Page 56 of The Wolf's Pregnant Rejected Mate

“Fuck that,” Ryder snarled.

Jace pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the cage door. He opened it and stepped back. Ryder lunged, swinging his fists—except frost flashed through his muscles, freezing him to the spot. He couldn’t move to attack.

“You vowed not to betray me,” Jace reminded him. “Which means that you have to do as I say.”

His fist drove into Ryder’s stomach. A series of blows rained down on him as Ryder dropped. He couldn’t even defend himself as Jace beat him. He curled into a ball, protecting himself as his wolf howled and snarled. He rode out the beating silently, refusing to give Jace the satisfaction of seeing his pain.

“Get out of here,” Jace snarled, panting when he was finally done. “And tell Hayden that I didn’t believe you. You barely escaped with your life, and you learned nothing.”

Ryder staggered to his face. He stripped off the pink shirt and glittery pants, dropping them to the floor. Then he shifted to his wolf form, that frosty feeling washing throughout his whole body. He limped from the cave. The forest was thick with rain, a constant drizzle raining down from above.

He tried to plan what he would do once he got home, but a bolt of white-cold pain chased away every thought.

He’d made a terrible mistake. How could he protect his pack and Tess now?

Chapter 31 - Tess

Tess clutched the mug of warm herbal tea in her hands, staring outside as the rain pattered down from the sky. The dampness permeated the air, even inside. Her wolf paced in her chest, restless and unsettled. Her stomach churned in a way that made her want to run to the toilet, but she’d already spent the morning hunched over it, and nothing had happened.

Where was Ryder? Was he getting the information they needed, or was this whole mission futile? What if they cut the talisman out of him and used the Demon Seed to claim him?

A shudder ran down her spine. The special ops team had years of experience dealing with demons. They knew their methods better than she did. Yet she couldn’t help but think that there should be something more for her to do.

More than anything, she wished things had gone differently. She wished so badly that she could turn back the clock that it was like a knife buried in her chest.

Sitting around doing nothing wasn’t helping. The nausea was more from stress than anything, she was certain. This meant if she could just distract herself from these circles of thoughts that wouldn’t leave her alone, maybe she’d stop feeling like this.

She had taken the day off from nannying for Mica due to the late night yesterday. She was tired enough that she didn’t think she could safely take care of a baby.

The house was already spotless. Elin had spent the night stress-cleaning. Now she was sleeping, so Tess didn’t want to disturb her. As much as she wanted someone to talk to and reassure her, everyone who knew the truth of her public rejection of Ryder was in the same boat. All of them were worried about him.

That, and if they talked about it, someone could overhear. The plan was precarious enough, she didn’t want to risk making it worse.

She grabbed a binder with the demon transcripts and sat in the reading chair. The rain tapping against the window provided an almost soothing background noise as she started to pursue her reading. Of course, everything had been picked clean, but she hadn’t read this volume herself yet. There might be something that someone else had missed.

Most of all, she wanted to know what the Demon Seed actually was. It seemed to be what was giving the big wolf an edge over the other demons. If she could find out where it came from or how to destroy it, then maybe they’d be able to get a step up on the demons.

She started to read, struggling with unfamiliar terms and strange writing. As she pressed her finger to the page, underlining the words, she suddenly wondered if she and Ryder would be able to send their baby to college. Very few people in the pack ever got more education than high school. The doctor, Christine, was the only one she knew of other than Monroe.

Did the special ops get more education through the military?

The rain tapped harder, and Tess shook those thoughts from her head. She tried to refocus on the complicated language, but the tapping became harder. The window rattled. She lifted her head and gasped.

Ryder stood just outside the window, with his brown hair plastered to his skull with the rain.

She threw the binder aside and rushed to the window. She yanked it up and leaned out into the rain, not caring as a cold blast of wind made goosebumps rise on her arms. She caught Ryder’s face in her hands, shivering at how cold he was. Without thinking, she kissed him deeply. Their tongues tangled as Ryder caught her wrists in his hands like he was planning on pulling away.

Her wolf howled in delight. He was here. And since the town was protected, it meant it was really him. He couldn’t have slipped in if the demons had possessed him.

Grateful tears slid down Tess’s face.Thank you,she prayed to the Moon Goddess.Thank you so much!

He was here. He was alive! She couldn’t get enough of his taste, his touch. All the fear was released from her at once. She wasn’t going to go through that again—she couldn’t let another moment go by without him knowing how she felt.

“I love you,” she murmured between their kisses. “Oh, Ryder! I love you so much!”

Ryder climbed through the window awkwardly. His naked skin was strangely white—no doubt from how cold he was. Her eyes widened at the dark purple swellings that bruised his body. He looked as though he’d been hit by a truck!

“What happened?” she cried.

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