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

20. Gael

TWENTY

Gael

T wo weeks later

The council moved with frustrating slowness. Lucien returned to the pack castle each day to give us a disappointing report that investigators had been sent to question the appropriate members of the ODL, but as yet, none had returned.

A small part of me wondered if there wasn’t division within the organization. Clearly, the council itself was divided between those who saw all species equally and those who still had an axe to grind. The fury over the fact that I hadn’t even been alive during the omega wars, yet my innocent, unborn daughter was slated to pay the price, kept me up nights. Leigh and Nugget had gone back to her room after the IGC meeting, and while I didn’t like it, I didn’t exactly have a leg to stand on to force her to stay with me.

Plus, I’d been driving myself crazy trying to figure out if we did have any mate signs that I could pin down for certain. I kept thinking her scent was changing, but more than once in the past week when we’d been in the same room and I’d tried to catch a fresh whiff, she’d looked at me like I was a psycho.

So, I was giving her a little bit of space.

Which was how I ended up in the locker room at five thirty a.m., completely sweated out from a punishing ten-mile treadmill sprint followed by lifting twice my body weight until my muscles shook with the exertion.

After a quick shower and change into a fresh pair of black sweats, I stepped out of the locker room and ended up behind two members of the castle’s security team.

Karl and… Sven? I couldn’t remember without seeing their faces.

They were sniggering at something, and the sound froze me in my tracks.

“Damn, look at her glisten. She’s the hot kind of trashy. You don’t want to take her home to your mother, but I’d love to bend her over that weight bench. You know what I mean?”

My upper lip curled at their disrespectful talk, but I stayed silent as I searched the gym for who they’d pinpointed.

“Trashy? Look at her. You know she’s a good lay. Who cares if she’s a mutt? I’d still tap that ass even if it is half-human. It’s not like you’re going to bite her, just fuck her.”

“Yeah, well, rumor has it somebody’s already tapped her, and she’s knocked up.”

Two things happened simultaneously. The asshat’s words sank in as Leigh popped up from a deep squat, kettlebell clutched between her hands. She had hot pink headphones on, and her back was to the two men ogling her.

Red fell over my vision as they laughed, and I grabbed both of them by the back of the neck.

“What the hell, man?” Karl had the bad sense to complain, whereas Sven played possum as I dragged them both from the room.

“The hell is that I’m challenging you two. Apparently, somebody needs to dust the ring off and teach you some fucking respect for the females of this pack,” I snarled, not releasing my grip.

“You can’t challenge both of us,” Karl complained again, clearly too stupid to know when to shut the hell up.

I ran him into a nearby stack of free weights on the way by, knocking a twenty-five pounder free to roll across the gym, but I didn’t stop to pick it up. I had asses to beat.

I almost made it to the door of the gym, silently seething as I imagined all the ways I was going to punish these two ingrates before I fired them on the spot for disrespecting Leigh, when I heard her.

“Gael?”

I froze, Leigh’s softly accented voice calling to me like a siren song from the old stories.

“What’s going on?” she asked with a worried frown.

I shook the two men in my hands, my voice low and full of painful promises. “You move or speak, and I’ll bury you in a shallow ditch by day’s end.”

Two frantic nods, and I released them to turn toward her. She’d popped one ear of the headphones off, kettlebell dangling from one hand. She looked like she’d just stepped out of a damn fitness magazine, and if it wasn’t for my rage at the two assholes behind me, I’d be fighting a major boner.

Who knew workout chic did it for me?

Hell, I didn’t care what she was wearing. Leigh did it for me.

“Nothing you need to worry about. Just taking out the trash,” I said, unable to keep the ice out of my tone even as I pasted on a poor excuse for a smile.

“The… trash.” She said the words slowly, clearly, as her gaze landed on the two men—no, fuck that; men didn’t talk about women that way. The two boys behind me. “Is everything all right?” she asked, taking a step toward me.

“Absolutely fine.” I gave her my best cocky grin, and the worry line between her eyebrows disappeared. My wolf rumbled his approval, and I found myself stepping forward against my will, letting my hands possessively grip her elbows as I leaned in and sucked in a deep lungful of her scent. She was indeed glistening with a light sheen of sweat, pheromones on full display.

My wolf’s rumble deepened, and my eyes flew open as it hit me square in the chest.

Coffee and cream… but there was something else there, something deep and complex. I let my nose touch her skin, chasing her perfume like an addict.

Vanilla .

“Gael, you’re starting to freak me out. What’s happening right now?”

I couldn’t do this with an audience. Especially not an audience of fucking idiots who didn’t deserve to share the same air as my girl.

“Trust me?”

“Umm, yes?”

I nodded, then spun back toward the two idiots as I slid my cell from my pocket. “Reed. I’ve got two members of pack security who are fired, effective immediately, who will be waiting for escort outside the doors of the gym. Can you send someone to pick them up and see them off pack grounds?”

“Gael, always a pleasure. Is there a reason you’re not handling this? Security is your purview, and I’m busy catching up on restaurant work,” he said, and I ignored the self-righteous tone because there were more important things in life.

“Yes, I’m going to be filing formal disciplinary action with Kane.”

“Shit. I’ll send someone down.”

I didn’t say another word as I hung up and slid the phone into my pocket. “Go directly outside those doors in the hallway and wait for your escort. If you disobey any command while under a disciplinary order, your lives are forfeit. Do you understand?” I barked, letting my alpha dominance out to cow them.

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison and bolted for the door, no doubt relieved to be out of my sight.

I spun back to Leigh, who’d set the kettlebell down and grabbed a rag to wipe her forehead.

“Stop, don’t do that yet,” I said, feeling my wolf push forward and my eyes start to glow.

“O-kay. I’m going to need a little more information about why you’re sniffing me while I’m gross and sweaty and in need of a shower.”

“Come here,” I demanded. Then, struggling to keep my wolf in check, I added, “It’s important.”

“You’re acting really strangely,” she muttered, but did as I asked, stepping into my open arms.

“What do you smell?” I asked her, holding her gently even as I wanted to pin her down and tear those tight little exercise shorts off with my teeth.

“Umm, you? Gym mats. Sweat.”

“No, more specifically, what do I smell like to you?”

“Well, pine trees, mostly.” She leaned forward on her tiptoes, sniffing right behind my ear. “You’ve always got this manly musky thing going on, but is that…” She sniffed again, then pressed her nose to my skin and inhaled, dragging me in just as deeply as I’d been taking pulls of her scent. “Something’s sweet, which I’ve never noticed before. Like… ylang-ylang.”

I grinned stupidly, triumph surging through my veins like a tidal wave ready to suck me under.

“You smell like coffee and cream, with a hit of vanilla underneath.”

“Okay, yes, you smell nice, but Gael, why were you dragging those guys out of here, and why are you acting like a caveman?” Frustration leaked into her tone, but I hesitated to tell her. Not because I didn’t want to shout it from the rooftops, because I fucking did.

But because our past had been rocky, and a little part of me was scared she wouldn’t believe it if she heard it from me.

“Give me two minutes, and I promise I’ll tell you everything?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, but I don’t see why it’s a big secret if— Ah!” She threw her arms around my neck in surprise as I scooped her up. “Seriously, dude, I can walk .”

“Who said anything about walking?” I smirked and sprinted through the doors, past Karl and Sven being dressed down by a purple-faced Cristian in full butler fury. I sprinted up the stairs, not slowing until I reached the second floor. The first door on the left was a small office that Reed had commandeered to keep his restaurant empire running while we were abroad.

I practically skidded to a stop, and he adjusted the collar of his button-up at the sight of us, quickly pushing to his feet. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?” His worried gaze passed over Leigh and then me in rapid succession.

“Everything’s fine. Tell me the mate signs again.”

He slowly sank back into his chair, probably because my eyes were glowing like a fiend and I was still clutching Leigh to my chest even though I’d stopped running.

“Should I be worried that you’ve got short-term memory loss? Brielle is a doctor, if you need an exam.”

“Reed,” I growled, his name a threat.

“Fine, you lunatic. For the third and final time, first is the physical pull, wolf connection, mate scent, mate marks, claiming, and finally the mental bond, in rare cases.”

“Describe the mate scent.”

“A ‘please’ wouldn’t kill you.”

“Please,” Leigh whispered, her fingers wound into a tight little ball against my bare chest. She was starting to get it.

Reed’s eyes softened at her request. “Every wolf has a unique scent, but for your mate, it’s different. Richer, deeper. There are notes that no other being can detect. It’s part of what draws you to them. They smell tantalizing in a way that no other person ever will. Like… pheromones, only personalized to your exact desires.”

Leigh looked up at me, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “It can’t be true, Gael. You’ve always smelled good to me, but… I don’t believe it.”

Frustration tried to creep up, but I smashed it down with force. She was mine, and I knew it. I just had to help her see it.

“Reed, smell me.”

“Oh dear Goddess, I need better friends,” he grumbled as he rose from the chair, but he did, in fact, walk over and sniff the back of my hand.

“You smell like trees.”

“What kind?”

“I guess pines.”

“Nothing else?”

“Soap.”

I nodded.

“What about me?” Leigh asked, watching the exchange wide-eyed. “What do I smell like to you?”

I growled low in my throat, not liking the idea even of my best friend getting that close to my mate, but if it would help her accept the truth… I nodded at Reed, shoving down the jealousy as he took her extended hand.

He took a deep whiff of the back of her hand, exactly as he had mine. “Something bitter. I’m not sure?” He sniffed again. “A cup of coffee.”

Leigh’s eyes turned up toward me, desperation and a hint of fear in their depths. “What do you smell?”