Page 71 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

Or did he? I wondered as I jogged back toward the castle. He had a top five, like everybody else. The likelihood of him working completely alone was slim. I’d mention it to Kane, see if we could bring them in for the tribunal. If I recognized their scents, it would be case closed.

I’d fill him in, then get my woman and take her back to my room. After a long night, all I wanted was to wrap her up in my arms and never let her go.

It was the only place I knew she’d be safe, and my wolf was a possessive bastard. All this going on while she was newly pregnant was starting to feel like too much. I was on edge, myprotective instincts firing around the clock. The only thing that would settle me was her, safe and tucked away where no one could get to her without going through me.

The images of her bloody abdomen were burned into my brain, the bitter taste of failure and stale enemy blood heavy on my tongue.

I’d failed to protect her once.

I would never fail her again.

THIRTY-SIX

Leigh

Iwasn’t sure when my surroundings changed, only that when I woke up, it was with the gentle rocking of being carried, Gael’s familiar, enticing scent deep in my lungs. My cheek was against his chest, his steel-banded arms under my shoulders and knees, cradling me like I was the most precious woman in the world.

With him, I was finally starting to believe it. It must have been hours later, because I felt like I’d slept for a month, and by the time I heard the softsnickof my bedroom door closing behind us, I was wide awake.

“I know you’re playing possum,” he murmured against my hair as he settled into the plush armchair next to my bedroom window.

“Damn, and here I thought I had you fooled,” I said with a grin, peeking up at him.

He smiled, the little creases at the corner of his eyes not able to wipe out the exhaustion written on his features.

I tried to sit up, but he didn’t let me go. “Let me hold you for a while, please?”

The words made me pause. Gael and I had butted headsplenty over the months we’d known each other, but since when did he ask nicely for what he wanted? Exactly never. He demanded, he growled, he tried to manhandle on occasion.

But saying please? That I would have remembered.

I studied him again, more closely this time.

It was more than just tired. It was a heaviness that I understood on a cellular level, the weight of the world piling up and feeling like more than one person could bear. So I settled back in, tucking my face into his neck. His chest was bare underneath me, and the proximity to all that sculpted muscle was giving me wicked ideas about how I could wake him up later. But for now, he needed to rest, and I needed to comfort him.

My wolf sighed happily in my chest, every bit the contented female to wallow in her mate’s scent and offer him the comfort of pack…of family.

I wasn’t ready to think about that yet. Family was complicated, messy. Family could hurt you in ways no one else could. I pushed the tainted thoughts away with effort, focusing on him instead of my own ugly past.

A tuneless lullaby came to me, so I hummed it as I drew little circles on his chest with my fingertips until his breathing evened out in sleep, the occasional rumble of his chest sending little waves of happiness through me. Even as he succumbed to exhaustion, his hands never slipped from where he held me, as if he was guarding me even in slumber.

It made me feel cherished,loved. It was too soon, too much, too… everything. But it was true, nonetheless.

After a while, rustling noises reached me. I cautiously turned my head, only to spot Nugget shaking himself from the spot where he’d been conked out on my pillow. As soon as he spotted me, he meowed his tiny kitten meow and tumble walked across the bed until he reached the edge and leapt down. He was climbing the armchair with his claws in no time, walking across my legs to curl up on my chest and purr.

I stroked his head as I watched the sunrise, considering the state of my life.

So much had changed. Petal’s appearance, of course. The mark on my palm. Gael’s insistence that we were mates. Which, the longer I sat with it, the more peace I felt about it. It made sense, in a way nothing else had before. I’d dated; I’d had serious relationships. But not with anyone who drew me so relentlessly as him. And if I let myself block out all the noise, all our differences, I could feel it behind my breastbone, that inexorable pull, like we were tethered at the soul level.

If I was a compass, he was true north. I was always going to be turned in his direction. So, why was I fighting a relationship?

Sure, I had baggage. Who didn’t? But maybe it was time to stop holding him at arm’s length. We had so much against us, I didn’t want us to be at odds with each other anymore. And he’d accepted me, wholly, completely, and without question.

No one besides my besties had ever done that before. He didn’t even care that I was a mutt—no, I corrected myself with a grimace as I remembered his reaction the last time I’d used that word. He didn’t even care that I was half-human.

And certainly, no one had ever cared enough to protect me frommyself, let alone everyone else. He was different.

Maybe, just maybe, he was the exact kind of different that I needed.

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