“I should’ve never let you go,” he breathed, voice cracking. “I should’ve fought for you. For this.”
And for a moment, I believed him. My whole body believed him. The way he touched me, kissed me, fucked his clothed cock against my soaked panties like he was seconds from breaking the zipper…He meant it.
But reality crashed back in brutal waves. What was I doing? This was the man who’d left me pregnant and alone. Who’d called me a warm hole. Who’d been on a date with another woman just a few nights ago.
“No.” I scrambled off him, shoving open the closet door. “This doesn’t change anything. One kiss doesn’t erase years. And one fuck won’t make me forget what you did.”
I stumbled out of the closet, my lips swollen, body aching for things I couldn’t have. Knox remained in the darkness, breathing hard, giving me space I desperately needed.
“Found you!” Thea’s delighted voice came from the basement stairs. She bounded down the last few steps, Noah and Rowan behind her. “Mama! Why are you all red?”
I ran a hand through my messed-up hair, trying to look normal. “Just hot in the closet, baby.”
Noah raised an eyebrow as Knox emerged from the closet looking thoroughly disheveled. “Must have been really cramped in there,” he said with false innocence.
“I need air,” I announced, already heading for the stairs. “Keep playing without me.”
I fled like the coward I was, Knox’s taste still on my lips and the memory of his hands branded on my skin. Behind me, I heard Thea asking if she could hide next, heard Noah distracting them with enthusiasm I didn’t deserve.
But I couldn’t go back to pretend that kiss hadn’t just destroyed five years of carefully built walls in three minutes. I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t wanted it to. But what I could do, though, was not give in first, and make him fucking workhardfor it. I would give in, but only when he begged me for it.
26
— • —
Knox
I sat through another mind-numbing council meeting, pretending to care about patrol schedules and territory disputes while my wolf paced restlessly inside me. Budget concerns, supply chain issues, which pack member’s fence was three inches over the property line, the usual bureaucratic bullshit that made me want to claw my eyes out.
Today was different though. Today, once all this routine garbage was done, I was finally going to announce Lina and the twins. No more hiding. No more secrets. Just the truth laid bare for the pack leadership to deal with.
My wolf practically vibrated with anticipation. After years of keeping our mate hidden, we were ready to claim what was ours publicly. Not everyone would be thrilled, but if their concerns about my strength and lack of an heir were genuine, this wouldput those worries to rest. Especially when they saw how strong my family was.
“The eastern patrol reports no further rogue activity since this week’s incident,” Hunt droned on from his seat to my right. As my gamma, he took security seriously, which I appreciated most days. Today I just wanted him to shut up so we could move on.
“Good. Double the patrols anyway. I don’t want any surprises.” I shuffled through the papers in front of me, not really seeing them. How did one announce surprise children and a human mate to a bunch of traditionalist wolves? ‘Hey everyone, remember that time I said I’d never take a mate? Funny story...’
Cole caught my eye from across the table, raising an eyebrow at my obvious distraction. As my beta, he knew me well enough to sense when my mind was elsewhere. I’d have to tell him and Hunt the truth after this. They deserved to know why their Alpha had been acting like a lovesick pup for the past week.
“If there’s no other business, there’s something I’d like to tell y-” I started to stand, ready to drop my bombshell and deal with the fallout.
“Actually, Alpha, there is one more matter.” Alderic’s voice cut through my momentum like a blade. The older council member rarely spoke unless he had an agenda, and the calculating look in his eyes made my stomach drop. “My daughter has something important to share.”
No. No fucking way.
Mary rose from her seat at the far end of the table, and I noticed the theatrical way her hand went to her still-flat stomach. Thegesture was so perfectly timed, so deliberately visible, that I knew exactly what was coming before she opened her lying mouth.
She wouldn’t. Not after what she’d done to Lina. Not after I’d specifically told her to stay away from my family. I was still fighting the urge to rip her throat out for daring to touch my mate, for calling my children mongrels. Only Lina’s words about no more violence had kept Mary breathing.
So what the fuck was she doing now?
“I’m pregnant,” Mary announced to the room, her voice carrying just the right amount of shy excitement. “With the Alpha’s heir.”
The words hit like a sledgehammer to the gut. Around me, the room exploded in congratulations and shocked exclamations. Council members who’d been half-asleep moments before suddenly came alive, voices overlapping in their excitement.
“An heir!”
“Finally!”
