Page 60 of Rejected and Pregnant by the Lycan King

Maximus was here.

He knew where I was and that I had given birth to his pup.

The anger I could feel coming off him made me want to leap out of this bed and run for the hills. Yet the fear I felt had me rooted to this bed. I couldn’t move as he approached. His eyes flashed with the glow of his lycan. He looked disheveled, with tattered clothes and unkempt hair. It seemed he had been through a lot, but it could have just been the shock of finding out I was pregnant. It’s not like he cared about being bonded to me. He rejected me.

But the way his eyes scanned my body before shifting to the pup in my arms made me think otherwise. Why would he scan me if he didn’t want to know if I was okay? Unless that was the mate bond at play again.

The tugging returned. The pull toward him, like I felt the first time I met him, was there again. I let out a groan because his closeness made my lycan dance inside me, urging me to mark him as he approached. His minty scent wrapped around me, making me sigh as a feeling of safety swept through me.

No. That’s not how this is going to work.

I didn’t want him coming in here and thinking his presence alone would make me want him back. If he even wanted that.

“He’s beautiful,” he whispered as he stared at his pup.

I had forgotten how sexy his voice was as the words rolled off his tongue. There was some tension in his tone, too, but it didn’t detract from how velvety it sounded.

What could I say to that other than “I know”? So I kept my mouth shut. My body trembled at his closeness, and it was difficult to hide it from him. I squirmed under his gaze as it shifted to my eyes. It was clear Maximus was pissed off at how intense his look was, but it softened a little when I looked back. The corners of his mouth turned up for a moment before a scowl replaced it.

“Why the hell did you run from me?” he growled. “You were pregnant, you ran away, and you thought it was a good idea to keep this a secret?”

His voice grew louder as he spoke. I lowered myself onto the bed, feeling like absolute shit from his accusations. More than anything, I wanted to disappear, seeing him so angry with me.

No. He rejected us. That’s why we ran.

My lycan surged forward, flooding me with her strength. It wasn’t pure alpha power like Maximus’s, but it was omega strength, fierce and grounded. The kind I’d always needed, the kind that could have helped me stand up for myself. Now, without a pack, after running from the mate who had ripped out my heart and stomped on it without a second thought, I needed that strength. I needed to tell him exactly how I felt.

And I planned to.

“Excuse me?” I countered. “I wasn’t the one who rejected you, remember? This was all your decision, and everything that happened since you cast me aside is on you!”

He growled but kept it low enough not to startle the baby. “That’s not what I wanted.”

“Well, you sure as fuck didn’t want me to stay! I ran because you took another woman’s counsel over our bond. It felt like I was living in my pack all over again!” I shouted, unable to contain the rage boiling inside me. The baby jumped from my sudden increase in volume and cried. I pulled him up to my face and used skin contact to calm him.

Maximus gripped the edge of my bed, and I heard the metal strain under the pressure. I didn’t flinch like I thought I would under his piercing gaze. This time, I knew what I was fighting for. Not just for myself but for the life I brought into this world. Maximus wouldn’t make me feel less than what I deserved to feel right now.

“You chose to do this to us, not the other way around, Max.”

“Like I don’t know that,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’ve been kicking myself endlessly for my fuckup with Nova, and I have to live with the fact I rejected my fated mate every damn day of my life now. However, running away and keeping my child a secret from me? That was… unnecessary.”

He kept his voice low again, but I didn’t let that deter me from expressing my anger. He wasn’t going to get away with what he had done. Not this time. Not ever.

“Why would I tell you anything after what you did? We were supposed to be mates! I was supposed to trust you, and you shut me out and cast me aside the moment someone said nasty things about me! Were you ashamed of me?”

“No,” he growled again, but I didn’t waver. “It was a mistake.”

“Yeah, it was a mistake. One you can live with. Now leave.”

The words came out of me unexpectedly. This was the boldest thing I had ever said in my life. I just told an alpha to leave. No, not just an alpha. The king.

My voice didn’t shake, and I meant what I said. I didn’t want him in here. He didn’t deserve to be by my side right now. Yet he didn’t move. I gaped at him and growled. He still didn’t budge.

“Get. Out,” I commanded through my teeth.

“No. I won’t leave you and my pup here. I deserve to know why you walked away from me! Just because I rejected you doesn’t mean you can just walk out the door. You didn’t even fight to stay!”

The baby squirmed in my arms, and I pulled on my omega energy to send calming waves into him. It was something omegas could do, and I had never had the strength to do it before. I felt my lycan come more to the surface, slipping under my skin as if preparing for a shift, and then the calming energy rolled off me. The baby stilled and yawned before nuzzling against me. I kept the energy going but turned toward Maximus again.

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