Page 7 of Hunted

I’m not lying awake in the middle of the night because my baby has decided to use my bladder as a punchbag. Something else is making sleep impossible.

Moving slowly, I roll over. Mack helps me so we’re face to face, lying in our dark, quiet home in Winter Lake, a remote retirement town on the east coast.

Mack drew the curtains before we climbed into bed hours before, so it’s too dark to see his deep brown eyes. “Are you sure you still want to go ahead with this?”

His lip quirks into a smile. “I’d say it’s a bit late for me to change my mind with three months to go.”

I don’t return his smile.

“Is this because I asked if you were happy in this house?” He grins. “Because I promise you that I wasn’t thinking about kicking you out of our home.”

I had briefly wondered that earlier. Mack had met me outside the diner after I’d inhaled a burger, fries, and two chocolate milkshakes with Penny. She had to help me up from the booth, which is how we usually end our lunch dates.

Mack had asked, as he drove us home, if I could see myself always living in this house and it had taken me several seconds to respond.

I love the house. It’s cozy, warm, and it’s always felt like a safe place because after I ran away from Shane, itwasmy safe place. A haven where I rested and recuperated after I escaped a hated life with my fated mate. It’s also where I fell in love with Mack. I will always love this house because of those things.

Eventually, I told him I was happy here, and I could see myself living here for a while, but forever felt too far away to say if it was somewhere I’dalwayswant to live. As long as I’m with Mack, that’s what matters. He’d seemed pleased by my response,but refused to tell me why he was asking me, just said he had some things he was thinking about and wasn’t ready to talk about yet.

I know—or, at least, I was certain on the drive home from lunch—that Mack would want me and the baby. That he loves us both. He’s never made me think otherwise.

But in the middle of the night, old doubts have resurfaced, the way they sometimes like to when there is nothing around to distract you from them. It’s like when no one is around to reassure you, is when fears cling to you like barbs you can’t shake off.

My biggest fear is that Mack will change his mind.

I can read his soul and heal old hurts, like any omega can, because we are soul-healers. But what if the baby comes, and he doesn’t want this child to be his after all? What if with all the diaper changing, the crying, the being woken up every hour all night, being thrown up on three times a day, and me being too tired to spend any time with him because I’m giving my all to the baby, that he thinks, this is too much work?

That’s why I can’t sleep. Not because Thumper has made kicking my bladder a sport.

My abusive former mate is this child’s biological father, and even though Mack has embraced me—and this child—as his, what if the baby comes and Mack decides he doesn’t want this life at all?

“Aerin?” Mack’s smile falls away as he rests his hand at the base of my spine. “There is nothing you can’t share with me, love.”

I briefly smile. “Sometimes I’m convinced you’re an omega.”

“I’m not,” he says, still not smiling. “But when you’re hurting, I feel it. Tell me, and I will do everything I can to fix it.”

The sound of my swallow is painfully loud in the quiet dark. “Shane?—”

He drags his thumb over my lip. The caress is soft, but his expression is fierce. “Was an ass who didn’t deserve you or Thumper. Please tell me he’s not making you hurt because I’m starting to think I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

“You’re getting really attached to that name, huh?” His words draw a watery smile. Almost all my smiles are watery these days.

My emotions bounce between two extremes: excitement about getting ready for the baby or bursting into tears because I dropped a spoon. Sometimes I don’t even have to drop a spoon. I watched a commercial with a dog running across a field, tongue hanging out of its mouth in a happy grin, and something about it made me burst into tears.

There’s a tissue box in every room.

Mack said nothing, but I know he put them there, and he never complains when I cry for no reason. I must be exhausting to be around, but Mack is as patient and sweet as he always is.

“I will always want you and Thumper, Aerin. You never have to worry about that. You’re both mine forever, and that will never change. Okay?”

“You’re taking on a lot.”

He saved me from Shane, and gave me a safe haven when my mate made my life a misery, and now he’s taken the child Shane did not want as his.

Not all men would do that.

Mack took us both in, accepted us, and loved us without hesitation.

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