Page 81 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

“Your internal monologue is therapy. Mine is constant arguments,” Irene said with a chuckle. “We should feed you and get you some water. We’re under strict instructions to make sure you eat every two hours, or I believe your mate will rip out one of my eyeballs. His words. Not mine.”

“Again, he’s not my mate, and I’m sorry he said that. He’s used to bossing people around, and he’s out of his element here. Having said that, I am hungry. Why did Anna go with them?”

“She’s a null. Oh fuck,” Janelle grumbled. “You tricked me.”

I chuckled. I’d been trying to get that information out of them all morning. There was something strange about Anna, and I wanted to make sure she’d be helpful to Rhyson. I’d seen her fight. I knew she was a badass, but he’d be worried about her constantly.

Over dinner, they explained what a null was, and I was impressed. “It makes sense that so many different creatures could thrive here on the mountain. Outside, wolves are too worried about society, and about hiding who they are, but also status and power. There is that here, but not to the same extent. It’s so much wilder and closer to nature.”

Janelle’s lip twitched. “You like it.”

“I love it,” I admitted. “This is the safest I’ve felt in a long time.”

“Would that have anything to do with a certain king who can’t take his eyes off you?” Irene asked. “The one you say isn’t your mate?”

“It’s just lust,” I said, hating that there was a ping of regret in my voice. “He needs a mate for his wolf, especially given his station outside the mountain, and he’ll never have that with me. Not to mention right now, he just feels guilty. He made some assumptions about me, and he’s struggling with that. And he’s worried about the baby. His baby.”

I placed my hand over my belly. I was worried about the baby as well. Worried about whether he’d live long enough to be born. If he’d be born with my curse. What his future looked like. Whether I’d be a good mother.

Whether I’d be his mother at all.

Janelle and Irene both looked at me with sympathy. Hating that, I quickly changed the subject until we could get back to the spells. An hour into my strange salt circle, with Janelle still poring over books and Irene chanting softly over me, the door to the coven room opened, and Anna stumbled in. She was covered in blood.

“Shit blew up right in our faces. I think Nash is dead, and Rhyson is gone.”

44

Maya

Irene summoned Lunessa. We left Anna and Janelle at the den, and despite her mutters earlier about how she wasn’t going to help us, she transported us immediately to Nash. I held back my grief when I saw his prone body in the clearing next to a river. Making as little noise as I could, I raced over to him. There was far too much blood under him, but I did see his chest move. When I touched him, his eyes opened, gleaming gold, and he grabbed my wrist.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s me. We’re going to help you. We’re going to get you back to the den, and…”

“They took the king,” Nash whispered. “They knew who he was. They were fucking waiting for us.”

How the hell was that possible? I opened my mouth to argue, and quickly clamped it shut.

Paisley. Why the fuck would he rat us out?

“They shot him up full of drugs. Dante and Juniper too. Don’t know about Jenson. I managed to avoid it, but I couldn’t take them all. Shifted enough to shout for Anna to run. Did she make it?” He wheezed.

“Anna is fine. That’s how we got here.” I looked up at Lunessa. “Can you heal him?”

She nodded. “I’ll have to take him back to the den, and then I won’t be any good to you.”

“Do it. I have the element of surprise on my side.” I looked at Irene. “How are you in a fight?”

“I’ve learned a few things,” she said darkly. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t sit back anyway if Jenson was in danger. I didn’t know if they were mates or not, but they were definitely in love.

“I’m going to let my wolf out and track them. I won’t be able to shift back without taking up too much time, so if you need to tell me something, tug on my nape and whisper in my ear.” I hesitated. “I’ll keep control. I swear it.”

“The fact that you had to say that is not comforting,” Irene muttered, but she stepped back. I called to my wolf, but she wasn’t slumbering, and the change didn’t take nearly as long as I had feared. Lunessa gathered my clothes and disappeared with Nash. Other than our scents, there was no evidence that we’d been at the river.

Putting my nose to the ground, I started to sniff. I caught Rhyson and his wolves’ scents, but I didn’t recognize the others, which meant that Gideon was part of the group that attacked them. I kept my pace slow, so Irene could keep up but also so I didn’t miss anything. I’d never tried to track anyone before, but my wolf knew exactly what to do. She shared control with me, nudging me one way or the other.

It wasn’t traditional communication, but I was learning to understand her a little better. The smells got a little stronger when I stopped suddenly.

Another scent had caught my attention. Raising my head, I looked up and debated. Rhyson and his wolves were on the path in front of me, but there were two scents to my left and a multitude of others. Gideon and Paisley.

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