Page 105 of Tempted By the Alpha Outlaw

I let out a choked, incredulous sound. “Oh, so you thought keeping this from me would help?” My head spins, my chest so tight it hurts. “You don’t get to make that choice for me, Colt! You don’t get to—” My voice breaks, and I shake my head, my vision blurring. “You don’t get to keep taking from me.”

He looks wrecked.

He should be.

“I swear, Magnolia,” he says, voice hoarse. “I wasn’t hiding it. I just—I figured you didn’t know yet. I figured you’d—” He cuts himself off, exhaling hard. “I was gonna tell Reyes. I wanted to make sure—” His voice wavers. “I wanted to make sure you and the baby would be protected, no matter what happened to me.”

The baby.

I feel like I’m going to be sick.

My breath shudders out of me, my hand pressing harder against my stomach. I don’t know what to do with this, don’t know how to process it when I’m already drowning in everything else.

I should hate him.

I want to hate him.

But this isn’t just about me anymore.

It never was.

Colt watches me, desperation in his eyes. “Say something,” he whispers.

I close my eyes, swallowing against the nausea, the panic clawing at my throat. When I finally speak, my voice is quiet, but steady.

“You don’t deserve to stay,” I say, opening my eyes to meet his. “But if you really love me—if you love this baby—you’ll earn it.” I let out a slow breath. “You’ll work. You’ll repent.”

His entire body goes still.

“If you want to be in my life,” I say, voice unwavering, “if you want to be in this child’s life—you will prove yourself to this den, day after day, until they trust you again. Until I trust you again.”

A silence stretches between us.

Then, slowly, Colt falls to his knees.

His head bows.

“I swear.”

Colt kneels before me, his head bowed, hands open at his sides.

For a long, stretched-out second, I just stare at him—at the man who shattered me, the man who lied, the man who might be the father of my child. His shoulders are broad, but there’s no tension in them, no fight left in his stance. He doesn’t move like a man ready to plead his case—he moves like a man accepting a sentence.

The weight of it nearly knocks the breath from my lungs.

He’s swearing to me, but I don’t know if I believe it.

I don’t know if I can.

My heart pounds hard against my ribs, my pulse hammering in my ears. My hand stays curled protectively over my stomach, like I can shield the life that might be inside me from all of this—like I can keep it safe in a way I never kept myself safe with Colt.

I should hate him.

I want to hate him.

But what I feel is so much worse than hate.

I wrap my arms around myself, barely keeping my voice steady. “You say you’ll work for it. That you’ll prove yourself.” I shake my head. “But what does that even mean, Colt?”

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