Page 37 of The Wolf's Pregnant Rejected Mate

They could use Zealuv’s prison as bait in a trap if it weren't so risky. But what if it failed? They couldn’t risk that bastard getting free again.

Unbidden, Tess’s words from the cabin came back to him.You should use us as bait.

A low growl reverberated in his chest. His wolf, but him as well. No fucking way. They didn’t need bait, and he sure as fuck wasn’t going to risk the women. No. There had to be another way, something he was missing. Maybe he needed to prioritize finding out the host’s identity. It would give them the chance to figure out what innate knowledge the demon had.

If the host was a wolf from the region at all. He could be a rogue, so there was no knowing where he came from.

Ryder rinsed out the cloth, shaking his head. He was so tired that he’d just end up spinning his wheels if he tried to figure things out now.

A knock came on the bathroom door, making him jump. “I’ll be out in a minute, Mom,” he yelled.

“Tess is here to see you,” Echo answered.

Ryder’s hands stilled. Tess. Over the last month, they hadn’t spoken much. He'd been avoiding her since he called an end to their sparring sessions. She had confronted him once, near the start, and demanded to know why he’d decided to stop.

The truth was, he saw the look on her face when she dragged that demon over the salt line in the forest.

He’d seen the way she realized that she had killed the body it possessed.

And he knew that he couldn’t keep training with her. The more they trained, the more confident she got, and the more likely she would insist on joining this somehow. Of being bait and fighting.

It would end in only two ways.

She’d kill again. She would have to deal with the emotions of killing someone she knew. The one she took out was already beyond saving. But what if the next one wasn’t? What if she killed someone that, in other circumstances, they could free?

The other option? She’d be killed.

Neither of them was an option Ryder would allow to happen. And so the training was over.

That wasn’t what he told her, though. Instead, he’d looked into her eyes and said, “I can’t afford to be distracted right now. It’s been fun, but I have to concentrate on my duties for the pack. Blayke teaches self-defense to the she-wolves. You can join that group.”

“Ryder?” Echo called through the door. “Are you going to see her?”

Ryder grabbed a robe and threw it on. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

He listened to Echoe’s footsteps retreat and ran a hand through his dark hair. He stared at himself in the mirror again, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Echo told him once that he looked like his father. Ryder hadn’t cared. He was never curious about who his father was or how Echo had come to be pregnant with him.

People in town thought she’d hooked up with a random stranger during one of her trips to the city. It wasn’t true. He wasn’t an accidental baby any more than Mica had been an unintentional adoption. His father was a sperm donor. But the pack would think even worse about Echo if they’d known she’d used medical intervention to have a baby than they did thinking that she’d slept around.

Ryder combed his hair flat and stepped out of the bathroom. Echo was at the entrance, putting on her shoes.

“What are you doing?” Ryder asked.

Echo gave him a pointed look. “Going for a walk.”

Ryder bit back a groan. He really needed to get his own place. Once he had a few days of downtime, he’d see what was available for rent. Someplace close by for when Echo needed him, but somewhere he’d have privacy.

At least Echo was leaving to give him and Tess privacy now. Ryder’s wolf pawed at his chest, demanding he go to her. Even though it wasn’t going to go the way his wolf wanted. Images flashed through his mind of how beautiful Tess had looked that day, straddling him.

Fucking demons. The least they could have done was wait until after they tried it out with Tess on top.

Ryder shook his head, driving out those images.

He entered the living room. Tess sat on the worn couch, looking down at her twisted hands. Her head came up, and she held her breath as he stepped in. Looking at her, he instantly knew what she was here to tell him. She sat so rigidly that there could only be one thing. Her lips parted slightly, but she didn’t speak.

Her sweet scent curled into his nostrils. There was a change, a subtle increase in the scent she gave off. He’d smelled it on Mica when she got pregnant. Smelled it on other women before they even knew they were pregnant. He’d always had a sensitive nose.

Pregnant. This couldn’t come at a worse time! He was busy with that fucking big wolf. He had a duty to the pack. There were enough distractions in his life right now. And now, Tess was pregnant. Which meant they had to figure out co-parenting. How to work out custody agreements. Child support. He’d step up for her and their child; he wasn’t a deadbeat dad. A place of his own would have to wait; first things first, he was going to get Tess into a nicer place. Somewhere comfortable with space for the baby.

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