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

15. Leigh

FIFTEEN

Leigh

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to shove my unruly emotions back into a box where they belonged. He’d asked me up here to have a real conversation, and while the apologies were a great start, we had some things to work out.

“I’m sure you wanted to talk about more than my out-of-control tear ducts,” I said, forcing a smile as I squeezed his fingers. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

He nodded slowly, studying my face so intently, I had to resist the urge to squirm. He was intense . And not a man who spoke too much. Basically, he was my polar opposite, which was why it was so easy to pick fights with him. I wanted to fill up all those blank spaces he left in a room.

Blank spaces left me alone with my thoughts, and that wasn’t a good place to be.

“We’re going to be parents,” he said.

Such a simple thing, but the acknowledgment sent a little shiver down my back. “We are,” I agreed.

He nodded, eyes still burning into mine. “I want us to put the past behind us and start fresh. We have a baby to think about, and a lot of complications regular parents don’t have to think about.”

“She’s an omega,” I whispered, all those big, bravado-filled words suddenly gone, out the window in a flash. I dropped my gaze to my lap, no longer able to handle his intensity.

Do not cry, do not cry, do not cry…

“But we’re going to protect her, and I promise you that.”

“You can’t promise me that,” I snapped. “Nobody can, except Brielle’s Aunt Kari. She has a solution, and Bri is living proof. I’m willing to take that risk.”

“Would you stop martyring yourself long enough for us to have one conversation?” He stood from the chair to pace back and forth.

He was genuinely agitated, and it surprised me. Why did he care so much what happened to me? Or was it that he’d seen what it did to Bri, making her have a weak connection to her wolf?

Our wolves were everything to us, so I understood.

“Surely you see it’s better for her to have a weaker connection with her wolf than for her to be killed at birth.”

“We are not bringing our daughter into this world with a curse already on her head! No!” He restrained his alpha command, but only just.

Well, that was fine. Because I wasn’t a weakling myself. I was an alpha bitch, and if he wanted to bark and snap, I could do that too. I pushed myself out of the chair, stepping into the path of his pacing. He stopped and squared off with me, anger brewing beneath the surface like a teakettle ready to blow.

“We will do whatever it takes, including the damn curse, if that’s what we have to do to save her! You’re not in control of me, and last time I checked, if I’m willing to accept the risks, that’s on me. You’re not my mate, so get over yourself,” I said, leaning in close for the ending, letting alpha dominance lace my words for once .

He bristled as he felt it, but didn’t back down even as I held his gaze.

But when he moved, he didn’t hurt me or push me back or any of the dozen things your average alpha asshole might have done when challenged. Gael wrapped one hand around the back of my neck with a growl low in his throat and hauled me forward, claiming my lips in a crushing kiss.

I had my arms wrapped around him so fast, they probably blurred. Fingernails digging in as I held him tight, matching him swipe for every crushing, punishing swipe.

When we pulled apart to gasp in a breath some minutes later, his hair was mussed, and my lips felt puffy.

I touched them softly, eyes falling closed as I shoved away from his chest.

“We are not going there again.”

“You aren’t going to sacrifice yourself. Give me a chance to fix this. I won’t let anyone hurt you or our baby, I swear it on my life.”

I spun toward him, anger simmering once again. “Stop that! Words have power. You can’t just go speaking things like that into the universe!”

He laughed, and it just pissed me off further. “You’re superstitious now, are you?”

My eye roll said it all. “Brielle’s mom didn’t have to take the curse until she was further along, so I’m not doing anything tomorrow. But I’m not kidding. If we don’t have this sorted out by the time I’m halfway along, I’m going to ask for the curse. I’m not giving up the best gift life has ever given me, even if I don’t get as long as I’d hoped with her.”

The sadness hit me then, swiftly overwhelming the anger. I dropped both hands to my belly and sank against the window frame, the only available part of the wall that wasn’t covered in books. I was accepting my own death with the curse. Giving up my lifetime of joy so that she could have hers. I didn’t regret it; I wanted to save my baby. But I also wanted to get to know her, hold her, love her. It was a bitter pill to swallow that our days together would be numbered from the beginning. I would just have to relish every minute of time I had left before the curse took me.

“Shh,” he murmured, enveloping me in his arms as I broke down into sobs.

“It’s not fair,” I said between racking tears. “It’s just not fair.”

“I know, but I’m going to fix it. Five months. Give me until you’re five months along, and if this isn’t fixed, we’ll… we’ll talk to Karissma about your plan.”

I could tell the words cost him, but as he held me close and stroked my hair back from my face, I knew he meant them. He was a man of his word, and my estimation of him went up a hundredfold in that moment.

It might have been killing him, but he was willing to go along with what I needed. To compromise.

“Okay.”

“Okay, then.” He pressed a tender kiss to my forehead, and then he scooped me up like I weighed nothing.

“What are you doing?” I asked, gripping the neck of his shirt for dear life at my sudden upending.

“Taking you somewhere quiet.”

“A library is quiet, you goof.” I understood the urge, though. In times of stress, a wolf wanted to den up, return to their safe space. He was probably going to deposit me in my room and pull the curtains to make it feel safer, more sheltered.

But when he got to the hallway where our rooms were, he didn’t stop at my door. He kicked his own roughly open, and as soon as we stepped inside, I was enveloped in his scent. He was all woodsy pine, with that delicious male musk that made me want to keep my nose buried in his neck forever. Every now and then, I thought I got a hint of something sweet, but I couldn’t pin it down .

His room was tidy, if devoid of personality. Unlike my room, there were no ancient portraits on the walls, and the frilly comforter had been replaced with a simple, flat quilt in dark gray. But in my emotional state, I loved everything about it. He carried me all the way to the bed, not putting me down as he used his knee to shove back the blankets, then carefully tucking me under them.

As I suspected, he went straight to the curtains and tugged them shut, enveloping us in a welcome darkness.

My residual tears leaked onto his pillows, but he didn’t complain as he climbed in next to me. Gael just wrapped me up like a burrito, tucking my head under his chin and stroking my hair.

His eyes glowed with his wolf, the usual whiskey hue growing brighter, like sunlight shining through a full glass.

“Thank you,” I whispered against the bare skin exposed by the neck of his T-shirt, my lips just barely brushing the skin.

“I’ve got you, Leigh. I’ve got you.”

When he started to rumble, my eyes slid closed.