Page 48 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

“Well, are you going to actually show me, or…” She grinned at me then, and the weight in the middle of my chest lifted.

We were going to be okay. It might take a while to work through all the crap. But in the end? I got to keep her. Which meant the rest was just details. The journey.

I grinned back and pushed open the door, a small wave of humidity hitting us as I ushered her through the door with my hand on her lower back.

She didn’t push me away after all,I mused as I watched her experience the atrium for the first time. The ceiling was round, vaulted glass high overhead, with plants growing from every available surface, save for a few seating areas clustered here and there.

“Oh, this is gorgeous, BD.” She breathed the words so softly, I couldn’t even bring myself to care that she’d used my least favorite nickname.

Fine, it was growing on me. I was her baby daddy. But I wanted to be a hell of a lot more.

Baby steps.

“I hoped you’d like it.”

She reached out and ran a fingertip gingerly over a fiery orange leaf nearby before turning wide eyes on me. “Who maintains all this?”

I shrugged. “It’s been this way since I was a child. Back then, it seemed like fairy magic, but now… I assume there’s a team of gardeners. Kane probably knows.”

She nodded, biting her lip as she took her time to circulate around the room, exploring the beauty of it. When she reached me again, she hesitated.

I watched as realization dawned on her that we were supposed to be having an uncomfortable conversation.

“We should sit,” I suggested, taking her hand again and leading her to my favorite nook. It was a padded bench tucked deep within a little grotto of sorts. Trailing vines dotted with flowers formed a series of arches, making it feel like you were inside a world of flowers and greenery. Even the light was tinted green from filtering through the leaves.

“This is oddly soothing,” Leigh said as she sat on the soft blue bench, running her fingers reverently over the silky fabric.

“A good place to have a conversation. Quiet, uninterrupted.” I sat right next to her, so that our shoulders were touching.

I could feel the gentle heat of her, and my wolf rumbled his approval in my chest.

“So why did you challenge those two?” she blurted abruptly, looking away, down toward her feet instead of anywhere near me.

“They said some very inappropriate and disrespectful things about you. I walked out of the locker room and almost ran into them. They’d stopped to gawk.”

She nodded, biting her bottom lip. “BD, I need to tell you something. I have an idea of what they might have said, and I just want you to know—” She took a fortifying breath, but not being able to see her eyes was driving me insane.

I tucked my fingertips under her chin, turning her to face me.

She faltered when our eyes met, biting that lip again. I used my thumb to gently pop it free. “You can tell me anything. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to be angry.”

“You might be, Gael.”

Alarm bells started going off in my head, both at her use of my actual name—suddenly, I wanted that damn awful nickname back—and the tears welling up in her eyes. Shit.

“I won’t, I promise you. There’s nothing that you could saythat would change how I feel. You’re mine.” I growled at the end. I couldn’t help it. My wolf was getting riled, knowing she was upset, but not why. He wanted to destroy anyone who’d ever caused her pain, but we couldn’t go off and fight an invisible enemy. She had to talk first.

“Why don’t you tell me what they said first?” she whispered, swiping at the corner of her eye where a tear had escaped.

I didn’t want to do it, but I’d promised. Time to man up. “They said some inappropriate sexual things. Do you want me to tell you verbatim?”

She shook her head slowly at that, brows furrowing.

Thank the Goddess.

“And then they brought up that there’s a rumor you’re already pregnant, and that… you’re a mutt.” I said the word reluctantly and with distaste. “Even if you weren’t pregnant with my baby, it was highly disrespectful, and I want you to know that we don’t tolerate that behavior against any female in our pack. They’re all under our protection, and that’s not how an honorable male behaves.”

She nodded slowly, but the tears were escaping faster now, and she wasn’t bothering to wipe them away.

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