Page 115 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

Mine was the smallest. And the slowest. And the weakest. But the ladies didn’t care, and their wolves didn’t pick on mine. If anything, they just snuggled her more and loved on her more. Even though it scared her.

That was how everyone I’d ever run with treated me, though. It had surprised me at first, but my wolf was always loved.

I wanted to reach out to Clay, but I didn’t.

I needed more time to work through what I was going to do about him.

Sydney drove us into town,and we spent the rest of the afternoon furniture shopping for Oli’s new place. We used the credit Hunter had given me that Clay hadn’t let me touch, and ended up ordering mostly things that wouldn’t get there for a couple of days.

That meant she would be crashing with me, but I didn’t mind.

I’d gotten used to sleeping with Clay, so it would’ve felt lonely to stay in my house on my own anyway.

It was late when we got back to my place after dropping Sydney off at the Lodge.

Both of us were exhausted, and the quiet had set in on the way home.

I showed Olive to the spare room, though we both knew she had already seen it, and wished her goodnight. She caught my hand when I started to leave, and carefully turned me back around.

When she hugged me suddenly, it caught me by surprise.

Her grip was fierce, and I felt her tears wet my shoulder a moment later.

“Thank you so much, Nova.”

“We’re sisters, Oli. You don’t need to thank me.” I finally hugged her back.

“I treated you like shit when we were kids. I don’t deserve this, but it means everything to me. I thought I was getting what was coming for me when I learned about the cancer and realized I was going to die alone. You saved my life. You savedme. And I don’t deserve it, but?—”

“We were kids. Dad is the one who pinned us against each other,” I said gently. “Don’t blame yourself for that.” I squeezed her before letting go and stepping back.

She wiped the tears beneath her eyes. “I know. I’m sorry. I wish we had been a team, instead of enemies.”

“Now we can be.” I managed a small smile. “Get some sleep. You must be tired from lugging my ass around to all of those stores.”

She smiled, and it reached her eyes in a way that made me feel like a million bucks. “Good thing it’s such a tiny ass.”

I cackled, swatting a hand at her with a grin before I strode down the hallway.

“You really are Galinda, bitch,” I called back over my shoulder.

Her laughter followed me into my room. When I heard her door shut a minute later, I leaned against the wood of my door and closed my eyes.

At least one thing in my life had been figured out.

Sprawledout on my mattress in nothing but one of Clay’s t-shirts, I stared up at the ceiling.

Sleep wasn’t coming.

My room smelled too much like Clay. We’d screwed in that bed a dozen times in the past few weeks, and I could remember it well.

Even when I was unconscious, he had been there.

Sleeping without him was going to be difficult, to say the least.

I picked up my phone off the nightstand and stared at the blank screen. I’d plugged it in when I got back from the Lodge’s hospital, but I hadn’t bothered turning it on.

I was afraid Clay had texted me.

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