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If the rest room didn’t smell so bad, and I wasn’t conscious that Shane was waiting right outside, I’d take even longer in the bathroom than I do. But I can’t hide in this toilet forever, so I dry my hands and walk out.

Shane straightens as soon as I step outside. As if he suspects I’ll run, he grips my arm and steers me back to the car.

I pull my arm free. “I can walk on my own,” I say, not looking at him.

He doesn’t grab me again, but he does close the distance between us. I’d laugh if it wasn’t so ridiculous. I’m nearly seven months pregnant and he’s an alpha in his prime. Does he really think I’ll be able to run away from him?

To my irritation, he opens my car door for me, and since I can’t close it and open it myself, I get into the low seat with great difficulty, and before I can close the door, he closes it for me.

Like a gentleman.

He isnota gentleman.

“None of what you’re doing will change anything,” I say once he’s pulled away from the rest stop and we’re back on the highway.

“What am I doing?”

I glance at him. “Trying to make this situation out like it isn’t a kidnapping. Open doors for me, let me use the bathroom as much as I want, do all those little things, but it won’t change anything. I will still hate you.”

His fingers tighten around the steering wheel as he slowly nods.

I haven’t asked about Bree, and frankly, I haven’t cared enough to bother. But things can’t be good if he’s here, looking like he hasn’t changed his shirt in a couple of days, and mixed up with the Raleighs.

There was another guy.

He smashed the den window and threw a lit cloth inside the room. I thought he would be with Shane, but Shane’s sports car is a two-seater only. He must have left in his own vehicle or with the wolves who melted into the forest after I think they attacked Chris and Zoe.

“You’re my mate,” he says.

“Correction. Iwasyour mate,” I say tightly. “I rejected you months ago, and you went to have that happy, perfect life with Bree you always wanted. You even signed the divorce papers I sent to you. Remember?”

His dad had us registered married, though we never had a ceremony. Shifters don’t get married. We bite each other and tie ourselves to each other in other ways. But the marriage certificate tied me to Shane in another legal, physical way, and I thought his dad insisted on it because he knew I might run, and he wanted something tying me to his son that I couldn’t run from.

He flashes me a bright smile. “Well, it’s funny how things work out in the end. You wanted me before you met that other guy, and now here we are together again.”

I twist to face him, wincing when Thumper kicks me. “You’re not listening to me.”

He glances at me, eyes dipping when I place a hand on my belly. “Is he kicking?”

I lean away from him. “Why do you want to know?”

“He’s my son, Aerin.”

I will never know how I don’t punch him in the face for that. “You referred to my baby asit. You remember that? Because I do, and you don’t get to come back, kidnap me and suddenly act like you give a shit.”

“You don’t swear.” He sounds surprised.

“I didn’t before I met you. So I have you to thank for that.” I glare at him. “And you don’t even know it’s a boy.”

He’s still smiling as he pulls off the side of the main road. “I’ll prove myself to you Aerin. Things will be different. I promise.”

Before I can unload like I need to, something pulls my gaze from him.

We’re no longer on the highway.

We’re in Karson, Michigan.

Suddenly, I start paying more attention to where we are than to Shane.

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