Page 29 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

Pushing the thought away, I turned my back to him and climbed into my bed. Rhyson was silent, but I could feel his gaze on me. It was a long time before I fell asleep.

Sunlight streamed through the dirty window by my bed, and I knew instantly that Rhyson wasn’t with me anymore. Quickly, I flipped over, but it was just Juniper sitting cross-legged on Rhyson’s bed. She held a wickedly long blade in one hand and a sharpening stone in the other. Any faint trace of jealousy I had that she was in Rhyson’s bed fled the moment she ran the stone over the blade and stared at me.

“Do we have a problem, Juniper?” I asked warily as I sat up.

“Only that you’re female,” she sighed as she continued to sharpen her blade. “I’m his third-in-command. I should be out hunting with the others, and instead I’m babysitting you because he doesn’t want any of his trusted male wolves to be alone with you. I find that annoying.”

Huh. So maybe trying to seduce one of the other wolves was not a good idea. “Have you and he ever…you know what, forget I even started to ask. It’s none of my business, and I don’t care.”

“Right. No, I can totally tell that you don’t care.”

“Where exactly have you been keeping that knife?”

She just flashed a smile and stood. “You were sleeping like a rock earlier.”

“It’s been awhile since I’ve been free of pain.” I flexed my knee carefully and sighed when it twinged. Sometimes, I’d be so stiff in the morning that I could barely put any weight on it. It had been difficult to hide yesterday morning. I was pleased by the progress.

“Who did it to you?”

“Rhyson’s spy and my bodyguard?”

Cocking her head, she studied me. “He’s my…well, you know what he is. If he asked, I would tell him, but I don’t think he would ask. He’d rather you told him yourself, and I wouldn’t volunteer the information.”

“So you want to be my friend?”

“I want to know more about you so I can decide for myself how to feel about you,” she said lightly. “But you don’t have to make it seem like us being friends would be so absurd. Rhyson is right about one thing. You should not hide pain and weaknesses from us. It makes it harder for us to move as a group.”

I grunted. “I tell you all my weaknesses, and you’ll treat me like a child.”

“I didn’t see you fight, but Duke did, and he was impressed. Very little impresses Duke. He doesn’t think you’re weak, so maybe you should stop thinking that as well. Come on. Let’s go see what we can scout out about this weird place before we leave today. Knowledge is power.”

“You don’t trust them?”

“Everybody is hiding something, red. Even you. We’ll figure it out eventually. I just hope that you’re not lying about the father of the baby.”

“Why? Because he’ll kill me? You’d be surprised how often I hear that threat.”

“Oh, Maya, you say that with such indifference. I wonder if maybe you want to die. I suppose this is as good a place to do it as any.”

I put my hand to my belly. “No. I’m going to live for my baby.”

“Good. At least one of you has something to live for.”

15

Maya

Juniper practically skipped as she left my cabin. I followed behind her, wondering what the hell she’d done with the large knife. One minute it was in her hands and the next it wasn’t.

Then the next, even more curious thought. Did she have more weapons hiding somewhere on her? I had a stark vision of her shifting and a dozen knives falling to the ground. I giggled, and she turned her head back sharply and rolled her eyes.

I’d slept well past dawn. Another large table was being set up in the middle of town, and people were bustling around it. I snagged a few pieces of fruit off it as we passed. “Are Rhyson and the others out hunting for breakfast?” My stomach would not wait that long.

“No, it’s just an offering for them to have tonight at dinner. They’ve eaten, so go ahead and grab what you want. Apparently breakfast here is a grab-and-go kind of affair. The food stays out all morning.”

And yet it wasn’t covered in insects. Neat trick.

I hurriedly filled my plate with some boiled eggs, fruit, and toast and hurried behind Juniper. “Do you have a plan, or are you just going to snoop around and hope that no one gets suspicious?”

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