Page 51 of Reign

Pregnant? Was I pregnant?I couldn’t be. Connor would never lie to me like that. My eyes burned, and the nausea that had settled when he’d come near me reared its ugly head again.

“Connor?” My whole world somehow relied on that one word. His name. And a whole shit load of silent questions that I couldn’t even begin to voice.

Rawson’s gaze bounced between us, his face screwing into a dark frown. “What the…” He looked at my expression, and his eyes widened. I must have looked as crappy as I felt because he raked a hand through his messy hair. “Oh, shit...you didn’t know? I mean, I could be wrong; maybe you're not... “ He looked helplessly at Connor.

Connor’s face hardened. And it was that which broke me, even more than everything that had been done to me by Rex and Jed. My mate, the one I’d given my heart, and my total trust to, had lied to me.

“Is it true?” I yelled at him, heat bathing my insides, igniting my blood.

“Calm down, Ember. Please.”

My nostrils flared. “Don’t you fucking dare tell me to calm down! Did you lie to me?” It was all I could do not to launch myself at him. My blood began to heat.

“Let’s get back to the compound, and we can discuss this in private.”

His voice was slightly shaky, his face pleading, but somehow that only made me angrier. It was an admission of guilt. “How dare you!” I screeched. “You had no right to keep such an important thing from me.” And then it hit me, like a smack in the face. My heart literally hurt. “Jed knew too, didn’t he? That’s why he let you in Rex’s home. He knew; that’s why he gave me up. He knew Rex would lock me away. He gave me up because he knew I was pregnant…” Agony ripped at my heart, but I kept my chin high as I asked the question that was burning into my soul like acid. “Is it yours?”

Silence. Nothing but fucking silence. My mate’s face said it all. It was a second or maybe two, but it was enough. I staggered back, my legs going weak. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod…” I was panting. I had to get away, or I was going to faint in front of them. I couldn’t let the pain in my heart break me, or I’d never survive this.

“Ember, Stop! Please...let’s go home…”

“No!” I literally exploded. My phoenix stormed forward at my anger. I felt her confusion at my fury towards my mate, but she was mine to control. She had no choice. I knew it as surely as I knew Connor had kept this life-changing secret from me. My voice came out as a powerful screech and flames licked across my skin. “You fucking lied to me!” I met his gaze, my tears drying on my flame-drenched skin.

“I didn’t lie!” he roared back, Prime half breaking through his skin in his temper.

“Am I pregnant? Tell me the godsdamned truth!”

“Yes!” he bellowed, his voice breaking. He swore and made to reach for me. I couldn’t let him touch me; if he did, I’d be lost. His touch did something to me; it was like a drug. I needed to be alone, to think, to clear my head. What was I meant to do with the knowledge my mate and everyone I’d learned to trust over the past few weeks had lied to me? “Fuck this,” I muttered under my breath.

“Firecracker, please don’t do this, don’t go…”

Tears blurred my eyes. “Tell me this baby is yours….”

“It is, Em. It’s mine,” he whispered.

I smiled sadly, despite the relief that washed through me at his confirmation, and swallowed the lump in my throat. “Then I don’t understand why you kept this from me.”

His face softened, Prime gone, and he rubbed a hand over his mouth and chin, exhaling deeply. “Because you had enough to cope with, love. I didn’t want to make things more stressful.”

I blinked, my voice catching. I felt Connor’s sincerity, but it didn’t make anything better, only worse. Is that what he’d always do? Lie to protect me? Make decisions on my behalf if he believed it was best for me? “I get it, I do. You think you were doing me a favour. But you can’t make decisions about my life and expect me to just accept them. It’s wrong, Connor, especially after what Rex and Jed did to me.”

“Ah, shit, Em, I know...But…”

I lifted a hand. “No. No ‘buts.’’ I swallowed hard, fighting the pain in my head and the sense of betrayal this whole situation created in me. “I need to be alone right now.” Fire reassured me she was ready, and I believed her. I could remember everything about her, including that we had become a team in the past to fight our enemy from the skies. Wings unfurled at my back, their flames iridescent and lighting the darkness of the alley.

Rawson gaped. “Holy shit,” he muttered.

“No!” Connor’s face twisted into a mask of fear, his hands reaching for me. But I launched into the sky, knowing that was one thing the King of Shifters could never do...fly.

Chapter 19

Connor

It had been almosttwenty-four hours since I’d made the biggest fucking mistake of my life. Ember had left me, and I’d been in a dark place ever since. Prime was near frantic with worry, and it was getting worse. I couldn’t even track her properly because of my fear. Every time our mate had appeared on the camera feeds, or I’d managed to pinpoint her through our bond, I’d jumped in one of our SUVs and sped across London. And each time, she’d felt me approach and had run again.

“AHHH!” I yelled and smashed my fist through the wall of the most recent derelict factory where I’d sensed her.

“Hey!” Owen growled. “That isn’t the way to get her back. You need to keep your cool. She’s scared, brother—And pissed at you,” he added.

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