Page 17 of Wanted By the Wolves

Chapter 10

Briggs

My newly healed leg aches. I rub along my thigh where the muscle is spasming.

“Stubborn goat. Drink this.” Gage pushes a steaming mug into my hand. The brew is dark and smells strong.

I eye it suspiciously. “I’m good.”

Gage rolls his eyes. “Drink the tea. That’s what you get for not trusting what I told you and forcing a run on a barely healed break.”

He did warn me. When I woke up this morning, my wolf was frantic. Before I’d barely talked to my brother or Gage, I took to the forest. My instincts demanded I do an initial sweep of the perimeter.

It took several hours to scout Gage’s warded territory, but my wolf finally settled once he could smell and see the wards holding. At the boundary line where we entered, ferals have gathered. As long as the wards hold, it won’t be an issue.

It was still freaky as fuck watching those yellow eyes follow my every move, but they’ll get bored once her scent fades. Either way, I’ll feel safer once we lay some traps.

Dex raises a soapy hand out of the sink and points at me. “Drink.” The surprising softness he used for the omega is gone, and his usual gruffness seeps into his tone.

“What he said.” Gage tips his head toward Dex as he puts a jar of herbs back into a cabinet. “Or you can be an insufferable martyr and live in pain.”

Leaning back against the kitchen island, I sigh. The first sip tastes like battery acid, chicory, and licorice. I grimace through it, gulping the searing liquid to get it over with.

Gage gives me a satisfied lift of his brow and a quirk of his lips. I wouldn’t put it past him to make it taste worse on purpose. Even though we haven’t talked much yet, he clearly isn’t a fan of our arrival.

Tough shit.

It isn’t safe for us to leave. Not with the ferals out there. I won’t risk her, and I’m in no shape to get us out.

It sucks to admit, but I need more recovery time. Dex and I have gotten into a few tough spots over the years, but this attack was different. There were so many bites that I’m covered in scars now. Not to mention this damn leg.

Shifters have enhanced healing, but feral bites are venomous. Something about them seems to attack our magic and make healing from them difficult. That's why most hunters don’t take them head-on unless they’re one-on-one. I broke my own rule.

Never become prey.

The tea works quickly. Already, some of the pain is ebbing. I’m not used to being patient or needing a healer. The fact that I’m four days out from a fight and still feeling like shit is unheard of. I only woke up a few hours before the omega, and I already need to sit my ass down.

The urge to return to Gage’s room and lie beside the small black wolf is nearly overpowering. Although that may have something to do with her scent.

I knew she smelled good, but I thought it was her heat. The remnants of it linger in the air, and the signature fuck-me scent of slick is enough to make my cock half hard. Underneath that, though, her tart apple and spicy cinnamon call to my wolf.

It’s deeper than the need to rut. It’s as if she’s set a hook into my chest. It must be the fact that she’s an omega. I’ve never spent much time with one, but I can certainly vouch for Mako’s old stories now. My wolf wants to protect her and keep her safe just as strongly as I want to take the pretty wolf to bed. It’s instinct to want to mate her, but damn if I didn’t underestimate how intense the driving need would be even after her heat.

My brother sets the last breakfast dish in the drainer and turns to both of us. “Snow is coming. We need to prepare.” He points at me. “And your ass needs to get back in bed.”

If I’m affected by the omega, it’s nothing compared to Dex. My littermate is loyal to a fault. Steady. An excellent hunter. Good-hearted. When I lost my shit this morning, he let me do what I needed.

Was he a dick about it?No. He just set a pile of clothes at the front door.

Before today, he’s never cared to take the lead, always content to follow my ass into whatever shit I’ve got cooked up. He also barely speaks, even to me. Not after the fire. But in the last two hours, I’ve heard him use a week’s worth of words.

The change in Dex might be welcome if I wasn’t so worried he’d get his heart broken by the sweet-smelling wolf. She isn’t ours, no matter what our wolves’ instincts are shouting about her being our mate. Maybe she could be, but the fierce thing won’t even take her human skin right now. That tells me she’s terrified.

“Does someone wanna clue me in on the last few days first? Maybe tell me what the fuck has been happening around here?” My words come out sounding terser than I mean for them to. Everything here since I woke up has felt off kilter, making me irritable. As does the throbbing in my leg.

Gage scoffs. “You’re the one who crashed this house party.”

Dex looks between us, shaking his head like an elder scolding errant pups. “To the living room.”

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