Page 12 of The Alpha's Forced Rejected Mate

He winked. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Alright.

No big deal.

Just taking Sydney to bed while her father stands in the living room.

Goddess, if I could laugh right now, I would probably sound like a crazed witch. I could feel the way my chest shuddered through each inhaled breath, how my fingers twitched with annoyance, and the prickling feeling of agitation growing in my belly as I tucked Sydney into her princess bed. I kissed her forehead. I kissed her bunny’s forehead—Mr. Charles—and then I went back downstairs where Cliff was standing in the dark with his hands in his pockets.

My eyelids fluttered as the scent of spiced tobacco tickled my nostrils. At once, memories exploded in my core, an emotional bomb that detonated at the reminder of summersspent swimming under the pier, holding hands on top of a cliff, swimming in the ocean naked at night with the frigid temperature threatening to take us under, and warm lips. Rough hands.Eager mouths.

I closed my eyes. “No.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I saidno.” I looked at him as a new feeling took hold, so fresh in its birth that I thought it was brand-new, but it wasn’t. It was just an old feeling from four years ago that made my center ache and my slit sting. “I don’t want to be involved with you anymore.”

His eyes dropped to the ground.

Was he…disappointed?

“I told them you probably had a mate,” he said in a low voice. Then, as if he had never frowned in his life, he brightened up with a grin. “Well, congrats, Robby. I hope you’re happy.”

I folded my arms over my chest. “I don’t have a mate.”

“A boyfriend?”

“No.”

His grin grew. “A harem of lovers?”

I snorted. “I’m too busy being a good mother.”

“Yeah, tell me about that.”

My knees wobbled. It felt like my heart had dropped right through my gut to the ground. I stared at Cliff like he had shifted into a creature other than a wolf. Shock passed through me. Then guilt. Then fear.

Thenanger. “Some asshole knocked me up and disappeared.”

I pinched my lips together.Way to blow it, Robyn. Too many things had happened. Too much resentment lived inside me to stand telling Cliff the truth—thathewas the asshole who knocked me up and disappeared. In my heart lived a tender wound that refused to heal because of this jerk.

He didn’t deserve the truth. Especially when he was creeping back into my life in the middle of the night wearing a sly grin like hedidn’tjust ignore me for three entire ass years.

Well, he wasn’t grinning now.

Actually, he looked kind of pissed with his furrowed brow, his stern sneer, and his fiery stare. His nostrils flared as he approached me. “Did he hurt you?”

My eyebrows twisted together. “W-What?”

“Was he controlling?” He touched my shoulders abruptly, causing me to quake. His touch was light but insistent, and the sudden, gentle gesture had my heart racing. “Did he try to hurt your daughter?”

His voice had dropped to a concerned rumble that I could feel vibrating in his chest with his standing so close. The tables had turned. My brain short-circuited as my heart whipped into a frenzied beat, one that made me shiver.

Cliff clutched my shoulders firmly,protectively. “You’re shaking. He did do something, didn’t he?” He glanced toward the kitchen. “Tell me who he is, and I’ll—”

“That’s not necessary.” I squeezed my eyes shut as I pushed on his chest, hesitantly putting space between us. “Cliff, it’s fine. He didn’t hurt us—well, he didn’t hurt Sydney.”

“But he hurt you.”

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