Page 13 of Owning His Mate

Her threat has my eyes narrowing at her. “You can’t track me across the country when I’m masking myself.”

She raises a challenging brow. “Do you want to test that theory?”

I glance at the others, who are clearly in Halle’s corner, and if I’m being honest, I don’t want to leave. “What am I going to do?”

“Well, the first thing you’re not going to do is run,” Tessa says. “Halle and the others may be able to chase you, but I can’t, and I want you to meet my baby.” She places a hand over her stomach, which seems to have popped out a little more in the last week we’ve been here.

“It’s not fair to use your kid to keep me here,” I mutter.

“I’ll use whatever I have to, Apryle.”

“Why don’t you tell us what it is about him that has you so scared?” Roux asks. “Did he hurt you?”

An ugly feeling spreads through me because Kye has done nothing wrong. I’m punishing him for things other people, monsters, have done to me.

“No,” I admit, because I don’t want them to think badly of him either. He doesn’t deserve that. “Though he might hurt Beck.” At their confused looks, I add, “He wasn’t too happy that he’s been training with me. In fact, he was a little bit scary when he saw the bruises on my arms from our last training session.” Halle glances at Roux and the look that passes between them has my eyes narrowing. “What?”

“He’s already so protective of you. It’s kind of cute,” Halle coos.

Is she insane? None of this is cute.“He’s lost his mind. He chased me down, pinned me against the fence, and…” My face heats as I remember what happened between us.

Halle smirks, filling in the blanks herself.

“Yeah, I’m not seeing a problem with any of this,” she teases. “He sounds perfect.”

“Yeah, well, I hit Mr. Perfect with my magic.”

Halle snorts while Tessa’s eyes flare wide.

“You did not.”

“He was touching me, and I wanted him to stop.” I’m not sure that’s entirely true. My pussy reacted to his touch. My panties are still damp from my arousal.

“It’s okay to be scared, Apryle,” Roux interjects over the others. “You wouldn’t be normal if you weren’t. He is a stranger to you, and it’ll take time for you to get to know each other. I wish I’d been more open with Sawyer. It would have saved us a lot of heartache.” She winces. “I hate how much I hurt him in the early part of our mating. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it, even though he says he’s fine.”

I don’t want to think about how this affects Kye too, because if I do, I won’t have the strength to push him away. He didn’t ask to be tethered to someone like me either.

“It’s been a rough week.” Roux gives my arm a gentle squeeze. “There’s been a lot to deal with, not just leaving ourhome and finding a place here, but all the stuff with Hester too. Give yourself a break to work through it all.”

She’s right. Hester broke my heart when I learned about her betrayal. I had no idea she was so linked to the people who are trying to hurt us, to force us to do horrendous, horrible things. This week has been rough, and the hits just keep on coming.

“He might be a good mate,” Halle adds. “Give him a chance to show you who he is before you dismiss him entirely.”

I don’t need him to show me.

“Besides,” Roux says, “if he’s already being protective of you the chances are he’s not going to back down.”

She’s right and that scares me. I launch to my feet, Halle and Roux mirroring my motion. “I’m not running,” I assure them. “I just… I need a moment.”

Without waiting for their responses, I rush upstairs to my bedroom, closing the door behind me before I sink against it. This is fucked up.

I don’t appreciate being attacked, little mate.

His voice fills my head, and I jolt at the intrusion. I’m used to the silence of my mind, even though I am part wolf. She’s rarely around, but now I have a full-blown consciousness rattling around in my brain. Kye’s going to be hard to avoid when he can read every single thing I’m feeling.

I don’t appreciate anything you did,I retort.

I can sense his irritation through our bond.

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