Page 22 of The Wolf King's Mate

“You know she’s not exactly happy about this situation, right?”he finally asked.“The abduction thing. The taking her phone thing. The leaving her without clothes thing. I don’t think she’s going to play along very well. You may need to prepare yourself for the possibility that she could turn you down at the mating ceremony.”

My wolf snarled so loudly that he scared off a flock of birds as we ran past them.

“She’s a female wolf. She needs someone who can protect her. I’ll convince her to say yes,”I gritted out.

My wolf wanted to howl, but he was running too hard to get back to her.

“Just try to accept that it might take some time. Maybe give it a few months.”

“No.”

He sighed.“Alright, fine. While I have you, I’ve got a few males who took human mates bugging me. Apparently their pack is imploding, and they know we have space. I turned them down because of the no female rule, but…”

“The no female rule stays in place until I’m mated and I’ve tested how well I can handle the added pressure of having a woman around. Tell them to deal with their own shit until then.”

“Got it. See you soon.”

I cut off the communication and thought pointedly,“If you want her to mate with us, you’re going to have to control yourself around her. Scarring her skin and pissing her off aren’t goingto make her say yes. I’m not forcing her into a mate bond. I’ve got to draw a line somewhere.”

We couldn’t communicate back and forth, but he could hear my thoughts and words.

He scoffed.

I had no idea whether he was trying to tell me I was ridiculous, that he already knew, or something else entirely. There was no point in wondering.

He was going to do whatever he decided to do, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to change it.

Hopefully he didn’t fuck things up so badly with the female that we lost all hope entirely, because I really didn’t think he was going to let her go.

five

ASPEN

My wolf was itchingto get out and walk around, but for whatever reason, she was refusing to shift while we were alone in the Alpha’s room.

Hopefully she’d finally decided to be afraid of him. She needed to.

Since she wouldn’t shift, but wouldn’t calm herself down either, I ended up pacing the room.

There was no clock on the oven, and the one on the microwave was stuck at 12:03. I had no idea how much time had gone by. The sun had set completely, but it had already been setting when I made it back to the room.

So, I paced.

Eventually, the door opened.

I spun immediately, and came face-to-face with the Alpha King.

Enzo.

I forced myself to stay calm.

My wolf got up and stretched, her tail wagging slowly.

That was a bad sign. A very bad sign.

Enzo’s honey-eyed gaze lowered to my chest, and back up. “We’re going to the pack’s dinner. Clay says we need to.”

“I’ve been told.”

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