Page 27 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

Our baby.

“Have you been feeling any better? I’m sorry you’ve been sick.”

“Yes, Brielle has been working her omega juju on me, and it gives me relief for most of a day at a time, which is great.”

“I’m glad,” I said, and I was. I hated the idea of her misery, when it was my fault and I couldn’tdoanything about it. My hands flexed into the chair’s cushions at the reminder of how helpless I was in all this. I was the passenger here, and I was used to being in the driver’s seat of my life.

She nodded, eyeing me cautiously. “I want you to know that I meant what I said. I didn’t sleep with anyone else. I’ll still let Brielle do the blood test, because you deserve to know for sure after what I said, and I don’t expect you to just trust me. But the baby’s yours, and I know that’s what the test isgoing to say. I’m sorry for what I said. Sometimes when I’m angry, I blurt out stupid shit, and it’s immature and awful, but it’s true.”

I blinked at the sudden onslaught of words. Was this what she wanted to tell me last night, before I’d so rudely cut her off to keep my distance?

I was an idiot. And an ass.

“I should apologize too,” I said, swallowing hard. It might have been stupid to remind her of the original reason she was angry at me, but if we really wanted to start fresh for our child, we needed to clear itallout.

“What for?” she asked, leaning forward in the chair again. “You’re right to want a paternity test, and I?—”

I shook my head, and her words stopped midstream. “For the knot, Leigh. It’s never happened to me before. I didn’t know it was even possible outside a fated mate bond and a heat. But we had neither, and honestly, I didn’t realize what was happening until it was almost too late, and when you pulled me in… I lost control. And I’m sorry. I should have said that the very next morning, but you were so angry, and Shay was shot. I let our circumstances be an excuse, when I should have manned up.”

She daintily tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear, giving herself a moment to think. “I think you’re wrong.”

I started to argue, but then decided to shut up and let her talk.

“I think I might have been in heat and not known it. So I owe you an apology too. If I’d been paying closer attention, we might not be in this mess at all.” Her hand dropped to cup her belly, and my throat tightened as the motion suddenly made itrealfor the first time.

My baby was in there. If I thought about that too long, I was going to get emotional, and I didn’t think either one of us was ready for that. I scrubbed my hand over the old scar on mycheek and fastened onto anything else that would get me back on solid ground.

“You think you went into heat?”

She shrugged one shoulder, looking sheepish. “I’ve never had one before, and it must have been mild, but yes? Both of my friends had told me I was hot at least once in the days before, but I brushed it off because I felt fine. The flu just burns right through us, you know?”

I nodded. We’d all had brushes with human viruses, and she was right. We’d get a slightly elevated temperature, but our immune systems burnt it all off without any other symptoms.

“So I wrote it off. But I was sohorny.” She laughed, the sound bright and a bit embarrassed as she looked away. “I think it’s safe to say we were both having experiences we didn’t expect.”

“Like me accidentally knotting you,” I said with a wince. A male wolf’s knot had only one purpose: breeding. During a heat, our rut got triggered, and eventually, it would result in a knot. Looking back, that was exactly what happened, though neither of us had experienced it before, so we didn’t know. Hell, I’d never been inrutbefore. Though in hindsight, with her saying she might’ve been in heat… it was all crystal clear.

Damn.

“So, you’re not mad anymore?” I asked. We’d both been caught unawares, but I truly regretted knotting her unexpectedly. Did it feel incredible? Absolutely. Who wouldn’t enjoy spontaneous orgasms? But it was a very intimate experience, usually only shared after bonding with your fated mate. To go for a one-night stand and end up tied together for an hour…

She shook her head, barely meeting my eyes. “I was mad at myself, not at you. One of my best friends in the entire world had been shot with wolfsbane, and while she wasfightingfor her life, I was having the best sex of my life. I felt so guilty. I was just taking that out on you in the only way I knew how.”

To my horror, she started to cry then, angrily dashing away the tears as they streamed down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, it’s stupid. I know she’s fine now. Fuck, she can’t die, so she’s better off than all the rest of us. I really wish I didn’t cry so much, now. It feels weird, like I’m not myself.”

“It’s okay,” I murmured, reaching across and taking her hand in mine, letting my thumb rub soothing patterns over her soft skin. “The baby’s making her presence known, right from the start.”

She smiled at that, ducking her head.

“Yeah, I guess she is. These pregnancy hormones arenotplaying.”

FIFTEEN

Leigh

Isucked in a deep breath, trying to shove my unruly emotions back into a box where they belonged. He’d asked me up here to have a real conversation, and while the apologies were a great start, we had some things to work out.

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