Page 69 of Rejected Wolf's Secret Baby (Rejected Moons 4)

Jack whispers to Maddy again and she smirks. She really is kind of insufferable sometimes.

“All right,” Lonnie says. “Do what you like. Just so you know, the plan will probably be finalized when you get back.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”

I head out the door and set off at a jog—but not in the direction of the woods. I’m not going for a run. At least, not the kind of run Lonnie imagines. I’m staying human tonight.

I need to talk to Alicia, and I need to do it now. No matter what happened with her and me and the baby, she doesn’t deserve violence. I’m not going to stand by and let Lonnie and the others hurt her. I’m going to let her know this is coming her waysoon, and I’m going to tell her to get out of town.

I’ve given Alicia warnings about Lonnie before, but this time there’s one crucial difference.

This time, I don’t want her to stay.

Frankly, I don’t care if I never see her again after today.

In fact, I hope I don’t.

41

ALICIA

“He’slying,”Kaylasaysdesperately. “Lonnie’s lying, Alicia. He has to be.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think he is,” I say. “It all makes sense now.”

“I don’t know what you mean. None of this makes sense. You’re taking Lonnie’s word for something? Over Brandon’s?”

“I can come back and talk to Brandon once I’ve gotten Emmy out of here. Every minute she’s here is dangerous now that Lonnie knows the truth. Deidre might kill her, Kayla. Or she might kidnap her and sell her to one of those junkies out at the Boneyard, and I’d never see her again. That’s bigger than me and Brandon. That’s bigger than anything.”

Kayla catches me by my shoulders before I can throw anything else in my suitcase and guides me to sit on the bed. “You need to think about this,” she says. “You need to consider talking to Brandon.”

“You know I can’t do that,” I say.

“What if Lonnieislying?”

“What if he isn’t? What if everything he said is true?”

“You’re going to lose the love of your life,” Kayla says quietly.

“He’s not the love of my life.”

“Really? Then who is?”

“I don’t have to have alove of my life. Not everyone has that. You don’t.”

“But that’s me,” Kayla says. “You aren’t me. And I’ve seen the way you are since you’ve been around Brandon again. It’s like you’ve come back to life, Alicia. You can’t lose that now. It would gut you.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time I walked away from Brandon.”

“Yeah, and last time it took you out of our lives for twenty years.”

“That wasn’t because of Brandon,” I object. “He’s not the reason I stayed away. I left because of Deidre. She was never going to let me have a life here. She pushed me into a match with the person she thought was the worst in the pack, and she made sure I knew I could never have a normal mating bond with him without risking my life.”

“Dad—”

“Dad didn’t stop her, Kayla. Dad gave her the right to choose my mate.”

“No, hedidn’t,” Kayla said. “You need to hear this.”

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