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

12. Gael

TWELVE

Gael

I leaned against the door and exhaled hard. She was going to kill me. I had to get away from her, or I was going to do something really stupid, like shove her up against the wall and kiss her until she forgot the other guy’s name.

And if it was just us, I might have done it anyway. But I couldn’t keep another man from his child. That would be wrong, and I sure as shit couldn’t watch her be with another man. I meant what I’d said, and if she was pregnant with anyone else’s baby, I was going to leave the pack. I couldn’t ask her to leave, and I couldn’t stay and watch. It would kill me.

We’d do the blood work tomorrow, find out the paternity, and then my fate would be set. If it was someone else’s, I couldn’t change that, but if she was mine…

My fingertips itched as my claws descended. My jaw ached as my fangs lowered in a half shift.

Fuck .

I paced away from the door, trying to get myself back under control. I couldn’t bite her just because she was pregnant. It was bad enough I’d knotted her in the heat of the moment. That wasn’t something you did outside of a mate bond, outside of a heat.

And I’d never been even close to having it happen like that, accidentally.

Not that she’d believed me.

I raked a hand through my hair, temporarily forgetting my claws and scoring my scalp with a curse in the process.

I needed to talk to Kane. Or Dirge. He was older and knew about the family dynamics in this part of the world. He’d understand why I couldn’t claim Leigh without mate marks. That would be better, because Kane already had too much on his plate.

Even if he didn’t, if I didn’t talk to someone, I was going to explode. But he was on guard, and I didn’t want to air my family’s dirty laundry in the hall for anyone to walk by and hear.

No, it would have to wait, and I’d have to get myself under control. I needed a run. A long, hard, exhausting run, until my sides heaved and there were no thoughts or what-ifs left in my head.

I quickly shucked off my nightshirt, leaving myself in just a pair of cut-off sweatpants, and let myself into the hall barefoot.

Dirge nodded at me as I headed out, quietly shutting my door and walking on silent feet out of the family wing and into the knights’ hall.

It was trippy, this castle. A strange mix of old and new, and the arched ceilings with the brightly colored pennants distracted me temporarily from my woes. How many men had stood here over the centuries? How many had fought great battles?

I could almost feel them looking down on me with judgment from the empty suits of armor, and it shone a spotlight on how far off the rails my life had gone.

Nothing was how it was supposed to be, and I was a helpless pup in the center of the mess. But not for much longer .

I opened up the back door, sucking in a steadying lungful of the clean, night air, and then let my wolf burst from my skin.

The next morning, I stood against the wall in the breakfast room, where Kane and Reed were in deep discussion about the politics on the ground among the local packs that I wasn’t listening to.

I held the little cotton ball to the crook of my arm where Brielle had just drawn my blood. I was a little surprised when she knocked on my door with the testing supplies in hand, but apparently, she traveled with blood draw kits.

Normally, I’d find it weird as hell, but I’d decided not to ask why and just be glad I didn’t have to wait longer to know the truth. Granted, I didn’t know how long it would take her to get a sample from Leigh.

Limbo was a circle of hell. I was sure of it.

A piece of English muffin bounced off my forehead, and I snarled at Reed and his too-damn-amused smirk.

“You aren’t even listening. And don’t glare at me like that. Dirge threw the bread.” He gestured to his twin brother, who wore a wide grin on the other side of the table.

“Somebody had to.” He winked at me, then went back to tucking into his plate with relish.

“What?” I asked, more tersely than I should have given I had been ignoring pack business, which was a bad look for the second.

“We asked if you’d gotten the arrangements made for Karissma’s arrival. She doesn’t want it to become widely known she’s here with the pack.”

Oh.

“Yes, she’s coming in a few weeks, unmarked pack transportation, and we’re putting her up just outside the village in private lodging that meets her specifications.”

Kane nodded, looking relieved at the idea of having her close. Personally, she made my fur itch. I had no desire to spend time in the powerful witch’s sphere of influence. But it was different for him, given the curse and the family connection.

So, I kept my feelings to myself and said a small prayer of thanks to the Goddess that Karissma didn’t want to stay in the castle with the rest of us.

“Great. Care to share what you’re thinking that’s got you so tied up in knots?”

Reed held my gaze steadily, allowed among friends of equal dominance, but given the circumstances… my wolf could only see it as a challenge. I felt when he pressed forward, my eyes glowing with his displeasure.

“Shit, you really are upset. What’s wrong? Is Leigh okay with the baby? I assumed with Bri living under the same roof, she’d be fine.” Reed straightened his collar, a nervous habit of his.

Somehow, her name on his lips just pissed me off further.

I hadn’t felt myself stalk forward, but I almost tore Kane’s hand off when he put it on my shoulder, stopping me before I ran into the long, mahogany table that had probably been in his family a thousand years.

“You don’t have to sit down, but you will not attack a member of our pack. Tell us,” he urged, but it wasn’t lost on me that he didn’t force the words like he could have. He was a good Alpha, and I could feel the concern through our pack bond, right below my sternum.

I sighed, scrubbing both hands over my face before spinning away from his touch, turning my back to my pack before I could utter the damning words.

“My wolf wants her, but we don’t have marks, and… ”

Waiting wasn’t going to make it better, but still, I paused. The words were like bile on my tongue.

“She says the baby might not be mine.”

I don’t think anybody even breathed, it was so stony silent in the room. But when I finally turned around, the three of them had expressions of shock and disbelief on their faces.

Reed looked just as shocked as the rest, and that realization did settle my wolf a fraction.

“Hence your request last night,” Kane murmured, running a hand over the back of his neck. “Shit.”

I nodded, words failing me, as I waited for Reed to say something.

Tell me it’s not you, brother.

“Well, who the fuck’s it supposed to be?” Dirge looked absolutely confused. “She spends her nights quietly, alone in her room or with the trio, and I haven’t seen or scented another male on her besides you since I was let out of the feral cell. Are you sure she wasn’t just messing with you? She’s a firecracker—she might just have wanted to pull your tail.”

I blinked slowly, letting the words sink in. Was that possible?

I thought hard, going back over the last few weeks. We weren’t close , of course, because she was angry with me. But I’d seen her every single day, even if only in passing. Had I ever scented another male on her?

Only one.

I narrowed my gaze at Reed, and his eyes went wide.

Reed shoved his chair back, standing and leaning over the table. “Absolutely not, Gael. I would never lay a finger on her after you’ve claimed her,” he said, stabbing the table with his pointer finger. “You know me better than that.”

“He hasn’t claimed her,” Dirge argued, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared at me with judgment in his eyes.

I ignored the judgment because he didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. “You were the only other male in her room.”

Reed straightened, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “The day we left? Yes, because I’d gone to round up all three of them and heard her being sick in her room. I knocked, but the door wasn’t locked, so I let myself in. Gael, I’ve never stepped foot in her room—or she in mine, for that matter—alone other than that morning. You walked in less than two minutes after I did, I swear it.”

He held my gaze, and the knot between my shoulders finally loosened as I scanned him for any hint of dishonesty but found none.

“He’s telling the truth, Gael. There is no hint of dishonesty in the pack bonds,” Kane said, tapping his chest.

Relief flooded me. He isn’t the father. I don’t have to leave my pack.

But if what they were saying was true… Why would she lie about there being someone else?

“Great, now that we’ve established that you’re an idiot,” Dirge said, plopping back down in his chair and piling seconds on his plate without a care for the emotional roller coaster I was currently riding. “When are you going to make this official? You two obviously have the hots for each other, and I suspect the mating marks will show when they’re good and ready. It’s not always instantaneous, you know.”

I just stared at him as he stuffed bacon in his face at an alarming rate. Because my brain was stuck back on the why . Did she hate me that much?

Yes, I’d made a mistake. I’d knotted her, which you just didn’t do to someone who wasn’t your mate. But I’d tried to pull back, and she hadn’t let me. And yes, she was pissed when the assistant from the clinic had come to the door to get her for Shay, and she was stuck. But that was like… fifteen minutes .

Was that enough to hate me so much she’d tell me the baby wasn’t mine? Was she trying to get rid of me?

“Earth to G, Earth to G.” Dirge waved his fork, a hunk of bitten sausage still stuck to the end of it.

“You eat like you’re still feral,” I sniped, even though it was petty.

He just laughed and swallowed the sausage whole. “My brother’s been telling me that for years. So, what are you waiting for? Go talk to her. You’re having a baby, and you’re clearly not in the mood to talk pack business.”

“You don’t have to do anything you’re not ready to do. You can wait for the results,” Kane said, sinking back into his chair at the head of the obnoxiously large table.

I shook my head, not sure how I felt about the conversation, let alone about going to see her. She’d tried to talk to me last night, and I’d blown her off with the DNA test request.

Which didn’t help, if she was that pissed at me already.

“Any results back from the lab on the weird flower stuff in the vial?”

“Ooh, smooth subject change.” Dirge cackled, ignoring the annoyed look Reed shot him.

“Not yet. Forty-eight hours minimum. Longer for magically enhanced solutions, which we can assume that was for several reasons,” Kane said, ignoring Dirge.

I nodded, feeling sorry for Kane. Even the High Alpha couldn’t always snap his fingers and get something delivered on a silver platter, which was a real bitch when it was your parents’ killer you were trying to find.

“What about the plan to talk to the IGC? Any headway?” I directed the question to Reed, since he was our resident politician, even though he hated when we called him that.

He wore the suits. He got to deal with asshole politicians. I got to bash people’s heads together. It was a simple division of labor, and it worked .

Except with problems I couldn’t fight my way out of, like this mess with Leigh.

“I spoke with the secretary already, and she says we’re on the docket for next week. Although, given the runaround Lucien experienced trying to speak with Alpha Varga, I’m not sure they’ll keep our first appointment. Actually, speaking of Lucien?—”

He turned to Kane, and I tuned out the rest of the conversation. My brain was a wolf with a bone, constantly going back to the most important thing.

She’s having my baby .

A funny feeling started in the pit of my stomach, a fluttering that I didn’t know what to do with or how to interpret. But the longer I stood there, the stronger it grew, and then I was pacing again, just like last night in my room.

But I’d spent the whole night running from my problems, and not a damn thing had changed. It was time to stop running and take the bull by the horns.

I just needed a red cape.