Page 94 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

Atwo-hour run through the forest had left me ravenous, but feeling about a hundred pounds lighter. The problems weren’t gone, and I knew that, but somehow, everything felt a little less overwhelming after a heart-pounding, sweat-drenching workout. I kicked off my shoes inside the bedroom door and flicked on the shower before stepping out of the bathroom to ditch my drenched clothes in the hamper.

Nugget was purring from his favorite position on my pillow, so I stopped to give him an ear scratch when I noticed an envelope on my nightstand. I blinked at it for a second, then turned to the end of the bed where the first one still waited from this morning.

The second one, however, had a friend along. A shiny, black, unlimited credit card with my name emblazoned on it in tidy silver letters.

I sank onto the bed, picking up the card and note. That answered the question of who the notes were from, at least. Nobody but Gael was bringing me a credit card.

A very intimidating, limitless one that came along with the sort of affluence that was mind melting to me. I was a broke,pregnant woman who’d been raised by an alcoholic single mother.

I wasn’t sure what fairy ring I’d walked through to end up in a castle with this card clutched in my hot little hands, but… it felt wrong to take his money when we weren’t even really talking.

Granted, I hadn’t seen the fiancée again. Gael had explained about her, and I believed him that she wasn’t someone he loved or wanted a relationship with. But herexistencewas enough. He’d hidden everything from me. I set the card back on the nightstand with a shaky hand, then picked up the letter.

I gnawed on my bottom lip as I turned it over and over in my hands, the envelope heavy and thick, made of good-quality paper, just like the first one.

Was I ready to open it?

I shook my head as I stood, picking up the one from the foot of the bed. I walked across to my small desk and yanked open the top drawer where I’d stashed the contract outlining the details of his engagement. He’d given it to me, just like he promised. And I’d promptly shoved it away and locked that shit up tight.

It was all too much.

The longer I stood there, the more I could feel the Zen I’d achieved with my run slipping away. Nausea crept up the back of my throat, my earlier hunger vanishing too.

I carefully set the two letters on top of the contract, unopened, and slid the drawer closed.

“Hey, Leigh?”Brielle called through the door, knocking lightly. “Are you awake?”

I snorted. Goddess love my bestie, but she was not amorning person. The number of mornings she’d been awake before me was zero.

To be fair, I was curled up in my chair by my big window and billowy curtains, snuggling a kitten and listening to music instead of doing anything productive.

I was trying not to puke. Did that count as productive?

“Come in,” I called, not even having the energy to lift myself off the chair. Besides, Nuggie was purring. I couldn’t disturb a sleeping kitten. He was already starting to plump up and had a little roly-poly belly from all the food he’d eaten this morning.

Bri let herself in, smiling when she spotted me and Nugget.

“Well, hello there, little fella. Where did you find him?” she asked, leaning in and giving him a tiny one-finger pet on the head so as not to wake him.

“He found me in the hallway,” I said.

“He’s darling. So, you look comfy and may not want to come, but Lucien has requested a meeting with all of us this afternoon.” She paused, watching for my reaction. When I kept my face pointedly neutral, she continued. “They’re expecting a result from the council any day now on our investigation into the ODL. Well, no. They’re expecting a ‘too bad about your luck, they did nothing wrong,’ from the council. We want to have our rebuttal ready. And the guys want all of us in on it because we’re the ones most impacted.”

Her smile was gentle, the words soft-spoken, yet somehow, each one hit me like a bullet to the chest. They had no hope the council would do the right thing and deal with the ODL’s overstepping boundaries. Gael had asked me to wait, not to talk to Karissma about the curse, but here we were, waiting on a rejection. No change, no chance at safety for our daughter.

Tears prickled at my eyes, and I let them fall closed. Damn it. I didn’t want to cry, but it was hard not to when I felt like my sweet baby had every odd stacked against her, and she wasn’t even born yet. And the worst part was, I couldn’t do anything tochange that. I was completely powerless. I was bringing her into this cruel world to die, and it was about the worst possible thing I could imagine.

If they took her, it wouldn’t just kill her. It would killme.

A sob broke free from my chest, and Brielle was there in an instant, wrapping me up in a hug. Nugget stirred on my chest, but he seemed to like Bri and didn’t run off. He just started purring in the middle of the hug sandwich.

“I know, Leigh, I know. Just let it all out.” She smoothed a hand over my hair and held me until I’d cried all the tears I had.

By the time the tears stopped, my eyes felt like they were full of gravel and my chest felt completely hollow. Someone had carved all the feeling out of me, leaving behind an empty shell of a person.

I was a walking jack-o’-lantern.

But crying it all out had left one thing behind.

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