Page 52 of Rejected and Pregnant by the Lycan King

Tears ran down my face, and I pulled Charlotte into a hug. There weren’t any weeping or sobs like I expected. She just held me as tightly as she could with my belly in the way and sighed.

“I won’t ever lie to you, Kylie. That day, I felt myself slipping during the delivery. I could have died along with my pup, and most days, I wish I had. I fought to see my baby in my arms when I felt myself fading from this world. I survived, but he did not. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Because I fought to see him, I am here. I made peace with that, and I am okay now. My destiny may not have been to be his mother, but the Moon Goddess certainly knows what she is doing. I am here for you. I lost something precious, but I am gaining another I never expected to have.”

My throat was dry from the emotions crashing through me. I never would have expected her to share any of that. Charlotte always felt like she should have been a mother, and now I understood why. She should have been, but fate had been cruel. It had taken that from her.

The Moon Goddess gave her to us for a reason.

Yes, she did.

“So, before you try to tell me you feel bad or guilty, remember this: reminding myself that I would live—that I had to live—is what kept me from losing myself to the darkness. That truth will help you, too. Iwilllive.”

I nodded and gave her a smile.

“Now, let’s take you to the doctor and see if there is anything else we can do to keep your lycan connected to you. Maybe they can even find something else to help make the sickness go away.”

Yes. And just as Charlotte said, I will live.

25

Maximus

It was difficult for anyone to understand my intentions about going into rogue territory myself. As the king, it was expected that I would have others run into danger. That’s not how I saw things. If I was the king, then I needed to show my kingdom how to face uncertainty head-on. Rogues were unpredictable beasts. Most were those who simply got tired of pack life and wanted to settle in a place where pack politics wouldn’t follow them. There were a few I knew of who had fled to rogue territory just to escape everything they dealt with inside a pack. But my pack hated the idea of me going into rogue territory without backup.

To them, I was walking into enemy territory without an army to keep me safe. I might as well be naked. I understood their fear, but I didn’t see it that way. If I brought my army of loyal soldiers with me—who would kill anyone who looked at me oddly—it would be an unprovoked attack. Rogues often caused issues for the packs, but many didn’t have the resources to survive. Whenyou don’t know where your next meal will come from for your human side, it can drive people to do crazy things. Stealing from packs was an offense we didn’t take lightly, but now I was wondering if I should change things.

Kylie ran to rogue territory for a reason. It was the perfect place to hide from me. I would have never guessed she would run there because there wasn’t much to begin with. Rogues were considered outlaws, and the territory they called home was just neutral ground for them to live without me stepping in. There were times I thought about checking there, but I didn’t believe there would be anything there to help her. It’s not like the rogues I had ever encountered were friendly. If anything, if she was there, I expected her to be hiding under the radar.

A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. I at least stopped staring at the map on the wall now that every pack had been searched outside of the rogue territory. The answer was already found. If she wasn’t in the rogue territory, I would need to expand my search to the other kingdoms. It wouldn’t go well if that was the path I had to take. It wasn’t like all the kings were on good terms with one another.

Eli walked in, and he had a look on his face that made me think we had reached another dead end. My lycan growled at the thought of not getting any closer to finding Kylie.

“Well?” I asked him with a hint of a growl.

He looked at me solemnly. “Do you want the good news or the bad first?”

That didn’t sound good. “Should I want the bad news first?” Even though I doubted I wanted the bad news first, I neededto know what it meant. That could range across many scenarios regarding what I was searching for. What if the hired search party found my mate but discovered she was dead? The bad news outweighed the good, and if I heard that news first, I would destroy this room even more than I already had.

Eli hesitated. “No. That might have been a stupid question.”

He wouldn’t look me in the eye. Maybe it was just deference—low-ranking wolves avoiding a dominant’s gaze—but right now, it only agitated my lycan further. I could feel him pacing inside my mind, practically snarling from being without our mate for so long. The suspense wasn’t helping. If it were up to him, we would be ripping through our kingdom, tearing apart every pack until we found her. That was his only plan, and it felt right to him.

“Out with it,” I growled.

“It’s Kylie. The men found her location.”

My heart soared at the idea of Kylie being found. The beast inside me stopped pacing and began pushing against the walls of my mind to shift. The need to escape this room and run until we were finally in her presence overwhelmed me. It took everything I had not to allow that to happen. The only thing holding me back was not knowing her exact location yet.

“Where? Where has my mate gone? Tell me now!” I urged him.

Seeing my beta hesitate to tell me didn’t bode well. What if he delivered the bad news that she wasn’t alive, like my disastrous thoughts had suggested before? He continued to look at the floor instead of me, almost confirming my suspicion. I couldn’t letmy mind go that far. My beast wouldn’t handle being told there wasn’t a chance to make things right with our mate.

I couldn’t contain the anger I felt. The wait was driving me insane. I grabbed hold of Eli’s shirt and pulled him to me. His face was an inch from mine, and he still avoided my gaze. He tried to stay calm, but I could hear his heartbeat quicken the moment I fisted his shirt.

“Something is wrong with our luna,” Eli said.

I growled. Eli didn’t flinch, but he knew better than to stop there.

“The men found her and stayed to track her movements. Kylie is still weak from her lycan not connecting to her.”

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