Page 72 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

I itched to take the keys to my new Jeep and get out of there, but they were in my room upstairs. And if I didn’t eat at the Lodge, my stomach was going to growl all night.

So, dinner in the dining room was a necessary evil.

We all went inside together. Halfway to the room, there was a tingle at the top of my spine that made me stop.

Immediately.

Panic coursed through me.

Heat.

It was coming.

How had I forgotten that?

I usually only had about a day until it started, after I felt that tingle. Assuming I did notice it. I’d start getting warm in twelve hours or so, and that would get progressively worse until heat hit.

“Do you have your phone?” I asked Fletcher, when he and Syd shot me curious looks.

“Sure.” He pulled it out and tried to hand it to me, but I just looked at the time.

5:45.

That sucked. I’d need to leave in the morning, to… wherever I was going to go.

WherewasI going to go?

“Are you okay?” Syd checked.

I would’ve told her what was going on, but I knew Fletcher would tell Hunter. Or Clay. Or both of them.

I swear, my life should’ve been one of those novels where the chick was screwing both brothers and didn’t have to choose. But it wasn’t. And I didn’t actually want it to be, because Hunter was a bastard, and I couldn’t handle one man. Let alone two.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said.

Fletcher’s nostrils flared.

He hadn’t learned how to sniff out a lie too, had he? I sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to ask.

I fell back into step with them, and tried to act normal as I grabbed my food and sat down at a table with them and a bunch of other guys. A few of them asked me how I was doing before Syd changed the topic, and I tried to sell that I was alright.

But I wasn’t.

Because what the hell was I going to do about heat?

I had moved all my stuff out of the apartment I used to go to in Greenview.

Calling Silas up sounded awful.

But turning to Clay seemed like a terrible idea, given my current uncertainty.

So…

I was in trouble.

“You’re being weird,” Sydney whispered, when all of the guys were distracted by a loud argument about football. “What’s going on?”

I waited until everyone’s attention was focused before I murmured, “I’m going into heat tomorrow night.”

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