Page 15 of Knot Your Baby

“Yeah,” Harlow adds. “She’s been worried sick. You know what the authorities are like if an alpha isn’t present at the birth.”

“Exactly.” Freya rubs her hand over her belly. “I was scared that I was in labor.” She laughs. “Thank god I’m not. Now I know they’ll be back in time. Oh, and I’ll let them know I need to stop taking the scent blockers.”

I nod slowly. “At least that accounts for your strange behavior.”

“Strange?” Harlow laughs. “This is Freya being quite normal.”

“It is not,” Freya insists.

“Yes, it is. In fact, you’re much more subdued than normal. If he saw the real you, he’d think you were more than strange.”

I laugh. But something tells me there’s more to this story. That Harlow is helping her to cover up something that she doesn’t want to let on about.

I accept it for now. She is not my patient. But maybe I’ll have a deeper dive into her medical notes, because I have a nagging feeling about Freya that won’t leave me alone.

Chapter 5

Thorne

I stand at thefloor-to-ceiling windows of my office, hands in my pockets, watching the stream of traffic flow forty stories below. The city pulses with life, but my mind drifts elsewhere. Something feels off today - has for weeks now.

The click of heels against marble breaks my contemplation.

“Your papers for the Thomson meeting, Mr. Stone.” My personal assistant’s voice carries that breathy quality she reserves just for me.

I turn. She’s wearing a fitted pencil skirt that hugs her slim hips, her blonde hair falling in waves past her shoulders. She’s very pretty, in that predictable way that used to draw me in.

Many times.

Too many times.

And my dick ruled my head when I offered her a job as we dressed.

“Thanks.” I take the folder and inhale, remembering that last night we fucked at Club Midnight. The way her scent had seemed intoxicating then. The way we pretended we didn’t know each other.But now? Nothing. Not even a spark. It’s as though it never happened.

The scent was so intense that night, I almost sank my teeth into her neck to claim her.

Fuck!

I scrub my hand over my jaw every time I think about that.

What a fucking disaster that would’ve been. Not that I thought that at the time. I was furious when I woke up and found out she was gone.

The night she pretended never happened. I get it was a game we played, pretending we didn’t know each other. But she has still never mentioned it—not once.

I’ve never touched her since that night, and I’ve often wondered if she used a special perfume to lure me, something that masked her true scent. Because she doesn’t smell like that anymore.

Maya lingers, straightening items on my desk that don’t need straightening. “Is there anything else you need?”

“No, that’s all.”

Her fingers trail along the edge of my desk as she walks around it and eventually stands beside me. “You seem tense. I could help you...de-stress?”

“Not today, Maya.”

She steps closer, tilting her head. “Tonight then? We could grab dinner first...”

“No.” I let my alpha tone seep into my voice, watching her shoulders instantly drop in submission. “That’s not happening. Not today, not tonight.” I want to say not forever, but the words catch in my throat. “We’ve discussed this.”

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