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

54. Leigh

FIFTY-FOUR

Leigh

I walked back toward my room, feeling a little lost. Gael looked devastated. He hadn’t said a single word to me since I walked out of Kari’s house or on the entire drive home. I was trying to pay attention to Sergei’s update, but other than the occasional ooh and ahh, it all went in one ear and out the other. Frankly, it sounded like more emergencies, and that was all we’d had for weeks. You know what emergency number four hundred sixty-seven felt like?

Exhaustion. Sometimes, you don’t have the mental capacity to put out another life-as-we-know-it-ending fire, and that was where I was at.

But when I stopped outside my door, I knew what I personally needed to do.

The drawer.

I’d been studiously ignoring the pull I felt toward it. It was the only drawer I wouldn’t let myself open, except to tuck the latest note inside and quickly slip it back closed. I had lost count of how many I had at this point, but I knew it was more than two dozen. He’d been leaving them for me constantly since the first one, at least one a day, most days more. Sometimes, I sat down at breakfast and found one tucked under a plate with my name on it; other times, it was shoved under the crack of my bedroom door. Once, I found one taped to the back door of the castle, proving he knew I’d been going for my runs every single day, multiple times per day.

But still, he didn’t push. He hadn’t brought them up or asked if I’d read them.

He was too good for me. He was a good man. And it was time I stopped keeping him at arm’s length. He knew about Kari now. So, what was the point of pushing him away? I blew out a breath and twisted the doorknob, only to be momentarily struck dumb at what I found inside.

Every surface of my room was covered in shopping bags. Every chair, dresser, the ledge in front of my window, the bed. I took a few steps in, and yep—even the bathroom counter was absolutely packed with smaller bags from upscale toiletry and skincare brands.

I sniffed and scented Cristian and perhaps two of the female housekeepers. On second sniff, I was certain one of them was Ivy, who I’d met and fought beside the night of the castle attack. But why? Why would they suddenly buy me all this stuff? I wondered as I ran my hand over the tissue paper sticking up out of one of the pink bags.

And then I saw it. The same kind of creamy envelope I’d gotten so many of, taped to the front of a gorgeous pink leather purse at the foot of the bed, where I could easily spot it.

My mind immediately went back to the night before, when I’d haphazardly rambled the only thing I knew how to say in Spanish. My name is Leigh, and I like pink purses.

Oh, Gael . What are you doing to me? I closed my eyes a moment as the tears began to threaten.

Once I had myself mostly under control, I crossed the last few feet and lifted the note off the front of the gorgeous bag. With a deep breath, I peeled back the tape and lifted out the folded piece of paper. The note was short, only a few lines, but still, it took my breath away.

Princess,

Feel free to return or exchange anything you don’t like. I asked Cristian to do some shopping on my behalf, since we were busy with the council today. My mate and child deserve the best, and that includes taking care of the basics, like clothes. I hope you will accept this as the gift that it is and use your card to buy anything else I might have overlooked or gotten wrong.

Oh, and one more thing.

Me encanta comprarte carteras rosas.

Always,

G

I laughed and pressed a hand over my mouth as I read the last line. I love buying you pink purses . A wet droplet landed on the paper, and I snatched it away before more tears could fall to preserve the ink. Damn.

Gael had seen me struggling to get dressed this morning, and in only a few short hours, he’d taken care of it. He asked for literally nothing in return; he only wanted to take care of me and Petal, and something about that reality made me want to sob.

I ran my hand over the top of my exposed belly as I looked down at it.

“Your daddy is a really wonderful man, Petal. I don’t get a lot of things right. I’ve made so many mistakes, and I’ll always be honest about that. But your daddy? He wasn’t one of those mistakes. You’re so lucky to have him,” I whispered. “We both are.”

I blew out a breath and opened the bag closest to me, with no small amount of trepidation. It was full of buttery-soft black maternity leggings.

I immediately shucked the too-tight exercise leggings I’d put on this morning and pulled the new ones on. They were heaven. They glided over my belly with ease, and it felt like I could take my first full breath in weeks . The bag behind it was full of soft maternity T-shirts, each with funny sayings on them. With a smile, I pulled on a rose-colored one that said licensed to smuggle watermelons .

While I wanted to poke through it all, see what else he’d deemed necessary that took up this much space, I had a much more pressing need. I crossed to my desk—where I spotted a second stunning rose-leather purse, sitting there with a bow on it nonchalantly like that brand of bag didn’t cost more than my car back home—yanked open the drawer, and scooped out every single letter he’d left me. There were so many, it took me a few seconds to gather them all up in a way that I wasn’t going to drop any. Then I slipped on my running shoes and headed for the back door, the precious cargo clutched to my chest.

I walked myself through the woods to a quiet spot where I knew I wouldn’t be bothered. There was an old nurse log with a soft moss blanket at the perfect height to make a seat. I stopped here sometimes when I’d pushed too hard, but this time I wasn’t even breathing heavily. My pulse was still pounding, though. Because I knew that once I opened these letters, there was no going back. No pretending that I didn’t care more about Gael than I was willing to admit, even to myself.

It was going to hurt, reading them. I knew it intrinsically. But I was ready. Ready to hold those feelings, take them out of the closet, and give them their moment to wreck me. I’d wrecked him today, so it was only fair.

I shook out all my muscles, making myself take a moment to loosen up, and then lifted the flap on the top letter. There was no date on it, so I didn’t know which order it had come in.

Dear Princess ,

Something not many people know about me is that after I had my first shift at thirteen ? —

My jaw dropped. Thirteen? That was so young. I hadn’t shifted until I was almost sixteen. I kept reading.

—I was sent to an enclave for training. In the past, only second sons were sent away to become warriors, but since I was the second child and only son, my father thought it likely I would have to protect my own throne. Little did he know I would grow up to want nothing to do with the throne at all.

But I spent seven years at the enclave. That’s actually where I met Kane for the first time. He was sent there on a tour. If he had a younger brother, his brother would have been sent to train, as well. But as you know, he was an only child when his parents passed.

I learned a lot of things there. How to fight with almost any weapon. How to survive on a few hours of sleep. How to survive alone in the woods as a man, not just as a wolf. How to use myself as a human shield. It’s funny, because while my father never intended it, he forged me into the perfect weapon to be the high alpha’s second.

Always,

G

That was unexpected, on so many levels. He hadn’t been angry or … I don’t know. He hadn’t even mentioned our broken relationship. It was a nice letter telling me about his past. So, what was in the rest of them? Maybe the angry one had been earlier on?

I flipped the pile over and picked the one that had been at the very bottom.

Dear Princess,

I admit I should have told you much sooner about who I am and my family. That was a mistake I regret. I know you don’t want to speak to me right now, and that’s okay. I hope these notes will let you learn a bit more about my past, and also show you that I’m holding nothing else back from you or our daughter. I’m going to tell you anything I can think of, whether it’s important or not .

But first, I’d like to tell you that you are my princess. I know, it came as a shock. But it just… felt right. If I had to be a prince, the least I could do was make you my princess. I’m sorry if that seems stupid or trite. I’ve heard the way you talk about yourself and the way others have said derogatory things about you in the past. But I don’t see you as your bloodline. I couldn’t care less that you’re half-human.

In my eyes, you’re perfect. Fit to wear my family’s crown. And if you want, one day, I’ll get it for you. My father would be overjoyed. Whatever we decide, when that day comes, we’ll decide it together. Petal would look as beautiful as her mother in the christening gown, of that I have no doubt.

Always,

G

I bit my lip as I lowered the letter to my lap. He wasn’t angry? These were make-up letters, anecdotes and snippets from his life so far. I was suddenly anxious to read every single word, perhaps twice. I craved knowing him so much, it was overwhelming. I carefully set the letter I’d finished on my other side and picked up the next one.

It contained a charming story about the time he’d broken his first bone, at twelve, spying on his older sister and falling out of the tree outside her bedroom window. I laughed so hard, I had to stop reading to catch my breath, because the way he described himself lying stunned on the ground while the limbs spun overhead was utterly ridiculous.

I got so caught up binge reading every single letter and absorbing all the tiny details of his life, I almost didn’t catch the rustle in the undergrowth. I don’t know what it was that alerted me finally, but I fixated on the low murmur of someone talking first, my head snapping up to scan my surroundings. I didn’t see anyone, but my wolf was edgy, all the hair along her ruff and back standing up at attention.

Had the girls or Gael followed me out here? Was Oli sleepwalking again? No, that was ludicrous in the broad daylight. Everything had been perfectly normal with her besides that one weird-ass night. Plus, a deep inhale told me I didn’t scent anyone from my own pack. I carefully gathered my letters and tucked them into the end of the log, safely out of sight, as I continued to listen. If they were close enough to hear, my wolf would be able to scent them if I shifted. But Brielle had warned me that shifting would get more difficult the further along I was, and I was pretty damn fast on foot. So, I waited, and I listened.

There were a lot of someones in the woods. The sounds of a large number of people trekking through underbrush were unmistakable, and they didn’t seem to be trying to keep quiet. The closer the sounds got, the more I realized the voices weren’t just talking. They were angry.

Unease filled me as I realized they were heading right toward me from the deeper forest, and I glanced around for any reasonable place to hide, but found none. This part of the forest was old-growth, well-spread, mature trees that, sure, I could duck behind, but a shifter would scent me in a heartbeat. In the past, I would have climbed a tree—one of my many beneficial skills learned growing up as a poor tomboy in the South—but that wasn’t safe or possible with my constantly expanding midsection. On the off chance I fell, I could really hurt Petal and myself.

Shit. Should I make a run for it? I hadn’t bothered to bring my cell to call back to the castle because I liked the uninterrupted quiet out here.

But if I bolted, they would for sure hear me, and I was more than two miles from the castle. While I was fit, I wasn’t so egotistical to think no other shifter could run as fast as I could.

My wolf pressed forward, and suddenly, the decision was no longer mine as I landed on all fours, furry. She took us off to the side, away from the beaten running track I’d been frequenting, and deeper into the forest on silent paws.

My wolf’s light tan fur wasn’t the most inconspicuous in the deep green of the forest, but she was lower to the ground and quieter than I could ever dream of being in human form. And if no one in the group was shifted… maybe they’d write me off as a wild wolf? I wasn’t so giant to be confirmed on sight as a shifter.

She wove us between trees, slowly but surely putting distance between us and the oncoming horde.

And then I heard it.

“Hey, do you smell that? Somebody’s been out here. I think they went that way. She smells… weird. Good ,” a male voice I didn’t recognize said with a threatening growl.

“She smells fertile ,” another male voice added. “We should chase her down and see if she’s up for a little fun.”

Their laughter made me feel sick to my stomach.

Shit .

My wolf picked up the pace, but it was too late for stealth. I heard part of the group break off, heading in my direction and moving much faster than the rest, as a few excited howls broke the air.

She flattened her ears and bolted deeper into the forest.

This was officially a chase.