Page 24 of Broken Pregnant Mate
“Can I come in?”
“Oh, yeah—sorry—” My cheeks flush when I realize I’ve left her standing out on the street for the duration of this conversation.
“No worries,” she laughs, climbing the steps with me and coming to a stop at the top of the landing. “Aidan let us know that you’d be here alone. And your heat is coming…?”
It shouldn’t feel so embarrassing, but it does. Suddenly, the toast in my hand seems like the least appetizing thing I’ve ever had, and I look down to the ground, automatic shame rising in my throat.
“Yeah,” I manage, but I’m surprised when Kira steps forward, taking me by the shoulders and moving me so that little crumbs fall from the toast.
“Uh-uh,” she says, shaking her head, and when I raise my gaze, I meet her bright, penny-brown eyes, glinting with streaks of gold. “Neverfeel that shame about your heat again, you hear me? Trust me, I’ve heard it all, but that’s not how we do things around here. Omegas help to hold the fabric of our society together—we are the foil to the alphas, and don’t you forget it.”
I blink, refocusing on her, realizing I’ve never heard it framed like that before. At home, our managers ranged from thinking of the heat as just another problem to solve, to activelyhating us, calling us nasty and disgusting, for just going through what our bodies necessitated.
“Oh.” It’s the only thing I can get out, and Kira releases my arms, laughing a bit.
“Sorry to be so intense, but it’s something I’m passionate about. I’m hoping to have a girl of my own someday, and I’m around Veva’s daughter, and I just—I don’t want them being told the same things we were, you know what I mean?”
“No,” I cough, then shake my head. “I mean—yeah. Absolutely.”
“You’re funny.” She cocks her head, considering me. “Well, since your heat isn’t quite here yet, I was thinking you might want to come with me to Beth’s.”
“Beth’s?”
Kira nods. “Aidan said you have a psychic ability? Beth has been something of a guiding light for us, helping us understand and use them. We meet with her once a week, and I was wondering if you’d like to come with us? It’s all girls—betas and omegas.”
“Oh.” I blink, realizing this is the first time in a long time that I’ve been given an option of where to go and what to do. With Vern, it was never a choice, and obviously, in my jail cell, I was in the same place all day, every day. “Sure.”
“Great!” she pats me on the shoulder and points to the door. “It’s starting right now.”
Chapter 11 - Aidan
When I asked Dorian to find me something to do, I hadn’t even thought to ask if that thing was going to be something I could do on my own.
Oren Blacklock runs next to me, his wolf rivaling mine, large but a bit stockier, while I’m leaner. Where my hide is gray—in relation to my bloodline and my name—his is a dark, rippling black, with undertones of red that catch in the moonlight, haunting and threatening all at once.
I’m only slightly faster than him at full speed, but it’s a fact I keep pressing each time I glance back at him, making sure to slow down so we’re shoulder-to-shoulder again.
I am conserving my energy, he sends, and even his mental communication is grumpy.Maybe you should try the same.
But I can’t, and I don’t want to. What I need right now is to be as tired as possible. I want this excursion to run me into the ground, make me so loose-limbed and jelly-brained that I can’t think about Emaline even if I want to.
Because I want to. And it’s the first thing my mind goes back to the moment I get even a split-second of peace.
The idea of her alone in my apartment, going through her heat, touching herself, and gasping with pleasure—inmybed—it’s too fucking much.
Which is exactly why I asked to leave in the first place. Emaline doesn’t seem nearly as upset with me as she was in jail. She doesn’t seem nearly upset enough with me for the stunt I pulled outside my apartment, in front of her shitty ex-boyfriend.
And I can’t risk being around her right now.
Because even though I want her more than anything, I know it’s not the right thing to do. Emaline is better off without me, and it wouldn’t make any sense to claim my mate just before losing my battle with Jerrod Blacklock. Claim her, only to put her through the excruciating pain of losing a marked mate—absolutely not.
And if I win?
Chaining her to a life of being the luna, my wife in a role she won’t like, while I’m in a role I only tolerate because it’s the right thing to do?
To your left.
Oren’s message comes out of the blue, making me realize that while the entire point of this was for me to stop thinking about Emaline, here I am, doing it anyway. We turn to the left and slow down, running along a short outcropping of bushes. The land here is getting softer, less dry, and I can even hear the distant sound of a gentle breeze pushing through leaves.
