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Wait. Mine? If I was going into heat because I’d met my fated mate, who wasn’t Luka after all, and the Howling Echo had noticed my impending heat from the moment Flint had brought me into their camp…
“He must be my mate after all,” I whispered in awe.
Shante chuckled. “I would be turned on if my mate killed for me, too. Fucking hot.”
Tears filled my eyes as my entire story rewrote itself in my mind. I wasn’t Luka’s rejected mate at all. My mate had been protecting me from the moment he met me.
“Flint…”
He was still cleaning up when I finally gathered my wits enough to ask a very important question. A question that felt like it might shatter my entire world if he answered it the wrong way.
“When did you first notice I was going into heat?”
He cocked his head like a wolf listening for something in the distance. Then he tossed the balled-up, bloody clothing back onto the wolf’s body, hiding the gruesome wound from view.
His moccasins made no sound as he edged toward me, as though afraid to scare me off.
“Was it before or after you brought me back to camp?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure what I would do if he said after, because that would mean either Gage or Heath—
“Before,” he said without hesitation.
My heart soared, and I rushed forward to throw myself into his arms just as the other two wolves approached. But I had eyes only for Flint.
“You’re my mate,” I told him, reaching up to caress his face.
The alpha smirked, his muscular arms wrapping around me. “I know.”
Then he bent down and kissed me. His lips found mine as though we’d been kissing for decades instead of days. He playfully nipped my lower lip, then soothed it with his tongue, which then sought entrance. I parted my lips for him, squeezing him and digging my fingers into his shoulders like I couldn’t get close enough to him. He cradled the back of my head and plundered my mouth like it was his to take.
Joy filled me — I’d met my mate, and he wanted me, too. The man who’d rejected me was no one to me. My true mate cared about me and always had, from the moment he’d first met me. He had killed to protect me more than once. And he would never willingly leave my side.
It explained everything.
A cough from behind me startled me, bringing me back to myself as Flint broke the kiss. A storm filled his gaze as he stared at me. But we weren’t alone, and now wasn’t the time for anything more. My nose wrinkled when I realized we werestill next to the body. Flint’s hand traced my shoulder down to my hand, taking it without hesitation as we turned to face our audience.
Shante grinned at me, and as soon as my eyes caught hers, she winked and mouthed, ‘Hell yeah.’
My amusement at my friend’s reaction dissipated when I turned to face the mage and the other two alphas. To my surprise, Gage and Heath were back in their two-legged forms, fully dressed. Both wore grim expressions on their handsome faces.
Standing at around six and a half feet, the two of them had always reminded me of Viking warriors with their powerful builds and intimidating expressions.
Gage had pulled back the longer top of his undercut hairstyle with a hair tie. He kept a full but well-trimmed beard, dirty blond to match his hair.
Heath was clean-shaven at times, scruffy at others, and his finger-combed dark hair was longer on top, giving him a playboy look. But today his expression was anything but playful.
Brielle held a sheaf of twigs in one hand, bound with twine.
But before she could say anything, Gage gestured with one hand at the dead alpha. “This rogue might have caused trouble for you, mage, out here alone in the wildlands.”
Brielle outright cackled, at last fulfilling one witchy stereotype. “Do you really think so?”
I grinned — it didn’t seem like she was acting. If I could get my curses removed, maybe I’d be as confident about facing down rogue alphas. Flint gripped my hand as though he couldn’t bear to let go of me, even for a second.
“I do,” Gage said, but the mage met the pack alpha’s gaze without reservation.
The moment grew tense. Sometimes I made a conscious effort to behave like a subordinate wolf should, even though Icould meet an alpha’s gaze with no problem — just like Brielle was now. Was it because I was only half wolf, like Brielle?
