Page 57 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

“Oh Lord, I’m never going to remember that.” Now it was Shay’s turn to roll her eyes. We loved Leigh to death, but when she got on a roll? There was no stopping her. We’d be memorizing her code name or we’d never hear the end of it.

“Hence the acronym. Operation T-A-B-A-L.”

“It sounds like you just don’t know how to spell table.”

“I know you didn’t just make a blonde joke when I’ve already been denied one beatdown tonight. You might be the second, but in skin, I can take your scrawny behind out like yesterday’s paper.”

“Ladies! Enough. I don’t think anyone even reads real newspapers anymore, Leigh. And the truth is, I don’t have a set plan, per se. I know there were defense classes on the docket for this gathering, so, my thought was I could see who the teacher was and ask for one-on-one tutoring between now and next week.”

“I like, I like.” Leigh gave me a thumbs-up.

“I have a schedule right here and… oh. Umm, Gael was supposed to lead those sessions.” Shay passed me the fluorescent blue paper.

“Good. Then we know he knows what he’s doing.” I nodded once, trying not to let my trepidation show. Now that my hurt feelings at Kane had faded into the background, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to accomplish this. Jasline may as well have been Goliath and me a little Jewish boy with a slingshot for as even a pairing as we were.

Good thing David kicked ass. I just had to find my slingshot.

“Right, but… what about the part where you faint every time you shift? Got any ideas for that one?” Leigh asked, sounding a bit guilty for pointing out my Achilles’ heel.

I dropped back to the bed, letting my arms starfish out to the sides. “Not a damn clue.”

THIRTY-FIVE

Kane

“Kane, your knuckles are bleeding, and I’m pretty sure you’ve broken several of the little bones in your hand. If only we knew a doctor who could confirm that. Oh, wait.” Reed’s droll tone wasn’t enough to convince me he wasn’t concerned, but I didn’t give a fuck.

“I said, another! I didn’t ask for your medical assessment, DoctorChef.”

He curled a lip at my jab, but braced his feet and held up another board for me to smash, nonetheless.

“You know, you’ve got a mate now. She’s not going to sit home and play obedient housewife. You’re going to have to learn to talk about your feelings soon, or else there won’t be any trees left in this forest, and it would be a shame to take down hardwoods that have stood for centuries just because you can’t control your temper.”

I snarled as the board gave under my fist. “Shut.Up. Another.”

“If you wanted somebody silent, you chose the wrong wolf. Gael’s your man for brooding, and I’m your man for common sense. You know this, I know this. So, you know deep down that you’re here for more than just bodily harm and self-flagellation. Why don’t we dispense with the karate routine and get to the bottom of this, hmm?”

He held up another board, but the challenge in his eyes was pissing me off. Looking me in the eye right now wasn’t just stupid, it was a death wish. I turned my back on him and paced across the quiet barn to one of the nearby support beams. The wood was rough cut, and splinters dug into my forearms as I rested my head on them, on the beam. But I didn’t care. I craved the pain.

The physical pain couldn’t ever cut as deep as Brielle walking out on me with that look in her eye like she’d chosen wrong. Like fate had handed her a big, steaming pile of shit instead of the love of her life.

And could I blame her?

I’d gone full caveman and tried to force her to see things my way. I couldn’t help it, though. Rationality wasn’t my strong suit when my mate’s life was on the line. I’dneverbe okay with her risking her life. Not for me, not for anything. She was too precious. She was my whole world, and somehow, instead of telling herthat, I’d told her she was too weak to win.

Reed had been right, though. I hadn’t called him here just to help me beat myself into submission. No, I needed his brain. A way to get Brielle out of this unscathed. What I needed was a loophole.

“How do we get her out of this, without forcing me to mate with a she-wolf I find repugnant and devastating my true mate?” I ground out the words, communication difficult when all I wanted was to lose myself in the physical.

But I’d already done that instead of thinking after the initial investigation into my father’s death was done, and look where that’d left me and Brielle. In trouble.

It was a mistake I couldn’t afford to make a second time, even if I felt helpless again.

There was nothing worse in the world for an alpha than being helpless. We were made to protect, to fix, to guard. Not… to sit around and watch those we protected risk themselves. And for what? A match that would result in three miserable wolves?

“I don’t know, Kane. I’ve been racking my brain the whole time you tried to dislocate my shoulders through those boards.”

I snorted and cast a rueful look at him. Hewasrubbing his shoulder, but he was a shifter. He’d be fine in an hour. Besides, Reed might have been the sophisticated one, but I knew he hid a massive beast beneath those polished suits.

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