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

22. Gael

TWENTY-TWO

Gael

S he’s pissed, and I can’t blame her .

If I cracked an egg on Leigh’s forehead right now, it would fry. But how was I supposed to tell her that I challenged them for calling her a mutt?

It was an ugly term, slang for a shifter who’s half-human. But more than that, it was derogatory. People in some circles looked down on a “mutt” for mixing up the species bloodlines, even though that was utter bullshit. They had a wolf, same as I did. There was no weakness, no flaw in someone who was mixed.

My parents, though? They thought bloodlines mattered.

Good breeding isn’t something you can fake, Gael. My mother’s voice echoed inside my head as if she were standing over my shoulder, judging me.

Bile rose up the back of my throat as I thought of all the complications that attitude had caused in my life, including the reason why I didn’t even want to come back to Romania to begin with.

Yet here I was, dealing with old prejudices and my very new, very pissed-off pregnant mate .

But I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. Even if it weren’t true—I didn’t care. She had enough on her plate without me dumping the rumors on top. The ugly rumors, of which I was sure I’d only heard the very tip of the iceberg.

It was my job to protect her from all of it, and this challenge was exactly what was necessary to do that. Once people realized that talking shit about her got them challenged and fired… the talk would dry up. It had to.

“Trust you? I should just trust you to go beat up two guys for no reason. How about we actually have an adult conversation instead? Try mixing things up now that we know we’re fated to spend the rest of our lives together, hm?”

“I have a reason,” I said regretfully as I sat up and pulled on a black T-shirt from my duffel bag by the door. We were both too wound up for this conversation, and all it was going to do was make us fight.

Again .

I didn’t want to fight with her; not anymore. I never had.

“You just won’t deign to tell me?”

“It’s not like that, okay? I’m protecting you.” I ran a hand over my hair, pent-up frustration making me want to punch something.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not some damsel in distress who needs protecting. I’m just fine on my own. I don’t want a relationship where you feel you have to keep things from me for my own good. I want a partnership. But if that’s not what you want, well, maybe it’s good we got interrupted.”

Her eyes were cold as she climbed out of my bed, and I hated every second of it. Her sweet, rich scent was now tinged with unbridled anger.

“Don’t say that.”

“Tell me, then. Tell me what’s going on. Let me in!” She gestured with both hands .

“I—”

Reed bellowed and pounded the door again. “Gael! If you don’t come now, it’s a forfeit, and I’m letting them go!”

I growled low in my chest as I held up a finger to Leigh. “I’ll tell you everything. Just let me deal with this first, okay? I promise. The whole story.”

She pursed her lips angrily, but nodded.

I strode to the door and ripped it open.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not the one who challenged them.” Reed turned and stalked off, muttering under his breath and pointedly not waiting for me to follow.

When I cast a look back at Leigh, she was already at my side, arms crossed. “Well, if you’re going to do this, don’t expect me to sit around and wait for you to come back. Let’s go.”

I’m in deep shit.

The challenge ring of the pack castle was outside, behind the main building, tucked into a corner of the lawn. It was a little overgrown—meaning the pack security team wasn’t keeping up with their training, another thing for me to fix—but the center was still hard-packed dirt, perfect for a pair of wolves to go over defensive moves.

Or in this case, for one man to teach two shitheads that we took respect for our females seriously in this pack.

There was a small crowd gathered, beyond just our small contingent from Pack Blackwater. I was only slightly surprised to see Cristian in full butler regalia at Kane’s side, a sneer of distaste twisting his upper lip.

The man stepped forward, intercepting Leigh and me before I could get into the ring. “Alpha Starling, I apologize for the disrespect you’ve had to deal with today.”

I tensed at the use of my surname—Alpha Starling was my father, and the fewer people who associated me with him, the better. But Cristian continued, unaware of my distaste.

“May I suggest that our head of security, Sergei, handles this disciplinary challenge? You should not be forced to clean up a mess within Pack Caelestis’s ranks.” He gestured to the ringside, where a shirtless and oiled-up Sergei stood, looking pissed off as he glared at Karl and Sven.

The two of them should have looked thoroughly chastised—and Sven did—but Karl’s chin was lifted defiantly, and that was all I needed to see.

“I’ll be handling the challenge myself, Cristian, but I’ll happily accept Sergei as my second.” I clapped the elderly butler on the shoulder, nodded to Sergei, and turned to Leigh.

Her anger seemed to have fizzled some, her posture more nervous now that we were standing beside a training ring as she chewed on her bottom lip.

“Can I kiss you?” I leaned in and murmured the question as I traced the back of her hand with my thumb. I asked it lightly, but her answer felt more life-and-death than this challenge I was about to execute. This thing between us was so fragile, and it felt like the whole shebang hung on the answer falling from her lips.

“I should say no,” she said, squinting at me briefly before her posture softened. “But I’m going to say yes and hope that you’ve got a damn good reason for this.”

I grinned at that and took my time skating my hands up her arms to cup her jaw. “I do, and I’ll tell you everything after. Just remember… from time to time, it’s necessary to teach a lesson so that people respect the pack order.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” She rolled her eyes—always ready with some small defiance, my mate—but didn’t pull back as I lowered my lips to hers, right in front of our friends and the waiting crowd. I kept it firm, but PG. It was a claim being staked, if ever there was one. But also, I wasn’t ready to put on a show. It wasn’t only fragile—our bond was precious.

It wasn’t for their eyes—just me and Leigh.

When I pulled back, there was a hungry heat burning in her that I couldn’t wait to explore. It was a crime to get interrupted before I’d gotten to taste her again.

But duty called, so I released her reluctantly after pressing another soft kiss to her forehead. Rolling my shoulders a few times to loosen up, I stepped into the ring.