Page 3 of The Wolf Prince’s Mate (Marked Beneath the Moon #2)

three

CLAY

I paced the dirt road for the thousandth time, staring down at the camera feed splitting my phone’s screen. One faced the front door. The other faced the back.

I was waiting for Nova to come outside. Hell, I was hoping she would. It was screwed up, but true.

Hunter told me I’d need to lock her inside, but I wasn’t doing that. If she was in enough pain to try to get out of the house to find someone to relieve it, I was going to take care of her.

I wasn’t a fucking gentleman, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to watch a woman beg or writhe in pain just because my brother hadn’t figured out a way to shut down his wolf’s claim on her. Particularly not that woman.

Nova was beautiful, but she was smart, too. Funny. Creative. Easygoing. I wasn’t going to let her hurt—I liked her too much for that.

If that meant I had to screw her, I’d do it. And I’d really fucking enjoy it.

Which was why I was still pacing, a full twenty-four hours after I ditched her on that countertop. The alternative was screwing her, and she didn’t want that.

I swiped my screen away from the cameras long enough to reread the texts we’d traded that morning for the dozenth time.

Me

Did you have breakfast?

She hadn’t answered for a few hours, so I assumed she slept in. When she did answer, she gave a thumbs-up.

I texted her again an hour after that.

Me

What did you have for lunch?

She sent back one word.

Nova

Food

I managed three hours before the next check-in.

Me

How are you feeling?

Her second thumbs up made me want to kill something.

Then again, my aching balls and rock-hard cock did the same. At least my wolf still seemed subdued by whatever part of the rut’s magic surrounded me.

I’d spent hours reading about knotting between wild wolves. There really wasn’t that much material to read, but I couldn’t stop, and ended up rereading everything too many times.

When I did, I inevitably ended up imagining going back to that kitchen with Nova. Sitting her on the countertop again, and fucking her until my cock was trapped inside her, holding my cum in that sweet little cunt.

I wanted it so badly my entire body hurt.

After the sun set, I texted her again.

Me

How are you doing?

She didn’t answer.

It was too early for her to be asleep. Hunter had mentioned that heat was a little painful for her, so I doubted she was already asleep.

I texted her again.

Me

What did you have for dinner?

She still didn’t respond.

I gave her two minutes before I hit the button to call her, lifting the phone to my ear.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

Just before it went to voicemail, she answered. “I’m fine.”

The phone call ended just like that.

I lowered it away from my ear, staring at the screen for a moment.

The anger I would’ve expected to be behind the words was absent. Her voice had been tight. Controlled.

Whatever she was feeling, she didn’t want me to know.

I pressed the button to video call her.

She refused it, and the call ended.

I sent one more text.

Me

If I don’t see your face, I’m going to assume you’re in trouble and come inside, consequences be damned

When I video called her again, she answered.

Her face was bright red, but pale too somehow. Her eyes were hazy. Her cheek was resting on something hard. Though I could only see a strip of it, I thought it looked like a toilet seat.

I opened my mouth to ask if she’d been throwing up, but she ended the call before I could.

So I called back.

She looked paler when I did.

“Hunter said the pain isn’t bad,” I growled, taking her in more closely. She looked like she was going through hell.

“It’s not.” I didn’t have to be near her to smell the lie in her words. It was written all over her face.

She dropped the phone and cried out desperately. All I could see was the ceiling, and her voice faded from my ears.

The wolf within me slammed against the cage I’d painstakingly placed him in, snarling viciously.

I tightened my hold on him, unsurprised that he chose an emotionally-charged moment to try to break free. That was nothing new.

But Nova’s pain wasn’t acceptable.

Spending heat with her could mess things up between me and Hunter, but he didn’t know how badly she was suffering. If he did, he would’ve stopped it. He was an asshole, like all of us were, but we tried not to be monsters.

“I’m coming in,” I told Nova, and ended the phone call. The device went into my pocket as I stormed back into my house.

There would be no changing my mind after I was in there.

For a few hours, that female would be mine.

And I would be hers.