Fated to the Wolf Maiden (The Hunted Omegas #6)

Chapter 1

Elodie

My breath burned like a blowtorch, and my chest felt like I’d been hit dead-on by a semitruck. How was I still alive while my insides were being barbecued? No clue.

A fresh surge of agony ripped through me, and I arched, biting back a scream until it finally ebbed.

This time, the flames went with it, cool relief flooding me, starting at my chest and filling me up, even as it made me feel lighter. I could drift away on a cool breeze, leave all my troubles behind—

“Elodie!” The sharp, masculine snap of an unfamiliar voice yanked me from the nothingness. No, not unfamiliar. Something about that voice pinged a recent memory that I couldn’t quite grasp. The significance slipped away, soft grains of sand running through clumsy fingertips.

My eyes flew open, and it took me a moment for the shapes and colors to solidify into recognizable faces.

Worried faces. The closest was Olivia, her hands pressed to my cheeks, her eyebrows scrunched with worry and concentration as she worked her healer magic.

A green glow lined her hands, bright enough to make me squint.

Brielle was right next to her, hands on my upper chest, right where… between one blink and the next, memories flooded back in.

Oh shit.

My healer females weren’t the only two faces hovering above me. Valens.

Broody, grumpy, disarmingly persistent… The man who claimed he was my mate. Heat flooded me—embarrassment? Desire? I didn’t want to examine it too closely—as our eyes locked together.

He was all alpha, male, and avenging fury rolled into one far too deliciously masculine package.

Damn him. A light coating of scruff lined his cheeks, the golden hair making his eyes even more startlingly bright.

He stared at me as if I might float away, his gaze the only thing still tethering me to this earth.

Those blue-green eyes saw everything I didn’t want them to. My vulnerability, my confusion.

As I slowly came back to myself, more details filtered in. Strong arms supporting me, a warm chest under my cheek. Strong thighs supporting my body.

I was lying across his lap. And his scent was positively everywhere. Inescapable notes of smoky sweetness soothed me, and I knew it was him, his signature scent. Smoke and wood, like a campfire, with the delicious curling undertones of brown sugar.

It was everything I never knew I wanted, and that scared me.

“Elodie!” Oli gasped, shoulders slumping with relief when she saw my open eyes. “Goddess bless, I thought we’d lost you for a minute, there.”

“I’m not that easy to kill, in case you haven’t noticed.” I added on my best cocky grin, to ease her mind.

Brielle chuckled, but Valens growled. “Someone has tried to kill you before? Name him, and I will see he never draws another breath.”

“She already did that, bucko. Big, badass troll warrior. He gored her with a tusk, but she split his skull like a ripe peach. She won and saved my life in the process.” Leigh drew the words out nice and slow, watching Valens’s every reaction as if this was her own personal reality TV show.

“Is this true?” He studied me carefully, as if he wished he could burrow into my brain and ferret out the answer for himself. It was too much, too soon. Intimate. The urge to take the coward’s way out and run for the hills was overwhelming.

“Are you implying my pack mates are liars?”

Picking a fight had to be the next best thing.

He stiffened, his whole body going rigid at the insult. “I would never.”

“Then there’s your answer. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m just gonna hop up and pretend this never happened.”

I moved to do exactly as I said, but his grip tightened around me like unbreakable iron bands.

“Absolutely not. You were struck, injured.”

“And that means I just live on your lap now? No.” I narrowed my eyes at him, blatantly making eye contact despite my status as a beta and his clearly dominant alpha mojo.

Not only didn’t he look away or growl, his eyes heated with the challenge, the intensity building between us sending a shiver of new awareness all the way down to my toes.

Terror followed in its wake. This was not happening. This was not happening.

“Tell him I’m good,” I demanded of the healers beside us, not daring to break the staring contest Valens and I were locked in.

I definitely wasn’t drinking in every detail of his appearance, from his luxurious, golden-brown hair to the thick, short beard that matched it.

The way his eyes were so blue-green, they seemed bottomless like the ocean.

His absolutely addictive scent, like a campfire with brown sugar and toasty marshmallows, made my mouth water.

No, I definitely wasn’t doing anything but staring down an alpha-hole.

“She seems perfectly fine, despite scaring the pants off the rest of us,” Olivia said, squeezing my hand then rising gracefully.

“Agreed. You can let her up.” Brielle’s response was lined with curious amusement, and I resisted the urge to glance her way. I was winning this staring contest.

Valens startled me by shoving to his feet with lethal grace. But still, he didn’t put me down.

I was really starting to get pissed off.

Or turned on.

Let’s go with pissed off.

“Put. Me. Down.”

Galyna stepped into the space my healer friends had just abandoned. “I believe she made her wishes clear. She might not be able to draw her sword, but I have no such qualms.”

Valens broke our staring contest, and I had to bite back a crow of triumph. As soon as he focused on Galyna, he growled. The sound started as a low rumble in his chest, but quickly grew to a threatening crescendo.

“What the fuck?” Lucien muttered, inserting himself between Galyna and his new pack second. “Hey, I appreciate you looking out for our pack mate, but she’s right. You’ve got to put her down. The maidens kick ass, and they won’t hesitate to kick yours for crossing the line.”

Valens looked back down at me, and I could swear I caught a fleeting glimpse of regret before he schooled his expression and carefully lowered my feet to the floor.

He kept a steadying grip on my waist as I found my balance, then stepped away a little too hastily to be nonchalant.

The relief mixed with a pang of bitter loss that filled me was too confusing to contemplate as I stepped away from his embrace.

Galyna held out my sheathed butterfly sword, still glaring at Valens as if he were dog shit on the bottom of her shoe. Something in me calmed as my weapon settled into its usual spot between my shoulder blades. It recentered me, reminding me of my place in the world.

Standing with the maidens, between these pack females and those who would do them harm.

Not with Valens, the confusing male who thought I was his mate. I couldn’t be. Maidens didn’t take mates, not even fated ones. We were dedicated only to our mission.

“So, what did I miss?” I tried desperately to be calm, cool, and collected, but I was pretty sure everyone could see right through me.

Luckily, Galyna’s usual no-nonsense attitude came to my rescue. “Well, we’ve got an omega stone.” My partner pointed across the office to where a stunningly gorgeous chunk of softly glowing celestine rested inside a carved wood box.

It was an effective distraction. As soon as I was back on my feet, everyone crowded around, eager for a closer look.

I wouldn’t lie and say I wasn’t curious; this thing had caused us no end of grief, and while it was beautiful, part of me was unsure if it would have as much effect as Kane and Brielle were hoping.

Granted, it had zapped me on my ass pretty damn effectively, so clearly it did something.

I rubbed idly at my chest where the bolt had struck, then caught Valens’s imposing turquoise stare pinned on the motion and dropped my hand.

He watched me with unnerving focus, as if I were a book he could read at will.

I pointedly turned my attention away, letting myself inspect the blue-gray gem more closely.

It looked almost like a rough-hewn egg; no perfectly smooth sides, but the shape was similar, despite the flatter sides, like gem facets hewn by a giant.

It was larger than a softball, and the light inside it seemed to flicker, as if lit by a magical candle.

“So, how do we use it?” I asked.

There was a beat of silence.

Leigh snorted. “We have no frickin’ idea.”

“I haven’t touched it yet, since it zapped you. No one has,” Brielle admitted. She blushed, seeming a little sheepish.

“It didn’t just zap her. Another bolt flew out the window. I’m hoping it landed somewhere harmless, but…” Shay grimaced. “Nobody outside screamed, so, fingers crossed.”

“You’re the omega, though,” I said, wrinkling my forehead as I thought it through. “And all our documentation at the enclave says it wouldn’t hurt you. So, if anyone can touch it, it’s you.”

Brielle blew out a breath, nodding my way.

I didn’t move, didn’t breathe as she circled the desk, reaching down to brush her fingertips over it. One last second of hesitation, and then she made contact.

Nothing happened.

She frowned, reaching both hands down to cup the large gem. The second she lifted it from the table, white light flared, blindingly bright as it filled the entire room, rendering us all momentarily sightless.

“What the fuck,” Galyna growled under her breath. I swayed her way, letting my shoulder bump hers in reassurance.

The light dimmed slowly, and I squinted, trying to see past it to make sure Brielle was okay.

While the rest of us had been startled, she was the picture of calm, a serene smile and gentle cant to her head as she looked down at it. Her hair floated softly in the air around her, as if so charged with magic, it couldn’t possibly lie flat.

Brielle looked up, and I gasped, because her eyes were glowing white too.

“It’s working.”