Page 43 of The Alpha's Bullied Mate

Regret spiked through Hayden. He was only shouting because of the adrenaline and fear. If he’d slipped up just for a moment, it would be Mica lying on the floor, her throat ripped out. But unlike Ryder, she wouldn’t stand a chance, even with a transfusion.

Maverick raced back into the room behind them.

“I heard you,” Mica rasped as Hayden opened his mouth to apologize. “You and Ryder. You weren’t even going to try. You were just going to kill her.”

Hayden’s hands tightened, and he quickly released Mica, not wanting to hurt her. “We needed more time to decide whether it was worth the risk. And now look! Echo might die anyway from the process of having the demon ripped out of her, only now, she won’t even be herself at the end; she’ll just be in a coma. And Ryder might not survive his injuries. If you had just trusted me—”

“Trust you?” Mica twisted her hands as tears filled her eyes. “Trust you towhat? Listen to me when you never have before? Trust you to care? Trust you to think that maybe there’s something about all of this that maybe I found that you didn’t?” Remorse crossed her expression, but her eyes hardened as the first tears started to fall. “I had to act. Nobody has ever looked out for me except me. So no, Idon’ttrust you.”

Hayden opened his mouth, then closed it again. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling. His wolf was quiet, frozen still in his chest as though it didn’t know what to do. Anyone else speaking to him like this would feel an Alpha’s wrath.

But this was Mica.

This was his mate.

She didn’t trust him.

“Go take care of your injuries,” Hayden told her. His voice was flat. “I’ll let you know if they die.”

Chapter 23 - Mica

Mica didn’t know how she did it, but Tess managed to smuggle in a pregnancy test. Now, Mica sat in the bathroom, staring at the positive result. Her stomach was queasy, and now that she thought about it, she’d been feeling that quite a lot lately. Her body hurt, she always felt tired, and she had chalked it all up to stress.

Pregnant.

Even though she and Hayden had been having a lot of sex, and she had made the deliberate choice not to use condoms, she still could hardly believe it. Her period had always been all over the place. It wasn’t unusual for her to skip three or four months. She’d always been told it would make getting pregnant more difficult.

Counting back, it had been, what, five months? Time passed so quickly that she hadn’t bothered to think about her last period. Before Hayden and the special ops team had returned to the Bluebell Valley pack, at least. So what did that mean? How far along was she?

She peeled up her shirt and studied her stomach, looking at it from all angles. It was soft and round like usual. There was no indication of whether it was just her normal weight or if a baby bump was starting to appear.

Just how could this happen so quickly?

It was supposed to be difficult to get pregnant, especially for her. Especially since she was under so much stress. And yet here she was, with the proof that she was expecting.

Mica sat on the toilet, hiding her face in her hands. This was supposed to be joyous news. Something that she could tellher mother, brother, and mate about, and they’d all celebrate with her. But her mother was in a coma, barely breathing. Her brother was lying in a recovery bed with his neck checked every hour to make sure he hadn’t started bleeding again. He might never fully recover from that injury.

And her mate?

Tess knocked on the door. “Mica? Do you have an answer yet?”

Mica winced. She grabbed the test and twisted it as hard as she could. The plastic snapped in her hands. She threw it to the floor and stomped it beneath her heel until she could get out the little strip showing double lines. This, she tossed into the toilet and put the rest of it in the bathroom.

Then, she washed her hands and put on her best disappointed look. When she stepped from the bathroom, Tess gave her a hopeful look.

“Negative.”

Tess’s shoulders slumped. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m not pregnant. So it’s a good thing we kept this a secret,” Mica added.

“You’re right.” Tess nodded sadly. “This is a disappointment, though. If you were pregnant, you’d bring even more of the pack to Hayden’s side. There’s nothing like an Alpha’s first child to solidify his claim.”

Mica nodded, fighting not to wince.

Oh, yes, the pack would have a lot of big reactions to know she was pregnant. Many of them would see it as a sign of celebration. And yes, some of the wolves still stood behind Monroe and would switch sides without question, should it be known.

And that was precisely why Mica would continue to keep this pregnancy a secret. With everything else happening, the last thing she wanted was for Monroe and his followers to know she was pregnant. It wasn’t just that she was still early in the pregnancy, but because, as Hayden’s mate, she was a target.

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