Page 2 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

I’d know. I’ve been dealing with a stalker since living in my hometown. He followed me everywhere—city to city, town to town when I became a traveling nurse. When I’d go to the police, tell them that this guy was showing up everywhere I’d been, they would just shrug at me, say he wasn’t breaking any laws.

“But anyway,” I say, taking another breath and meeting Linnea’s eyes. “I wanted to thank you for everything and say a proper good-bye. My flight leaves tomorrow, and my contract begins shortly after that. So this is probably the last time we’ll have the chance to chat.”

I think of how Linnea helped me ensure my nursing contract was still up to date. Aris sent a letter to the hospital where I was supposed to be nursing, explaining that there were extenuating circumstances that explained my absence. Apparently, as the mayor of this town, he has a lot of pull, because they wrote me a shining letter of recommendation, detailing what a good employee I had been for them.

“Well,” I say, suddenly feeling soft about the whole thing. “Maybe we could exchange numbers? Keep in touch?”

“I would love that,” Linnea says, stooping down and grabbing her phone from the end table. She’s pulling it up, opening it to grab my number, when there’s a strange thump on the front porch.

My heart jumps into my throat, and I feel like I can’t breathe. It shouldn’t be like this—I’ve been doing counseling for months, working through everything, but unexpected noises still make me instantly anxious.

“Percy,” Linnea says, her eyes widening as she looks to the front door. When she takes a step toward it, I reach out and grab her hand, trying to keep her from leaving.

“Linnea,” I whisper, “that could be anyone. Maybe you should call Aris—”

“You can stay here,” Linnea whispers back, her voice urgent. “It’s Percy, and he’s hurt.”

I stare after her as she goes, wondering how she could possibly know that. As soon as she leaves the room, my heart rate rockets up again, and my feet are moving before I know what’s happening.

As complicated as my feelings are toward Percy, I still hate the idea of him being hurt. I walk through the Cadell’s hallway, rubbing my hand against my chest. When I get to the foyer, I see the front door hanging wide open, Linnea crouching down, saying something quickly into her phone.

“—shifted—”

She stops when a floorboard creaks under my foot, looking up at me, her eyes going wide.

“Veronica—” she says, but I don’t hear another word of what she says, because I’m too busy trying to rationalize what I’m looking at.

There is a huge wolf on the porch. It’s on its side, its breaths coming hard and fast, clearly labored from the massive gaping wound on its stomach. My eyes jump from detail to detail, moving so fast I feel like I’m getting sick.

There is a wolf on the porch. And Linnea is crouching over it, acting like she will give it medical care. Why would it come to the porch? And why would Linnea put herself in danger like that? I’m no zoologist, but I’ve never heard of a wolf being this big before.

“Linnea,” I whisper, fear shaking my voice. “Get away from that thing. We should call—what? The police? Animal control?”

“It’s okay,” Linnea says, though she sounds close to tears. “It’s all going to be okay—I just—”

Then something happens that I can’t explain. That I don’t understand.

The wolf turns into a man. Bones popping, skin shifting, fur receding. It happens slowly, but all at once. I blink, trying to reconcile what I’ve just seen with the reality I know exists.

Facts dictate that a wolf can’t turn into a human. Facts dictate that what I just witnessed is physically impossible.

A car pulls into the driveway, and I hear Linnea shouting something, but I can’t make it out. It sounds like she’s miles away from me, even though I can see her kneeling right here, next to me.

Next to Percy.

I feel a foreign, indescribable pull low in my belly when I recognize him. Almost as though I should be the one on my knees, my hand on his back, yelling for help and telling Aris, who’s running up the porch steps, to call for a nurse.

I’m a nurse, I register, blinking at all of them. It feels like my ears are full of cotton.

I see Aris’s lips moving, his eyes looking at me with concern, then the wooden slats of the porch moving closer to me, and I feel Aris’s arms catch me just before everything goes black.

Chapter 2 - Percy

My heart was pounding in my ears, and my body was feeling weaker by the moment, but all I could think about was the look on Veronica’s face when she came to the door and saw me on the porch. The fear, confusion, and pure terror that passed over her features were familiar, and I hated seeing it there.

If I had known she was here, I never would have run here for help. I would have gone to the pack center, even though it’s further into town, and I might not have made it.

As Ado and Byron hoist me up, quickly carrying me inside, I close my eyes, seeing the same images I’ve been seeing in my dreams for months now—Veronica, huddled and terrified in a basement, begging me to let her go.

---