Page 6 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

“See ya.” I closed my car’s door and pulled out of the parking lot. My security entourage followed me.

When I looked back just before I turned away from the Lodge, Clay was still standing where I’d left him, his expression more concerned than it had been before.

My stalker’s gift was just an empty threat, though.

I would be fine.

two

NOVA

I spentmost of my day working on a back piece for one of the wolves from Crimson Pack. Most of my clients were from the Savages’ pack, at that point. Anyone who wanted me to ink them had to go through the security team Hunter had assigned me, and they were insanely careful.

Also, insanely boring.

None of them could take a joke. Or crack a smile.

I’d given up on trying to befriend them within a few weeks of the assignment, and none of them had ever been swapped out. According to Clay, they were the best of the best.

Except Aspen’s brother, Fletcher. He was in charge of the crew that kept the rogue wolf population under control, and took out any of the beasts that went rabid. Enzo had grudgingly admitted that his mate’s brother was just as good at it as the Alpha himself had been, before he basically retired.

Now, he and Aspen spent almost all of their time changing mated human women into werewolves. When they weren’t doing that, they were recovering from it.

They only ever took a few days off every month to visit Greenview when she went through heat, and no one dared ask them not to.

No one else could do what Aspen could. It had nearly killed me when I tried, and I was literally the only other option. As far as we knew, at least. There could always be another born female werewolf or two hiding out somewhere in the city.

Since Enzo was always with Aspen to protect her, and all of the turned female wolves except Sydney were mated (and couldn’t change human women), none of them were at risk. Syd and I were the only unmated wolf chicks, but she worked in the gardens at the Lodge, so she didn’t need protection.

Being Fletcher’s girlfriend scared people into staying away from her, too. After his twin mated with Enzo, he became a Savage brother in all but blood.

About halfway through the day,I started feeling a little warm and turned the air conditioning in the studio on. It was November, but Crimson River only ever got a little snow. It wasn’t too cold, so we didn’t have the heat running. Werewolves usually ran warm.

As far as the AC went, Silas, my old Alpha and the guy who owned the place, basically let me do whatever I wanted. We were good friends, or had been good friends before everything with Hunter. Now, we were… friendly.

Friendly-ish, at least.

We rarely saw each other, honestly.

Considering we had spent heat together more times than I wanted to admit, keeping our distance was the best way to keep Hunter from wanting to kill him. I didn’t think Hunter even realized I’d been with Silas that way, though.

It was a few hours after I turned the AC on when a bead of sweat ran down my spine.

That was weird.

I was finishing up the tattoo I was working on when I suddenly realized what was happening.

I was sweating.

That was bad.

Very bad.

There was only one time a month where I ever got sweaty.

“Hey, Charlie?” I called out to the guy who ran my security team. He was about as exciting as drying paint, but he was steady, and I trusted him. He sat with one other guy, Joseph, on chairs in the larger room I’d taken over after my identity came out.

“Yeah?” Charlie asked.

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