Page 24 of Prey for Me

I don’t turn to look at my mate. My mate? Just saying it makes my skin crawl. But it’s the truth whether I want to believe it or not. Nakoa kneels beside me after dropping something heavy that smells like blood near the campfire. He leans closer and sniffs my hair while the other watches.

“Impossible…” he murmurs, reaching for my unbandaged hand, and I slap his hand away. Our deal was a trade of my pussyfor protection and a taste of power. I don’t want to play house with any of them. Especially not him.

I turn when our pack alpha doesn’t say anything, and watch him watch his hand I slapped away. Will he strike me? I hope not. Raphael is cruel, but transparent. But Nakoa? There’s something sinister that lurks beneath the surface that’s always a careful mask of neutrality. At least since we met. And I don’t trust an alpha that pretends to give a damn about an omega one bit.

“Oh,” he breathes out, as if snapped out of a trance. Then, Nakoa grimaces, balling it into a fist that soon hangs by his side. He forces a smile, but now I know there’s nothing but malice behind it as his eyes narrow into slits, resembling a fox even more so then when we first met.

“I’m Nakoa, the fox’s pack leader—yourpack alpha. We didn’t properly introduce ourselves before, Grace Wilder,” he says, voice smooth like silk.

“I didn’t ask,” I murmur, already memorizing their names. And I don’t want to know anything else about any of them.

He continues, undeterred, pointing to the wild-looking red head hunched in the corner like a goblin, sporting a petulant pout, “That’s Leo. He’s third, young, but talented and resourceful. And he’s the one who saved you and protected you after you crashed.”

“Yeah, I know the creepy stalker.Intimately.You should be aware. You were there,” I grit out, and Leo’s gaze falls to his feet.

Unbothered by my dry attempt at humor, and with a murderous look in his eyes not directed at me, Nakoa nods to the one who nearly bit my now swollen hand off. Great! And I was just feeling better. If he gets chewed out by Nakoa, will he displace his anger on me now that he doesn’t have a forced rut distracting him?

“And that’s Raphael, my second-in-command. Your alpha if I should fall in battle. He has a temper, but a good heart,” Nakoa says, like going to battle is as common for them as a walk in the park.

I don’t bother saying I don’t care. I’m sure my body language and face convey it all for me.

“Can I see your hand? I want to see the damage,” he whispers, and I let him. I mean, I don’t want to die from something as silly as a snake bite or a broken bone after everything I’ve survived. And Raphel was spouting nonsense like I’m contagioyus. I don’t want to admit it, but he has me scared.

Slowly, Raphael unwinds the bandage. I’m shocked by the size of the paw that used to be my hand.

“Didn’t you say you had antivenom?” I ask, voice quivering like a coward. Thankfully, I can’t feel the pain. “Why is it so swollen?”

Nakoa’s lip twitches, and then one of his eyes, switching to his left to check me. Maybe he’s ambidextrous, because he seems just as skilled with his right hand as he is right now with his left.

“It’s inflamed, but not from the bite. You’d be dead if that was the case. It’s from…” he trails off, and I don’t need him to confirm it.

Shit, maybe Raphael more damage when he bit me than I thought, my body totally focused on fucking to the point I couldn’t tell.

It’s a sobering thought.

My mate’s tone shifts to reassurance that I don’t feel, “It’s bad but not… the worst thing I’ve seen,” he says, lifting my palm and the overlapping puncture wounds closer to his lips, as if that should make me feel better.

“Rest, water, food, and some anti-inflammatory medicine and you should have full function in less than a week. Your immune system is just in overdrive because of your heat,” he says, and itdoesn’t make sense to me, but I have to trust him on it. His lips are still so close to my hand as he rewraps it.

“What will you do if there is venom left making it worse? Will you suck it out?” I tease, testing my limits with him. He’s the one I have to bring to my side, to make him trust me after all.

But the flash of feral desire that crosses Nakoa’s face causes my heart to flutter and pound, lust and fear warring inside me, and I clench my thighs involuntarily.

Shit! Shouldn’t have said that. Wait, I shouldn’t be reacting like this. His pheromones are weak. He’s not drugging me with them. No? No! There’s no way…

“Nevermind. Let go. I’m a Wilder, remember,” I say, looking pointedly at Raphael, who sneers, refusing to look away. “Your enemy. It’d be wise not to get so cozy with me.”

I change my strategy to acting hot and cold. But in reality, I need him to let me go before I have to acknowledge why my cheeks are burning hot, and my stomach is in knots. Again! Again! Over and over again, I find myself in this endless chaotic loop. Maybe I did fall through a portal, but not to hell or an alternate dimension. Maybe I’m stuck in purgatory like that old show Faith and I binged streamed on CINE back in college.

“...We know who you are, Grace Wilder,” Nakoa mumumrus after a pregnanat pause, leaning close to me as he guides my hand to my lap and releases me. “But that name doesn’t matter anymore, because you are our omega. And more importantly,mymate.”

Heat prickles my skin, and I turn away from his intense brooding gaze, wanting nothing more than to bury my face in his curly hair and get high off his scent.

“What, fucking with an injured omega once wasn’t good enough? You get off on pain, pack leader?”

Shit! Why did I just say that?

He recoils from my words like he’s been burned, and he falls silent for a long time before turning to get up, and stoke the flame. I have the distinct feeling he’s also running away. Raphael pushes off the wall, fury causing his stormy blue eyes to shift almost silver.

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