Page 41 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

Leigh looked up at me, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “It can’t be true, Gael. You’ve always smelled good to me, but… I don’t believe it.”

Frustration tried to creep up, but I smashed it down with force. She was mine, and I knew it. I just had to help her see it.

“Reed, smell me.”

“Oh dear Goddess, I need better friends,” he grumbled as he rose from the chair, but he did, in fact, walk over and sniff the back of my hand.

“You smell like trees.”

“What kind?”

“I guess pines.”

“Nothing else?”

“Soap.”

I nodded.

“What about me?” Leigh asked, watching the exchange wide-eyed. “What do I smell like to you?”

I growled low in my throat, not liking the idea even of my best friend getting that close tomymate, but if it would help her accept the truth… I nodded at Reed, shoving down the jealousy as he took her extended hand.

He took a deep whiff of the back of her hand, exactly as he had mine. “Something bitter. I’m not sure?” He sniffed again. “A cup of coffee.”

Leigh’s eyes turned up toward me, desperation and a hint of fear in their depths. “What do you smell?”

TWENTY-ONE

Leigh

Gael took the same hand Reed had just held, but instead of the platonic press of flesh I’d felt when Reed touched me, I felt a sizzle of excitement. The touch was gentle but branding nonetheless.

His nose skated along the back of my hand, his lips barely brushing the tender skin there as he spoke.

“Coffee, yes. But there’s thick cream and a floral hint of vanilla—so delicious I want to lick you from head to toe.”

I shivered at the suggestion of him licking me, my needy pussy clenching with the memory of the last time—the only time—we’d been that close.

Reed made a distressed sound in the back of his throat, but I’d already forgotten he was there. If what Reed had just said was true—and I had no reason to believe he’d lie—we were experiencing the beginning stages of the mate signs.

Gael broke eye contact with me only for a second to pin Reed with a stare, a wolfish smile curling his lips. “What does it mean, Reed? I need her to hear it from somebody other than me.”

“It means you’re fated. The rest of the signs should come in time.”

Gael nodded, turning all his attention back to me. It was like basking in the sun’s glow, visceral and warm. “Do you understand now?”

I nodded hesitantly, pretty sure it hadn’t sunk in. He was mine.

There was nobody else coming to take him away, no other woman who would show up one day with the trump card and snatch him from my and Petal’s lives.

I got to keep him.

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, the flood of emotions thick in my throat and overwhelming as I tried to choke them back.

“There is one more thing you should both be aware of,” Reed said, hesitating as he looked back and forth between the two of us.

“What is it?” Gael asked as I fought for my composure.

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