Page 113 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

I loved her.

I fucking did.

If the situation was even the tiniest bit different, I would’ve been holding her in that bed, vowing to never let her go.

But it wasn’t.

So I forced myself to walk away.

twenty-one

NOVA

When I finally woke up,the empty chair in front of my bed was the first thing I noticed.

I blinked at it, disoriented.

It had never been empty before.

“He’s gone?” I croaked.

“Yeah,” Sydney said softly, crossing the room to sit down on the edge of my bed. She smoothed a hand over the top of my hair, and I squeezed my eyes shut again.

They stung a little.

I was blaming it on my recovery.

“If it’s any comfort, he looked like he would’ve rather torn his own arm off than leave,” Olive offered, and I looked at her.

I’d seen her the last few times I woke up, but that didn’t make me feel any less relieved when I took in her healed, changed body.

She was healthy, now.

Strong.

Alive.

Thank fuck Clay reached out to her for me when he did, or our story could’ve gone very differently.

“I still can’t believe your tits are bigger than mine,” I mumbled.

She snorted. “Don’t want to talk about your fiancé?”

“I don’t think he’s my anything anymore. I don’t even think he’s planning on coming back from Stray.”

“He won’t let someone else take over his job as Beta. Will he?” Syd asked.

“I think his brothers would kill anyone who tried,” I said.

“Only a moron would go up against those massive fuckers,” Olive remarked.

She wasn’t wrong.

I let out a slow breath and started to sit up. My arm bumped something, and I opened my eyes again.

“Hunter brought that for Clay,” Sydney said. “Apparently it’s from the archive. Whatever that is. He said it’s the old pack’s information about mating, and could prove that Clay’s wolf couldn’t hurt you if you sealed a bond. Clay said he wouldn’t risk your life based on a book.”

“Of course he did.” I lowered my head back to the hard hospital bed. “So noble.” The bitterness in my voice couldn’t have been missed.

---