Page 41 of The Wolf King's Mate

“You’re so afraid to piss him off that you won’t help me, but youlikehim?” I groaned, as Hunter carried me down the next flight of stairs.

The alpha grinned, walking with us. “The dynamics are weird here, but you’ll figure it out.”

“Does it have something to do with the groupies you have imprisoned in the building down the stone path?”

The alpha barked out a laugh. “There are no groupies within fifty miles of the Lodge. Or women at all, until yesterday. The bottom floor of that building is our gym. The other floors have more male wolves living on them. We outgrew the Lodge.”

I bit back another cry of pain as we turned a corner and my foot brushed the wall.

Hunter grunted an apology. “Doctor’s headed up now. Just a few minutes.”

“Why aren’t there women here?” I gritted out.

“Alpha doesn’t want the distraction, and he’s already in pain because of the pack’s link. We have to hit the bars in town when we need to find a woman.” The alpha wolf tapped his temple.

Five hundred wolveswasa crazy amount, and he had more than that. It made sense that there would be some side effects. I hadn’t seen Enzo struggle with the pack yet, but it wasn’t like I’d spent much time with him.

“Anyway, I’ll deal with Etch for you. You want him here, right?” Fletcher’s friend asked.

“Of course. I don’t think there’s anywhere else for him to go, anyway, but he won’t come here until he reaches that conclusionhimself.” I took a sharp breath in as my leg bobbed, courtesy of Hunter turning roughly to step through a doorway.

“No worries. Give me a few days, and I’ll make it happen.”

I nodded, pain taking the words out of my mouth.

Fletcher’s friend disappeared. I hadn’t learned his name, but that was fine.

“Don’t spend much time with Jake. Enzo respects him, but he can’t be here much. He won’t handle it well if you’re developing feelings for one of his alphas while he’s gone,” Hunter grunted.

“He’s the first person to talk to me all day. Everyone else is acting like I don’t exist.”

“No one wants to be the next to test Enzo’s limit with you. If he doesn’t hurt Jake, everyone will calm down about it.”

I sighed. “I didn’t grab my phone. Or my iPad.”

Hunter pulled them out of the big pockets on his cargo pants, and I accepted them gratefully. Both screens were cracked below the screen protectors, but I didn’t have the money to replace them, so I’d make do.

The door opened, and a man stepped through. I didn’t recognize him, but he was clearly an alpha too. He wasn’t wearing a lab coat, but I assumed he was the doctor when Hunter stepped over to him and gave a quick rundown of what had happened.

The doctor lifted his hand to his chin and studied me. “I can’t touch her without the Alpha’s permission, of course.”

“One of the rogues in the north went rabid, and he’s out hunting him. Do you want to be the one who distracts him right now?”

“Of course not.”

“Do you want to be the one who didn’t help his mate after she broke her ankle, then?”

He scowled at Hunter. “Of course not.”

“Then fix her.” He gestured toward me.

“You’ll need to stay to attest that I didn’t mishandle her. And I’ll have to wipe my scent off her with alcohol afterward.”

Jake had to be wrong about the pack liking Enzo, because the doctor was clearly terrified of making him think he had intruded on his territory or whatever.

Hunter plopped down in a chair off to the side of the flat bed he’d placed me on and pulled his phone out of another pocket.

“You’re the Gamma, right?” I asked Hunter.

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