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

Epilogue — Reed

Gael and Leigh’s bonding ceremony had been lovely, but I couldn’t sleep after. Despite the sounds of the afterparty still raging outside, I was tossing and turning alone in my bed as the moon made her fickle, torturously slow trek across the sky, and frankly, I was fucking over it. So, I shut the blinds, took a double shot of whiskey strong enough to down a horse—or maybe a very cranky wolf shifter—and waited for sleep to come.

In the past, I might have found one of the maidens to follow back to her room for a good hard fuck, but tonight, I hadn’t felt like it. None of the women had sparked my interest, and I wasn’t the sort of man who slept around for the sake of it. I had to feel something for the other person.

I couldn’t say when I dozed off, but reality got fuzzy around the edges, and eventually, I was dreaming. But the dreams were fitful nightmares about a faceless blonde woman running through the woods in the dark. She was being chased, and after the third time I watched someone catch her and tackle her to the forest floor, I startled awake in a cold sweat.

The same damn nightmare that had been plaguing me for weeks. And every time, it ended the same way. With me, in a cold sweat, staring at my ceiling.

Who needed sleep anyway? I decided to give it up for the night, even though a quick glance at my watch showed that it was only three a.m. I stood over my borrowed desk, rubbing the back of my neck as I stared down at the small pile of papers there. Normally, I would just sit down and start making business calls—there were restaurants open somewhere in the world right now, after all—but I couldn’t bear it tonight. All I saw was the four wolves chasing the woman, over and over. Every time, four wolves.

So instead, I decided to be reckless. I grabbed the keys to one of the SUVs, pulled my bonding outfit and my shoes back on, and headed down the mountain.

I drove until I found an open bar, the neon lights making me squint as I sat in the dark interior of the SUV. It said Micul Tuica on the front window, after Romania’s national drink. All the couples were back in the enclave, probably having a very good night after the lovelace perfume came out.

Maybe that’s why I’m so itchy . Everyone around me was now mated and getting sex regularly. Yet here I was, over three hundred years old and one shade above a monk. When was the last time I’d been with a woman and not my own hand?

I scraped said hand over my face, wiping away the indecision. I shot off a quick text to Kane to let him know where I’d ended up, tossed the cell phone into the center console, and climbed out.

Getting drunk was a fool’s errand for a wolf, but I could at least nurse a whiskey in peaceful anonymity here, away from the veritable cloud of pheromones that would inevitably be coating the enclave’s halls all night.

The bar was barely more than a dive, and my thousand-dollar shoes stuck to the floor after I stepped inside.

Scratch that. It’s a hundred percent a dive . But the bartender was still awake and slinging drinks, and there was an open stool at the bar. I didn’t need anything else tonight.

I ordered a double shot of the whiskey on the top shelf, then turned my back to the bar to sip it as I studied the other patrons. Most were men, and as far as I could tell, they were all human. It was soothing to be surrounded by humans after so much time around wolves.

That was how I kept my control so well, though I’d never admit that to another soul. Dirge wasn’t the only one who felt the ever-encroaching pull of darkness after so long without a mate. But I had an empire to run, and I ran it among humans. They weren’t plagued with all the travails of being a shifter, the urge to shed your skin and run under the moon, rut a willing female.

No, they were simpler, cleaner. Well, some of them. I wrinkled my nose as a sour-smelling man who’d had about four too many wandered up to the bar next to me, tilting drunkenly into my shoulder before catching himself against the rough-hewn bar.

I stood from my stool, opting instead for a table right inside the door, my back safely in the corner.

My legendary control had never faltered, not in all these years. But tonight? Tonight, the darkness felt too close. A wildness I couldn’t put my finger on, itching beneath my skin like I’d gone too long without shifting. I hadn’t. I’d shifted the day before yesterday while we defended the castle. If it weren’t three a.m., I’d be worried about that, but perhaps it really had been too long since I’d been with a woman.

Lucien was older than I was, but he had told me before that the constant rotation of females he charmed into his bed kept him sane. None of us were immune from the moon sickness in the end.

The problem was, there weren’t many available options at the moment .

Olivia was nice, but she was so shy, we’d barely exchanged ten words. And while she was pretty, nothing about her made my heart beat faster. She was no more intriguing to my wolf than a sister. Dating outside the pack wasn’t exactly top of the priority list with everything going on, but I’d have to do something, soon, or else Dirge wouldn’t be the feral wolf anymore.

It would be me, I thought bitterly. How the mighty had fallen.

I threw back the last of my whiskey in one shot and was standing to get myself another, when I heard a scuffle outside.

Probably a couple of drunks . I wrote it off and strode past the door, but when it came flying open a second later, I spun on my heel.

Two things hit me at once: the most delectable scent I’d ever smelled filled my nose, and I saw a disheveled woman standing inside the doorway. Her clothes were torn and bloody, her eyes wild, and I startled as I realized they were two different colors. One was a rich brown, the other ice blue, with a section of golden brown at the bottom.

“Are you okay?” I asked, taking a reflexive step forward, as if she was pulling me in.

“Don’t let them get me,” she whispered as she started to shudder.

“Don’t let who get you?” I asked, taking another step, the scent intensifying, except… she was human . So why did she smell so irresistible?

My wolf was snarling in my chest, pacing back and forth like he was about to burst out of my skin, tear apart whoever she was so afraid of.

“The wolves are after me. Please help me,” she begged, eyes locked with mine. She grabbed both of my hands, and a bolt of recognition lit me up from the inside.

Mate! My wolf howled with dark glee, redoubling his efforts to bust loose .

I looked down in shock at our joined hands, processing everything in what felt like slow motion.

She can’t be our mate. Smell her! She’s human!

But she reached up, moving to grab the front of my shirt when I saw it.

There’s an omega seal shining from her palm.

“Please,” she whispered, holding on to my shirt with shocking strength for a human.

“I’ve got you. You’re safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I promised, edging her away from the open doorway. I had to get her back to the enclave immediately.

“Safe. Yes, you are safe,” she mumbled, eyes seeming to lose focus a second before they rolled back in her head, and she crumpled toward the floor.

“Shit!” I swore as I caught her, barely stopping her from hitting the ground. When the door slammed open again, I was holding her on the floor, trying to figure out what the hell to do.

But when the scent of shifters hit me, I knew I was out of time.

Because four pissed-off shifters had just walked in, and every single one of them was fixated on the woman in my arms.

The woman from the nightmares.

Thank you so much for reading Fated to the Warrior Wolf! Leigh and Gael really took me through the emotional wringer, but in the end, I just love them. I hope you do, too. Our next book focuses on Reed and his mystery human… not to mention the pack drama a human mate is going to cause. And the ODL. Bastards .