Page 86 of Tempted By the Alpha Outlaw

Now that my instincts are in overdrive, clawing for something to hold onto…

I know.

Beneath the wildflowers and honey, beneath the lingering imprint of my own scent, there’s something new. Something soft. Something only mine.

Something so small but so real.

It settles deep in my bones, in the primal part of me that knows.

My mate is carrying my child.

And she has no idea.

29

MAGNOLIA

Idon’t run—I flee.

The night air is sharp in my lungs, Colt’s rich scent unwanted and unwelcome, drowning me. The bond stretches as I put distance between us, pulling taut like a wire about to snap—but it doesn’t. It won’t.

Because even now, after everything, he’s still there, still woven into me.

I hate it.

I hate him.

I don’t know how I make it home. One second, I’m at the chapel, my heart breaking in real time, and the next, I’m slamming the door behind me, my breath ragged, my body trembling. The house is quiet, the pack settling in for the night. My parents’ bedroom door is closed. Kate’s too, Lucy sleeping soundly in my parents’ room. I think River’s still up, the sound of a radio playing from inside his room…but no one sees me like this.

No one sees me breaking apart.

Good.

I don’t stop moving until I reach my room, until I sink onto the edge of my bed, my fingers curling into the quilt. It’s old, patched at the edges, a relic from when I was small enough to believe that love could fix everything.

My stomach turns.

I press my palm flat against it, my breath catching.

Oh God.

A sob climbs up my throat, but I swallow it down. I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing myself to breathe, forcing myself to push past the chaos screaming in my head.

He knew.

He knew the entire time. When he kissed me. When he touched me. When he marked me. I was so confident, telling everyone we could trust him…and we never should have because he’s a bad man, just like my mother told me.

My fingers graze over the bond mark at my throat, and a violent shudder rips through me.

He let me love him while keeping this secret. While knowing that if I ever found out, it would destroy me.

And it has.

My whole body trembles as I curl in on myself, gripping the quilt so tightly it might tear.

I should tell someone. I have to tell someone.

Reyes. Tilda. My mother.

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