Page 47 of The Wolf's Pregnant Rejected Mate

“We’ve never had a situation where dragging a possessed person across a salt line expelled the demon,” Hayden said slowly. “Finn and I have our suspicions on why that was, but to test it out, we need to get our hands on more demons.”

“To experiment on them?” Tess clarified, wincing as she said the words.

Hayden nodded. “I suspect that only the demons who hold their hosts via the Demon Seed will be killed like that. And since we cannot save those hosts, it might give us a better chance at killing off a bunch of the demons all at once. We also have to keep moving forward while Ryder is gone. Otherwise, it will look suspicious.”

“What can I do?” Tess asked eagerly.

“You can be bait. We’ll set a trap for them, and if you’re out there, they will come after you.” Hayden’s gaze was surprisingly gentle.

Tess hesitated. She had the protective talisman, but would her baby still be vulnerable to possession? For that matter, it was still early in the pregnancy. Could too much stress cause her to lose the baby? If something went wrong, it wasn’t just her life that was in danger.

Hayden folded his hands on his desk. “Of course, you are free to say no. No doubt Mica is going to give me an earful for even suggesting this in the first place.”

Something shifted in his expression, some look that Tess couldn’t read. It was gone so fast that she wasn’t sure if she had seen it. She sat there, thinking it over. Once, she had been the one to make the suggestion that she could be used as bait. That was before, though.

“Every demon that we capture or kill is another demon that can’t hurt the pack again,” she said slowly. “But aren’t you worried that the big wolf will want to take vengeance on Ryder if we whittle down his pack? It will make him want to possess Ryder even more.”

“These are risks that the special ops team has to make,” Hayden said softly. “It’s not the first time we’ve put our lives on the line, and it won’t be the last. This is what it means to love us, Tess. Every day we go into that forest, we might not come back. What we don’t know about demons vastly outweighs what we do know.”

“But you keep going.”

“But we keep going,” Hayden agreed. “Because if we don’t, who will? If we’re not here to stand against the dark, who is going to drive it back? If we don’t fight for the pack, how many of the people we love will die?”

Did he know? Was there some special Alpha sense that he used to realize that she loved Ryder? Even if she couldn’t admit it?

Hayden’s expression remained steady as he waited for her to speak. It was firm yet compassionate. Tess lowered her gaze, her wolf continuing to be oddly quiet.

“I want to help,” she finally said. “I want to do my part. If you asked me to risk myself for the pack a few months ago, I wouldn’t have done it. But I’m willing to risk it for the people I love. Mica and Echo. My baby. I just… I need to make sure that I’m not risking my baby unnecessarily. I want a better life for them. I want them to grow up free of fear.”

“I understand. This must be a difficult thing for you to do. I know how the pack treated you.”

“Thank you.”

Hayden might know what the pack did, but he could never fully understand what it was like to be in her shoes. He was never an outcast, but he didn’t understand how it felt to be worried that her baby would grow up being treated the same way she had been as a child.

She had a better position here now. But if the demons weren’t stopped, then what? They might kill Hayden eventually and put their own Alpha in charge of the pack. If they got another Monroe?

No. No, she had to do this. It wasn’t just about Ryder.

The door opened.

Hayden frowned over Tess’s shoulder. “What are you doing here?”

Tess twisted to find Elin shaking as she entered the study. Her eyes bulged as she twisted her hands so tightly that her skin turned white. She looked like she was about to vomit or faint. The first thing Tess thought was that something terrible had happened, like Elin was about to topple over and reveal a knife in her back as one of those old corny murder mystery shows.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping, Alpha,” Elin stammered. “But I heard… and I want to help, too.”

Hayden frowned at her. “Are you saying that you want to take part in this trap, Elin?”’

“Y-yes,” Elin whispered. Her eyes bulged even further. “I want to be part of this. I don’t want to sit around waiting for the demons to come after me again. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. I can’t do much. But I can do this. I can be bait.”

Tess reached for her hand. She was ice-cold. A surge of affection rushed through Tess. Despite how terrified she clearly was, she still wanted to help. She knew how that felt. She knew the moment she’d hit the point of ‘fight back’ or ‘give up and die.’ That was the point Elin was at now. And she was glad that whatever trap Hayden came up with, she wasn’t going to be alone.

Tess turned back to Hayden, holding Elin’s hand tightly in her own. “When will it be, Alpha?”

“Soon. I will get back to you with the details.” Hayden gave them both hard looks. “Keep it to yourselves for now.”

That meant don’t tell Mica…

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