Page 35 of The Awakened Wolf

“What happens if he comes back and finds his fated mate taken and demands a replacement?” I held my chin steady. “Who will you offer from our pack?”

I folded my arms, willing her to look me in the eye and tell me it wouldn’t be her.

“Sebastian’s not coming back,” she snapped, peering into the ceremony room.

“I’m serious, Kiana,” I said.

She turned back, raising a brow. “It won’t be me, if that’s what you’re getting at.” A quiver ran through her. “Believe me, all I see now is Damien.”

“What if he weren’t Damien’s son?”

Silence.

As in, a long silence. Unless I somehow blacked out there while she said, “Of course not Elyse. He’s your fated. You love him, and I’d never try to claim him.” Given how little oxygen I was able to suck from the air in this corset, I supposed that was possible.

But no. She chewed her perfectly lined and colored lips, risking a possible marring of her cosmetic perfection that I knew meant she was wrestling with something.

She wants him too! We will kill her!

The rage that surged in my wolf filled me as well, and I nearly shifted right out of the straightjacket they called a gown.

“Look,” I said, trying to concentrate while my wolf spiraled. “I’m doing this because I know I have to play by these absurd Victorian rules—”

Kiana smiled.

“—while I am here.”

Her smile vanished.

Aw, maybe she truly loves me and wants me to stay.

She sucked her teeth in annoyance.

Maybe not.

“I will stay,” I continued, “until we figure out how to fulfill the prophecy together and defeat that psychotic one-eyed caricature of a Marvel villain. But then Evan and I are out of here. I mean it. We will leave and take my new shifters with us. We can start our own pack where we don’t have to live like livestock.”

“Livestock?” Her voice rose, and she reddened as the nearest heads turned. “You have no idea what it takes to support a pack, sweetheart.” She added, dropping her voice to a hiss. “Believe me, it takes mountains of money and endless work, neither of which you’re prepared to bring to the table, so why don’t you leave the pack leadership to those of us with the resources and know-how, shall we?” She shook her head and muttered, “Livestock. What kind of cattle live in penthouse apartments? Honestly.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t take so much to support a pack,” I retorted, “if the Alphas didn’t insist on living like kings. Or queens.”

Kiana’s red lips opened wide, but before she could speak, the Elder Wolf howled—the mating call rolling through me like it had at Kiana’s ceremony. Only at hers, I’d felt the stir of desire and connection, as intoxicating as the multiple champagnes I’d downed with Blaze—bubbly, warm, and sensual. I didn’t know then that it was because my fated mate was present.

This time the only thing stirring in me was nausea. And based on the greenish cast of his skin, I figured it was safe to assume it had a similar effect on my groom.

Take heart. Perhaps this means you’re already with pup. With the right male.

Thanks. That’s super comforting.

I wondered, when Kiana began tugging me toward the ceremony room, if it would be too humiliating to go boneless, so she’d have to drag me. The thought was almost amusing. But I couldn’t do that to Evan. Besides, Kiana would just hoist me like a sack of potatoes and plop me into Evan’s lap.

The pack in the nearest section of the Eternity Circle parted to form an aisle for us. Evan gave me a smile as I approached. It was nice of him to try, but it was so forced that he read more tweaker than nervous groom. A flop sweat to match Evan’s broke out on my brow. We had to stop this. It wasn’t right for either of us. I wracked my brain for ideas that didn’t involve fleeing. It wasn’t coming up with much.

Stupid brain.

And what was that hesitation before from Kiana? When I asked if she’d pursue Sebastian if he weren’t Damien’s son? Was her claim of aversion a ploy and she was forcing this whole thing so she could have him to herself?

I startled when I found myself in the center of the circle with my father. He was hunched and thin, with a gray tone to his skin, but his eyes sparkled when they found mine and all contemplations of flight left me. Kiana transferred my hand to Evan’s, which was so clammy it took every ounce of self-control not to rip my hand back and wipe it on my dress. As I swept into place beside him, I heard his breathing, rapid and shallow like a trapped bird’s.

---