MATED TO THE WEREWOLF PRINCE

CHAPTER EIGHT

-YURI HANNA-

A worn-out simper flickered to the corners of my lips an hour later as I walked through the Howling Valley wilderness, carrying the wolf prince on my back. The whooshing sound caused by my fast movement and the friction of my pants on the knee-length thickets sounded like a lullaby to my ears for a brief while.

A yawn threatened to escape my mouth, but I quickly stifled it and increased my speed. I couldn't wait to get back to my room at Bloody Paws and sleep since I was exhausted from the nocturnal shitstorm, which had sapped all of my vitality.

Fighting a gang of assassins, dealing with Dallas and his men, and dealing with the prince's odd manner, reaching my pack unscathed and clear of mental illness was far from what I had envisioned.

My head shook back and forth.

In any case, we were already inside Alpha Raffa's domain; consequently, once we got to his compound, I would request one of his men to transport us to Bloody Paws. I'd deduct the service from the alpha's mate's large debt to Howling Point for wreaking havoc on our land during the previous conflict.

Cubie, Shin's wolf, was a problem. My wolf Heidi had to expend a lot of energy to chain and stop her.

My lips pursed, and my thoughts returned to my resignation as the prince's bodyguard. When we reach Bloody Paws, I will delegate the responsibility of protecting Prince Killah to one of our trusty warriors. It may only take an hour or two after returning to my pack for me to rejuvenate and persuade Alpha Alva to listen to my plea. The recalcitrant alpha female would be tough to convince, but my role as Bloody Paws second-in-command was more vital than wasting my time watching over the prince.

As those views raced through my mind, I sped through the misty denseness of evergreen ahead, boosting the adrenalin coursing through my veins until familiar whiffs probed my nostrils. I came to a complete stop and gently guided Prince Killah into a seat beneath a nearby tree. The prince with arachnophobia was still unconscious and not showing any signs of waking up soon.

Tucking the golden strands of Prince Killah's hair behind his ear, I sniggered at my subject's unquestionably exquisite profile and exclaimed, "Such a princess." Breathing deeply, I instantly rose and inspected the entire track as the zest-stimulating essences steadily intensified, coating the dense atmosphere.

It was obvious where and who those scents were coming from, but one thing baffled me and made my brow furrow. According to the coordinated actions observed by my clairaudience, I was being besieged.

'What's the reason?' I had no idea. All I knew was their unexpected company disrespected me, and this was overwhelming my wolf.

Under other conditions, those extreme feats would have upset me, but something seemed off. My beast kicked me in the gut, and when the bustles raced forth, I promptly demonstrated that my intuition was correct.

Two massive wolves leaped out of the timbers and jumped on me at the same time; luckily, I was used to brawling with the rogues on a daily basis, and the scene was not enough to bushwhack me. I confronted them head-on, bending my body to the side and hurling my fist up, with extremely rapid and firm strikes on their snouts, causing audible cracking sounds and garnering whimpers of discomfort from my assailants.

"Is that what you've learned from all your training under your superior's supervision, you bunch of pathetic mutts?" I huffed and angrily hissed as my marks slumped to the grass-carpeted forest floor. It was tough for me to determine whether my inner wolf was enraged by the fact that I was being attacked without justification or by the awareness that those men lacked combat abilities.

"And you call yourselves pack warriors, you load of scumbags!" I grumbled as I watched the two pansies in front of me transform into humans and collapse. My jaw clenched in disappointment, and I was about to unfurl my mouth to reprimand the unconscious warriors when another brave spirit moved like the wind and swooped down on me.

"Yuri Hanna, you conceited piece of trash!" the delta of Blue Moon, Harvey, appeared in my line of sight in his human form and shocked me with a hard jab on my chest that I failed to dodge.

"What the—" I couldn't complete my sentence because the impact of the attack cast me against the trunk of the tree where I had previously settled Prince Killah. Collapsing to the ground, I clutched my throbbing torso and coughed blood. Nonetheless, I quickly recovered my strength and was about to stand when I caught sight of something. "The prince," a rasp rolled out of my mouth because Prince Killah had vanished from the spot where I had left him.

"In here, hun!" a familiar deep, silky voice snapped my gaze to none other than Prince Killah, who materialized in front of Harvey.

"How dare you touch my bodyguard, scum," the prince leaned forward and muttered into the delta's ear in a dangerously low and deadly intonation.

I couldn't figure out what the prince did next, but Harvey was laying on the ground, rolling in anguish and grasping his right arm in the blink of an eye.

"Chill, man. I just taught him a lesson," Prince Killah stated as if he hadn't done anything harsh when he sensed my displeasure. He tucked his hands in his sweatpants' side pockets and made graceful strides toward me, who was already on my feet with a grumpy expression. When we were only a hair's breadth apart, he came to a standstill. He tilted his head to the side and glanced at me affectionately, who returned his gaze with intensity.

With a sly grin on his lips, the prince heaved his hand up to cup my face, but it was futile since I seized his wrist fast, only to bring him closer. "Do not vanish from my sight again," I warned as I let go of Prince Killah's wrist and turned my focus to the heavy footfall approaching at a listless, threatening pace.

I had no idea what was happening. Why do the pack warriors and the delta of Blue Moon regard Bloody Paws' second in command in such an unacceptable manner? Did they not recognize me?

Only people I knew could answer my queries, and they were the shifters that emerged from the scrubs, leading another batch of pack warriors.

"My, my! Look who we have here at this late hour, babe?" Shin Rivas Greyson, the luna of Blue Moon uttered sarcastically, eliciting a deeper frown on my forehead.

"Welcome to our pack, Beta Yuri Hanna," the Alpha Raffa of Blue Moon, who stood over six feet tall and had an intimidatingly noteworthy frame, said calmly and smiled.

My eyes narrowed and my jaw tightened as I took a protective step in front of the prince. Raffa always smiled, but the glitter in his eyes could only imply one thing. 'We're in a lot of trouble!'