Page 8 of Hunted

“You mean embrace a happy future with the woman I love and who is going to help me build a football team?” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear as his lips tilt up in a smile. "I must be crazy to want something like that, huh?”

“Football team?” I arch my eyebrow, but wince when Thumper proves true to her name. I haven’t told Mack yet,but when my powers decide they want to work, her soul feels female. The further along I get in my pregnancy, the rarer those occasions are. That has been another anxiety keeping me up at night.

He kisses me. “Football team,” he confirms. “Turn around. Let me see if I can do something to stop Thumper from kicking you so you can get back to sleep.”

I roll over with Mack’s help.

He wraps his arms around me, drawing my body back to his as he lovingly strokes my belly. My powers have been in a flux for a while, but when he touches me like this, I swear I can feel his love pouring from him to me and to the baby he’s claimed as his.

Thumper must feel that love too, because as I relax, she does as well, and her kicks become less violent.

Smothering another yawn, I consider telling Mack about my powers being out of whack and how each new training lesson with Adela ends with me more frustrated than the last.

But I worry.

My aunt Ivy was supposed to come to my baby shower and missed it. She said the Lonergan Pack was dealing with unexpected trouble, and it wasn’t a big deal. But Ivy had been so excited to come that I know she wouldn’t have stayed away unless something serious was going on in Virginia.

Now more than ever, I’m conscious that Mack is careful to ensure I’m not left alone. He stopped Bennett and Helena from going to Jersey City with Colton and Penny to pack up his apartment.

Trouble is brewing, even if no one wants to talk to me about it. The last thing I want is to complain about not being able to do something that has always come easily to me. I can heal a person of ten years' worth of their pain and trauma without meaning to. Whenever I reached for my power and it has always been there, like an eager puppy.

Except now.

Nowmy power is like a spluttering candle that goes out more often than it stays lit.

“Aerin?” Mack’s voice is soothing and calm in my ear.

“Yeah?”

He kisses my throat. “Everything will be fine.”

“What makes you think something is wrong?”

He’s smiling. I feel it when he kisses me again. “Maybe because I’m the all-seeing, all-knowing Alpha.”

I snort a laugh.

“I’ll bet Thumper is making your powers go haywire. They’ll return to fully operational soon, love,” he says.

My smile fades and I circle Mack’s wrist, squeezing. “Thank you,” I whisper.

He resumes stroking my belly. “What for?”

“Always knowing when something is wrong.”

4

MACK

Icontinue my caress as Aerin relaxes.

She’s falling asleep now.

There’s not a lot I’m afraid of in this world. When you’ve lost your pack and almost all of your family, your view of the world changes. The things that once terrified me as a boy and even a few years ago are not the same things, and I’m not sure exactly when my world view spun on its axis.

Probably the moment I saw Aerin, the beautiful omega with soft brown hair, freckles over her nose, eyes like a summer storm, and who smells like a heaven. The world—or at least her former mate—had tried to break her spirit. She hadn’t broken, though some would. I don’t think she knows how truly strong she is.

I’m holding my heart in my arms and I’m constantly aware that this world took my family and my pack from me before, and I don’t know that I could handle losing Aerin and the baby.

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