Page 49 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

“Veronica?” he asks, when I’m brushing my teeth, trying desperately not to cry, avoiding my reflection in the mirror. I slip back into the bath just as he’s opening the door.

“Yeah?” I ask, trying to seem like I’ve been relaxing the whole time. He sniffs a bit, wrinkling his nose.

“Did you—were you sick?”

Of course, he can smell it. Because my “mate” is part wolf. A sob inches up the back of my throat again.

“Uh, yeah,” I say, clearing my throat. “I think I had a bad milkshake last night.”

“You got milkshakes without me?” he asks, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorjamb.

“Well,” I say, doing my best to smile. “I suppose you should be glad about that, huh?”

He still doesn’t look convinced, but he goes back to the kitchen, muttering something about not letting anything burn.

Less than ten minutes later, I think I’ve spent long enough in the bath to convince him I’m okay, and I’m toweling off when he appears in the door again, his face completely changed from bright and relaxed to worried.

“Hey,” he says, bouncing a little with nervous energy. “The head vamp is here. Aris wants us at the meeting.”

“Us?” I ask, swallowing. “Me, too? Even though I’m a human?”

“He thinks you’re a shifter,” Percy says, dropping his gaze to the ground. “And he thinks you’re going to be part of the pack, so he wants to include you.”

“That’s…great,” I manage to choke out, putting my fist between my teeth to keep from crying when he turns and leaves, saying we need to get going in five minutes.

As I pull on my clothes, my entire body aching from the stress, I pray we can keep up this little ruse in front of everyone at the meeting.

Chapter 24 - Percy

I expected the leader of the vampires to be an old, withered man with hardly any hair and protruding fangs, but he looks more like the quarterback of an NFL team, fresh off the draft. He’s almost impossibly American-looking, with the kind of features that remind me of a Midwest dad and car salesman, golf hobbyist, and proud dad.

“Good morning, everyone,” he says, greeting us all with a broad, white-toothed smile. Not a protruding canine anywhere in sight. I glance at Aris.

Sure you got the right guy? Pampers is looking for the dad from their commercial.

Aris lets out a little laugh but covers it with a cough before leading the man, who introduces himself as Paul Smith, to a seat at the table. He’s wearing a pale pink polo and a pair of tan cargo shorts. Even Rafael, who’s supposed to be our lead vampire guy, looks surprised.

“Thank you so much for inviting me,” Paul says, clasping his hands together like a youth pastor about to launch into song. I can’t stop thinking of hilarious comparisons for this guy—that’s how unsettling it is to look at him right now. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get right down to business, my daughter has dance in about an hour.”

“Right,” Aris says, coughing again. “Well, uh, Paul,” he’s struggling, and it’s kind of hilarious. “I guess, I wanted to call this meeting today because there have been some violent interactions between our people lately, and I’d prefer to keep the peace.”

“I am so glad you brought that up,” Paul says, bouncing his clasped hands on the table once. “Because I was not feeling too good about those interactions, either. It’s a privilege to be here, talking them through with you. Violence like that is never acceptable.”

“There’s also the matter of the wolfsbane,” Aris says, looking like he doesn’t believe a word this guy is saying.

“Right—” Paul says. “You’ll have to forgive me. I just took over this position from my father. Stomach cancer, but he lived a good life. Rest in peace. Anyway, I’m still getting used to it.”

I glance at Linnea, who is staring at Paul, her eyes wide. Ado and I catch eyes, and share troubled looks. I wasn’t aware vampires could die from normal causes. Aris has to blink a few times.

“Sorry for your loss,” he says, though it comes out more like a question. “Anyway, Paul, I just—that wolfsbane that your men were guarding, that’s the strain that Varun used in his serum. And our tech analysts found conversations between you and Varun taking place over the last few years.”

“Right, so when my dad was running things,” Paul sighs, like he’s been waiting for this. “When I found out about the wolfsbane, I wanted to shut the whole thing down. But they told me we had to let them die out, because harvesting them all at once could send toxins into the air,” I glance at Rosa, who’s wrinkling her nose, “so we were waiting for them to die out, had some guys guarding the field just in case. When your man trespassed on our property, we thought he was a shifter looking to use the stuff against his own kind. If you’d wanted a sample, you surely could have asked.”

When Paul turns and looks at me, his eyes are decidedly unfriendly. I glance away, toward Rafael, who’s sharing a glance with Veronica. I took note of it and decided to ask her about it later.

“Okay,” Aris says, “but your men followed a member of my pack to a hotel and attempted to attack her—in fact, bit her.”

“That’s right!” Paul says, his eyes scanning the room. “Is she here today? I’d like to personally apologize for that—it was mixed wires. We thought she was the one who’d been at the field, but turned out she was human.”

---