Page 140 of Untamed

"Notyet," I amend. Pup is too young to deal with the Ogre, anyway.

"How the hell do you know all this?" Young Alpha asks, his voice low and serious.

I look at him. "I watch them, the Dark and Light. Most especially Nature. I listen. Don't you?" How do they not see the duplicity of the moon? "You are going to be a powerful leader one day. Don't youlisten?"

"I guess not," he says softly. His dumb water-weed eyes look at Mactiir. "Hold tight to her, Alpha."

"I already am."

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42 - A Hunter and a Witch

Inuit

My fingers clench on her slim hand. My forefinger rubs over a hard patch of skin along the outer edge of her pinky. "What are these callouses from, Bliss?" I ask her. As much as I want to know all about my mate, I'm only asking as a distraction.

"Fishing," she says quietly. "Weaving the traps." Her body is strung tight as a bowstring. We are both tense.

"You like to fish?" I ask her. I can take her fishing one day when all of this is over.

"I am good at fishing," is her simple reply.

I pause at the entrance to the cells and lift her hand to my mouth, kissing her fingers. I reach to open the heavy, metal-reinforced door with my other hand. It's only open a crack when my mate speaks.

"I scent that female in there," she says softly. Her golden eyes are narrowed dangerously at the door as if she can see right through it.

"Which one?" I ask before I think better of it.Greta. "Ah, never mind,Qitsuk."

She starts to pull away, but I snag her back to my side, dropping my hand from the door instead of releasing her fingers. I capture her chin with my free hand and tilt her mouth up to meet mine. "I love you,Qitsuk."

Our kiss is fierce, lips and tongues tangling. I chuckle, my wolf rumbling in my chest. Our prickly little mate never submits easily. I nip at her bottom lip, and she growls softly. Deepening our kiss, I pick her up, cupping her bottom as her legs wrap around my waist, and she melts into me. I hear the softest thought. My mate thinks I'm just like a tree.

It's enough to make me pull away, laughing softly as her eyes slowly re-open, dreamy and gentle.

"Love you," I tell her again, kissing the tip of her nose.

She just smiles, but I don't push it. Still holding her hand tight, I turn back to the door.

Our footsteps are silent on the cement floor. Even so, Orion-fucking-Ferax knows we are coming. He stands abruptly, the thin cot he was lying on clatters on its spindly metal legs as he rushes to the door of his cell. "You're here," he says stupidly, his gaze fastened on my mate. "Holy shit. I never honestly thought this shit was real."

The other FeraxMaw wolves brought in with Orion are stirring, eyeing up my mate, noting the similarities between her and their esteemedalpha.Low-pitched murmurs, too quiet to make out the words, hum in the undercurrent of curiosity radiating off of my luna.

"Qitsuk, this is Orion Ferax. He's your cousin," I tell her.

"What is a cousin, Mactiir?" She clutches my hand hard, her wary gaze floating around the cells with evident distaste.

"Your mama is his father's sister," I explain.

The curiosity lights up her face now. "I have blood kin?" she asks me excitedly.

I'm jealous. I know it makes me a bastard, but I don't want to share my mate with this male.

And... if I'm going to be perfectly honest with myself, I hate that my female found her blood family when I killed my uncle and two of my cousins just days ago.

Shame at my envy cuts through me. I drop Willa's hand and let her step closer to the bars. "I am Willa," she tells Orion.

I scoff before I think it through, "telling him your name right away, huh,Qitsuk?" Jealousy scorches hotter when matching golden eyes turn my way. One pair confused, the other smug.

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