Page 41 of The Alpha's Rejected Arranged Mate

Elin’s hands tightened. She hated that he thought so little of himself! “I do,” she said firmly. “Of course I do.”

Finn let out a shuddering sigh and kissed her. Elin closed her eyes, letting the sensations sweep through her. His hands moved to her hips, and Elin leaned into him, craving him more than she craved her next breath.

Well, well, well,a dark voice purred in her mind. What do we have here?

Chapter 19 - Finn

Elin’s lips grew cold and still. Finn opened his eyes, shocked at the sudden change. Her eyes were closed, her breathing coming more rapidly. Wisps of red aura filtered around her, growing stronger. His heart slammed, and his wolf howled in his chest. Was this Dukiel reaching out to take her as his host?

For half a beat, Finn was frozen, his fear overwhelming him. He couldn’t lose her! He couldn’t—

The wisps grew stronger, starting to glow. The sort of influence that he’d seen around countless people. But this wasn’t possession. The light was concentrated around her head rather than evenly distributing itself around her.

His wolf howled, and Finn sprang into action. He leaped at his desk and grabbed a sharpie. Whirling back, he popped the top and grabbed Elin’s arms. Hastily, he scrawled protective symbols down her arm before moving to the next. That wasn’t enough to dispel the demon's influence, so he tugged up her shirt and drew more on her belly. The demon light tried to creep down her body, but it seemed like it was stuck. He put three more symbols on her, one on her forehead and one on each cheek.

Elin opened her eyes. “Finn…”

He swept her in his arms. Elin let out a yelp and threw an arm around his neck to help stabilize herself. Finn carried her down the stairs and burst into the kitchen. Carefully, he lowered her to one of the chairs before he searched in the cupboards. Finally, he found the salt and sprinkled a little in her hair.

“Ack!” she yelped.

Finn dumped out the rest in a circle around her. The demon light disappeared, the wisps trailing off before they disappeared in tiny puffs of red smoke. The two of them stared at each other, Finn panting and Elin glancing at the protective symbols he’d drawn on her.

“It’s bad that the first thing I think of is that this is going to be hard to wash off, isn’t it?” Elin asked finally, breaking the silence.

“Why would you want to wash it off?” Finn demanded, leaning against the table.

Elin’s cheeks went pink. “Er… because I don’t like tattoos.”

Finn sank into a chair, staring at her incredulously.

She shivered and reached for his hands. “Thank you. I’ll get it all tattooed permanently on my body if it means I don’t… Finn, we were right. He wants the baby. He told me.”

A shudder ran down Finn’s spine. His wolf growled. “What do you mean, he told you?”

“I heard him speaking in my mind,” Elin whispered. She shivered again. “It sounded so dark. Like… like as though the night had a voice. No… worse. Nighttime brings peace and rest… this was as though I was standing in the middle of a battlefield.”

“What did he say?” Finn asked, fighting to keep his voice level.

“First, he just sort of laughed and said I wasn’t safe from him, and neither was my son,” Elin murmured. “He said that he could hear me even as protected as I thought I was. And it must be true because he said I was right… that he was going to make my baby.”

Her arms tightened protectively around her belly. Finn wanted to reach out to her but found he couldn’t make himself. Could she believe it was genuine when he’d made it clear that he wished she wouldn’t take the risk to bring the pregnancy to full term? But this was something else entirely. He wanted to protect her…

And he wanted to protect their child, too. How could he explain to her that if Dukiel were going to take the baby as a host, it would be kinder to end his life before that could happen?

I’d kill myself first. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only option, right? There’s got to be ways to protect both of them!

“I called on the Moon Goddess’s protection, and he laughed,” Elin continued, her gaze unfocused. “He said demons caught and trapped the Moon Goddess long ago. If she had any power, she would have stopped them. They wouldn’t have been able to bind her in the first place.”

“He’s just trying to break your spirit,” Finn said at once.

Truthfully, he wasn’t sure the Moon Goddess had ever existed. If she did, how did they live in a society where she-wolves were rarely Alphas? If there was a goddess who controlled their fates, why would she let men rule over the women she made in her own image? It didn’t make any sense.

But maybe Dukiel was telling the truth. Perhaps the demons had defeated the goddess if she’d ever been real.

Elin’s gaze focused on him. “Finn, he said he was going to take the host as soon as he’s born. He’s just waiting for me to give birth before he steals my baby’s life. We can’t let him. Please. Please tell me you’ll find a way to stop him.”

She reached for him, tears swelling in her eyes. The moisture darkened her irises, making the deep chocolate brownalmost black. With the dark circles under her eyes, it made her look dangerously frail. Suddenly, he regretted every night he’d spent away from her. How could he soothe her nightmares if he didn’t know she’d been having nightmares? He should have been with her.

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