The Omni-Wolf’s Choice novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Could he be mine…

Evelyn’s POV

My birthday was only a few days out.

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Even before it arrived, I had been seeing things-little flashes that didn’t feel like imagination. Mom

said it ran in her line, that her great-grandmother had been the same way. And on my birthday, it

wasn’t just visions anymore. That was when my wolf would come.

It was also when a mate could reveal himself.

I already knew who I wanted.

Connor-my brother’s best friend, the one everyone kept calling our future Beta. Gray-eyed, all sharp

angles and solid muscle from endless sparring and patrols. His black curls never stayed tamed for

long. Sometimes he’d look at me and let that quick, dangerous smile slip, and I’d go soft inside. Then he’d snap back into that guarded coldness like it had never happened.

He watched over me, always.

I’d never been sure whether that was duty… or something he wanted just as badly as I did.

Everyone knew the rule: if the bond connected you to someone younger, you didn’t get to say it first. You kept it to yourself until time caught up.

So I held my hope close and tried to be patient.

Somewhere between waiting and wishing, my eyelids won.

I came to in a wide field under a night sky, stars scattered like spilled salt. The air was cool, the ground

open and dark around me.

A presence pressed at my back.

When I turned, Connor stood there as if he’d stepped out of my thoughts-bare chest, pajama pants

hanging low, his breath visible in the slow rise and fall of him. He looked thrown off, just as unsettled

as I felt.

Without thinking, I reached for him.

He caught my hand like he’d been waiting.

“What are we doing here?” he asked.

I had no answer. I only lifted my shoulders.

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Then I went up on my toes and kissed him.

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His mouth was real. His skin was real-warm under my fingers, not foggy and distant like a normal dream. He reacted immediately, taking over with a low sound as his tongue slid against mine. His hands found my hips and lifted me clean off the ground.

I wrapped my legs around his waist as he lowered us into the grass.

Everything registered-the wet-cool bite of the blades beneath my back, the weight of him, the heat of

him. His arousal pressed into me, and my body answered so fast it made my head spin.

I wanted all of him. Every inch.

His mouth traveled, kissing along my throat, then down, and the night air turned my nipples tight

before he even reached them. When he did, it was hungry. He took one breast into his mouth while his

hand worked the other roughly enough to pull a sound from me.

I moaned, and he looked up with that cruel little grin-like he liked what he was doing to me.

Then he switched sides.

“Yes… Connor,” I breathed, fingers tangled in his hair while his hand skimmed the edge of my shorts,

teasing just enough to make me ache.

“God, Evelyn,” he rasped. “What are you doing to me?”

He kissed near the place on my neck where I wanted teeth-where I’d been imagining teeth for longer

than I wanted to admit. Every brush of his lips sent sparks through me, sharp and bright, until my

whole body felt like it was humming.

He went back to my breasts, sucking harder, and my back arched into him.

His eyes shifted-gray drowning into black.

His wolf surfaced in that gaze.

“Hello, Drake,” I whispered.

“Hello, my sweet Evelyn.”

The voice was deeper, rougher, vibrating through bone.

And then I jerked awake.

I was in my bed, not a field. My room was too warm, my skin slick with sweat. My breathing came in uneven bursts, and my top was twisted like I’d been fighting it in my sleep. I squeezed my thighs together, trying to calm down, trying to make my body stop reacting.

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I’d never had a dream like that. Not even close.

I reached toward the glass of water by my bed.

A knock landed on my door.

I already knew.

When I pulled it open, Connor stood in the hall as if he’d been dragged there. His curls were wrecked,

his face tense, his eyes dark with frustration. Somehow the mess made him look even better, which

was the worst part.

He looked me over like he was searching for proof.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

He hesitated, then exhaled hard. “Did… I don’t know.” His hand went into his hair and shoved it back. “I

was awake. I saw light under your door.”

So he’d felt it too.

He’d done things in that dream he’d never dare do if we were actually conscious-especially not with

my brother a few rooms away.

“Vjust woke up,” I said, keeping my voice casual even while my pulse screamed. “I had this insane

dream. Do you believe in dreams, Connor?”

I let my lashes drop and lift again, leaning into the doorframe. One strap of my tank slid off my

shoulder on its own-or maybe I helped it. Either way, his gaze snagged.

In that second, certainty hit me like a strike.

Mate.

His eyes flicked, and for a heartbeat I saw something else there-Drake, flashing up from under the

surface. Then Connor’s stare dropped to my chest.

I followed his look.

A mark-dark, unmistakable-stained my breast.

A passion mark.

His throat worked as he saw it too.

“Fuck,” he whispered, like the word hurt. His jaw tightened. “I need to go. Stay inside, please. No more

trouble.”

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Then he turned and headed back toward his room.

I shut my door and pressed my back to it, letting my head fall against the wood.

A few more days.

I couldn’t wait for my birthday.

Bridget’s POV

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Morning light poured across my face, warm enough to pull me up gently instead of yanking me awake.

I stretched-and hit something solid.

A massive body was behind me. Sometime in the night we’d shifted until we were spooned together,

and now Ryder’s tattooed arm was locked around my middle like a restraint I didn’t want to escape.

If I’d tried to move, I probably couldn’t have.

But the truth was, why would I?

His presence felt calm in a way my life never His presence felt calm in a way my life never had. I couldn’t remember ever liking being touched-

certainly not in a soft, affectionate way. Yet lying there, wrapped up in him, it felt impossibly natural,

like I’d belonged in that hold for years.

wanted to see him.

So I carefully pivoted within his grip, still captured by his arm, until I could face him.

Asleep, Ryder looked peaceful-almost unfairly so. It made no sense that this was the same man

people feared when he was on his feet and issuing orders.

Even the first time I’d seen him rushing toward me, I hadn’t felt terror so much as shock.

And then our eyes had met.

I’d honestly forgotten how to breathe.

Now, in the daylight, his skin looked smooth and rich, like polished jasper. His face was all strong lines

and perfect structure, the kind that could make women dizzy.

The thought of any other woman near him twisted my stomach anyway.

I inhaled slowly and let my gaze drift down his chest. His arm-still draped over me-was covered in

ink, markings I suddenly wanted explained one by one. I watched his breathing, the steady lift and fall.

“Good morning,” he murmured, voice deep and rough, eyes still closed.

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Then he opened them and smiled like he’d been keeping a secret. “If you keep looking at me like that, you’re going to get one hell of a morning surprise.”

“Oh, yeah?” I tried to sound brave. “Wait-have you been awake this entire time?” I asked, pushing lightly at his arm.

“No. Just the last couple minutes.” His hold tightened again, gentle but firm. “Stay here. Please. You

help me sleep.”

He inhaled.

“Did you just… smell my hair?”

His mouth tilted. “Your scent settles me. When you get your wolf, mine will do the same for you.”

“What do I smell like?”

“My favorite.” His voice softened. “Caramel cake. The kind they only make for special occasions… like

someone’s saving it for me.”

He pulled me closer as if that settled it.

And then my body reminded me why I’d woken up in the first place.

I started to wiggle.

“No,” he said immediately, as if he could read my intention. “I’ve got time before training.”

“I really have to use the bathroom,” I whispered.

He paused, then loosened his arm with a reluctant sigh.

“Hurry back.”

I slipped out of the bed and glanced down at him one more time. Half-covered by sheets, he was still… impossible. His curly hair was wild against the pillow. He stretched, rolling his neck, and the muscles

in his arms flexed under the tattoos.

I shut my mouth fast to make sure I wasn’t openly drooling.

From the bed, he smiled up at me. “Bathroom. Please. You’re killing me.”

I escaped into the bathroom and closed the door.

After I took care of business, I washed my hands and stared at myself in the mirror.

How had my life turned into this?

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I was standing in the bedroom of a man who looked like a myth and spoke to me like I mattered, a man who’d told me-flat out-that I was his mate.

I let out a breath.

I’d always known something was off about me. For years I’d blamed it on being orphaned at seven, on the system, on never quite belonging anywhere.

Now those old explanations didn’t fit.

If anything, everything that had ever happened to me felt even more tangled.

I needed answers, and I needed them fast.

When I stepped back into the room, Ryder was on his back with his hands laced behind his head,

looking far too comfortable.

“Good morning, Ryder,” I whispered.

My fingers toyed with the hem of the shirt I’d apparently stolen from him. It smelled like him, and I

couldn’t decide if that was his actual scent or just my brain being ridiculous-but I liked it.

“Morning, Bridget.” He patted the mattress beside him. “You sleep okay?”

I sat down facing him, folding my legs under me.

“I slept… ridiculously well.” I shook my head, half amused. “No nightmares. You might be my good-

luck charm.”

His expression turned certain. “It isn’t luck. It’s fate.”

Then his eyes sharpened. “When’s your birthday?”

“Two weeks. I’ll be twenty.” I studied him. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five.”

I smiled a little. “Look at us. Actually learning things.”

He reached up and tucked a curl back where my messy bun had failed. His fingertip grazed my skin.

A jolt-pure energy-shot through me at the contact.

I gasped before I could stop myself, leaning toward him instinctively.

He leaned in too.

< Chapter 11 Could he be mine

We were close enough that there was barely space between our mouths.

“Why does my body react to you like this?” I whispered. “Is it always… this intense?”

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“It’s the mate bond,” he said. “The Moon Goddess tied us together in a way nothing else compares to.”

His hand slid to the back of my neck, grip warm and steady, drawing me that last fraction closer.

I closed my eyes, waiting for his lips.

A knock hit the door.

We froze.

I opened my eyes.

Ryder’s jaw tightened. He didn’t look away from me when he answered, voice turning into a hard

command. “Go away.”

A man’s voice came through the wood. “Alpha Ryder, training’s in an hour. The elders are arriving

around lunch. I tried to mind link you, but you were blocked.”

“I’ll see you in my office in twenty minutes,” Ryder replied, still staring straight at me.

“Yes, Alpha.”

Footsteps faded down the hall.

Ryder finally spoke again. “That was my Beta-Connor. Second in command. Best friend. We were raised together.”

He sat up, the bed shifting. “Today’s packed. But I’m making time for you the whole day.”

He stood and headed for his closet. “We’ll shower and get dressed. Then breakfast. After that, I have

to go out to the fields-morning training is nonnegotiable. I’ll ask my sister to help you settle in, make

sure you’ve got everything you need.”

I

“Okay,” I said, swallowing down the swirl of nerves. “I want to read. Catch up. I’m fast, and I think it’ll

I

help me understand what’s going on.”

“Good.” He pulled out clothes for the day. “There’s a library on the main floor. There are books on our history, and also on vampires and witches. Take whatever you want.”

His voice softened again. “Someone will stay with you since you can’t mind link here yet. And when

everyone arrives, I’ll bring you to meet them. I know this is a lot all at once.”

I nodded, then forced myself to say what I’d been holding back. “I meant to tell you last night… thank

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<Chapter 11 Could he be mine

you. For being there.”

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He looked at me like it was the simplest thing in the world. “You don’t have to thank me. It’s what I will

always do. I’ll be there.”

Something inside me shifted.

For the first time, I thought maybe I could actually believe someone when they said it.

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