Page 42 of Fated Alpha Baby

Conan scoffs. “Well, I guess I wasn’t lying when I said the demons had drained our powers.”

“I didn’t say you were lying,” I frown as I look up. “I’m just trying to understand what’s going on.”

“Why?” he sneers, narrowing his eyes at me. “Why would you care, anyway?”

“Because I am your mate, and I can help you,” I blurt out before I can think the sentiment through.

Heat rises to my cheeks, and I gasp. But those words couldn’t be truer, even when I was trying my best to deny what he is to me.

It doesn’t matter right now. Not when he’s in pain, badly injured in a fight. My fingers tingle with the sudden, desperate urge to reach for him, but I hold myself back when he stares at me with so much contempt, so much scorn, that it makes my insides churn.

“I don’t need your help, Hannah. In fact, I don’t want anything from you. I don’t need anything from you.”

My heart lurches. “You don’t mean that….”

Conan stops midway through turning. “Oh, I mean it,” he chuckles sadistically, eyes dark and unhumorous. “You made sure of it when you lied to me.”

“So why did you mate me, Conan?!” I ask, a sudden bout of anger making me throw my arms up. “You needed me to help you regain your powers. If anyone should be angry, it’s me!”

“You’re angry?” he scoffs as he turns to face me fully, towering over me. “You don’t have any right to be angry, Hannah. You’re the one who lied to me about Clarissa. Kept her a secret from me when you had the perfect opportunity to tell me about her.”

“I didn’t tell you because you don’t deserve to be her father!” I snap, and again, I’m not thinking.

But it’s too late. The words have already left my lips, and there’s no going back. Conan glares at me with anger and sadness mingled into one, his eyes dark and full of rage.

“Who the fuck do you think you are to decide that?” he spits venomously, and I shiver.

“I am her mother, and I know what’s best for her.”

“Like keeping her father away from her for almost eight years?” he sneers vindictively, lips peeling back to reveal a pearl-white glow of disgust. “A wonderful mother you are, Hannah Young. It’s only a matter of time before she recognizes me as her father, just like I recognized her tonight. Do you really think I’ll glorify what you did? I’d have you banished—”

Conan’s voice cuts off abruptly, and I stare at him wide-eyed, shocked.

“You wouldn’t…” I murmur, a tear slipping from my eye.

Conan stares at me for a long moment, his eyes suddenly softening with something like defeat and regret. My chest heaves with uncontrollable breaths as I stare back, unable to fathom the thought of being banished.

Again.

A second time.

And this time, to punish me for not telling him about Clarissa. This time, without her, while he keeps her in the pack to punish me.

My heart lurches, and I gulp hard, ears drumming with incessant ringing as my fingers tingle with magic. The mate bond, coming alive to remind me that no matter how much time has passed, no matter what has happened between us, some things never change.

Even the coppery smell of drying blood doesn’t deter the potency of Conan’s scent, headily masculine as it fills my airways and makes everything else feel so pointless. My fears, my dreads, my hatred for him.

It all fades into oblivion, into a thin line that was only ever crossed once in the past.

Conan gulps, then, eyes softening as a glint of sadness flashes through them.

“You’re right…” he whispers, voice strained.

I’m not sure if he’s in pain from his wounds or in pain because of something else.

“…I wouldn’t do that to you.”

I blink to stop myself from shedding the tears that have gathered in the corners of my eyes. And when Conan takes a step forward, engulfing my personal space with his immaculate size and tainting the air with fiery desire that only awakens in his presence, I melt.