Page 34 of A Baby for the Beast
I snort. It's out before I can stop it, but it has everyone turning their attention to me. I hold a hand up, telling them I'm fine. Thankfully, I'm not expected to say anything, but I can't stop the smile that tugs at my lips or the fact that Kyle looks red inthe face, seeing as this isn't going the way he wanted. Maybe he thought Remus and I would get mad at that request or that we'd throw a fit. He really just doesn't understand we've found a new obsession instead of fighting.
"Let me speak with my clients and get back to you," Gloria says.
Kyle and his lawyer stand from the table, but before they exit the room, the lawyer turns to face us once more. "The retirement would need to be immediate. Not after the title fight."
I just shake my head, the smile still on my lips, because I don't give two fucks about the title. I barely cared about it when I agreed to fight Kyle. The only reason I did was because he was flaunting the fact that he used my omega and left her in pain to handle her heat alone. Now that I have her, I don't care too much about getting revenge. He doesn't realize I don't care as much about the fight as he does, though. He thinks this will be a hard decision for me, but I've already made up my mind.
The door closes behind them, and I let out a chuckle that has Hayley turning to look at me. Oh, my poor little omega. She has tears in her eyes and a stricken expression on her face. I try to stop my laugh as I tuck her close to my chest, but it rumbles around us.
"How are you feeling about their request?" Gloria asks, shooting a look at Hayley before keeping her gaze on me.
"Whatever he wants, he can have," I tell her. "I want his rights signed over today, though."
She makes a note on her legal pad. "We should contact Phil. You might have contractual obligations you'll need to get out of. We can go over those and see if we can get Kyle to come down on his price."
I shake my head. "Whatever he wants. I don't want to be in the same room with him for longer than necessary, and I want this done with."
Hayley sniffles, pushing away from me and finally joining the conversation. I already know she's going to object, so I cut her off before she can start.
"We don't need to fight anymore," I tell her, cupping her face between my hands. "It was the only thing that helped to keep Remus calm. He doesn't need it now."
"But he's really good at it and you both like it," Hayley says, her voice cracking as her tears fall down her cheeks. I brush them away with my thumbs, ignoring Remus's grumbling about how pretty she looks with them there.
"We were already looking at leaving," I tell her, hoping she doesn't give me too hard a time for keeping that from her. "Not fighting all together. We're looking at offering training at the gym, and there's a kids' class that needs a teacher. I've filled in before when their trainer was on vacation, but now it could be permanent."
"But the title fight?" Hayley blubbers.
I feel bad for her because her emotions are all over the place, but she's so cute when she worries about me. I tuck her back against my chest, purring and trying very hard to ignore the fact that our lawyer is listening to the horrible sound I'm producing. Thankfully, she's pretending to flip some of her other papers, or maybe she really is doing work because she's scratching notes onto some of the pages. Either way, she doesn't comment or react to my purr, which is good because I'm already self-conscious enough about it.
"I couldn't care less about the title fight," I tell her. "I only agreed to it because he smelled like you when he challenged me. I'd just beaten him while he smelled like my omega. My omega who he left in the middle of her heat. And he wasn't going back to help you, he didn't care, and it made me mad. So I agreed to fight him."
Hayley nuzzles closer to my chest. "You didn't even know me yet."
"Doesn't mean I didn't want to kick his ass for how he treated you," I say, holding the back of her neck, liking her nose pressed right up against my chest. I don't even care about the little pools of wetness she's leaving on my shirt. It pisses me off that they're evidence that Kyle upset her, but it also shows who she goes to for comfort, who she feels safe enough to lose herself in.
"I'm sorry to have brought all of this on you," she says, sniffling one final time before pushing away and wiping her eyes.
I fish one of the tissues out of my pocket and hand it to her. Her cheeks pinken at my care, and I can't help but puff my chest at how good I am at reading my omega's needs.
"Okay, I'm going to get all of this drafted, and then we'll reconvene the meeting–" Our lawyer stops talking as she taps on something on her cell phone, her brows tugging together.
My phone buzzes in my pocket rapidly, three texts coming in all at once, and then a few more right after. Gloria looks at me, back at her phone, and then takes a deep breath.
"We need to reschedule this for another day."
"What's going on?" Hayley asks, leaning toward our lawyer, who presses her lips together before showing us her phone screen. It's an article titled: 'Kyle Ward: bad partner or serial predator?' The image below the title is a still from a video shot in the gym where I train, and in it, Hayley is red-faced and talking into her phone.
Hayley reads the article while I pull out my phone, unsurprised that I have a handful of messages from Jace and a couple from my brother. I click on Jace's, finding the video is sent in its entirety as the first message.
I press play, watching as Hayley gives whoever's on the other end of the line an earful about what he did to her and how she's willing to go scorched earth if he doesn't do what she says. I onlyheard the last little bit of what Hayley was saying to Kyle that day before I spoke to him. Listening to all of it now, my mate is strong, much stronger than anyone has given her credit for. But she shouldn't have to be this strong.
Of course, the video continues as I come into frame wearing just a towel, which does nothing to hide my erection when I get close to my mate. I inwardly groan at that, but don't voice it because Hayley's the one being exposed in it more.
"Who took this?" Hayley asks me as the video loops back around.
I try to rack my brain for who was there that day, but all of the days at the gym are usually the same set of guys. Any of them could've taken the video, but I don't know why any of them would post it. Sure, it makes Kyle look like an even bigger ass, but it's also a violation of my omega. She didn't agree to being filmed or to having it spread on the internet.
"I don't know, but I'll find out," I tell her. "I will find out."
