Page 15 of Fated to the Feral Wolf

She shifted beneath me, startled awake and grabbing her side with a gasp. But it was Leigh who spoke first.

“Hey, asshole, we weresleepingin here. Do you mind?”

“You’re supposed to be in your room sleeping. But when my patrol checks, you’re not in your bed. Instead, I find you in here with aferal alphawho could rip you limb from limb! Get up, now. We’re going.”

I growled again, the sound low and deadly in my throat. I didn’t like how he spoke to her, not one little bit. If he moved a muscle into this room, I would tear him a new asshole. I’d already sized him up, and he was plenty dominant, but I could take him.

“One, you don’t get to tell me what to do. Two, it’s not my fault Reed didn’t tell you I came in while he was watching the door. Three, the only one getting ripped apart is going to be you if you don’t cool your jets. He’s protective of Shay if there are other males in the room, and you coming in all alpha-hole isn’t helping.” She thrust a hand in my direction for emphasis, not moving from her spot curled up in the chair by Shay’s bedside.

“This is not negotiable. If you won’t walk out of here, I’ll carry you out.”

“Try me, Gael. I’m not leaving her bedside.” Leigh stood then, both hands on hips and chin lifted in defiance. I could smell the anger rolling off her, her arms shaking a little with the repressed urge to shift.

“Guys, I’m okay. Can we all just settle down? Dirge is still working on his control,” Shay said. She’d managed to sit up in the bed, moving her legs from underneath mine at what must have been great personal expense. “Since you’re guarding him, Leigh’s fine, right?”

“And he can practice his control again once I get Leigh out of danger and back where she’s supposed to be.”

“Oh myGoddess, do you even hear yourself? I’m not a toddler! Get out of here. You stood up for him and now you’re going to act like he’s some slavering monster unsafe to be in the same room with me?” Leigh’s eyes began to glow gold as her wolf pressed the issue.

Gael lunged toward her, and I leapt for his throat.

ELEVEN

Shay

“Dirge, no!” I watched in horror as Dirge flew through the air, deadly sharp canines flashing under the fluorescent lights as he arrowed toward Gael’s shoulder.

Thank the Goddess, Gael dodged back and raised an arm to block. Not enough for Dirge to miss, but enough for the deadly bite to sink into his biceps instead of his jugular.

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit! Fluffy, down! He’s a dick, but you can’t kill him!” Leigh ran forward—faster than me, in my wounded state—and, to my utter shock, wrapped her arms around Dirge’s neck and pulled.

Dirge released Gael with a throaty snarl, blood and saliva dripping down his chin as he stared up at Gael.

Gael’s face was painted with shock as he looked down at the gaping wounds in his arm. His black T-shirt was shredded, not having stood a chance against shifter fangs.

Not knowing what else to do, I pulled the red emergency call rope hanging next to my bed, and alarms sounded as lights flashed in the hallway.

The sound pulled Gael back into the present, because between one moment and the next, he’d shifted, clothesexploding into useless shreds as a massive tan-and-gray wolf appeared where the man had just stood. He snarled and paced toward Dirge, his maw open, saliva dripping from his dagger-sharp canines.

“Stop, please, both of you! Stop!” I swung my legs off the bed, cursing my wobbly knees as I tried to close the distance and put myself between them.

Dirge barked, short and sharp, warning me back as he shook off Leigh’s grip. She swung toward me, swearing again as she saw me standing, then dodged the two alpha wolves. As soon as she was at my side, she bear-hugged me so I didn’t fall, then proceeded to yell at the two wolves.

“We’re both fine! You two are fighting for nothing! Would you knock it off before youbothget thrown in a cell?”

Dirge didn’t attack again. To my surprise he simply backed up, putting himself between us and Gael. Who was guarding who here?

“What’s the meaning of this!” Kane’s dominance barreled into the room ahead of him like a freight train, and I winced as it hit me. He usually kept it pulled in, at least around his own pack mates, so we weren’t getting slammed with it constantly. But right now, he had it on full display, nearly leveling us all to the linoleum with the force of it.

I couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything but cling to Leigh and try to stay on my feet.

Luckily, Leigh was stronger than I was at the moment, because the two wolves weren’t going to answer him. “Gael stormed in here and spooked Dirge. It wasnotDirge’s fault. We were all asleep when Gael slammed the door open, and Dirge didn’t attack until Gael lunged for me.”

“He lunged for you, or Shay?” Kane asked, pulling back on the power just a little, allowing me to take a deeper breath.

She didn’t have a chance to answer before Brielle elbowed her way past Kane into the overcrowded sickroom, her ownfury palpable despite the crushing alpha dominance already stuffed into the small room. “Holy hell on a double helix! You boneheads have her out of bed way too early. You shouldbothbe ashamed of yourselves,” she snapped, and moved to skirt them, but Kane threw up an arm to block her from the shifted males.

“Shift backnow,” she ordered from behind his arm. To my utter shock, Gael yelped once, and then he was a naked, angry man again. Dirge howled, the sound pained, but retained his fur even as he sank to the ground on his side, twisting and panting with the effort not to shift.

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