Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
Can’t answer?
“Let’s get them out of here. This crowd is going to want to celebrate all night,” Dirge said with a low growl. He was right.
The party had switched to revelry mode, the wolves inside high off the violence, the people high off the drama of it. They weren’t close enough to it to have any personal impact. To them, it was a spectacle. A historic moment-a failed coup and the fall of a powerful man.
It turned my stomach. My duty wasn’t for their entertainment. I scooped Leigh up under the elbows, helping her to her feet. I was about to lift her when screams nearby caught my attention.
“Gael! Gael! Come run with us!” It was a female, eyes bright with her wolf, already stripped naked and ready to shift. I averted my eyes, ignoring her and focusing on Leigh as Dirge put up an arm to block her from reaching us.
“Come on, I’ll?-“
“Gael.” The sensual purr came from closer this time.
Too close. My wolf snarled, but before I could turn to find her, she had already pressed herself up against my side, rubbing shamelessly against my bare skin. My eyes went bright with my wolf, fangs dropping at his displeasure. He would never approve of any female but Leigh.
“Come on. We’ll show you a warrior’s welcome,” she said in a sultry whisper.
My snarl was not the response she was looking for. “Get off me,” I snapped, taking a giant step away. I wasn’t going to hurt a woman, but I didn’t have to entertain her bullshit while my mate watched either.
“Aww, come on. We would have a good time, I promise.” She smirked and sidled closer, ignoring my obvious rejection.
I wasn’t expecting what happened next, but when Leigh stepped between us, it was the most glorious sight I’d ever seen.
“He’s taken. Now take a hint and fuck all the way off.” Leigh stood tall, glowering at the other woman with vicious promise in her eyes.
“I don’t see any mate marks, sweetie?-“
Holy shit, how did women make a word like sweetie sound like an insult?
She pointedly looked me up and down, and I was kicking myself for still being bare-ass naked. “-and you clearly haven’t bitten any of that glorious skin. Maybe he’d like to spend the night with me. Nothing like a good fight to get your hormones pumping.”
I was frozen, unsure whether to let Leigh handle it or step back in. Or run for the hills. That seemed like the safest option, because I already had enough crazy in my life dealing with Celeste, and I sure as hell didn’t want more from a stranger who was willing to strip naked and rub up against me in public.
I want Leigh.
“If you don’t take your mangy ass out of my sight in the next three seconds, I’m going to shift and show you how an alpha bitch takes it when someone comes on to her fated mate. And I guarantee it, you won’t be so brash when I’m done with you.”
“Please, you and what army? You don’t look so well.” The other woman squinched up her nose at Leigh.
“This one,” Shay snarled, taking Leigh’s shoulder, and I blinked twice when I realized that for the first time, she was glittering, her fae side showing in full force.
The other woman gaped at Shay, then me as I snapped out of frozen-statue mode and slipped my arm around Leigh’s shoulders on the other side.
“She’s mine, and I’m not interested. So, please, leave before she rips your throat out. She might have morning sickness, but that won’t stop her.”
The other woman looked like she was about to argue, when a female alpha barked from over Dirge’s shoulder.
“Cristina! Knock it off. The man said no. Get yourself back to the inn, now.” The last was laced with alpha command, and Cristina whined and darted away. Thank the Goddess.
“Sorry about that. She’s young and doesn’t have any manners yet.” The female alpha shook her head, sizing the group of us up. “You’re part of the high alpha’s pack from the US, right?”
“Right,” Dirge answered. “And we’re leaving.”
“Understood. I’ll make sure you get no more trouble from my pack tonight. Congratulations, by the way.” She nodded politely to Leigh, then disappeared into the crowd.
As soon as she was gone, Leigh shrugged out from under my touch and wrapped herself around Shay’s arm. “Let’s go. I’m exhausted.”
It stung, but I wasn’t surprised as they walked away. Two steps forward, one step back. It was the tango we were trapped in.
But as long as she was my partner, I’d keep dancing.
I grabbed my pants from the stage and slipped them on, trailing behind them and making sure they got back to the castle safely. Once all the females were safely in their rooms, I stepped into my own. I needed a shower, but there was something I had to do first.
My desk was tucked in a corner, dusty and rarely used. But it still had paper and pens, which was all I needed. I swiped away the dust with my forearm and settled in. I bit my lip as I tried to figure out how to start. Finally, it hit me.
Dear Princess…
FORTY-FOUR
Leigh
Ibarely slept the night after the tribunal. I was sick off and on, throwing up half the night, sweating and miserable the other half.
I never knew that pregnancy would make me feel like a living furnace, but apparently, it did.
Whoo-fucking-hoo.
By the time the sun cracked over the horizon, I was awake, I was sweaty, and I was officially over being pregnant. Not over Petal; her I loved more than my own life. But the pregnancy itself? Way overrated. Zero stars, ten out of ten did not recommend. If there were a button somewhere I could push that fast-forwarded the next six or seven months and plopped a healthy baby into my arms? I would push that immediately.
But there wasn’t, so I was going to suffer through. And not tell Bri, because she was wasting a lot of energy she didn’t have on keeping me nausea-free. In theory, I had a week or so before it should fade, and I’d be in the second trimester.
Please, Goddess, let it fade in a few weeks.