Page 104 of Tempted By the Alpha Outlaw

His jaw tightens. His hands clench at his sides. But he doesn’t deny it.

I shake my head, breath coming sharp and uneven. “Do you know what that means to me?” My voice drops, low and hoarse. “Do you know what a mate bond is to me? To all of us?”

I don’t wait for him to answer.

“It’s sacred. We don’t have God, but we have…we have fate.” My throat locks up, and I swallow against it. “And you treated it like it was nothing.”

Colt flinches.

Not much, not enough for anyone else to notice—but I do. I see the slight hitch in his breath, the way his fists tighten, the barest tremor in his stance like he’s just barely holding himself together.

Good. Let him feel it. Let him know what he’s done.

I press a shaking hand to my chest, gripping at the fabric of my dress like I can steady the beating of my own heart. “You marked me, Colt,” I whisper, and it’s not just pain that cracks through my voice—it’s rage. “That means forever. It means you are mine, and I am yours. It means you chose me—and you didn’t. You lied to me. You were never mine.” My breath shudders out, my ribs aching under the weight of my own words. “You made me believe in something sacred…and you turned it into a lie.”

“It wasn’t a lie,” he rasps.

I let out a bitter laugh. “No? Then what the hell do you call it, Colt?”

He shakes his head, raking a hand through his hair, wild and desperate. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like this,” he says, voice raw. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to?—”

I bark out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, well, intentions don’t mean shit when you’re bleeding out, do they?”

Colt stiffens–and I understand, because I never talk like this, I never feel like this. I feel like I’m unraveling, my chest heaving, my hands trembling at my sides, my stomach churning like I’m about to throw up. I turn away from him again, rubbing my fingers against my temples, my mind racing too fast, tripping over everything—every word, every moment, every touch.

I marked him back.

I let him claim me.

And I thought?—

Oh, God.

I suck in a breath, my stomach twisting. My vision blurs, not from tears but from something else, something deeper, something clawing at the back of my mind, something I should have seen, something I should have known.

I sway slightly on my feet.

Colt moves like he wants to reach for me, but I shoot him a glare so sharp it stops him in his tracks. He clenches his jaw, forcing himself still.

And then it hits me.

How many times we made love without protection…how I begged him to knot me because I was so certain that I knew him, that he was my future, my everything.

The baby crying earlier—he had this look on his face that made me wonder…

Oh, God.

I can’t breathe.

I press a hand to my stomach, my fingers trembling. Colt watches the movement, his face going pale, and I know—he already figured it out.

“You knew,” I whisper, my voice barely more than a breath.

Colt doesn’t say anything. He just stands there, shoulders tense, hands fisted at his sides.

“You knew,” I say again, louder this time, my voice cracking on the last word. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me?”

His throat bobs. “I didn’t—” He drags a hand down his face. “I only figured it out after I told you everything, when you ran off. I didn’t want to hurt you more than I already had.”

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