Page 34 of Cruel Mate

She wasn’t. And she started to sob. So much for not being connected to Zander Mallox for the rest of her life.

This can’t be happening! she cried, the test clutched in her hands as she rested her head on her knees. She had been trapped by the Nightstar pack for years, only finding freedom in her messenger duties, and now those had been taken away from her and she was trapped all over again.

She had been a fool. She never should have slept with Zander thinking it could be a one-and-done thing. All the stories that had seemed so far-fetched and untrue now made more sense than ever. But if they were meant to be, why did she feel so damn messed up?

Just when she felt as if she were starting to regain a grip on her emotions, the doorbell sounded.

Her heart skipped a beat. She had been so lost in her own problems she hadn’t sensed whoever was at the door. Ordinarily, she would have sensed them the moment they placed foot on the shingle path that led up to her door. It was the reason she had shingled in the first place.

Why couldn’t she seem to catch a break?

Forcing herself to her feet, she shoved the pregnancy test back into the box and onto the counter before making her way to the stairs.

She was barely at the top before the hammering of fists started to pound on the door. Stopping dead in her tracks, she listened, trying to sense who was on the other side. It was hard to decipher the heartbeat or the breathing from the pounding of fists until she heard his voice.

“Layla! Open up! I know you’re in there,” Zander yelled. “I need to know you’re alright.”

Layla flinched. The concern in his voice was terrifying. Had something happened? Was Nightstar under attack?

A flashback to being pinned down by that hideous black wolf shot through her mind, and she hurried down the stairs toward the door.

“Zander? What is it? What’s happened?” she asked as she opened it.

She was startled when he practically fell through the door as if he had been leaning on it in an attempt to get inside. No sooner had he done so than he grabbed Layla, kicking the door shut with his foot as he looked her up and down.

“What’s happened? What’s the matter?” he demanded, looking deep in her eyes as if she hadn’t just been the one to ask him those very things.

“You’re the one who came barging in here like a bull!” Layla snapped back at him, shoving him away. His closeness was too much. The warmth of his body pressed against her own was too inviting.

She stepped away down the hall and crossed her arms over her chest to stop from reaching for him. The fluttering in her stomach was no longer just her desire for him. It was something else, the life beating within her, and she pursed her lips to keep from imparting the knowledge on him.

Zander ran his fingers through his dark blonde hair, looking more than a little flustered. He paced from side to side, the small hall giving him little room to do so.

When he stopped, he loomed over Layla once more, though this time, he didn’t try to touch her.

“My wolf went crazy. I just knew something was wrong. I had to get here to be sure you were okay. Are you okay?” he blurted the words as if he had no control over them, and Layla noticed just how pale he was. His eyes were wide with terror.

“I-I’m okay,” Layla said, though it was most definitely a lie. She couldn’t have been further from okay. She would much prefer to be facing down those two enemy wolves again than this.

“You’re not,” Zander protested, and he closed the distance between them, just barely gripping hold of her forearms. “Something is wrong. No, not wrong, different.”

The way he corrected himself made Layla quiver. Her heart stopped and she held her breath. The way Zander’s nose flared, how he breathed in deeply as if drawing the scent of her into his lungs, made her more than a little nervous.

“You smell different,” he said, his gaze darkening. He furrowed his brow, looking down at her with his grip tightening on her forearms. “What has happened, Layla?”

He ground the words out as if through gritted teeth. A shiver ran down the length of Layla’s spine. She opened her mouth to speak, unsure what to say, but before she could get a word out, he tensed.

The knowing look in his eyes terrified Layla almost as much as the growl that erupted from his throat. “You’re pregnant.”

The heat drained from Layla’s body, first from her face and arms and then from everywhere else, seeping into the ground with the quickest of shivers like nothing she had ever felt before.

She gulped hard past the sudden lump in her throat and again attempted to speak. But she couldn’t find the words. Instead, she nodded.

She saw the emotions that rushed through him, felt them as if they were her own, and in a way they were. They were intertwined in a way she had never been with anyone before. She could practically feel his heart beating in her chest.

But when he next spoke, nothing could ever have prepared her for what he said.

“Marry me?”

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