Page 13 of Fated to the Feral Wolf

“We can wait for Brielle, yes. But if he doesn’t allowherto help…” John Henry pressed his lips into a grim line.

He didn’t have to finish the sentence; I already knew. They’d take him back to the cell. My grip on his fur tightened reflexively.

“Don’t stress, Shay. It’s all going to work out, becauseDirge”—she said his name with a heavy dose of censure—“wants you to be healthy, and he won’t stop the doctors from helping you. Will he?” She squinted over at him, making eye contact and not shying away when he returned it. Even from her seated position, her wolf rose to the surface, eyes glowing a stunning gold as her wolf pressed forward.

To my surprise, though, he didn’t growl at her or take offense. It was like he knew that she was family.

“I’ll wait in the hall until Brielle returns.” John Henry ducked his head politely and then stepped out of the room. As soon as it clicked shut, Dirge visibly relaxed, letting his tongue loll out and wagging his tail.

“You’re a real piece of work, dude,” Leigh muttered, but the corner of her lips twisted up. “There might be something wrong with us, Shay. Why do we like assholes?”

“We? Do tell. I haven’t heard anything since Gael carried you off the dance floor.” I waggled my eyebrows at her in a move I’d seen her do hundreds of times over the years when she was ribbing me or Brielle about our nonexistent love lives.

Payback’s a bitch.

My loud, brash friend blushed.Blushed. “There’s nothing to tell,” she said, trying and failing for a casual tone.

“The heat between you two is enough to melt the ice caps. You would really deny me details when I’m laid up in bed, wounded?” I dramatically slouched into the bed, doing my best to look pitiful.

“Stop it. Don’t make me feel worse! It’s bad enough I was busy— Ahh, shit. Fine!” She dropped her head in her hands for a second, then smoothed her fingers over her long, blonde ponytail. “We hooked up, okay? But he’s an arrogant ass, I got him out of my system, and I’mnevergoing there again. Hell, I’m never speaking to him again. I’m through.”

I watched all this with barely suppressed laughter. It was so rare to see Leigh ruffled, I hated that Bri wasn’t here to see it.

“So, was he that good, or that bad? I know it’s one or the other.”

She sighed, a wistful admission. “He was great, okay? The best I’ve ever been with, if I’m honest. But I’m not going to tell him that, because his ego doesnotneed to get any bigger. He’s already impossible.”

“Fair enough—you know I’m no snitch.”

She smiled at me then, the tension easing out of her shoulders and melting away. “You? Never.” There was a comfortable pause. “It’s still early for lunch, and Bri was going to get something special. Why don’t you try to rest.”

As soon as she suggested it, I yawned, a wave of exhaustionI’d been studiously ignoring washing over me and making my eyelids heavy. I still had questions about what had happened between her and Gael, but they could wait for another time.

Leigh smiled, pulling her phone out of her pocket and waving it at me. “I’ve got a book to read, so don’t worry about me.”

I quirked an eyebrow at her as I scooched down the bed, rearranging my pillows. “Is it at least something good? Or is it another one of those boring, dry?—”

“Hey! Kinesiology and physiology books are informative, not boring.”

I yawned again, not buying a word of it, when, to my surprise, a soft rumbling came from Dirge, where he lay pressed against my side. He was still facing the door, on alert even as he soothed me. He was a good wolf and, I hoped, a good man underneath.

“But if you must know,” Leigh continued, “I’m reading the new Lindsay Buroker. She’s the only one who gets the dragons right. Pompous asses, every one of them.”

“Good,” I murmured, sleep pulling me under with a smile on my lips and my hand wrapped in Dirge’s coat. Even as I thought that Leigh was full of bullshit. She’d never met adragon.

TEN

Dirge

The room fell quiet, nothing but the soft sounds of Shay’s deep, even breaths to keep us company, and the occasional tap from Leigh—the mouthy blonde female who was as close as my mate’s shadow—doing something on her phone.

When Shay released a relaxed sigh and rolled onto her stomach—fully asleep now—Leigh dropped the phone along with the air of disinterest she’d been wearing.

Her eyes snapped up, the regular blue fading away behind the bright, golden glow of her wolf pressing forward. It wasn’t lack of control, though; far from it. It wasintentional, a display of force.

I met her gaze, never one to back down from a predator.

“Listen up, Fluffy,” she said in a low, threatening tone. “I’m tolerating you because Shay thinks you’re her mate. But I want to get one thing very, very clear.”

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