The dude I’d been trying to kiss from before growled, and his grip tightened as he hauled me into the crowded living room where people danced around us.
Oh, Cursed High Mage Council.
The murderous look in Green Eyes’ gaze told me shit was about to get real.
I felt, rather than saw, my mate’s movement. My stomach lurched as I was ripped from Yellow Eyes’ grasp and tucked back into my fated mate’s embrace.
“You’ll die for that,” Green Eyes seethed. He released me, and the sound of bones cracking behind me alerted me to exactly how my mate intended to enforce his claim.
Oh frick.
His physical presence behind me dropped, and when my hands fell to my sides, my fingertips brushed against the soft fur of a … wolf.Hiswolf.
Shock fried my brain; my saliva turned to cotton. I blinked and tucked my chin to stare down at … a jet-black wolf. Baring his teeth, he snarled, a low rumbling that sent a thrill through me.
My mate is badass.
Yellow eyes grabbed my upper arm and squeezed. “Get back over here and dance with me.”
Hard.
Oh, hell no.
The rest of the room swam in my periphery, and I swiveled my head to the left, looking up to meet the yellow-eyed gaze of the dude holding my arm.
“Let go.” Fur rippled down my arms as my wolf sprang to the surface. She had an iffy record of coming out in times of need, but it looked like this time, she was ready to go.
Before he even had a chance to follow my command, the black wolf lunged, ripping into the guy’s arm and tearing him away from me.
Holy mate-shifters!
“Don’t kill him!” I yelped, afraid of what might happen to my mate. With my luck, someone would tell the king, and my mate would get the boot from the island. I lunged after the black wolf, trying to get him to calm down. “I’m okay.”
The music ground to a halt, and people spun to stare at the black wolf snapping at the yellow-eyed dude’s throat.
“That’s it,” another guy shouted from behind me. “Party’s over.”
“Everyone out!” bellowed another dude, both in matching tuxes with black, gelled hair. “Now!”
People fled the garden, running past the pool and back inside where we were. Several women screeched, darting out of the rooms half-dressed and into the hallway. It didn't take a genius to know that the impromptu liaisons upstairs were coming to an untimely end. Yellow Eyes fled, and my black wolf looked back at me as if deciding whether to go after him or stick with me. I tried to inch away toward the door, and he moved with me, growling at anyone who approached within two feet of me.
My little, sexy kisser was beingpossessive as hell. Just like a newly-mated male would be, except…
This couldn’t be happening. Fated mates werealwaysfrom the same pack.Always.
Until now … because this obviously wasn’t Nolan. Thank the Mother Mage for that blood spell.
I reached down and dug my fingers into his fur, my tension dissolving as I stroked my mate’s neck and then behind his ears. As soon as my hand landed on his head, he tipped his muzzle up and rubbed it against my leg.
“So that was quite a display,” I said in my most soothing voice as people ran around me to the exit. “But I’m not hurt.”
I’d been in a pack for a long time and recognized all the signs of a protective mate. His wolf came out when that guy grabbed me. He was protecting me, not knowing if I could protect myself. It was sweet. My heart fluttered with the thought. I had a mate … afated mate… who would apparently rip off the head of any male who touched me. There were only two fated mate pairs in Crescent Pack. They were rare. Less than one percent.
He licked my hand, tasting my fingers before growling at the others still in the living room.
Unfortunately, his wolf was out now, and anyone who came near me would be a threat.
“Hey, blue girl,” one of the tux-clad-clones who’d kicked everyone out said, waving to me. “Tell the wolf you have to go,” he said, eyeing the mate marks on my left hand with alarm. “If you do, he’ll let you leave and be able to calm down enough to shift back to human.”
