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

30. Leigh

THIRTY

Leigh

“ Y ou okay, Leigh-bee?” Brielle asked, hip checking me lightly as I stood in front of the world’s most ridiculous sleepover snack spread, waffling. The chef had gone all out, and the entire front of the window had been transformed into a sleepover buffet the likes of which movie sets would cry for. I needed to hurry up and choose, because if Brielle was pulling out nicknames, she was worrying about me. And she didn’t need to worry about me when our men were out risking their lives tonight.

Perhaps a waffle was the answer to all my problems. But syrup sounded heavy, not luscious.

I wished I’d brought Nugget with me to snuggle, but he’d been sleeping so peacefully on my pillow that I couldn’t bring myself to wake him up.

“I’m okay, just worried. And not sure what to do about it.”

“Is it strange having a mate all of a sudden?” Olivia asked, taking a nervous nibble of her ice cream cone, where she perched on the edge of the bed.

Because yes, they’d brought in a tabletop freezer chock-full of handmade ice creams, freshly formed waffle cones, and every topping known to mankind.

Shay was lying on the ground on her back, playing an invisible piano. She’d already demolished two plates, clearly not suffering from the same indecision as me. I was going to blame the baby, because that was my right as a pregnant lady.

Though, if they kept feeding me like this, I would definitely double in size before I had this baby. There were worse ways to gain a few pounds than pregnancy cravings, so I was a-okay with it.

I finally picked up a melty chocolate chip cookie—how did they stay so warm? Seriously, the chef might be a wizard, not a wolf—and turned around to face Olivia and her question. I was curious what—or rather, who —had her thinking about suddenly having a mate fall in your lap, but I didn’t want to pry.

“I think the weirdest part for me is that it’s actually not instant. I mean, we’ve been around each other for months now and still don’t have marks.”

“You don’t?” she asked, mouth falling open in surprise.

“Nope.” I popped the p, not at all wanting to examine our lack of mate marks. Or my lingering worry that my half-human bloodline meant I might never get them.

“I had no idea it worked like that. I guess I assumed… it was supposed to happen on its own, and it would be seamless.”

“Ha,” Shay said with a snort. “I don’t think any of us have had seamless. My mate bond got messed up by like three different types of magic, and my bond marks came in one painful stroke at a time.”

I chewed my bottom lip, considering. She was right, and while I’d known that her marks hadn’t come in easily or right away, I kind of assumed that it was only because of the fact Dirge had been feral at the time.

“So how did you get them to come in?” I asked, thinking back. She hadn’t mentioned anything specific at the time, other than the fact they were slowly coming in throughout our stay in Texas.

Shay blushed red as a tomato and didn’t answer right off.

Ah .

“Physical contact,” she finally said, sounding embarrassed. My sweet, quiet bestie wasn’t open with her sexuality, and I respected her desire for privacy and didn’t pry. But my brain was more than willing to supply an endless reel of Gael and me and provide snapshots of the sex-a-thon that had created our little Petal.

“So, you didn’t know right away, then?” Olivia asked, ice cream forgotten.

I snorted. “Definitely not. We kind of hated each other for most of the time. But I was so drawn to him, it was even more irritating. Like in my head, I kept thinking, ‘I need to stay away from this guy, he’s so annoying,’ but deeper down, it was like a bee to honey. I couldn’t escape the pull, and one night… it all blew up.” I bit my lip at the memory and how much had changed in the few short weeks since.

“I knew right away,” Shay offered. “My wolf claimed him on sight, even though he was feral at the time.”

“Goddess’s hem,” Olivia said, wide-eyed. “You weren’t scared of him?”

“No, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I was surprised, but he was mine. From the start.”

“That is so sweet,” she said with a wistful sigh.

Bri smiled coyly. “Someone caught your eye?”

“Oh, well?—”

Dirge burst through the door. “Cristian just radioed. Everybody into the tunnels.”

“Tunnels? What fucking tunnels?” I dropped my cookie, panic surging through my veins as Shay sprang up from the floor, eyes aglow.

“Behind the nightstand,” Dirge was all business, cutting through our girly clutter with precision and efficiently setting aside the solid mahogany piece of furniture. He leaned down and depressed a small stone on the wall, and the floor shook as a heavy door swung inward.

“Holy shit, this is like Batman’s castle,” Bri said, clutching my arm.

“You didn’t know that was there?”

“Hell no. I wouldn’t have slept in here if I did.”

“No time to discuss. In, now. We’re under attack.”

“Attack! From who?”

Dirge unceremoniously took me by the shoulders and pushed me through the opening. Shay and Bri followed, but Olivia was ghostly pale and shaking her head. “No, no. I don’t do small spaces, please. I can’t, I can’t?—”

“I’m sorry about this, but it’s this or a cell, and you’re still in danger from bullets inside a cell. If you keep walking, there’s a larger area a bit farther down.”

“No, no.” Dirge lifted her around the waist and passed her into Shay’s arms. Shay looked grim as she held Oli, murmuring apologies as Dirge shut the door behind us. There was only a sliver of light left when the door to the high alpha’s suite banged open, and I had to resist the urge to scream for him to come in with us. I knew he wanted to protect the castle, but he was all alone out there.

The heavy door slid shut as he burst out of his clothing, a massive black wolf leaping into the fray as we were sealed away behind the walls.

“How will they get us out? Goddess, if they all die, we’ll be trapped in here !” Olivia was having a panic attack.

I rounded on her, my own alpha wolf rising to the surface as Bri and Shay desperately shushed her.

“Enough,” I snapped on a low hiss, letting my power out to brush against hers.

She was much lower down the hierarchy than my alpha or even Shay’s beta. A nu, my wolf decided as she trembled silently under my command. I eased up a fraction, not enough for her to keep talking, but enough that she’d know I wasn’t trying to torment her. “We’re not going to stay here. We’re going to go down into the tunnel, like Dirge told us. It’ll open up, and we’ll be with you. We are not going to get trapped in here, and the men are going to be fine.” I added the last bit for myself as much as for her.

They have to be okay. I hid my own terror with sheer alpha will. Someone had to take charge, and that someone was me.

“Okay, I’m sorry. We’re going to be okay. Right?” Oli asked in a terrified whisper, hands shaking as she pushed her red hair away from her eyes.

“Exactly. We’ll be fine, and so will they. The best thing we can do now is stay calm and work together.” I eyed the cold stone walls warily. They were so thick that with the opening sealed behind us, I couldn’t hear the fight I knew was happening right outside. But if things did go wrong, I didn’t want to be sitting here waiting for them to attack us next. We would go deeper down and see if there were any weapons. If not, we’d at least have more room to maneuver as wolves.

“Kane and Gael are on their way back with Varga, but it’s still going to be a bit,” Bri whispered as we started down the tunnels. “He’s close enough that I can feel it through my bond. Dirge won’t be alone for too long. Kane’s picking up some of what’s happening through my emotions, and he’s pissed.”

“They aren’t going to know what hit them,” Shay said, a savage edge to the words. Her eyes were glowing—hell, all our eyes were, which was why we could see in the sparse light from the distantly placed sconces in these tunnels.

They were surprisingly clean, but cold and clammy. I did not want to spend the night down here, but it was better than the alternative.

The ground sloped down under our feet, and the tunnel began to turn, sharper and sharper until we were walking straight down in a corkscrew pattern. Eventually, it opened back up again, into what looked like a full-on armory. There were glass cases lining the walls, a room full of bunk beds, a full kitchen with a nonperishable pantry, and even a garage with four large, blacked-out SUVs that I’d bet were bulletproof waiting inside.

I found a light switch on one of the walls, and soft LED lighting flickered to life around the space. Olivia breathed a sigh of relief and made a beeline to a couch in front of a television. Bri wasted no time finding a basket of plush blankets and pulling one over Olivia as I dropped my alpha command completely. I let her tend to our still-shaking pack mate—because that was what she’d become since we’d met. I didn’t know how or why, but she fit with us.

I’d apologize to Oli later for using my dominance on her, but now wasn’t the time. Shay walked with me to the cases of weapons, eyes wide as she took in row upon gleaming row of deadly potential.

“Do you know how to use any of these?” she asked, pointing to some sort of gun with a large circular bullet thing underneath it.

“I’ve been to the gun range a time or two. I’ll figure it out.” I ran my fingertips over the glass until I felt some give. As soon as I pressed, the glass door popped open on smooth hinges, and I selected a midsized gun from the rack.

A quick check showed it was loaded, and I slipped a spare magazine into my pajama pants pocket. I turned a questioning gaze on Shay, but she shook her head.

“If it comes to that, I’ll shift. My wolf is a better fighter than I am.”

“Fair enough. I’m just not sure what would happen if I shifted right now.”

“Let’s not find out, please. We all need to keep our strength,” Bri interjected. “Why don’t you sit with Oli—you can take the chair facing the tunnel, if it makes you feel better—and Shay and I will get us all some water.”

She had her doctor voice on, so I didn’t argue. I clicked the gun case back closed and wandered over to the chair she’d pointed at. I rested the gun across my lap and waited.