Page 36 of The Alpha's Bullied Rejected Mate
Marcus obeyed, confused, but Riley leaned forward and whispered into his ear.
“Mama gets sad when she’s by herself too much. She tries to hide it, but I can tell.”
The casual observation hit Marcus like a punch to the gut. He glanced at Aza, who had gone very still, probably wondering what her kid was telling him.
“Mama, will he be coming with us on our trip, too?” Riley asked his mother. She spared him a glance before responding.
“Yes, Ma.” She stopped. “He’s... helping us with our trip and would be coming with us.”
Marcus noticed that she didn’t address him by his name. She hadn’t since they actually met. And for some reason, it bothered him.
“Yes, your mother is right,” Marcus said to the boy quietly, giving him a faint smile. “I will be coming with you.” The boy was so small, so trusting and innocent. And he had to play along for now.
“Yay, that’s good,” Riley shrieked and bounced back to the bed.
The kid was still full of life, Marcus thought to himself.
***
Marcus returned to the room with a bowl of cereal for Riley. Although the kid had been asleep in a magical state, Marcus figured he would still be hungry since he hadn’t eaten anything since the previous night.
He was right because Riley consumed the bowl’s content quickly, and it seemed to feed him more energy because he resumed his series of questions almost immediately, settling cross-legged at the edge of the bed as he perched in front of Marcus.
“Uncle Marcus, this was very yummy. How did you know I liked this cereal?”
“I know many kids like cereal, that’s why,” Marcus answered honestly.
But Riley wasn’t done. “And how did you know that? Do you have kids, Uncle Marcus?”
“No,” Marcus replied almost immediately, his voice sharper than he had intended.
“Why not? Don’t you like kids?”
“Riley,” Aza said more firmly as though to caution the boy from pressing questions.”
The boy’s face fell at his mother’s sharp tone, and Marcus found himself intervening before he could think better of it.
“It’s fine,” he said, “he’s not bothering me.”
The boy’s face lit up again, and Marcus smiled inwardly, pleased with himself.
Aza’s eyes narrowed dangerously, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she retreated to the far side of their room, wrapping her arms around herself as she stared out at the slowly lightening sky.
“Are you a soldier?” Riley asked, apparently oblivious to the tension between the adults.
“Something like that,” Marcus replied.
“My mama says soldiers protect people. Is that what you do?”
The innocent question felt like another blow. “Yes,” Marcus said, though the word tasted like ash.
“That’s what I do.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie; he protected humanity from supernatural threats.
“That’s really cool. I want to be a protector too when I grow up.”
Riley’s expression grew serious.
