Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
“Alpha? You okay?”
“Fine, Gael. Thank you.”
“Thinking about your girl? Reed says they’re quiet in their room.”
Brielle, my heart. A fresh stab of pain at our separation cut into me, and my father’s words echoed in my head, pounding impossibly like a tattoo against the back of my eyes.
Go to her, son. Don’t leave until you’ve solved the problem.
I left the clearing at a run, not able to wait another moment to see my mate.
So I didn’t.
TWENTY-SIX
Brielle
Exhaustion, weighing my limbs down and making me feel like a lump of wet clay instead of a person, was all I felt that first afternoon. That, and searing pain in my heart. Shay curled up behind my back on the bed, back in human form now, and we lay back to back under the covers while Leigh hovered around, doing Goddess knew what.
Cups of hot tea and chicken noodle soup showed up at regular intervals, but I was so exhausted, I never took more than a sip or two.
The second day, I was able to sit up, and hunger stirred my belly as if I hadn’t eaten in months instead of a day. My wolf was mournful, curled into a ball and ignoring me, but still closer than usual. Especially postshift when we’d been snatched apart so forcibly. Usually, I could barely feel her, but this time, I felt her disdain pouring through me like burning potpourri.
Unpleasant and rank.
I sipped a cup of herbal tea-my own blend, filched from my med kit, if I wasn’t mistaken-and studiously ignored the plate of cold scrambled eggs sitting on the bedside table. Shay was showering, and Leigh was sitting at the foot of the bed, staring me down.
“Just spit it out,” I murmured, taking another sip of the soothing brew.
“He won’t leave. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but he won’t leave.”
“Who won’t leave?” Surely she didn’t mean Kane. He hadn’t followed us into the dormitory, and even if he had, he had a pack and a gathering to run. He was too busy to wait around on me all day.
“Your alpha, who else? He’s camped in the hallway like a damn hippie, has been since about an hour after we left the run. Stubborn, that one.” She glared at the door, and I tried to filter through my shock to give her a helpful answer.
“I don’t know anyone else who’s stubborn like that,” I blurted.
Her answering glare told me she didn’t see the humor in their similarities at the moment.
But I was too floored to care. He’d been in the hall all night?
“Surely he went back to his room to sleep.”
“No, he didn’t. I was up last night and checked. He slept in the hallway, right on the floor,” Shay said from the bathroom, where she was towel-drying her hair.
A liquid warmth pooled in my stomach at the thought of him, and try as I might, I couldn’t push it away. With shaking limbs, I levered myself to standing. I was proud that I wobbled only briefly under Leigh’s critical eye before steadying myself.
Who’s a badass? I didn’t even spill a drop of my tea!
My third step toward the door, I tripped over a stray bag strap and nearly ate the carpet, were it not for the handy desk I caught myself on.
Okay, okay. Not a badass. Still impressive… sometimes.
Leigh made a distressed sound low in her throat as I reached the door to their dorm room, but she knew from past full-moon catastrophes that I was very stubborn postshift. And if Kane, son of Kosta, son of Konstantin, High Alpha Heir of the nine great packs was on his tail outside my doorway, I needed to see it with my own eyes.
My hand was rock steady when I reached for the doorknob and twisted to push it open. The soft scrape of the door hinges interrupted his pacing, his eyes jerking up to mine like we were two magnets, helpless to stop the relentless force pulling us together.
There were so many questions in his eyes, and I didn’t have any good answers. I only knew I needed to see him, needed to make sure he was okay after my rejection, wordless though it had been.
“Brielle.”
One word. Seven little letters. So why did they sound like a benediction on his lips?
He crossed the space between us in a heartbeat, but stopped centimeters shy of touching me, hands hovering.
I hated that space, but simultaneously needed to guard it. That space was to keep him safe. I owed him that, even if my weakness hadn’t sent him running for the hills.
There was no choice but to stay strong, I told myself as I looked up into his bottomless green eyes. As my body swayed toward his without my permission.
“Kane,” I whispered, unable to stay silent a second longer, or I was going to fling myself at him.
His eyes flickered shut, relief washing his features at the sound of my voice. My wolf hadn’t woken yet, but I could still feel a primal push that was hard to deny.
“How are you feeling? Do you need something? Anything?”
Not
Why did you push me away? Why were you such a bitch? Who do you think you are?
No, none of that.
How are you? Do you need anything?