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She had no expectations about who I was supposed to be as her mate. She didn’t ask me to fawn over her or be someone I wasn’t. She accepted my gruffness as equally as she accepted my need to touch her when we were together at night.
There wasn’t an inch of her body that I hadn’t worshiped with my mouth or fingers yet, but since I’d told her about sex solidifying our bond, she hadn’t asked for more.
She also hadn’t pushed me away. I was okay with her need to wait, but I could already smell the heat coming. Subtle hints of arousal wafted from her during the day, and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to keep from claiming her fully when she hit the peak in just a week. The inner frenzy would be too much for me or my wolf to ignore.
Not unless someone chained me inside a cell, or worse…Kinsley rejected me.
I grimaced and rubbed a fist over my chest.Fuck.Just thinking about the fact that she could choose to reject me felt terrible. It had my insides constricting, making it hard to breathe.
My own issues were swiftly shoved away when I caught Kinsley flinching next to me.
I brushed my lips casually against her ear and tucked her closer to my side, whispering, “What is it?”
She pressed her face closer to me and fluttered bright eyes at me. “Maybe twenty or so wolves, coming in fast.”
My wolf senses had already been searching for threats, but somehow, it had taken me seconds longer to detect them coming than it had Kinsley.
Another sign that told me this was the right path for my mate, even if I’d have rather kept her to myself in No Man’s Land after killing Johnathon and the threat I knew he might be to her.
“Will you two…chill?” I said to Lia and Markus, trying to say something out of character so they’d be more alert but not sound fucking awkward, either.
Lia giggled and turned toward me and Kinsley. There was tightness around her eyes as they searched around us. “Oh, come on. We’re just having a little fun.”
Well, we were about to.
The pack of shifters was closing in. I couldn’t sense where Tuck had gone, but I could hear murmurs in Kinsley’s ear, which hopefully meant they’d be here as backup if needed.
“No,” I heard Kinsley mutter, but before I could ask what she was replying to, a strangled howl cut through the quiet afternoon heat.
Wolves leapt from their corners, coming at us in groups of two and three.
Kinsley shifted, and I quickly followed her movements, except she was faster than me—something I’d had a hard time admitting to myself this week—and was already engaged with two wolves before I’d landed on four paws.
Two more were headed for my mate, but they weren’t going to fucking touch her. I sped forward, cutting off their path. My teeth ripped into the neck of the nearest one before throwing him to the side while I kept eyes on the second.
He came at me with teeth bared, but I wasn’t scared—not in the fucking slightest—of these pathetic wolves.
My claws extended and slammed into the side of the wolf’s tan head like a counterbalance that sent the ragged beast right into the ground with little effort. His body thudded against the pavement so hard that I was sure the cracks beneath him grew longer.
He continued to fight back, trying to get up, but that wasn’t happening.
With a warning snarl, I ripped into his front flank, taking away his ability to walk right, then shoved him away with my head and a dark, pointed look. I hoped the young wolf took it as the only warning I was going to give and stayed down. Otherwise, my canine teeth were going to be the last thing he ever saw.
Kinsley was already battling another group of wolves while Markus and Lia stayed together on her other side. Nearly a dozen wolves were already on the ground, and Kinsley was covered in blood I could scent wasn’t hers.
I leapt back into the fight without missing a beat until a man exited one of the alleyways with three wolves flanking his sides. Between clawing and snapping at our attackers, I did my best to keep an eye on him, assuming he was Ethan, the leader Ryder had mentioned.
His long, ebony hair was tied at the base of his head, and he had a fresh scar that started behind his ear and disappeared beneath his black T-shirt.
He kept his arms crossed, watching his wolves die, or at least go down, without doing a fucking thing about it.
There was no way the asshole would have ever had a chance leading a territory like Fire and Fluorite. Even if Kinsley hadn’t shown up.
One wolf bit my tail and scratched down my side, but it was only a surface hit that hardly made me flinch before I raked my paw across his face, taking out an eye.
The whimper and moan that sounded from him grew quieter as he limped away, something I soon noticed the rest of the wolves were doing as well, except for the three who still flanked their leader.
“Markus Del Reyes,” Ethan said first. “You’re trespassing in a House that banished you.”
