“You and your stupid loopholes!” She wanted to scratch his eyes out.
“Did you know she was your True Mate?”
All eyes turned to Alex. His jaw was clenched and fists curled up at his sides.
“Oui. She figured it out. I didn’t know anything about True Mates at that point.”
The older Lycan’s eyes narrowed. “But you didn’t know she was pregnant.”
“I … did.”
“You motherfucking bastard!” Alex lunged for Delacroix, but Lucas and Nick managed to restrain him. “You got her pregnant—”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Dad.” She put herself between Alex and Delacroix. “It takes two to tango. And should I remind you both that my birthday comes only seven months after your wedding anniversary?” Alynna turned bright red and Alex seemed to calm down. “My personal life is not up for discussion. Now if you’d all like to discuss who tried to end my actual life, then I’d be willing to talk.”
“All right.” Lucas stepped forward, raising his palms up. “It’s late and we’re all tired. There’s nothing more we can do tonight. I think it’s time we all went home.” No one would disagree with the Alpha. Mika sent him a grateful smile.
The atmosphere in the room calmed down considerably. As her mother approached her, she shot her a warning look. “I’m not in the mood, Mom.”
“Mika,” she began as she gingerly placed an arm around her shoulder. “I’m here, okay? The last couple of years have been hard with J—”
“I know.” It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hear his name aloud. She still thought about Joe, but being away from New York, there were no memories of him around, nothing to remind her that he was dead and gone. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but she had to try and move on. If not for her, then for her child. “We’ll talk, I promise.” Her father didn’t say anything but hugged her fiercely. His scent and his strong arms nearly had her bawling, but she managed to get a grip.
Everyone slowly slipped out of the room; everyone except—
“I think we should talk, cher.”
She whirled around to face him. “There’s nothing to talk about.” If he didn’t nearly die, she would have wrung his neck for the chaos he caused.
His eyes flickered to her belly. “Isn’t there?”
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise,” she pointed out. “You knew what you signed up for.”
“I did.”
“And so now, you need to stay out of my way.”
A smile spread across his lips. “I changed my mind.”
“You changed …” Jesus, he was worse than a woman. “You can’t change your mind again. I can’t become un-pregnant.”
“Oh no, cher.” He stalked toward her, and for some reason, she felt like a rabbit being hunted by a predator. “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about us.”
“Us? What are you talking about?”
“You. And me.” His fingers clenched together, as if he were trying to stop himself from reaching out to touch something. “All these months … I know there’s something there.”
“Ha, you’re delusional.” She crossed her arms over her belly. “I haven’t thought about you since I left.” Lie. Total lie, a voice in her mind screamed. But she squashed that thought.
“You thought I was going to die tonight. And you were scared you were going to lose me. You cared.”
Arrogant bastard. “I’m not a monster. I would have been scared for anyone.”
“So you say.”
She wished he would do … something. Get angry. Shout at her. Or even try to touch her. It would give her a good excuse to kick his ass. But the way he remained still, those ebony eyes fixed on her as if he was thinking hard, was unnerving. The wheels in his head were turning as if he were making big plans. Oh no. Surely, he wasn’t thinking that there could be anything between them. That wasn’t the plan, damn it! “This doesn’t change anything, Delacroix.”
“So you say.”
“And I’m having this baby by myself.”
“So you say.”
“You got what you want. You can’t change the terms of our deal.”
“So you—”
“I swear to God, I’m gonna claw your eyes out if you finish that sentence,” she snarled.
The bastard grinned at her. “Come, cher, you should get some rest. Besides, it’s bad for our baby—”
“My baby.”
“So you—” He stopped when she shot daggers at him. “I’ll escort you back to your place.”
“You’ll do no such thing.” She held her hands up at him. “Stay away from me, Delacroix. Or else.” She stormed out of the medical wing, indignant fury coursing through her veins. Her wolf yowled woefully, wanting to go back to Delacroix and see him. Scent him. The damned animal had gone from happy to excited to angry and now sad, that surely it was confused. She reminded it of their pup, but that only seemed to agitate the wolf.
What a fucking shitshow this night turned out to be. Maybe he’d been pumped with so much drugs that he had been hallucinating. Cared for him? He really was delusional. Well, surely the next few days couldn’t get any worse. By morning, all those drugs would have been cleared out of his system, and he would leave her alone.
Chapter Nine
Three months.
Delacroix didn’t quite believe she would be gone that long. Truly, he didn’t expect her to leave at all. He had gone through a maelstrom of emotions when she left. Anger. Betrayal. Disappointment. Yes, he knew they had a bargain, but he didn’t plan on feeling this way. Wanting her so much, but not just her body. He wanted her. Wanted to be around her and know if she was sad or happy or angry. Wanted to see her every day and take a whiff of her wonderful scent. Wanted to see her body grow and change as she carried their child. His wolf felt exactly the same way, its mood swinging from melancholy to rage; miserable without her and furious at him for letting her get away.
But
