Page 8 of The Wolf Prince’s Mate (Marked Beneath the Moon #2)

eight

CLAY

“I still don’t know why you won’t tell me what your plan with Nova is,” I grumbled at Hunter, mashing the buttons as I tried to keep up with him in Call of Duty . That asshole was so much better at the game than me. I’d say it was unfair, but he’d invested much more time into it than I had.

He grunted. “You don’t want to know.”

“Obviously, I do.”

“You really don’t.”

I swore viciously as I died for the dozenth time. “This game is ridiculous.”

Hunter sniped three players in rapid succession. “You just suck at it.”

“I’d suck less if you told me what your plan is.”

He snorted. “Sure.”

I dropped the remote on my lap, letting the bastard on the other team gun me down again. “Just tell me.”

“Why do you care so much?”

“No reason.”

The look Hunter flashed me as he took down two more guys told me he already knew the answer to that.

I was attracted to Nova.

It was physical, but there was more to it than that. She was sexy, and snarky. Being around her made me feel things. Good things, on top of the horniness.

“I’m thinking about asking if she’s interested in a friends with benefits thing,” I admitted grudgingly.

“You can’t have a relationship with her.” There was a bit of growl to his voice, but nothing like there would’ve been before his wolf’s chat with Nova. Whatever she had said to him, it worked.

“I’m aware.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.” I bit the word out. “Her wolf’s submissive. Mine would eat her, and not in the fun way. We can’t have a relationship. But friends with benefits isn’t a relationship. It’s just sex.”

“And friendship.”

“So?”

“So, it’s only one step away from a relationship. And we both know you’ll fall in love with her if you try that.”

“I will not.”

“You don’t do friendships any more than I do, Clay. If a lonely bastard like us makes friends with a woman who isn’t family, we fall for her. Look at Enzo.”

“He’s happier than we are.”

Hunter grunted again as someone finally managed to take him down. “It’s different for him.”

He was an Alpha. Aspen was one, too.

And his wolf wasn’t fucked in the head.

I picked up the remote and started trying to get back in the game. “You could be as happy as he is. Your wolf isn’t going to eat a woman in the not-fun way.”

“I don’t want that, and you know why.”

I did.

Hunter had been there and tried that, and decided it wasn’t for him.

Not that I blamed him for it.

If I’d experienced what he had, I’d probably hate the thought of being with a woman on principle too.

Enzo’s mind slammed into mine and Hunter’s, shoving all three of our heads together. I grabbed my temple, groaning against the pain of the sudden invasion. My wolf reared up wildly, and I shoved him back down as Enzo snarled,

“Nova’s guards lost her. Someone has her.”

Images from Nova’s point of view came through the bond.

A dirt road I didn’t recognize.

A pair of hands around her throat.

Hunter was out the door before the images even finished coming through, and I stumbled after him. The pain in my head was gone, but my wolf was rampaging against the cage I had him trapped in.

He wanted out.

I couldn’t let that happen.

It killed me that I wasn’t at the front of the charge to reach her, but he was too dangerous to let that happen.

Hunter’s and Enzo’s voices were feral as they communicated something about the route they were taking. They were both in wolf form. Hunter was already on his way, and Enzo was close behind. Aspen was with him, much to his discomfort.

I made it into my car and peeled out after them.

They would run straight to the turn-off and beat me to her side, which made my wolf rage harder and wilder.

I locked him down tighter.

“They’ll help her,” I gritted out. “And they won’t beat us by much.”

My wolf roared, and I gripped the steering wheel tighter as fur broke out on my hands and arms.

“If you shift here, we’re going to crash.”

He snapped his teeth at me and slammed his side against his cage anyway.

There was no reasoning with him. No arguing with him. No getting along.

Which was why I couldn’t let him near Nova.

I wrestled with him through the entire drive, hauling ass down our nearly-empty roads.

My wolf finally stopped fighting when I noticed a crushed, smoking car on the side of the road, a mile or so away from the turnoff.

Enzo and Hunter had already reached it and were following the dirt roads, trying to find her.

I pulled off and threw my car into park, lunging out of the vehicle.

The scent of blood hit my nose.

Nova’s.

And a man’s.

I heard a groan, and the slam of something hard against metal as I gave my location to my brothers. The doors and windows of the vehicle were crushed, the whole thing smashed.

In one window, I could see Nova hanging upside down. Her face was against the window, and there was blood on it.

Fear for her life made me stop in my tracks—and my wolf took the opportunity to break free.

I gasped out a curse as he tore through my skin, barreling toward the car.

Not toward Nova.

Toward the man he’d noticed sitting in the backseat, trying to shove the smashed door open.

Nova’s stalker.

My wolf slammed into the car, and the entire thing rocked as the door crashed into the man’s side.

His pained gaze landed on my wolf, and his face paled.

Most people had never met a wolf as big as mine and my brothers, but my wolf’s size wasn’t the real problem. That was his head.

My wolf’s teeth chomped into the metal of the door before he tore it away, trying to get it off the car. Sharp pieces ripped up his mouth, but he didn’t give a shit.

The door was already wrecked enough that between his teeth and the way he yanked, he got it open.

He bit down on the man’s shirt next, moving too fast for the guy to shift and fight back. The scent of his blood was strong enough that I didn’t think he could even try to hold his ground against my wolf.

My beast got him on the ground and ripped his throat out without pause. The rest of his neck followed, until the bastard’s head was severed from his body.

By the time he lifted his head from the corpse, Enzo and Hunter were already there in their human forms, trying to get the door off the car so they could get to Nova. Aspen was nowhere to be found—which was a good call, considering my wolf was running rampant.

My wolf surged toward the vehicle.

Toward the scent of blood.

Nova’s blood.

I slammed my weight into the cage he’d trapped me in, shouting into the void between us as I watched helplessly through his eyes.

Enzo barked a warning at Hunter. Hunter’s wolf was in his eyes, calling the shots, when he turned toward mine as if he was going to try to fight.

Enzo knew better, and tackled Hunter to the ground, taking him down hard and rolling them a few feet away.

My wolf slammed into the car’s door, and Nova groaned softly.

She was alive.

My wolf roared, then tore into her door the same way he had her stalker’s.

“Get him away from her,” I snarled into my brothers’ minds.

They were on their feet, moving toward him, but my wolf was too fast.

Too strong, too.

He ripped through the metal, his mouth dripping both his blood and the dead guy’s as he stepped over to Nova, turning his head to snarl a warning at Hunter and Enzo.

Both men stopped in their tracks.

Hunter’s hands went up slowly.

Enzo’s did too.

“Don’t hurt her,” Enzo said in a low voice, no hint of dominance in the air. Dominance always made my wolf lose his mind.

My wolf snapped his teeth at the Alpha, snarling viciously.

Nova groaned again, and the wolf’s attention jerked up. He lifted his nose to her face and sniffed, then snarled.

My brothers both stepped toward him, and a roar sent them back a few feet, hands still in the air.

My wolf’s tongue snapped out, and he licked her throat and cheek roughly, again and again. It almost seemed like he was trying to remove the other man’s scent from her skin, but that couldn’t have been right.

She pushed his face away weakly, and he snapped his teeth at her.

I slammed against the bars of my prison, fear blazing through me.

He was going to tear through her hand. He was going to?—

His teeth glanced off her skin lightly, like he was a puppy rather than a fucking insane monster that had just ripped someone’s head from their body.

I stopped rattling the cage.

My wolf had never responded that way to anyone. Not my brothers. Not human women. Not my packmates.

“Clay?” Her voice was groggy, her eyes opening just a crack.

There was too much blood.

We needed to get her out and to the doctor, but my wolf didn’t seem like he was in any hurry.

He nudged her hair aside with his head, trying to find the place she was bleeding. When he found the wound, he licked it until she made a pained sound.

Then he huffed at her before he pulled back.

What the hell was happening?

“I can get her out,” Enzo said from outside the vehicle, his voice low and calm.

He’d realized what I had.

My wolf had wanted to kill everyone he met since I was a kid—but he didn’t seem to want to hurt Nova.

The beast snapped his teeth at Enzo again.

“I have a mate,” Enzo said. “I don’t want Nova. I can help you.”

My wolf snarled.

He wasn’t letting anyone else near her, whether they wanted her or not.

He wasn’t claiming her as his. I didn’t think so, at least.

He was just… keeping everyone else away from her.

The monster studied her seatbelt, trying to decide how it was trapping her. The focus it took made him let his guard down. The prison around me relaxed.

I waited a moment while he sniffed the seatbelt—and finally broke through the bars holding me.

Skin replaced fur as I locked the wolf down again, crouching in the smashed car underneath Nova. My shoulder was against her breasts, her head hanging near my back while he roared and fought against my hold.

But he wouldn’t escape again.

“Hold onto me,” I commanded her, adjusting my position and undoing the seat belt.

Nova made a noise of pain as I took her weight, easing her down.

Enzo was there at the door when I turned around, and fur broke out on my arms as my wolf rammed the cage.

“Give me space,” I gritted out, and Enzo stepped back, watching me closely.

He took two steps back. It wasn’t much, but I knew he wasn’t satisfied that my wolf wouldn’t hurt Nova.

I wasn’t either.

“Is he claiming her?” Enzo asked.

Hunter snarled behind him.

His wolf may have backed down, but the beast still considered Nova his.

“No,” I said, though the fur on my arms didn’t recede. I tightened the bars on his cage as he slammed into them, again and again.

“You can’t mate her,” Hunter gritted out.

“I know. He’s not trying to,” I said.

The possessiveness was out of character for him, but the violence wasn’t. I didn’t think he had killed Nova’s stalker because of what he did to her—he just killed him because he wanted to.

Hunter scoffed as I eased Nova out of the vehicle. “He was putting his scent on her.”

“Or erasing her stalker’s scent from her skin,” Enzo said. “We can figure this out later. Right now, we need to know how much she’s bleeding. The doctor’s on his way.”

“He won’t be able to touch her,” I warned.

“If she’s badly injured, he’s going to have to.”

I gritted my teeth as the wolf slammed into his cage, harder. “We’re going to need the sedatives.”

“Are they still in the glovebox?” Hunter strode toward my car’s door. It had been a long time since we last needed the drugs, but they were still there. I always replaced them long before they expired. I wasn’t risking anyone’s life any more than I already did just by existing.

“Yeah. I’m going to set her down in the back.” My car’s trunk opened up with a large, flat space, and Nova was small enough that she’d fit.

Enzo swore viciously. “Aspen’s refusing to stay away. How good is your hold on him?”

“What do you think?” My arms were still covered in my wolf’s fur. My body felt like it was trying to change, even as I fought like hell to suppress it.

“We’ve got five doses,” Hunter said. “Enough to get you to Stray. Nova will have to go with the doctor. To get him away from her.”

I snarled, “Watch what you say.”

“If he’s claiming her…” Hunter started, eyes glittering darkly as I opened the trunk and carefully put the woman down.

“He’s not claiming her. He’s just insane,” Enzo cut in.

“We hope,” Hunter growled.

Nova’s left arm looked like it was broken, but it wasn’t bleeding. Her head wound seemed to be the only source of blood, and the bleeding was already slowing down, so it couldn’t have been too bad.

Considering the state of the car, it was a miracle that she seemed relatively uninjured otherwise.

“How is she?” Aspen called out.

I steeled the bars around my wolf as I put two fingers to her throat, checking her pulse.

Just because my wolf didn’t want Nova dead at the moment didn’t mean my sister-in-law would survive a meeting with him.

“Looks like she has a bad head wound and a broken arm, but her breathing is steady,” Enzo said for me.

Aspen stepped up beside Enzo. He tried to tuck her behind his back, but she dodged him, and he growled.

I slammed my eyes shut as more fur climbed over my shoulders. “Her heartbeat is strong. Don’t come closer.”

“The doctor’s only two minutes out,” Enzo said, an edge to his voice now that his mate was risking herself.

I snarled, and a needle jammed into my shoulder. I tore it out, but Hunter had already depressed the plunger and stepped back.

My gaze quickly grew unfocused. “Keep her safe.”

“She’ll be fine.” Hunter’s promise was serious.

I believed him.

The fight finally faded from my wolf as my eyes rolled back, my brothers catching me before I hit the ground.

Nova was going to be okay.

That was what mattered.