Page 15 of Broken Pregnant Mate
Something hot and aware rushes down my spine, and I have to swallow it down.
“Thank you, Trenan,” the alpha leader says, his voice a floating entity in front of me. I can’t bring myself to look at him as I settle into the chair, instead focusing my gaze on the pattern of the table. “That’s all.”
Trenan leaves. I hear the click of the door behind him, then it’s just me and these two men. Two alphas, in this closed room.
Normally, that would make me nervous—it would make any omega nervous. But, for some reason, I’m not. Maybe it’s a sense I get from the alpha leader that he wouldn’t hurt me. Maybe it’s the fact that I know Aidan, and I know he would do everything in his power to keep me safe, even if it meant fighting a losing battle against an alpha leader.
“Emaline,” the alpha leader says, his voice soft. “Please, feel free to raise your eyes if you want.”
I swallow, nod, and keep my eyes on the table. I’ve heard of Jerrod Blacklock saying similar things, only to strike an omega down for having the audacity to look him in the eye. I get the feeling that this alpha leader isn’t like that, but it’s not worth the risk.
Especially when the wordsmake a case for your dismissalare still bouncing around in my head as I desperately try to make sense of them. Aidan is going to make a case for my dismissal.
“Okay,” the alpha leader says, when I still haven’t looked up at him. He clears his throat, and there’s a sound like he’s looking at papers. “Okay—it looks here like you were at the border almost…a year ago.”
He stops, sounding surprised, then says, “…charged for the murder of Fraell Loche.” There’s another pause, and I swear I can feel the weight of his stare on me. “Youkilled one of our alphas?”
There’s a pause, then Aidan’s voice comes, “Emaline, tell him what you told me. About what happened to you.”
I swallow down the knot in my throat, realizing this is my one chance. To actually live.
“My ex-boyfriend was a…is a dealer. One night, I was sleeping when he woke me up and said we were going to the border. I was disoriented, felt sick, just—I just got in the car with him. At that point in my life, I wasn’t really thinking things through. Then I realized we were headed to the border, and I couldn’t get out. The stress, I think, brought on my heat, and it hit full force when we got out of the car. I tried to run right away, but someone caught me.”
I swallow, feel the fear of that moment.
I’d already lost control of myself with Vern, barely checked in when he touched me, wanting nothing more than to exist outside of my body.
But to completely lose myself to an alpha like that, on the border?
“I panicked. I thought—it was an alpha, and I thought he was going to…”
I suck in a breath, try to start again.
“Ms. Smyth,” the Alpha leaders says, sounding pained. “I want you to know thatnoneof the alphas under my command would ever do something like that. Battlefield or not. But I can understand why you might think that was the case, given your background.”
There’s a long pause, and I finally, finally bring myself to lift my head, meeting Aidan’s gaze.
The look on his face is murderous, like he wants to rip someone limb from limb. I have the presence of mind to know it’s not directed at me, but it still sends a shudder down my back, nonetheless.
“Well.” The alpha leader sucks in a breath, then releases it. “We don’t normally keep prisoners this long. If I’m being honest, I think you might have slipped through our normal processing system. But, given the nature of your crime, it’s difficult for me to justify letting you go. If you were released, would you return to the Grayhides?”
I swallow, feeling like there’s gravel in my throat. I don’t know where I’d go—I’d never allowed myself to think that far.
“She has the gift,” Aidan says, his voice lowering as he turns to the alpha leader. “You know Blacklock is gathering up psychics. If we send her back, she’ll be rounded up immediately. But if we keep her, maybe she could be of use.”
He’s talking about me like I’m a stray puppy. I’ve been talked about worse, so I say nothing, keeping my lips pressed tightly together.
“I’m willing to consider a sort of…probation,” the alpha leader says. “But you’ll be under constant supervision, and we would require that our lead psychic assess you to see if your abilities would be helpful for us. We can re-examine your case in a month.”
My heart is so light, I accidentally let out a puff of happy air. Up until this moment, I didn’t realize how much I wanted to live, but now it hits me that all that calmness earlier was just grandstanding, doing what I could in the face of a situation I just couldn’t control.
“What do you say, Ms. Smyth?”
“Oh.” I cough the word, search for my voice. When I lift my head again, I’m once again meeting Aidan’s gaze, holding it. It sounds unbelievable, impossible, but I can’t say that. It’s not like I want to talk him out of giving me a chance. “That—that sounds good. Thank you, sir.”
“Okay.” The alpha leader pauses, then he says, with a chuckle, “And please. Call me Dorian.”
Chapter 7 - Aidan
