Page 20 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

Alive.

After a moment of tense silence, we all started to shift back. Tessa began to immediately see to our wounds, and I stared at Duke. “What happened?”

Maya was still shifting, and I watched her carefully for wounds. “There were wolves surrounding the vehicles. It was a trap, but they’d set another group on you. We backed around.”

“You shouldn’t have,” I growled as Maya’s human form panted on the ground. “And you sure as hell shouldn’t have brought her back.”

Duke laughed dryly. “She saved my life. I had a feeling she might come in handy if we had to come back and save your sorry asses. In any case, the vehicles were dismantled. Whoever patrols this border wasn’t just going to let us walk back to town on two legs, and we couldn’t exactly waltz into a human population as werewolves. Like it or not, we’re trapped here until we can find another way out.”

Maya pushed herself up to a sitting position and studiously ignored my gaze. The bruises I’d seen on her earlier were faded, healed with her wolf. If she’d stayed in wolf form longer, or even shifted again, they’d be gone completely. A new wound ran down her back, but the bleeding had already stopped.

So her wolf could fight. I shouldn’t have been all that surprised. When her wolf was out, I could sense the strength and dominance in her. The troubling part was that when her wolf wasn’t out, I couldn’t sense it at all.

“Did any of your wolves survive?” Juniper asked.

Duke nodded. “Two.”

“We can’t go back,” she insisted. “If they report back to someone, then more will be looking for us. We need to push forward. Maybe when we get to the other side, we’ll find a way out.”

I knew what she was saying. We were already here. Since we couldn’t go back the way we came, we might as well finish what we came here to do.

I stared at Maya, and at this point, she was thrusting her chin out defiantly. “You will listen to every order I give you,” I told her. “You will only speak when spoken to, and if you dare to betray me, you won’t like the consequences.”

“What are you going to do? Kill me? We both know you won’t while I’m pregnant.”

She wasn’t wrong, nor could I abandon her. “I am your king. I can protect you in these woods and make your life a little more comfortable when we leave, or I can chain you up and drag you behind me and kill you as soon as your babe is born. It’s up to you.”

10

Maya

We shifted and moved quietly up the mountain. The group surrounded me, including a small gray wolf who continued to look at me sideways but didn’t say anything. I didn’t think Rhyson would have it in him to actually put a chain around my neck, but I also knew the danger that we were in. Staying with him, and obeying him, was my best bet for now.

And the safest bet, since it meant I would have more time to plan my escape before he tried to haul me to my father.

It was several hours after the dark had settled when we found a nice cave to rest in. It was a small space, barely big enough for all of us, but it connected to a small tunnel and another entrance. It looked, and smelled, abandoned, and we made camp. Several went out to hunt, and after dragging back two deer, we had dinner. Most of us shifted back to human, although one of the females and one of the males kept their wolves out to stand guard.

I was not invited to guard patrol, but that was fine. I was exhausted after the fight and looking forward to some sleep. It had been a long day.

No one spoke to me, although someone was always looking at me, so I receded to the back corner of the cave, but to my surprise, I wasn’t alone long. The woman who shifted into a small gray wolf that everyone seemed to protect approached me. “I’m Tessa,” she said softly. “The healer. I was hoping you’d let me ask some questions about your pregnancy. I’m not going to do an exam, obviously, but I’d like to help monitor you.”

“Like or were ordered?” I asked lightly.

A small smile flashed on her face. “It is my job to look after everyone, but the king hasn’t requested it. He’s smart enough to know that I can’t do a full exam with no equipment in the middle of the woods, but there are other ways I can help monitor you. I noticed you didn’t eat much at dinner.”

I stared at her for a moment before I tried to force myself to relax. She didn’t seem like a threat. “Nice to meet you, Tessa. I’m not used to eating in wolf form, and I wasn’t sure how the raw meat would settle on my stomach once I shifted.”

“You don’t eat in wolf form?” She sucked on her lower lip. “That might be a problem out here since we can’t cook much. We’ll have to rely on our wolves for sustenance, and you’ll need to eat to keep your strength up.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

“Do you feel ill now?”

I shook my head. “No. I guess my fears were invalid.”

“We teach our juveniles to adjust to it, but sometimes the first few experiences can make them sick. I’m surprised your pack doesn’t do that.”

Now she was fishing. I just shrugged. “What questions did you have?”

---