Page 39 of Alpha's Baby Girl
Conall shifted from wolf to human and knelt next to Fenrys, ordering for someone to call an ambulance. Then his eyes found me. They were hard and full of distrust.
“You are my Luna, so I owe you my allegiance, but he wouldn’t be hurt if it weren’t. If he finds it in himself to forgive you then so might I. I will protect you and keep you safe while Fenrys cannot because that is my alpha’s orders but don’t think for a minute that any of us here trust you.”
He walked away before I could say anything. Part of me wanted to shout, to protest my innocence, but I knew how it all looked to his pack. I would have my own doubts, too, if the situations were reversed. But we shared one common thought: we just wanted Fenrys to be okay, and for now, that had to be enough to keep things civil.
Soon, a woman I recognized from the hotel’s banquet hall earlier ran into the basement, her face tight as if she was holding back tears. Fenrys’s eyes were closed, blood coating his chin and body. Someone had covered his lower half with a blanket, but his torso bore enough of his injuries.
His mother stood over me, waiting for me to move, but I couldn’t. In the end, Conall shifted aside to make room for her. She cushioned her son’s head on her lap, and it was strangely intimate. Her eyes flickered over me, unsure. Her nostrils flared.
“You are carrying his child,” she stated.
It took me a minute to find my voice. “Yes.” I hugged my stomach protectively.
She was quiet for another few moments. “The pack will protect you from any enemy and will take care of you.”
It wasn’t acceptance, but it wassomething. I understood I would need to earn their trust. And that began by never leaving Fenrys’s side. I growled at anyone who tried to pry me away from him. Even in the ambulance, Conall stepped aside to let me go with him. His mother followed behind with him. As both the alpha’s mate and the pack’s Luna, I had precedent over them with Fenrys now. I still wasn’t used to that.
The gunshot wound would need to be patched up, but as soon as the hospital was finished with him, he was ordered to recover from home. His mother arranged for the best medical care, even bringing in a team from Atlanta to care for him going forward. The whole time, I never left until Fenrys woke up.
His eyelashes fluttered that night, when his torso was bandaged up, the wound stitched, and a blood transfusion helped him regain all he’d lost.
And then those beautiful brown and blue speckled eyes opened, and I found myself wishing our future child would have his eyes. His hand reached for mine, and I took it, pressing his bruised knuckles to my mouth. “Fenrys.”
A weak smile caught on his lips that I leaned to kiss. His hand lowered to brush against my stomach. “Is it true?”
“Save your strength,” I urged. “But it’s true. I’m carrying our child, Fenrys.”
He coughed, but still his smile never wavered. “Reika,” he murmured, “If it’s a girl.”
I laughed through my tears, relieved that my mate had finally woken up. I pressed kisses to his mouth, his forehead, and cheek. “Anything you want, my alpha. Fenrys, I must—”
“No,” he said, shushing me. “We don’t need to talk about it. You’re still here; that’s all that matters.”
“No, we need to.” His eyes opened fully, becoming slowly more alert. “I came here thinking you were still the same boy who had rejected me and deserved to feel as much pain as you’d caused me.” His face crumpled, as if even the memory of that caused him pain. I went on. “But when I came here, I got to know you. I wasn’t just the girl in college watching you from the bleachers when you played home games. I learned about you, I saw you protect me, I saw you speak up for others, and feel genuine sorrow for hurting others.
“You’ve changed, Fenrys, and I am so sorry for the decisions I made in my heartbreak. I meant what I said. I love you. I love you wholeheartedly, and I’ll spend my entire life with you proving that you can trust me.”
I thought I was realizing these things even as I spoke to them aloud. I had come here so intent on revenge and hurting Fenrys. To let him trust me and then rip it away severely. But now I couldn’t think of anything worse. I wanted to protect him from my past mistakes.
I could put that betrayal to rest, as long as he could forgive me. Revenge was far from my mind when I knew all I wanted was for him to sit in his own bed, slowly healing, looking at me with adoration on his face.
We were given a massive responsibility, and in no time, we would welcome our child and cub into the world. Fenrys had mated with me and would raise our child alongside me, and any doubts I had needed to be eliminated by him proving himself a good mate and father.
“Fenrys, I’m sorry,” I said again. “Can you ever forgive me?”
He brushed his knuckles down my cheek, and I leaned into the touch. “When I saw that you were gone, I went crazy. It was like my world had been torn apart, and then I saw Kato’s gun to your head. That sent me into a rage even more than the one I had to stave off to keep you safe. Finding out about you working with him destroyed me, Thalia.
“I didn’t want to believe it. I truly didn’t. But then I saw the fear in your eyes. I heard the scream when I was shot, and I knew a person who had set me up wouldn’t have looked or sounded like that. Feelings can be faked, sex can be had, but it can be false. But I don't think that was fake, but those things—the fear of losing me that you had.”
He pulled me to him, and I found myself clambering into his lap. “And I’m choosing to believe that nothing else was fake. You may not have entered the Mating Games for the right purpose, but that doesn’t make everything you did fake.” His forehead pressed to mine, and all I could think about was the life in me, part of him, part of me, and how I wanted him closer than ever.
“Can you promise me it was real? Is what you feel for me real?”
“My motives were untrue but the feelings I have are honest, Fenrys. I swear to you.”
He nosed into my neck, kissing me. He was so warm, and I pressed towards him, every part of me singing for the close proximity of my alpha.
“And the sex was definitely not fake,” I muttered. “That was very real, too.”
