Page 29 of Wanted By the Wolves

For a moment, I almost cave. His scent spikes with a floral spice that erodes all my brain cells. His breath on my neck makes me shiver. It would be so easy to let him pull me with him, to join her nest and see how good we could be as a pack.

It would be explosive.

That little reminder brings reality crashing back down.

“It’s my bed,” I growl, pushing him away. “But since y’all commandeered it, I’ll keep sleeping in another room.Alone.”I duck under his arm and out of the pantry in another hasty retreat.

“What was it you said about me being stubborn?” Briggs calls.

I haul ass to my new room, ignoring the fact that the three of them are everywhere I look.The urge to slam the door is strong, but instead I lean against it and light the joint from my pocket.

Here’s to hoping the scent will drown them out.

I stare at the bare white bedroom. It feels as if I’m looking at ghosts. There’s only a bed and empty furniture, but the memory of the former alpha who lived here lies atop the hollowness. Ican almost smell the stench and see the mess. Darell’s feet were worse than running across a skunk, and the security guard left his socks everywhere.

He turned on a full moon and attacked the omega he’d been guarding for months.

After a few drags, I abandon staring at the storm outside the window and strip for bed. It isn’t that late, but the storm makes me restless. I try to get comfortable, but it’s impossible.

The deep sounds of Briggs and Dex talking and the little wolf’s barks and yips filter in from the hallway. It’s stupid how I listen for every word when I could just be out there. I wrap a pillow around my head to block it out, hating how it feels as if my only company is ghosts.

I’m lonely.Soul-tired, feel-it-in-my-bones lonely.

But what the fuck is the alternative? No matter how much I wish things were different, they aren’t. How am I supposed to let myself fall for her knowing she can only ever be mine temporarily? Or let myself get close to these men, devote myself to our omega and form a pack, knowing it will all be ripped apart?

I lie there in the dark, feeling sorry for myself and the world until the three of them go to bed. My eyes close, but my mind races. It’s been like this since they arrived. The nights are long when they’re spent half wishing for and half dreading the dawn.

The storm doesn’t help. I feel as though I can hear magic in the wind. It’s angry, rattling the bones of the cabin.

My door creaks open, and I lift the pillow. In the doorway stands the omega. She’s naked except for a sheet wrapped around her, and every bit of her is a woman, not a wolf. The light from the hallway leaks in, making her silhouette glow with hazy light.

She’s so fucking beautiful.

I swallow around the lump in my throat.

Chapter 17

Nova

“What are you doing here?” Gage asks.

He’s lying in bed, shrouded by shadows and an air of mystery. With his inky hair and tattooed runes, he looks as if he’s made of darkness.

It’s fitting.

Gage’s pain clings to him like an ill-fitted jacket. A storm rages inside him, as angry and loud as the storm outside. It’s what made my wolf give back my skin. The need to find him pushed me from the comfort of the two alphas in my cozy nest and led me straight to his door.

Because the storm that lives inside Gage? It lives in me too.

“Why are you so sad?” The question spills from my lips before I can filter my words. Maybe I should be embarrassed by how much my wolf has been clinging to Gage or how desperate I look showing up at his door, but I can’t muster it. I’m driven by the pounding desire to know him.

“Why areyou?” he mockingly thrusts the question back at me, daring me to answer.

I take the bait, the truth blurting out in a rush. “Because I’m trying my best to be strong, but it feels like it’s never enough.”

He sucks in a breath, seeming surprised by my honesty.

I’m right there with him. Why did I give him something real when he lives behind a sardonic mask?

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