Fated to the Warrior Wolf (The Hunted Omegas #3)

1. Gael

ONE

Gael

W e hadn’t even boarded the plane for Romania yet, and already I was anxious. Nervous energy thrummed under my skin that I couldn’t shake, no matter how hard I tried.

Wolves all learned relaxation techniques, ways to hold on to our control, keep our shift hidden from the humans. It was standard in our preteen years so that wolves didn’t start popping out in the middle of high school chem class. So, to be on the edge of that long-practiced control for no reason… well, it was rare.

I blew out a harsh breath, dragging in the scent of the Texas morning. The dirt smelled different here than in Alaska. Drier, even though we were probably about the same distance from the ocean. I shot a glance at the cloudless sky, sun blazing an almost angry circle just over the horizon.

An average day, with nothing to make me nervous. I tensed and released each muscle, starting at my feet, up my calves and thighs, and had made it all the way to my biceps by the time Kane clapped me on the shoulder.

“It’s that kind of day, is it?” He eyed my arm pointedly. He’d been my friend most of our lives, so he’d seen me work through this exercise enough times to spot it a mile off.

“Yeah, something’s gotten under my skin.”

“Someone, you mean?” My Alpha cocked an eyebrow at me questioningly.

I glared in response, and the asshole chuckled. “It’s going to work itself out. Just wait and see.”

Easy for him to say now that he was mated to the brilliant, demure, and lovely omega healer, Brielle. Meanwhile, I was trying to douse a stick of dynamite.

No, douse wasn’t the right word.

I liked Leigh’s fire. She made me feel a spark I hadn’t ever felt before.

It was more like holding on to a stick of lit dynamite and hoping my hand didn’t get blown off. That was it.

“Reed is rounding up the girls, but they were supposed to be here five minutes ago,” Kane said casually, eyeing the waiting pack jet. The pilots were finishing up the preflight, which meant we should already be boarding.

“I’ll run and see what’s up.”

He nodded, but I could see hesitation in the way he ran his hand over the back of his neck. I’d known him too long to miss his tells.

“What is it?”

“I know you don’t want to go back home. We’ll make it as quick as we can, but I wanted to say it now, in case I don’t get a chance when we’re there. Thank you. I know you’re only doing this out of loyalty to me.”

Shit .

Was I that obvious?

I had family baggage a mile wide back in the old country, and he was right. For anybody but Kane or Reed, I wouldn’t ever step back on “home” soil. I liked Alaska just fine, thanks. In no small part because it was nearly as geographically far away from Romania as one could get, aside from a tiny island in the ocean somewhere.

“Don’t sweat it, Alpha. I’ll be fine.”

The grin I tried to give him was more of a grimace, but I covered it by jogging off before he could needle me with questions.

The longer he was high alpha, the more honed his senses grew, and he was already too adept at seeing behind the hard shell I portrayed to everyone.

I jogged into the building where we’d been put up by the Johnson City pack, noting with dismay that the rest of our contingent wasn’t even in the hallways. It was a ghost town when it should have been a flurry of activity.

As I stalked down the hall, a sound from one of the rooms stopped me in my tracks.

Was someone vomiting?

The retching sound came again, and I quickened my pace.

My nose knew whose room I stood outside without having to check. I could smell Leigh, her coffee-and-cream scent pungent and mouthwatering even with a solid wood door between us. Goddess, every time I got a fresh hit, I felt like a junkie, itching to get my hands on her for round two.

But she’d made it very clear that after my screwup with round one, she had no interest in a repeat performance.

I couldn’t blame her, not after what happened. We didn’t get along, we were always at odds, and well… I really screwed up. The fact that it had never happened before wasn’t something I’d been able to force between my lips when she was looking at me like that, pissed off and red-faced after the fact.

I shook off the painful memory and placed my hand flat on the door. I could hear low voices inside. Before I could knock, though, the door swung open easily at my touch.

Annoyance flooded me when I saw Reed standing in her bathroom doorway .

“I can’t believe it. You’re pregnant,” he murmured, shaking his head. “It’ll work out, okay? Let’s just get to Romania and worry about what’s next then.”

Shock replaced the annoyance at lightning speed.

Pregnant? Was Brielle in here?

No, my nose knew the truth. There was no hint of omega, still-water scent. It was all coffee and cream, this morning with a sickly tinge, only confirming what was finally sinking in.

Leigh is pregnant.

With our baby.

“What the fuck did you just say?” The words flew out before I’d had a chance to think them through, and a lot harsher than I intended. My protective instincts were through the roof around Leigh in general, but even more heightened at this exact moment.

I wasn’t mad. You could have knocked me down with a damn feather, but I wasn’t mad.

Overwhelmed, shocked, tingling all over like I wasn’t breathing? Checks across the board.

But not mad.

“Gael,” Reed said warily, lifting both hands in a calming gesture. “Maybe you and I should take a walk.” He cast a furtive glance at Leigh, still hidden away in the bathroom.

She’d been puking because she was pregnant. Morning sickness .

The realizations were hitting me slowly, as if I couldn’t process everything that was happening all at once.

How was it even possible ?

I mean, yeah, we’d had sex. A whole hell of a lot of it, in that one night. Let’s just say that if sheer physical compatibility could knock somebody up, I wasn’t the least bit surprised it had happened.

But she wasn’t in heat. We weren’t bonded. Both of which were required for a wolf pregnancy .

Except, the half step I’d taken into the room showed me a line of little pee sticks, presumably all saying pregnant.

Holy fuck. I was going to be a dad .

“Just go, please.” Leigh’s voice sounded wretched, wrung out and exhausted at a bone-deep level.

I stepped forward on instinct—she might not be my mate, but she was pregnant with my baby, and I would take care of her whether she liked it or not—but Reed stepped to the side, intercepting me.

Now I was furious.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I seethed, getting into his personal space.

His eyes flicked to the scar on my face as his own paled. Of the two of us, I was a significantly better fighter, and he knew it. The scar I wore was a reminder to everyone that I fought hard and fought to win. But what Reed didn’t do was back down, and my wolf snarled viciously, tearing at my already fraying control.

“I’m honoring Leigh’s wishes to clean up in private. She’s okay right now, but what she doesn’t need is a macho alpha showdown in her bathroom.”

I’d have been less shocked if my mild-mannered, posh friend had spit in my face.

The worst part of it was, he was right.

What I wanted didn’t matter at all right now. I was a bystander, utterly useless after the point of conception except to do whatever she wanted.

And what she didn’t want was me.

I took a step back, then another, as the awful truth sank in much more quickly than all the bombs before it.

She might have been carrying my baby, but she still wanted fuck all to do with me.