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

4. Gael

FOUR

Gael

I watched with concern as Shay lowered Brielle to the grass, her eyes oddly milky, like that white, opaque glass my mother’s old vases were made out of. It was creepy as fuck, but she had a huddle of people tending to her as soon as she was stretched out on the grass.

Leigh, however, was mine to worry about, and she looked pale enough to fall over right next to her friend.

“Steady,” I murmured. I wanted to reach out to her, comfort her, and get a closer look at that hand. But at this point, it was well established that since our night together, she wanted nothing to do with my touch. So, I kept my distance, offering the only support I could. “She’s going to be okay.”

Her eyes snapped up to mine, and I tried to ignore the red-rimmed lids, as if she’d been crying. Was it because she felt bad, she was scared, or was she having regrets about the baby?

My heart froze in my chest. Reed had assured me once he’d caught up to me that she didn’t intend to terminate, which was something I hadn’t even considered, but a relief nonetheless. So, what was causing that look of desolation?

“Are you okay? ”

“Am I okay, really?” she snapped at me, and then moved to run her hand through her blonde locks, but stopped short at the unnerving glow. She switched hands, running the other one angrily through her hair. It left a single piece sticking up, and I wanted to reach over and smooth it out, kiss her on the head.

How fast would I get shoved away, though?

I resisted the urge, focusing on her eyes instead. Her livid, teary eyes.

“Yes, really,” I said with a calm I didn’t feel. Every sense was heightened, as if danger lurked behind the pebbles scattered on the sides of this runway. This new development had to mean something, and given that the first person to touch the marks had collapsed, it couldn’t be anything good.

“Don’t act like you care about me now because you found out I’m pregnant. This changes nothing.”

“Nothing? Really? ” I echoed her words, my own ire rising at her combative attitude. She asked me to leave before, so I did. I was checking on her because I did care, damn it. Why was she so determined to push me away?

“Okay, some things, yes, but not us. It does not change us.” She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me her back, the message clear.

She hated my guts.

Fuck me sideways.

“We have to talk about this, Leigh. Are you going to keep pretending nothing’s happening here?”

I resisted the urge to grab those shoulders and spin her to face me. She clearly wanted nothing to do with my touch, and I was never going to trample her boundaries like that, even if she drove me fucking insane.

Not that my wolf understood; he was howling and demanding we grab her, drag her away somewhere private, and mark her, claim her. She carried our pup. She was ours. But I couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t let me do that.

Because the she-wolf my wolf was laying claim to? Demanding that we take and mate and mark her? She didn’t have bond marks, no sign whatsoever that she was my fated mate.

And without mate signs, I couldn’t bond her.

My throat tightened at the realization. Goddess, this was fucked-up on a lot of levels that even she didn’t realize, but now was not the time.

There were some things you needed to say face-to-face, not to a cold shoulder.

Plus, what I had to tell her would only make things worse, and right now, she might actually strangle me.

Better to wait.

Coward, my wolf snarled, still clawing for control, desperate to whisk her away. He saw things so black-and-white, but they just weren’t in this situation. There were about ninety-nine shades of gray between Leigh and me.

Brielle gasped, sitting straight up as if she’d bolted awake from a deep sleep.

“Bri!” Leigh shoved her way into the huddle surrounding her, taking one of her hands in the unmarked one.

“What happened?” Kane’s voice was half growl, revealing he was at the very edge of his control.

“Are you all right?” Shay asked at the same time that Olivia reached for Bri’s forehead, asking, “Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay. I think I’m okay,” Brielle said, swatting all the hands away from her. The milky color drained slowly from her eyes, their usual brown returning as we all stared in half shock, half horror.

“What was that?” I muttered under my breath to Reed, who stood staunchly at my side.

I was still a little pissed he’d found out Leigh was pregnant before I had, but the rational part of me knew I couldn’t exactly hold it against him when she didn’t even want to share the same air as me. He told me that he’d heard her puking and checked on her. Nothing but a concerned pack mate.

“No fucking clue, but those marks look familiar,” he whispered back, smoothing down the front of his button-up shirt in that way he did when he was fixating on something or thinking too hard. Even Reed’s nervous energy was channeled into the appearance of perfection.

That was his MO with everything. Overthink, overthink, overthink.

I was a man of action and instinct. I saw a problem, I fixed it. If I waited around, people could die, and there were no second chances as head enforcer for our pack.

How the hell was I supposed to fix things with Leigh, though? If we were going to be raising a baby together, we couldn’t be enemies. What action was supposed to fix this cosmic joke?

Kane helped Brielle to her feet, and everyone stood back.

“I think we need to have a conversation in the air,” she said ominously, looking intently at Kane as if they were having a mental conversation.

He jerked his chin down once in acquiescence, but she didn’t let him lead her away.

“Olivia, do you trust me?” she asked gently, as if the other woman was a spooked fawn, not a wolf shifter.

She nodded hesitantly, cupping her glowing palm against her chest.

“I need you to come with us. I’ll explain what I can on the plane.”

“But I don’t have any luggage or clothes or?—”

“Pack Blackwater will provide everything you need when we land,” Kane said, surprising the hell out of me.

What had Brielle told him in their little silent powwow ?

“O…Okay, I guess.”

A relieved smile broke across Brielle’s face, and I watched with awe as Leigh rolled with the situation, jumping in and taking the new girl under her wing.

“Excellent. We’re heading to Romania. Have you ever been? I haven’t,” she rambled as she led Olivia to the jet, one arm tossed around her shoulders, gesturing with her other hand.

So a complete stranger, she could embrace like it was nothing. But me, the father of her child?

I was dog shit to be scraped off her shoe.

Perfect. Just fucking perfect.