleared her throat loudly, and when I looked over, she shot a pointed glance at me, then over to Kane.

Ahh, Operation Forbidden Wonderland. I rolled my eyes at her, but stepped away from Kane and to her side, Shay following suit and flanking me as well.

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