Page 16 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

She was precious. To me, to my wolf.

Was this how everyone felt when they found their mate? I couldn’t believe it. Because I saw Kane and Dirge, walking around getting pack business done like everything was business as usual. And I couldn’t imagine any part of me getting up from this bed and going about business as usual. The earth’s axis had shifted, and she was at the center now.

From the second our eyes had locked, I was done. She was it for me.

And I had never believed in love at first sight, not really. I was over three hundred years old; I’d seen a hell of a lot of folks and never felt more than passing interest in anyone at first sight. But it wasmorethan that, somehow, with Fiona. An instant, soul-deepknowing. Was that love? Or was it something else?

Maybe it didn’t matter.

Now I just had to not scare her off.

A week was something; a beginning. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of dangerous pack times, and I couldn’t fly her to my restaurant in Paris or wow her with the view from my rooftop restaurant in Seattle. All I had was myself, and I wasn’t sure that was enough to convince her.

Though it was a good sign that she hadn’t run screaming when she found out that shifters were real. I was kind of shocked by how well she’d taken it all. Although…

I picked up my phone and texted Dirge.

Reed: Can you ask one of the maidens to come in here? I have questions. Quietly, though. Fiona’s asleep.

Dirge: Shouldn’t you be asleep? You were up all night.

Reed: I’ve operated on two hours before. I’m fine.

Dirge: Whatever you say, brother.

Reed: Thanks.

It wasn’t five minutes later that a soft knock came at the door.

“Come in,” I called quietly, knowing she’d hear.

Elodie silently stepped inside, shutting the door carefully before crossing the room and leaning her hip against my desk.

“What’s up? D said you have questions?”

It amused me that she already called my prickly, aloof twin D. Most people skirted him with terror, and Elodie looked like she weighed maybe a hundred twenty pounds soaking wet. Clearly, she wasn’t easily scared.

“Any word on the barrier yet?” I asked in the same hushed whisper.

She responded in equally quiet tones. “No, nothing. Though it’ll probably be tomorrow or the next day. There’s a whole ritual, and it has to happen at night.”

“Ah, okay. Does the enclave have a library we could access? Particularly one with magical history?”

“Oh yeah, a big one. We’d have to ask the priestesses to approve the access part, but I’m sure they would, given your pack has clearly been Goddess touched with all the omega-marked females you have.”

I nodded, those words weighing heavily on my mind. There was absolutely something different happening to our pack. And I felt wholly unprepared to take such a front-row seat to all of it.

More than that, I was going to father an omega daughter. With a human—or perhaps not—mother. It was a lot to digest so quickly. But I didn’t have any time to waste, and if they had a library, we might figure out more about Fiona’s history.

“I want to dig into what other species are blue that might account for the family lore she has. Barring that, what species would be so hard to identify this quickly? A one-eighth shifter would still have a wolf, and we’d be able to identify her by scent. So what’s in her background that has still given her powers but that a wolf nose can’t identify?”

Elodie nodded slowly, considering. “It is a mystery. But there’s a lot out there. It could be anything besides shifters, vampires, and fae, I’d guess. Fae, your girl Shay would be able to identify, by touch if nothing else. Vamps we can smell a mile off, and they don’t have the weird vision stuff she seems to have. I don’t personally know a lot about pixies, but she didn’t mention any of her relatives being super short or having other physical differences.”

“Yeah, I’d think if her grandmother was half pixie, there would have been physical signs. Whatever she is, it’s almost as if it hasnoeffect on her human form. I don’t know of any magical species that operates that way when mixed with a nonmagical bloodline. That’s probably our biggest clue.”

“So, something incorporeal, then? Unless, I mean, could her family be gypsy? The Romanies of the past were thought to have real spirit connections that helped them tell fortunes. It’s not all parlor tricks, though that’s what humans are inclined to believe.”

I shrugged. “We’ll have to wait to ask her when she wakes up. Speaking of, she mentioned having stuff in a hotel room. Is anyone available to go pick it up?”

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