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

9. Leigh

NINE

Leigh

G ael gripped my hair—which was probably a sweaty mess by this point, but I didn’t even care because I’d just finished screaming out yet another orgasm at the top of my lungs—and tilted my head back, forcing me to make eye contact with him. He held himself over me with one arm, never faltering as he slowly pushed forward, sinking deeper inside me.

I moaned low in my throat at the delicious intrusion as I held his gaze. He was the biggest I’d ever been with, yes, but not the kind of man who thought size was everything. He knew how to play me like a violin, and we were several hours into the best sex marathon of my entire life. Somehow, he wasn’t slowing down.

He might have been an asshole outside the bedroom, but inside the bedroom, he was basically a well-hung superhero. At least my vagina thought so, the smug bitch.

It should have been impossible for us to still be going at this point, but I’d been so needy, I didn’t care how or why. I just wanted every ounce of satisfaction he could give me. And apparently, he was sexy Santa, giving with both hands.

Gael was almost home, that now-familiar stretch and burn of him sheathing himself inside me sending a fresh wave of shudders through me, when he froze, seeming panicked. His eyes went wide, and the veins stood out on his neck.

“What’s wrong?” I gasped, pressing my hips up to meet his, wanting him to plunge the rest of the way, give me that last, glorious inch. I wanted everything he had to give. Nothing held back.

He stayed still, though, and swallowed roughly. “I don’t— I have to stop, before ? —”

“No! Not yet. I’m not ready yet, please.” I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down, flush with my chest as I arched up against him. But a second later, I realized what he meant, as his knot ? —

The sickening bump of wheels touching down on the tarmac once again woke me with a lurch, saving me from the rest of the very vivid dream—okay, very vivid memory —that already had my panties soaked and my breath coming in rapid pants.

But it faded quickly because I was sick to my stomach for an entirely different reason, and that was the fact that I’d purposely driven a big, fat wedge between myself and the father of my child.

The incredibly sexy, drool-worthy father of my child, who now thought I’d slept around after the night we spent together.

I was an ass. An utter, complete ass, and I deserved for him to hate me.

All I wanted to do was curl up in my bed to hide from the world and wallow in my misery. I peeked out the window, the sight of unfamiliar mountains in variegated shades of green under the sun’s early morning rays taking my breath away. The sky was gray-blue, and clouds hung heavy over the horizon. But still, it was a stunning reminder that I was far, far away from all things familiar and comforting.

I was still going to find whatever bed I was assigned and curl up in it. Real problems be damned. The overhead lights inside the jet brightened as we pulled to a stop at a real, honest-to-Goddess airport terminal .

“Where are we?” I turned to Reed, who had settled in kitty-corner to me sometime during the night.

“Private terminal at the Bucharest airport. It’s harder here to have a full airstrip with the terrain, but the terminal has amenities, so it’s nice.” He smiled at me, and I had to fight back tears at the open, judgment-free expression.

He was so opposite to Gael, who was always dark and stormy and serious.

Seriously pissed at me, more like.

So why couldn’t my wolf latch on to a nice guy like Reed? Why did I fall for the asshole who’d knotted me—by accident, supposedly—and kept me from my best friend when she’d been shot? Granted, I was matching him stroke for stroke on the awfulness at this point.

I don’t deserve a nice guy.

Thankfully, the still-chipper flight attendant walked by and interrupted me from that poisonous line of thinking. My wolf wasn’t latching on to anybody because the likelihood of me finding a fated mate was slim to none. I needed to keep my head in the game and focused on Petal. The lack of a mate was just a bump in the road, not something I needed to fixate on.

“Welcome to Bucharest, Romania! The local time is eight fifty-two, and the temperature is fifteen degrees Celsius. Your bags are already being unloaded, and the porters will bring them directly to your SUVs, which, I’ve confirmed with the ground crew, are idling at the ready to transport you to pack grounds.”

And thank you for flying with Chipper Charlie airlines, I added mentally to her retreating back as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Pregnancy was weird, because on the outside, there was no sign whatsoever of the tiny person I was growing, but the fact of the matter was I’d just slept almost an entire day away, yet I still felt weary to my bones .

Hopefully, this phase passed quickly, or I’d be less than useful to the rest of the pack as we figured out who killed Kane’s parents and how to get Bri out from under the ODL’s thumb.

Shit.

How to get Bri and my daughter out from under the ODL’s thumb. For one brief second, I’d forgotten, felt like a normal, exhausted mom struggling through the first trimester.

But I wasn’t, was I?

I stared down at my palm, nausea creeping up my throat. Brielle’s magic touch must be wearing off, my brief reprieve coming to an end.

“Here,” Shay said. She held out a thick bandage, wide enough to cover the entire glowing mark on my palm. She had anticipated my worry before I even knew to voice it. She was quiet, yes, but my bestie was always observant and took care of her friends like nobody else.

“Thanks,” I said, giving her a grateful smile. “I was just wondering how to explain that.”

“Olivia’s has faded now, and it started about an hour before yours did. So it might fade by the end of the day.” Her voice was skeptical, even as she offered assurances.

“What is it?” I asked without looking up as I carefully applied the sticky covering, making sure none of the edges peeked out.

She was quiet, hesitant, but she finally answered. “Hers faded out hours ago. We expected yours to do the same, but…”

Ah. So, I might be glowy for a while. For the whole pregnancy? That was going to be annoying to deal with.

I flexed my palm, already not enjoying the bulky bandage impeding my dexterity. I had a thing about sticky stuff, but the ick would have to be dealt with in favor of anonymity.

“We don’t know much at all about this mark, so it could be any number of reasons. Nothing to stress about until we know more,” Reed offered, though his genuine smile didn’t quite offset the worried crease between his eyebrows.

He was good, but not that good at hiding his emotions.

Gael stormed past us, shoulder checking Reed on his way past.

My jaw dropped at the blatant and uncharacteristic hostility toward his pack mate, while Reed looked confused as he stared at his friend’s retreating back.

But I wasn’t confused.

I knew exactly why he was pissed, and guilt flooded me.

Reed was in my room yesterday morning, and he was sitting with me now. Which meant Gael thought he was the other man. The nonexistent, completely fictional other man, and not just a pack mate looking out for the knocked-up, lone she-wolf.

“I should probably go talk to him,” I said, casting an anxious glance first at Reed, then Shay.

“Do you need backup?” she asked, her usual quiet tone laced with a threat. Dirge stood over her shoulder, his expression all thunderclouds as they clearly shared the same impression.

Shay didn’t appreciate Gael and me fighting, ever, but I could tell his behavior bothered her even more now that there was a baby onboard. But it was misplaced anger, because this steaming mess was mine to clean up, not his, and shame flooded me along with a flush to my cheeks.

My friends had my back, but did I deserve it at this point? If I couldn’t explain myself, I’d have to fess up to them about what I’d said, and that thought made me feel the size of an ant. They’d be disappointed, and my shame would be eternal.

No, I had to fix this.

And we weren’t going to talk about how a little, primal part of me found his territorial behavior toward Reed smoking hot. Definitely not.

Time to woman up, or whatever.

I didn’t get the chance to talk to him immediately after we got off the plane, because we were shuffled as a group right through the quiet terminal to a series of waiting black SUVs, and he conveniently climbed into the one I wasn’t in.

Not that I blamed him. I didn’t really want to share air space with myself either right this second.

But when the caravan pulled through a set of wrought iron gates that probably cost more than my annual salary back home and up a winding cobblestone drive, I forgot all about my self-loathing for a moment. The pack lodge was no lodge at all; it was a castle. The stone castle looked like it belonged in a gothic period romance, with multiple spires piercing the gloomy gray sky. The ground dropped off in a sheer cliff all the way around, and it cut an intimidating silhouette. The ground beneath was beautiful and wild, and on closer inspection, I spotted narrow stairs cut into the natural stone so you could go down for a run. Though in a castle this grandiose, I’d bet there was a way to get down there from inside too.

The roof was some sort of orangey material, the walls a beautiful, natural gray stone. But before we could even reach it, our cars had to cross a large flat bridge, which a quick glance over the side showed was at least thirty feet above the small river running underneath. I quickly leaned back in my seat, not enjoying the height and the view making my head spin a little.

I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and focused on the stunning architecture. The top of the walls were crenelated, like a real, honest-to-Goddess fairy-tale castle, but I could already tell it had been updated with modern amenities. A butler in full uniform stood at the open front door as our SUVs pulled into the circular drive, modern electric lighting shining out to greet us, and I could already glimpse huge oil paintings hanging inside the entryway .

“Holy shit,” Shay murmured from my right. “Was that a real drawbridge?” She looked from me to Brielle, whose eyes were wide as she stared up at the imposing facade of the castle as if a gargoyle was going to swoop down and gobble her up. Olivia was too busy staring up, lips in an o of shock, to respond.

“So, bestie, looks like your man is hella rich,” I joked, poking Brielle on the shoulder to distract myself from my mess of a life.

Dirge snorted from Shay’s other side. He leaned forward so he could see me. “You realize we all are, right? Not just Kane.”

My wordless blinking back in response made him chuckle.

“Kane owns the pack grounds here, including the pack castle, as well as numerous holdings throughout Romania and the rest of Europe. Gael is the eldest son of a family with money so old, it’s dusty, and their wealth rivals Kane’s. Reed and I aren’t quite as silver spoon as those two by birth, but my brother runs one of the largest international restaurant empires in the world, and I’ve had stock holdings since the markets were invented. Compound interest works wonders when you’ve got hundreds of years to let it work its magic.”

The four of us girls all blinked at him as we tried to process this new information.

Olivia even turned away from the castle to mouth a wow at me.

I couldn’t say I was surprised, really. Werewolves were long-lived. It made sense that over time, they’d accumulate wealth. But our pack hadn’t been terribly wealthy and wasn’t that old either. We were regular people with regular jobs, for the most part. We just turned furry on occasion.

My savings account had a whopping eight hundred fifty dollars in it, and all three of us had lived in pack housing. A wave of guilt for my utter lack of preparedness to bring a child into this world hit me anew. I hadn’t worked in over a month, and if it weren’t for Pack Blackwater’s charity, I’d be scrounging for part-time work to keep the lights on.

I didn’t want to be anybody’s charity case. That was humiliating and definitely not a life plan.

It was not a comfortable feeling under normal circumstances, but this was next-level comparison-itis, and my brain was struggling to comprehend the level of wealth I was staring at. But mostly I was just envisioning a cartoon duck swimming through a pool full of gold coins.

I bet this place has a pool.

The idea of Kane’s late father swimming in it, full of gold coins, made me giggle and then full-on belly laugh at the ridiculous mental image.

Shay lifted an eyebrow at me in question, but the driver was holding open the door, waiting for us to climb out, so I kept my ridiculousness to myself.

The silver-haired butler greeted us all with a stately bow, but as soon as he straightened, Kane wrapped him in a hug. He looked surprised, but returned the embrace warmly, with a fatherly pat to Kane’s shoulder.

“Cristian, thank you for holding down the fort while we were away.”

“My pleasure, sir. Would you like to take a tour of the grounds before I see you to your rooms? A few things have changed since you left Pack Caelestis to strike out on your own.”

Kane cast a glance back at all of us and shook his head. “Rooms first. We’re planning to stay awhile, so there’s plenty of time for a tour. And for the ten thousandth time, call me Kane.”

“You know I can’t do that, sir.” His eyes creased at the corners as he waved us all inside.

The interior of the castle was every bit as jaw-dropping as the exterior. The paintings I’d caught sight of were only the beginning. Rich blue striped wallpaper and deeply burnished wood floors made me feel like I’d stepped into a time machine. It was old-world at its finest, and the ceilings had to have been thirty feet high, chandeliers dotting the ceiling every so often and casting a soft, gilded glow over the whole space.

“We’ve prepared the family wing, but if you’d like to split the group, the east wing is also ready to receive guests.”

“The family wing is perfect, Cristian.” Kane patted the older man on the shoulder as he surveyed the space.

“Is this where you grew up?” Brielle asked, staring in awe at one of the gold-framed paintings, which hung larger than life and imposing over a heavily carved table.

“Yes, it is.” His smile didn’t quite meet his eyes, and I guessed that these halls were full of ghostly memories for him. Especially given his mother had died here, I remembered sadly.

Brielle looped an arm around his waist, and I looked away, not wanting to stare too long at what I couldn’t have.

Although… I cast a glance around, realizing with dismay that Gael was nowhere to be seen.

I craned my head around and spotted him back by the SUVs, barking orders at someone on his cell phone. His face was etched in a scowl, but almost as if he could feel someone staring at him, he looked up, and our gazes connected.

It was like lightning, turning the distance between us to nothing in a heartbeat. But he looked away, pointedly turning his back on where I stood. The worst part was that I’d brought it on myself, and I deserved it.

“Ready to see your room?” Brielle asked me, a giddy excitement in her voice that I couldn’t match as she looped her arm through mine, then Shay’s. “Can you believe it? I’ve always wanted to see a castle in real life.” I looped Olivia’s arm through my other side, snagging her from where she was staring up at a gilt-framed mirror that looked older than the Mayflower .

“And now you own one,” I teased, forcing myself to turn away from Gael, just like he’d turned away from me.

So why did I feel achingly hollow inside as I walked away?