Page 37 of The Alpha's Bullied Mate

Tess dropped her gaze. “I didn’t mean to sound like I was questioning him.”

Mica didn’t answer. The truth was, she was just as tense as everyone else. She wanted to know as much as everyone else about the reasons for Hayden’s delay. But he kept it a secret from her. He kept so many secrets. Not that she asked him a lot of questions—but it was an added strain.

“Have we learned anything more about the aura-demons and how they possess people?” Mica asked, wanting to change the subject.

The look on Tess’s face was answer enough.

Mica pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes until spots of colorful lights danced over her vision. The more time went by, the more she was convinced that this was a waste of time. Ryder refused to talk to her about Echo anymore. He had started referring to ‘the demon’ and acted as though their mother was dead.

Maybe she was.

“Rachel has been speed-reading throughout it all,” Tess offered. “She told me she may have found a new book about the aura-demons.”

“Thanks. I—” Mica jumped to her feet when a bellow rang out from outside. She raced to the window but saw nothing.

With Tess on her heels, Mica rushed downstairs. She peered through the parlor window to see Hayden’s massive wolf standing just outside the salt barrier, the special ops flankinghim. The wolves he’d taken into the forest with him surrounded the beast-demon. They were tearing into it, a hunting lesson.

Mica went to the kitchen and grabbed a box of salt, but by the time she got back outside, it was over. The demon was dead. A quick glance over the wolves showed none of them suffered major injuries.

Hayden trotted over to her and licked her cheek. He then nodded toward the house. Mica sighed as she followed him. Her heart pounded in her chest, but relief at seeing him was just as strong. Her mind raced over what she had Tess had just been talking about.

At the entrance, Hayden turned to his human form and pulled on a pair of boxers. “How is everything here?”

“Tense,” Mica answered honestly. She felt ridiculous as she gazed at the box of salt in her hands. Just what did she think she was going to do with this? But as she looked at it, an idea came to her. “I want to get more salt and pipes. We should build out the barrier to surround the next few houses. We’re running out of space as it is.”

Hayden nodded slowly. “We’ll have to be careful. If a demon is already in those buildings, they’ll be inside our barrier with us.”

He rubbed his eyes, exhaustion peeking through. Mica was vividly reminded of a time when they were in middle school and she was struggling with her physical education grade. The pack was fairly strict on fitness tests, and if she failed she would be sent to boot camp over the summer. Ironically, she was faster than several of her classmates if they were in human form. But since they were able to take their wolf form, she was always last in the class.

She was terrified of being sent away and worked hard to improve her mile-run. She ran every day, pushing herself to the point of injuring herself. Hayden had stepped up to help her. He convinced their teacher to give her extra time to recover from her injury, then taught her other ways to improve her fitness. It wasn’t just about running; if she could improve other areas, then she could pull her overall grades high enough that the running didn’t matter.

They trained relentlessly, on top of everything else Hayden had going on. He was in several extracurriculars, but even though she knew he was exhausted, he never once made her feel like a burden.

It was the same thing here. Warmth flooded through Mica’s body. Despite her own stress, just being close to Hayden reassured her that everyone would make it through this. He was pushing himself hard to make sure everyone was being taken care of. But who was taking care of him?

Mica took hold of his arm. “Why don’t you go take a shower? I’ll look after the warriors and bring a full report to you when I come up.”

Hayden cupped her face, a sly smirk crossing his face. “Ahh, that sounds like a good idea. You can give me a full report while I give you a full—”

“Brother coming through,” Ryder called from outside, then he stepped into the entrance. He grabbed a pair of shorts and yanked them on, carefully not watching Mica and Hayden.

Mica kissed Hayden’s cheek. “I’ll be up in a bit.”

He nodded, and Mica slipped back outside. It was utterly dark now, and she had to use a flashlight to navigate the camp. Everyone else could simply see in the dark but with her weak human eyes… But nobody brought it up, not like they wouldhave in other circumstances. She headed upstairs once she was satisfied everyone was set for the night.

Hayden waited for her in bed, scrolling through the most recent demon research on the laptop. He closed it and set the laptop on the nightstand as he grinned at her.

His hair was damp from the shower, the smell of soap mingling with his manly scent. Mica grabbed a nightgown from her dresser and changed.

“I don’t like that nightgown,” Hayden told her. “It’s old and worn.”

“And comfortable,” Mica snarked.

“Yes. Which means you’re tired and need to just sleep.” He winked at her.

Mica’s responding smile was short-lived. She slid into the bed, sighing out her tension as Hayden wrapped his arms around her. She snuggled closer to him, her eyes closing. But… “This can’t keep going. The pack is getting restless.”

“I know,” Hayden murmured into her hair. He pressed a kiss to her temple and threw off the blankets. “And you haven’t showered in two days.”

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