Page 30 of Impregnated By the Alpha

“And all I have to do is pretend to be your mate?” She narrowed her eyes. “You know it will be pretend in all ways, right?”

He nodded quickly. “Right, yeah, of course I do. It’s just a deal. No emotions.”

Jonah wondered if she was thinking of the kiss they’d shared the other night, like he was. There was something between them, and maybe it was just the physical attraction, a byproduct of being fated mates, but it had felt like the start of something real to him. He held his breath, waiting for her response. Everything hinged on this moment.

“Okay,” she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Jonah. One fake mate in exchange for the bakery.”

He shook her hand and grinned. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

She smiled back, and his heart soared, knowing he’d put it there. That was something, wasn’t it? Now, he just had to figure out the identity of the Rosewood vandal, buy a bakery, fix up the Silversand town, and sort out the alpha business. He was going to prove to Moira that he was a good man. First, he just had to become one.

Chapter 10 - Moira

“Did I just make a deal with the devil?” Moira asked Vera.

She was putting the finishing touches on a birthday cake, piping the letters in a cheery pumpkin-colored frosting. It was a two-tiered cake for a large party, the biggest order she’d taken since the wedding cake, and it had to be absolutely perfect.

Vera’s face had turned to stone as Moira told her what had happened with Jonah, and she wasn’t sure what part her sister was objecting to. Probably all of it. She’d left out the kiss, unwilling to admit that she’d let herself drunkenly kiss the man who had ruined her life but had told her everything else.

“He’s just using you,” Vera blurted out, slapping her hand down on the counter.

Moira jumped, smudging the letter she’d started. “Jeez, Vera.” She scraped that section of frosting off and started again, eyeing her sister for any more explosions. “I know, but I’m using him too. If it’s a way of getting the bakery, I have to take it. I don’t have enough saved to do it on my own.”

But she couldn’t help sliding back into the past. Into the memory that had haunted her ever since. She was back in that empty hallway, fumbling with the combination on her locker. Jonah was beside her, suddenly, arm up to lean against the locker beside hers.

She’d gone cold. His face so close to hers she could smell the mint of his toothpaste, his head leaning in conspiratorially. Whatever he was about to say, she knew she didn’t want to hear it. She squeezed her eyes shut as if she could make him go away.

“I heard a rumor,” he said in a singsong voice. “That you let the whole football team get lucky after practice. They told me it was the best ride of their lives with all that cushion.”

Moira’s eyes flashed open. She pushed him back, one hand on his chest, as the bell rang and students spilled from the classrooms surrounding them.

One boy caught sight of their interaction and jeered. “Getting a taste for yourself, Jonah?”

Jonah stepped back, holding his hands up like he wouldn’t be caught dead touching her. “She keeps begging for it, Freddie, but I can’t steal the football team’s mascot. That’d be unsporting of me.”

Freddie cackled and soon the entire hall was erupting with laughter, all aimed at Moira. She heard the insults, the calls of ‘slut’, and ran. It didn’t matter that none of it was true. Everyone believed it. She was the school slut ever after.

Until the day she’d gone crying to Vera and told her she couldn’t take it anymore. Together, they’d left the school, left the Silversands, and made a new life for themselves with the Rosewoods.

It had occurred to Moira that she could ask Vera for help with the purchase, as she’d asked her for help back them. Her sister had enough saved up to loan Moira the money, and Moira would pay it back over time as the bakery business picked up. But something had always stopped her from asking. Maybe it was pride, or maybe it was the fear that Vera would say no.

"I think it’s a terrible idea,” Vera said, voice getting louder as she went on. “Do you have any pride at all? He bullied you, and now you’re going to what? Be his best buddy? It’s pathetic, Moira. He’s probably laughing at you right now. Like, oh, look at Moira. She’s so tragic that she’ll even take help from me.”

Moira’s hand tightened on the piping bag, and a blob of orange frosting fell out. She scraped it off, again, and started over. It wasn’t like she hadn’t considered Vera’s concerns herself, after Jonah had dropped her off that night. But Vera hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen the earnestness in Jonah’s eyes as he’d apologized.

The apology had been the stuff of fantasy, she admitted to herself. As a teenager, she’d imagined him coming to her many times, begging for forgiveness and saying that he would do anything to make it up to her. And then it happened. She should’ve made him grovel more, probably. In her dreams, she’d made him get down on his knees.

“I don’t think he’s like that anymore,” Moira replied. She set aside the piping bag, deciding to finish it after Vera left.

“Because you’re naive. This is a stupid plan, Moira, and you’re going to end up getting hurt.” Vera snatched her bag off the counter and threw it over her shoulder. “Don’t come crying to me when it happens because all I’ll say is I told you so.”

“Can’t you just be happy for me for once?” Moira rounded on her sister, blocking her way out of the bakery.

Vera’s eyebrows pinched together. “I would love to be happy for you. If you’d sign up for classes and actually do something with your life, I’d have the chance to be. I have to go to work now.”

Moira felt the wind go out of her. No one could gut her like Vera could, with the surgical precision she’d honed over years together. No one could make her feel so small. Not even Jonah.

She stepped to the side and sliced her hand at the door, gesturing for Vera to leave. Her sister gave her one last look and opened her mouth as if to say something, then snapped it shut and stormed out.

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