Page 58 of Taming Raptor

Sage’s hands slowly wrapped around my wrist. Holding me with a gentleness I didn’t deserve at the moment, she slid her fingers up and loosened my hold.

Chest heaving, I staggered back a step into Blade and my arms dropped to my sides. I’d fucked everything up and now it was obviously too late.

“I’m pregnant, Adrien.”

Shock ripped through me at her declaration. The hateful little voice in my head said history was repeating itself. No words would form as I fought to breathe. Doe eyes watched me as her lower lip beginning to tremble.

“Is it mine?” I asked, voice sounding like I’d swallowed a thousand razors blades.

She slapped me across the face and my head snapped back because I didn’t, for a single second, see that coming. But I grabbed her wrist before she dropped her hand and pulled her up against me. I ignored Blade simmering behind me. In a low and barely controlled warning, I told her, “Do that again and you won’t sit for a week.”

“You don’t have that right anymore. You gave that up when you left.”

“And you are in my brother’s bed now, but you’re pissed or surprised I asked if it’s mine?” I lashed out as I lunged and shook the fence on either side of her in my fury.

The expression on her face was one of pained disbelief. And a look I’d never seen her wear around me.

Fear.

That gutted me.

Her chest heaved which brought her tits against me with each breath. “Not that you deserve an answer with the way you up and left, but unlike you, I haven’t fucked anyone since you walked out.”

A stunned silence surrounded us.

“Maybe we should go inside where you can talk,” Phoenix calmly suggested. “In private.”

Gripping the metal in my hands so tight I was afraid it would bend or cut my fingers off, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Swallowing the lump of acid in my throat, I let go and stepped back. Dazed and ashamed of my behavior, I glanced over my shoulder.

“Gator took everyone inside when you took off after her and I said this was a private matter,” Phoenix explained.

Jaw clenching, I nodded, then swung my attention back to the woman that held my undeserving, tattered, and blackened heart in her soft and caring hands. My fury fizzled like a doused flame. “I—”

Her worried gaze searched mine.

Phoenix wrapped his hand around my arm and guided me back to the clubhouse. But I stopped. Ignoring my closest brothers that were there at the moment, I straightened my shoulders.

“This isn’t me,” I stoically began with a shake of my head. “I have no other excuse. I’ll see you inside.”

Her eyes were flat, and she was devoid of emotion. Her arms were wrapped protectively around her middle. How did we come back from this? How did I make things right?

Or maybe the better question was—could I?

Phoenix and Blade exchanged a look that I ignored as I stormed back to the cool interior of the clubhouse. Without speaking to a soul, I went directly to my office. With a deprecating laugh, I poured myself more than three fingers of the Jameson 15-year-old Millennium Edition. It was a gift sent to me from Venom shortly after I’d arrived. Until now, I hadn’t touched it except to place it in my bottom drawer—just like where he always kept his personal bottle in his desk.

Uncaring that it was a whiskey to be sipped, I tossed it back. Then I poured another.

“You in a better place?” Blade asked from the doorway. He stepped into the room and closed the door.

I folded my lips in and snorted.

“She didn’t deserve that.” His brows lifted as he waited for my reply.

His censure had my hackles up. Staring him in the eye, I dumped the second glass of the expensive whiskey down my throat.

“You think I don’t know that?” I shook my head in disgust. “What the fuck is wrong with me?”

“Jealous?”

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