Page 33 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

I spun around a little too quickly, and a wave of dizziness washed over me with alarming speed.

“Oh, shit, you’re pale.” The stranger grabbed me by both shoulders and steered me toward a chair.

But we didn’t make it.

A vicious snarl ripped through the dining room, then the stranger was yanked backward, and a pissed-off Gael appeared in his place.

“Keep your fucking hands off her.”

“Gael, it’s okay. I ran into him and got a little dizzy?—”

His face went from pissed to worried in two seconds flat, and then he was scooping me off the ground. “You should be in bed, not down here talking to this son of a bitch.” He snarled at the stranger, who held both hands up innocently.

“Just didn’t want her to hit the deck, man. I was not trying to start shit again. I didn’t know who she was.”

“Again?” I asked, looking back and forth between them in confusion.

“Again,” Gael snarled. “Lucien here thinks he’s got jokes, but what he’s gonna get is his arms ripped off for touching what’s mine.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on there, BD.” I patted him on the shoulder. “We’re not, I’m not…” I faltered, the look in his eyes stopping me in my tracks. His eyes glowed with fury, but every single line of his body was rigid, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell him I wasn’t his. Not in that moment, when he was radiatingpossession.

Not because I was afraid. He held me gently, as if I were made of glass. As if I waspreciousto him. No matter what happened between us in time, I was never going to forget the feeling of being precious to someone.

Well, more than that. Precious tohim. Gael.

The man I couldn’t afford to be falling for. I took that moment of silence and shored up my defenses, tugging the Kevlar vest a little tighter around my heart. Because this man? He could ruin me. I was in too deep, and he was too much of everything I wanted but couldn’t have. So, I pulled those straps so tight, they hurt, and let out a steadying breath.

I turned to the stranger and gave him a friendly smile. “I’m Leigh. Thanks for making sure I didn’t faint.”

“You’re welcome. I’m Lucien. Nice to meet you.”

Gael growled.

“Nice to meet you from over here, with all my limbs intact,” he amended, and I couldn’t help but snort at his brand of humor. It was similar to mine, and I knew instantly that I could befriend him. “Also, what’s BD?”

It took me a moment to remember, but then I cackled again, resting my hand on Gael’s chest, right over his heart. “Baby daddy,” I said with a snicker.

Gael huffed, some of the tension leaving him as Lucien threw his head back and laughed. “I’m taking you back to bed,” Gael said to me, then leveled Lucien with a glare that could melt ice. “You touch her again, I remove the part of you that did it.”

“Yes, sir,” he muttered with a mocking salute as we passed.

He winked at me over Gael’s shoulder just before I was carried out of sight.

“Gael, that was over the top. The dizziness passed. You can put me down now.”

“What the fuck is that?” he asked, ignoring my protests as he carried me down the hall.

“What? Oh! Nugget!” I’d forgotten I was holding him in all the commotion, but he was curled up between Gael and me, purring like a motor. “Huh.”

“What? Where did you even find a cat? They’re universally afraid of wolf shifters.”

I shrugged. “He found me, so I don’t know. He really didn’t react to Lucien at all, yet he’s cozied up to you happily enough.”

“Good cat,” Gael muttered as he kicked the door to his bedroom open.

Nugget’s purring went up another notch at the praise, and I swear it felt like he was going to vibrate himself into little nugget pieces.

“But I was downstairs trying to get him some food and water. He’s not very big, and there’s no sign of a mama cat anywhere. Also, I don’t know if he already has an owner, but I want to keep him.”

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