Page 14 of The Awakened Wolf

Kiana’s gaze softened. There was no way to fake or shake the fate bond. Deep down, she must’ve found it hilarious that I’d fallen into a fate bond by accident, like one of those traps in the forest floor that prey never saw coming until they were ten feet down with only one way out. But for the moment, she was doing a shockingly good job looking mildly empathetic.

“One week,” she said. “I’ll give you one week to see if you’re with pup.”

Are we?! My wolf’s ears perked up, and I swear I could feel her craning around to sniff at her belly. A little Sebastian to keep forever?!?!

You’ll be the first to know, I reminded her. She would go to sleep at the end of the week if a little Sebastian somehow did take root inside me, and she would stay that way until my cycle returned after our pup was in my arms. I could see the appeal in her animal mind, but the real me wasn’t looking for a consolation prize that came with quite so many responsibilities. And I really didn’t want Sebastian to get wind and come for someone else, not for me.

My sister seemed not to notice that I’d stopped paying attention because she kept going. Then again, I wasn’t really a part of the conversation she was having with herself, so maybe that was best.

“… and it’s not like I want drama if Sebastian does come back in two weeks, and we’ve mated you off. No, that wouldn’t be worth it. Still, we can’t have you running around smelling like that without a ceremony…”

“It’s fine, Kiana.” Part of me wanted to fight over the derogatory remarks about my smell, but there was no chance she’d stop, so I let it go. Besides, it was true. I was mated. Without a ceremony. And others could smell the guilt all over me, even if I didn’t feel guilty. “I get it. If Sebastian doesn’t come back by the end of the week—” The howls of my wolf at this were all kinds of maddening. “—then I’ll mate with another male who would take on the pup.” I swallowed hard. “Has Blaze turned up?”

Kiana frowned. “No, from the news footage we were able to determine that he was captured by the human authorities during the chaos.”

“What?” I jumped back to my feet. “How? What are we doing to get him back?”

“They hit him with a sedative dart and took him in his wolf form. That’s all we know right now. And what we’re doing about it is Alpha business. Nothing to worry your messy little head about.”

I shied away as she reached to actually pat my head. My wolf growled, rippling my lips, but I shoved her back down. No matter how annoyed I was with my overbearing sibling, I was more concerned for Blaze. He was in the hands of humans who would see him as a vicious killing machine, instead of the gentle giant he was.

“Does Jesmyn know? How is she? Did her wound ever start healing?”

“Jesmyn is aware, yes, and comfortable at home, but no, the wound remains the same, even after being cleaned.” Her face tightened, letting me know she was more shaken than she felt like she could show. “None of the bites from those wolves are behaving normally.”

“They weren’t normal wolves.” I shuddered. “Or, they were, but also somehow more? Not shifters though. He called them Gary and Frecky. Did you catch that?”

“Only you would catch the asinine names of the mystery villain’s pets.” Kiana rolled her eyes, but with something almost like affection. “But that’s good to know.”

An inordinate amount of pride puffed out my chest upon receiving this single, simple, slightly backhanded affirmation from my sister. “Can I help with Blaze’s pups?” I asked. “I’d like to make myself useful.”

I knew by the way Kiana wrinkled her nose, the perfect mirror of my own, that the answer was no before she opened her mouth. “You’ll stay in your room until the week is up and you’re secure with Sebastian or another suitable suitor. Then maybe your reputation will stand a chance of surviving this.”

“Fine,” I sulked. “But whatever punishment you dole out, I’m not going to feel ashamed about what I did with Sebastian, so you might as well get over that now.”

“Leto, grant me patience,” Kiana muttered. “As usual, you’re focused on what you’d like the world to be and not what it is. I’m not punishing you, dummy. I’m protecting you from being claimed by anyone else.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about many years of training with all the eligible young males in our pack and seeing them for who they really were, how they treated and thought of females. Trust me, I never wanted any of them touching you. That’s why I picked Blaze in the first place. Now you’re sullied and possibly with pup so I can’t deny anyone willing to claim you in that condition.”

The sincerity in her voice tripped me up—again—and my mind whirled as I considered her words. What had it been like for her to train with the males our age? I’d known it was grueling, that the sparring left her broken. It was rare that she’d fully healed before the next breaking, a secret she kept through sheer will—and sitting on me and threatening my life when I wanted to tell Father. But I’d never truly thought about the rest of it. She was the only female. And she was destined to take charge. How some of the males must have hated that…

I gave back what I could. “I’m sorry, Kiana, for misunderstanding. I appreciate that your intentions for me are good. And I want you to know that before everything happened with Sebastian, I had accepted the match with Blaze.”

Kiana’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“For all the reasons you listed, of course.” I smiled sweetly. “And because he said he wouldn’t make me live in his apartment, which meant I could still sneak to watch movies with my secret human friends.”

“And we thought you had no talents.” Kiana folded her arms, trying to look casual but that wasn’t really in her repertoire of poses. “That was how you met Sebastian before our mateship ceremony?”

My wolf rose with indignation, but I shushed her. It was their ceremony. Even if he was ours now. Or had been. Briefly.

“Only once, by accident,” I said. “Two nights before. I guess he felt something, but I didn’t feel a thing, I swear.”

“Not a single thing?” Kiana lifted one perfect eyebrow.

“Okay, fine, I felt a lot of things, but not fated. And we didn’t exchange names, so I really didn’t know…” My throat constricted with irrational guilt. “I swear on our mother’s grave, Kiana. I thought he might be Manhattan’s Beta Heir at most, based on how the other males listened to him.”

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