Page 29 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

There were a bunch of houseplants growing around the room, courtesy of Sydney, along with some calming decorations Aspen had picked out, and a couple of different couches and accent chairs.

I didn’t blame them for wanting to move to different seats every hour or two.

It would be nice to work in a studio as pretty as their throne room. Especially with the plants. But, none of the tattoo studios in town were spacious enough for that. I’d suggested it to Silas, but he thought it was a waste of space.

It had been one of thoseagree to disagreemoments.

Anyway, that wasn’t important.

Enzo was in the middle of saying something when he cut himself off suddenly.

I heard him inhale deeply, and the Alpha’s gaze jerked to me. His eyes were narrowed, and he lookedpissed.

I lifted my hands in surrender before the gigantic dude tried to kill me for betrayal or something. “It wasn’t planned. Heat came on fast. Hunter knows, and no one’s dead yet.”

The suspicion in Enzo’s eyes didn’t fade.

Aspen elbowed him in the gut. “Easy. What are we talking about?”

“She smells like Clay.”

Her eyes widened.

“Don’t get between my brothers.” Enzo rose to his feet, and I took a quick step backward, looking down as his dominance swelled in the room.

Aspen stood too, grabbing his arm and towing him out of the room. “If Nova wanted to cause drama, she would’ve done it when Hunter claimed her and rejected her in the same breath last year. Cool off before you come back.”

She basically pushed him out the door—and he let her.

“Oh, sorry!” Sydney must’ve been on her way in, because her apology was almost immediate. I assumed Enzo had nearly barreled into her, considering he was pissed off and she sounded like she was right outside the door.

“My fault. Sorry.” Enzo’s apology was choppy, but it was an apology. He was still getting used to having women around, and he kind of sucked at it. Aspen thought it was funny, and the rest of us usually did too.

Syd sniffed the air as she entered the room, her forehead creasing when she caught my scent. Aspen closed the door behind her, and locked it too.

“Why do you smell like Clay?” Syd checked.

I plopped down on one of Aspen’s many thrones.

AKA couches.

The green one was my favorite, but it was all the way across the room, so I settled for the dark gray as I launched into an explanation of the sweating I hadn’t noticed, Clay showing up in the parking lot, and heat.

I kept the heat part vague, considering Aspen was mated to Clay’s brother.

My best friends interrupted with questions, and I answered all of them.

An explanation about my meeting with Hunter, and the mate decision, followed the heat talk.

Sydney was leaning back against the navy couch, her eyebrows high in her forehead as she sat in silence.

Aspen was on her feet, pacing slowly. “So you screwed Clay, and it was amazing. And now you’re going to start going on dates so you don’t have to mate with Hunter. And you can’t go out with Clay because it could destroy the Savages’ relationship.”

“And because of Clay’s wolf,” Syd reminded her.

“Right. And that.”

“He’s not interested in me, so that doesn’t matter. He basically admitted that he was calling me Gorgeous because he thought it was funny.”

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