Page 14 of Broken Pregnant Mate
Rage rolls through me so suddenly at the thought of another man’s hands on her body that I have to grip the table. I hope that she doesn’t notice, will myself to calm down when I say, voice barely level, “Your other talents.”
“Yeah.” She clears her throat, wraps her arms around herself. “I, uh…my foster mom? She said she was planning toleave me something. Turns out, when she died, she had these powers that transferred over to me.”
“Powers?” I hike an eyebrow, suddenly feeling silly for my reaction. “Like magic?”
“No, more like…psychic.”
That sparks some recognition in me. I know Kira and Veva—Emin’s wife—both have some sort of ability. There’s an older woman who lives in town—Beth—who’s been training them to use their powers. I’m constantly helping her track down her cats when they get loose, and she’s always giving me cryptic messages regarding my future.
As though she doesn’t want to talk about it, Emaline goes on, “Vern took me to the border that night. He…he said someone paid him to head out there. I think it might have been Jerrod, wanting to make it look like he had more fighters than he did. None of us had any idea what we were doing. I just—I just wanted to get away.”
I push the tissues on the table over to her, and she pulls one out, shaking her head angrily at herself.
“My…my heat started. I was panicking, trying to get out of there. There were so many alphas. One of them—one of the Ambersky—he grabbed me. I don’t know what happened. I was just doing anything to get out of there, and I…I killed him.”
I blink in surprise that she was able to overpower an Ambersky alpha.
“So, that’s why I’m here.” Emaline balls up the tissue, holds it in her left hand, and stares into the distance. Finally, after a long moment, she focuses on me again. “And I’m pretty sure they’re going to kill me for what I did. It’s just a matter of time.”
Chapter 6 - Emaline
I wake to the sound of the keypad on my cell beeping. When I open my eyes, I realize the lights are still off—is it morning or night? The clock on the other wall is too blurry for me to tell, so I sit up just as a flashlight moves through the room.
The first thing I feel is fear, until I realize it’s Trenan standing there, grinning at me.
“Hey, kid,” he says, waving me forward. “Time for you to get out.”
“Get…out?” I ask, heart thudding in my throat. I’d assumed the next time I walked through that door, it would be on the way to my execution for killing an Ambersky alpha. Trenan nods, still smiling, and waves for me to come with him.
He doesn’t tell me to gather up my things.
The sinking certainty that I’m going to die floods through my system, at first with a sense of panic, then with a more subtle, gentle feeling.
Like a tranquillizer. So, this is how it’s going to end. For a sweet, solid second of walking down the hallway with Trenan, I feel like I’m floating, the knowledge that there’s nothing I could have done to change my situation oddly making me feel better about the whole thing.
And also, the fact that I got to see Aidan one last time takes the edge off of it. The fact that he’s alive and well, the fact that he’s still fighting—it means maybe I can go through this with peace.
We walk through the cells, up the hallway, and the fact that Trenan hasn’t covered my face only makes me more certain that my time is up.
For nearly an entire year, I’ve sat in this cell. What took them so long to decide to execute me? Did they need to decide whether or not I was guilty? Or were they trying to figure out if I had any useful information before ending me for good?
As we climb a set of steps, Trenan’s hand on my elbow, I think about how they’re going to do it, and I hope it’s something magical, something painless.
Aidan said the Ambersky are kind, fair. Maybe that means I won’t be torn to shreds by shifters or made to suffer before the end.
Trenan leads me up another set of stairs, and we turn, entering into what looks like a little meeting room, a large table filling most of the room. But, instead of several people around the table, there’s only Aidan and a man I recognize vaguely as being the alpha leader of the Ambersky pack.
I lower my eyes immediately, heart starting to thud in my chest. The death that I’d come to terms with just a moment ago suddenly feels off. I don’t want Aidan to witness it, though I suppose it would only be fair, considering the fact that I had to see a photo of his very lifelike fake beheading.
“Emaline Smyth?” the alpha leader asks.
I nod, eyes still on the floor. It smells like coffee and donuts in here, so unlike the clinical, constant scent of the jail that it makes my eyes water with recognition.
Some people have breakfast like this every morning, choosing for themselves what they’ll eat. Picking up donuts. Sharing coffee with another person.
“Aidan is here to make a case for your dismissal. Please, take a seat.”
My heart jumps to my throat as my body tries to make sense of what the alpha leader has just said. Trenan, still with his hand on my elbow, leads me over to a chair, and when I glance up, I see Aidan’s gaze locked on the spot where Trenan’s fingers rest on my bare skin.
