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

36. Leigh

THIRTY-SIX

Leigh

I wasn’t sure when my surroundings changed, only that when I woke up, it was with the gentle rocking of being carried, Gael’s familiar, enticing scent deep in my lungs. My cheek was against his chest, his steel-banded arms under my shoulders and knees, cradling me like I was the most precious woman in the world.

With him, I was finally starting to believe it. It must have been hours later, because I felt like I’d slept for a month, and by the time I heard the soft snick of my bedroom door closing behind us, I was wide awake.

“I know you’re playing possum,” he murmured against my hair as he settled into the plush armchair next to my bedroom window.

“Damn, and here I thought I had you fooled,” I said with a grin, peeking up at him.

He smiled, the little creases at the corner of his eyes not able to wipe out the exhaustion written on his features.

I tried to sit up, but he didn’t let me go. “Let me hold you for a while, please?”

The words made me pause. Gael and I had butted heads plenty over the months we’d known each other, but since when did he ask nicely for what he wanted? Exactly never. He demanded, he growled, he tried to manhandle on occasion.

But saying please? That I would have remembered.

I studied him again, more closely this time.

It was more than just tired. It was a heaviness that I understood on a cellular level, the weight of the world piling up and feeling like more than one person could bear. So I settled back in, tucking my face into his neck. His chest was bare underneath me, and the proximity to all that sculpted muscle was giving me wicked ideas about how I could wake him up later. But for now, he needed to rest, and I needed to comfort him.

My wolf sighed happily in my chest, every bit the contented female to wallow in her mate’s scent and offer him the comfort of pack… of family .

I wasn’t ready to think about that yet. Family was complicated, messy. Family could hurt you in ways no one else could. I pushed the tainted thoughts away with effort, focusing on him instead of my own ugly past.

A tuneless lullaby came to me, so I hummed it as I drew little circles on his chest with my fingertips until his breathing evened out in sleep, the occasional rumble of his chest sending little waves of happiness through me. Even as he succumbed to exhaustion, his hands never slipped from where he held me, as if he was guarding me even in slumber.

It made me feel cherished, loved . It was too soon, too much, too… everything. But it was true, nonetheless.

After a while, rustling noises reached me. I cautiously turned my head, only to spot Nugget shaking himself from the spot where he’d been conked out on my pillow. As soon as he spotted me, he meowed his tiny kitten meow and tumble walked across the bed until he reached the edge and leapt down. He was climbing the armchair with his claws in no time, walking across my legs to curl up on my chest and purr .

I stroked his head as I watched the sunrise, considering the state of my life.

So much had changed. Petal’s appearance, of course. The mark on my palm. Gael’s insistence that we were mates. Which, the longer I sat with it, the more peace I felt about it. It made sense, in a way nothing else had before. I’d dated; I’d had serious relationships. But not with anyone who drew me so relentlessly as him. And if I let myself block out all the noise, all our differences, I could feel it behind my breastbone, that inexorable pull, like we were tethered at the soul level.

If I was a compass, he was true north. I was always going to be turned in his direction. So, why was I fighting a relationship?

Sure, I had baggage. Who didn’t? But maybe it was time to stop holding him at arm’s length. We had so much against us, I didn’t want us to be at odds with each other anymore. And he’d accepted me, wholly, completely, and without question.

No one besides my besties had ever done that before. He didn’t even care that I was a mutt— no , I corrected myself with a grimace as I remembered his reaction the last time I’d used that word. He didn’t even care that I was half-human.

And certainly, no one had ever cared enough to protect me from myself , let alone everyone else. He was different.

Maybe, just maybe, he was the exact kind of different that I needed.

I stared at his sleeping profile, the sun’s first rays lighting him like a statue, carved under a master’s hand from the finest marble. The curve of his full lips was enough to heat up my core, let alone the rest of him. He was truly as beautiful as he was rugged alpha.

He made me feel things I’d never felt before. I wanted more with him than just friendship, and in the warm rays of dawn, I couldn’t deny it anymore. He was mine, and I was his, and it was time to stop hiding behind my hurt and pain. Behind my fear .

Gael began to stir, and I bit my lip as I froze, not wanting to wake him so soon. He’d only been resting an hour or two, tops, and I knew he’d expended an enormous amount of energy, shifting multiple times and running all over the mountains hunting our attackers.

But his grip tightened on me, tucking me tighter against his chest and eliciting a perturbed squeak of protest from Nugget.

He buried his nose in my hair, inhaling deeply. A rock-hard erection grew under my thigh, and my needy pussy was already awake and dripping.

One of the big positives of pregnancy was that I got to blame that on the extra hormones. But frankly, the man had had me twisted in knots since day one. That was why I’d fought him so hard, pushed back against everything he said.

I didn’t want to want him when he acted like a superior asshole.

But also, I’d asked him to be friends. The fact that I wanted to rub myself on him like a wolf in heat was not his fault. It wasn’t at all fair for me to be drooling over him like he was a piece of meat when he was probably just experiencing your average case of morning wood.

Okay, let’s be honest. There was nothing about the man that was average . He had a magnificent dick, and my mouth watered at the vividly delicious memories of our one glorious night together.

Damn, that had been so long ago. It felt like lifetimes had passed, even though it had only been about seven or eight weeks. That was exactly seven weeks and five days too long .

I shifted a little, rubbing my thighs together to try to get a little relief, hopefully without waking him. He shifted his grip, and I froze, but the hand that had been over my still-flat belly like a muscular seat belt withdrew, slowly driving me mad as his calloused palm dragged along the hem of my shirt, catching and lifting it, the tiny strip of exposed skin feeling like a live wire pressed against his warmth. His fingertips stopped at my waistband, a few inches above my pubic bone and very, very awake clit.

I wanted to put that hand exactly where I needed it, but I was ninety-seven percent sure he was still sound asleep. His breathing was slow and easy, the rumble in his chest still low and persistent. He was exhausted.

This wasn’t going to work. I wanted to comfort him, but I needed some space or I was going to self-combust all over his eight-pack abs like a virgin with her first vibrator, and then I would look like a very confused she-wolf who didn’t know her own mind.

“Let’s be friends—oh, sorry I orgasmed on you while you were sleeping because your fingertips brushed my highly sensitive, overstimulated skin. I’m a needy bitch who can’t control herself.”

Yeah, no. Wasn’t going to happen.

I latched on to his large hand with both of mine, getting momentarily distracted by the beautiful contrast between our skin tones. He was a shade or two paler but more olive, while I had the healthy—if slightly waning—tan of a Texan who liked running outdoors. Even his hands were hot. They were strong, wide and thick where mine were slim and small. He made me feel delicate.

That didn’t happen often as an alpha she-wolf. I could bench-press a full-grown human man without breaking a sweat. Weaker pack members didn’t attract me. But Gael? Damn, his dominance was addictive.

I was officially losing my mind. I lifted his hand cautiously, slipping myself sideways, toward the ground.

Nugget took that exact moment to panic, leaping off my chest like a rat off a sinking—err, sliding—ship and skittering across the windowsill like he was demon possessed.

“Where are you going?” The question was low and quiet, and it shouldn’t have sent a frisson of need sizzling through me, but we’d already covered the fact that I was on the edge of crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed with one’s friend-zoned baby daddy.

“The bathroom,” I fudged, though as soon as I said it, I realized that nature was, in fact, calling.

“Come back quickly,” he murmured, pressing a tender kiss to the top of my hair. I closed my eyes for a second, soaking in the feeling. Feelings that were so not friendly.

Gael treated me like no one else ever had, and if that ever changed, I was pretty sure something inside me would break for good.

I hustled to the bathroom, took care of business, and then hastily brushed my teeth. Anything to delay going back in there and dealing with my feelings.

But when I’d run a brush through my hair and straightened my clothes for the third time, I gave up on stalling. I tiptoed back into the room, just in case he’d drifted back off and I could leave him to rest. But deep brown eyes tracked me across the plush carpet with a predator’s intent, sending goose bumps across my arms.

Yet somehow, I wasn’t cold. I was hot under the collar, and he was taking up all the damn air in this room.

I sank to a seat on the foot of the bed, and he cocked an eyebrow in question.

“Why are you all the way over there?” He patted the top of his thigh in invitation, and I swallowed hard, already shaking my head.

“I… need some air. Got a little too warm.” I tried to smile, but it felt more like a grimace.

Probably because I was guilty as fuck.

“Need me to crack a window?” The concern in his voice had me closing my eyes, rocking back away from his perfection. Why couldn’t he just keep being that asshole it was so easy to fight with ?

But was that really what I wanted? Did I want to fight and push him away yet again?

No, no I didn’t. I wanted to take it all back and beg him to take me to bed. I wanted to start over. I wanted a relationship with the man I’d made a baby with.

I heard the soft squeak of the window opening, and the first cool tendril of air made me shiver. I kept my eyes screwed shut, though, because I couldn’t watch him take care of me right now, or I was going to do something reckless.

“Better?” he asked, stepping up to stand in front of me. I didn’t have to look to know he was close. I could feel him, scent him. Every nerve in my body was attuned to his.

Mine, my wolf growled, surprising me as she paced anxiously in my chest.

A gentle touch to my forehead had my eyes flying open of their own accord. He was frowning, the backs of his knuckles light on my skin as he tested my temperature. “You don’t feel hot, but if you’re sick, I can call Brielle.” He let his fingers trail across my cheek, but as he started to withdraw them, I caught his hand between mine.

Not ready to lose the contact.

Not ready to lose him .

“I’m not sick,” I whispered, locking eyes with him.

“No?” he asked, his voice going even huskier than morning gravel. A lightning bolt of lust had me dripping, and I resisted the urge to run. Goddess, he’d barely said a word and I was a needy, panting mess.

I shook my head, and he crouched down, getting on eye level with me. “Something bothering you, princess?”

I bit my lip, warring inside about whether to fess up.

“We’re just friends,” I blurted. “Right? That’s what we said. We’d take it slow, get to know one another as friends. We have Petal to think about, and, and…”

A delicious half grin twisted his lips, and his eyes seemed to get a shade darker as he leaned in closer to whisper, “We’re more than just friends, mate .” That word should not be sexy, but on his lips, it was pure sin. “You know it, and I know it. But we can go any speed that suits you.”

He used his free hand to brush a blonde lock away from my face, and I shuddered under even that simple touch.

Gael groaned low in his throat, and I knew then that he’d scented my arousal. Scented what was really happening here. But he didn’t press me back into the bed, didn’t push for what he could’ve taken without a second thought.

No, he lowered his forehead to rest against mine, letting his hands drop to the mattress on either side of me. Not touching, but close enough to feel the heat. My knees were wide, parted enough that he could kneel between them. But still, he kept those last few inches of distance.

“Tell me what you need.”

The words took all the air from my lungs. Could I do that? Could I just tell him, and he would deliver?

“That feels one-sided,” I said, searching his face.

He chuckled, and I groaned because, damn it, even his laugh did it for me.

“If you think this is one-sided, you’re ignoring all the signs.” He moved his lips next to my ear, the feeling of his breath on my sensitive skin driving me to another level of need. Much more and I was going to burst out of my skin. “Tell me what you want, and it’s yours.”

“You. I want you .” I breathed the words, barely more than a whisper, but he was in motion the second they left my lips.

Strong hands scooped under my thighs, lifting me off the mattress before I had time to compute what was happening. I grabbed his shoulders for balance as he carried me across the room like I weighed nothing. My breasts were pressed against his hard chest, the friction making me whimper even through my borrowed T-shirt .

He stopped in front of the chair we’d been snoozing in, but stopped and turned his head to the side.

His eyes began to glow, and his lip lifted in a snarl. “ Get lost .”

The alpha command surprised me, but the sounds of a kitten ducking for cover made me bury my face in the crook of his neck to smother a laugh.

“Seriously? Scared of a tiny kitten?”

He snorted as he settled onto the chair, surprising me when he put me on his lap, straddling his thick erection. He hadn’t been lying: the feelings were definitely mutual. I resisted the urge to grind against him, but only barely.

“Not scared, no, just not into voyeurism. You’re mine, and only mine. I don’t share.” He growled the words against my lips, and my last lines of defense broke, not with a bang, but with a shudder. I needed him like oxygen, needed to feel that connection bloom between us again.

I poured all that need, that pent-up desire, into the kiss. He groaned against my lips, the sound of his need driving me wild.

“More.” I pulled back just enough to whisper against his lips, grinding down onto his dick like my life depended on it. “I know I said I wanted to be friends and take things slow, but?—”

“We can be friends with benefits.” He growled the words, pulling my hips down flush with his.

While I normally might have laughed at the ridiculous phrase, at the moment, I was too busy being consumed by his passion. I knew for a fact he only had two hands, but they were everywhere, driving me absolutely wild. In my hair, skimming down my back, teasing the strip of skin above the waistband of my thin sweats.

I ground myself harder against him—practically humping him at this point—the two thin pieces of fabric between us not blocking his panty-melting heat as I held on to his shoulders as if they were all that was stopping him from leaving, from setting me down and walking away .

But his grip on me was just as fierce, and I realized that we both had something to lose here. And I stopped, just froze midkiss, and pulled back. My chest heaved as I held him at arm’s length—ridiculous, given my pussy was soaked for him at the moment—and we made wild eye contact.

“What’s wrong?” He murmured the words, hands still flexing against my hips. He didn’t want to stop, but I’d pulled the rip cord, and he was respecting it.

Damn, Gael was a good man.

That once-in-a-lifetime, strong-enough-to-rip-people’s-heads-off-but-he-never-turned-that-strength-against-you, only-used-it- for-you , so-handsome-I-couldn’t-breathe-half-the-time-if-I-looked-at-him-too-long, and yes, grumpy-and-domineering-as-fuck kind of good man. He was alpha, after all.

But none of that was who he was . He was good, honorable, respectful, and caring. He’d stepped up for Petal and me without question. Defended me from judgmental males who I’d been fending off and getting put down by my whole life. My bottom lip began to tremble, and I cursed the pregnancy hormones.

“Shit,” he cursed, wrapping me in a hug. “Too fast. I’m sorry. I just thought?—”

“No, no.” I sobbed as I spoke, burying my face in his neck and dragging in deep, soothing lungfuls of his beautiful sweet, musky pine scent. “You’re perfect. That’s just it, BD, you’re perfect. And I’m so not. I’m a hot mess, I put my foot in my mouth constantly, I’m barely sufficient at this adulting thing, and you’re over there keeping people safe, shouldering real responsibility, and I’m just not good enough for you. By any standard. And if it wasn’t for Petal…” I swallowed hard, breaking the eye contact because it was just too raw and too damn much.

“Don’t hide from me, princess.”

His fingertips on my chin were gentle but persistent as he urged me to look up at him. I resisted at first—let’s add petulant to my list of less-than-fine qualities—but he stayed patient, gentle. Finally, I conceded and looked up again.

His gaze was smoldering hot enough to put that cartoon guy to shame and send another wave of hot need tingling straight to my clit.

“If it wasn’t for Petal,” he started slowly, letting his fingertips trail lightly down the front of my throat until his grip was a loose collar around my neck, “it might have taken us a little longer of circling to figure things out, sure. We’re both too stubborn for our own good.”

I snorted at that. He wasn’t wrong.

“But we were drawn together because we’re mates—meant to be, blessed by the Moon Goddess. If the legends are to be believed, you hold the other half of my soul.”

That made me shiver for a different reason. I’d heard the legends, sure. But was it true? Was he quite literally my other half? The only one who could make me whole?

He continued, unaware of my mental gymnastics. “Petal or no Petal, I was always going to find you. Because you’re mine. And because you’re exactly what I need. And hopefully, in time, you’ll see that I’m exactly what you need too.” His thumb stroked the side of my throat, and I bit back a moan.

My wolf was on high alert. She was dominant, but something about our male being just that little bit more dominant really did it for her. For me. I wanted him to take that choice, take control. Make me his so thoroughly I couldn’t ever deny that we were meant to be again.

Because the truth was, I already knew. He was everything I’d never dared dream I could deserve. When you grew up being told you were a mutt, a worthless half-breed barely fit to hold a wolf, let alone to belong, to matter … having someone as perfect as Gael be your mate was intimidating.

I didn’t feel worthy. I felt ashamed. Ashamed of my past, of my alcoholic mother, my unknown wolf father who’d abandoned me. Ashamed of the fact that I’d been dumped by an asshole like Marcus. Ashamed that I was pregnant and broke, working among humans for barely more than minimum wage.

Shame was so deep under my skin, it was practically part of my DNA.

So how could he not see it? How did it not look like one of those red capes in front of a raging bull, a blinking neon sign saying, “Reject me because I’m not good enough?”

He was silent, studying me as he waited for an answer. And I, the girl who was never shy of words, who had too many words, couldn’t think of a damn thing to say.

“I already know,” I admitted, then bit my bottom lip. “I already know you’re everything I need. I’m just not sure I’m brave enough to take what I want.”

His lips lifted into a slow, sultry grin, his grip on my throat tightening just a little as he towed me forward. “All you have to do is let go. Do you trust me?”

Gael’s eyes were so fierce, his wolf’s glow lighting me up in more ways than one. I wanted him, wild and free and giving me every scrap of warrior’s strength he was holding back right now.

“I do,” I managed, sucked in by his magnetism.

Our lips crashed together, and I knew I was lost.