Page 23 of Secret Wolf Baby

If it had been anyone else, anyone but him, the flirting would have been cute. But I kept my guard up. I wasn’t going to fall for him. Not again. I’d made that mistake once before.

“If you want information, you should just ask,” I said.

“All right.” He moved to stand in front of me, making it impossible for me to avoid looking at him. “Do I need to worry about her father showing up?” he asked.

“Don’t you think you should have asked about that before forcing me to marry you?” I asked dryly.

“To be honest, I was so surprised at seeing you again that when you brought up the whole daughter thing, the idea of who her father might be didn’t cross my mind.” He tilted his head, folding his arms. “And considering you didn’t mention you were mated when this whole thing started makes me pretty confident you two aren’t together anymore.”

He was perceptive. He always had been.

I let out an exhausted sigh. “To answer your question, no. You don’t need to worry about him. Her father isn’t in the picture.” On the contrary, he was staring right at me. Part of me wanted to tell him, if only so I didn’t have to keep up the charade any longer. But the more rational part of me held off.

He nodded, something like relief flickering through his eyes. “Why don’t you find your room and get settled?” he suggested. “We can order pizza for dinner or something like that.”

“Sounds good.” My words sounded almost mechanical as I gave him a brief nod, grabbed my suitcase, and walked up the stairs.

In the end, I don’t think it mattered which room Claire picked. All of them were massive. I picked one with an attached bathroom and a view of the woods behind the house.

I collapsed on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to parse out all my emotions now that I was here. I hatedJackson. I was still furious at him for using me, then tossing me aside the way he had. I wanted to be angry at him, to shout and scream and call him out for what he had done to me. I wanted him to understand how angry I was, how hurt I was by everything he had put me through.

Except the fight that I used to have, that will to confront him, died a long time ago. That didn’t stop the anger, though.

At the same time, part of me was relieved, bordering on ecstatic. I was out of the Blood Moon pack. I was free of Reacher and my father, something I had never, ever dreamed would be possible. If the circumstances were different, I would be singing and dancing in celebration. But part of me felt like I was still trapped, just in a different way. I hated feeling like a commodity, even if it had ultimately gotten me what I had been dreaming of for years.

On top of that, even if I didn’t live there anymore, just the thought of Reacher and my old pack sent shivers down my spine and made my throat tighten. I could still feel his tendrils, even this far away. I had no doubt that if Reacher or my father somehow found out I had told Jackson anything, or if I tried to leave him or jeopardize whatever bargain they’d made in any way, they would come after me. And they wouldn’t stop until they had me in their grasp again.

And who knew what they would do as punishment for disobeying their orders? I didn’t exactly want to find out.

Chapter 7 - Jackson

I could feel the fury and disbelief radiating off Declan from the other side of his desk. I kept my head high, meeting his gaze. Behind me, Will and Trent stood several steps back as if trying to keep their distance from us. I couldn’t blame them. None of this was their fault, anyway.

“Are you out of your mind?” Declan growled at me. He glanced behind me to look at Will and Trent. “Please tell me this is some sort of elaborate prank.”

“Nope,” Will answered.

“We were as surprised as you are,” Trent said. “It kinda came out of nowhere.”

Declan turned back toward me, his eyes burning with rage.

“I did what I did,” I said, folding my arms, refusing to break eye contact.

“You abandoned the mission,” he snarled. “And agreed to back off. For a kid you haven’t seen in over ten years.”

“She’s not a kid. She’s a woman,” I retorted. “And a woman who desperately needed to get out of there.”

“You don’t know that,” he barked. He marched around his desk to stand in front of me. Since we were kids, I had only seen him truly pissed off a handful of times, and the last time was when an asshole had kidnapped his mate. I knew I was treading in hot water. Still, I held my ground.

“Yes, I do,” I argued back. “It was bad. She was…” I trailed off, trying to find the words to describe how she had seemed like a shell of herself. Everything about her had screamed she neededrescuing. I didn’t regret it, but trying to explain that logic was harder than I thought.

“For all you know, she was perfectly happy, and you just dragged her out of her life because of a selfish whim,” he growled. “If shehadwanted to leave, she could have done so any number of times without your help.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, based on her meek, servile manner around Reacher and her father. I got the feeling she didn’t have much say in her daily life. Before I could say any of this, however, Declan had launched back into his tirade.

“And that’s not including the fact that you negotiated with a guy who is under investigation by the Council,” Declan continued. “Do you realize how that looks? If the council gets wind of this, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

“I had to do it,” I shot back, folding my arms.

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