Page 17 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

I was done listening to her lies.

I had a brother to avenge.

8

Maya

“Continue to scream, and you won’t have to worry about seeing your father because you’ll be dead,” Duke said through clenched teeth as he continued to carry me through the woods. We were definitely out of Rhyson’s earshot, but that didn’t stop me from shouting and fighting. I beat my fists against his back relentlessly, but it was no use. He didn’t even flinch.

When I continued to shout, he sighed. “So you’d rather be dead than see your father. Rhyson is right. You do have issues with him. Are you hoping to see me dead as well?”

I did not. Clamping my mouth shut, I seethed, but Duke just chuckled. “Thank the heavens for small mercies.”

He continued to carry me in silence while I seethed. First I’d gone to Rhyson to save my baby, and now he was talking about buying it! The situation wasn’t just going downhill, it was catching fire and burning my entire life down in the process.

I’d never thought about being a mother. When I daydreamed about being Larson’s loving wife, a thought that made me want to vomit now, a baby had never even crossed my mind. My father hadn’t just made me terrified of the thought of being a mother, he’d managed to wipe it from existence.

The moment I realized I was pregnant, all I could think about was how I was going to protect my child from men like my father.

Now it was doomed. Once Bruce Callahan realized I was carrying the king’s child, he would ruin the kid’s life. He’d eke out everything he could from Rhyson—and at the moment, the bastard deserved it—and then he’d probably ruin my child’s life as well. Hell, he’d probably kill me so he could be the doting grandfather who raised the king’s heir.

There was fucked, and then there was fucked.

“What’s he doing here anyway,” I muttered out loud. “Won’t they kill him if they figure out who he is?”

“They’re not going to find out who he is,” Duke answered. “And it’s hard to kill a shifter who can control your wolf.”

“Well la-dee-dah for him.”

Duke just chuckled. “Look, you saw your shot and you took it. It’s not going well. If I were you, I’d just keep my head down for the next however many months until the babe is born. If it’s Rhyson’s, he’ll take care of you. If it’s not, then you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“Sure. I’ll just sell my child to the king. This isn’t the Middle Ages, you know.”

“And yet you were hoping to trap a king into marriage.”

God, men were dumb. Did it look like I was capable of trapping anyone into marriage? I currently couldn’t even make someone put me down and let me walk.

“If you were to review the events, and you can because you were there, you will remember that I was thrown out of a ball, nearly gang-raped, and it was your king who picked me up and took me to his hotel room. What, did I plot my devious plan during the limo ride?”

“You saw an opportunity.”

Hard to roll your eyes and look perturbed when you were bouncing up and down on a man’s shoulder, but I did it anyway. “He said he was the alpha of Summerset, so who’s the liar now?”

A twig snapped to the right of us, and Duke instantly froze. I clamped my mouth shut as I felt the muscles of his shoulder bunch beneath my abdomen. For a few very tense seconds, we waited, but nothing jumped out at us. When he started walking again, I sighed. “Put me down. I’ll shift. If we keep walking as humans, we’re sitting ducks and you know it.”

“You won’t try to run from me?” he cautioned.

“Here on this hellhole of a mountain?” I asked. “As everyone keeps pointing out, I won’t last a mile. You’re just going to have to give me a few minutes to shift. It takes me a little longer than most.”

“I noticed.” He set me down on two feet. “Why is that?”

“I don’t know. We don’t communicate well. It takes a little time for me to call her.”

“All right. I’ll shift first.”

Watching him, and every other wolf really, shift, always made me a little frustrated. It was always so seamless and easy with them. I was still calling for my wolf when he was done, and by the time my wolf was out, he was getting downright impatient.

My wolf shook out her stress, and as always, I tried to open a line of communication with her. Hey. How are you? I’m sorry I got us into this mess and nearly drowned us.

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