Page 47 of Betrayed Bullied Mate

I stalk across the room, and for once, Varun’s lackeys stay completely still, watching with wide eyes as Varun coughs and sputters out blood. The bullet won’t kill him—shifters have long since evolved to be stronger than silver when it’s used as a weapon, but I grin at the fact that it’s causing him pain and that it will slow him down considerably when I have to fight him after days of exhaustion and already killing dozens of his men with my bare hands.

“You fucking bastard,” Varun says, struggling to get to his feet as I approach him. He wipes away the blood from his lip with the back of his hand. “With all that talk of honor from your poor daddy, I always thought you would be a little more chivalrous.”

I rear back, catching him across the jaw. He hasn’t even managed to stand back to full height yet, and he has the nerve to talk about my father. Not wanting to hear another word from his traitorous mouth, I step forward, intending to kill him once and for all, when several things happen at once.

First, Eva comes sprinting through the doors near Ado and Byron, her breath labored. I can feel her presence and hear her approach, but I don’t take my eyes off Varun, who’s panting and still clutching his bullet wound. With time, his body would slowly heal the wound, pushing the bullet out and closing his flesh around the path it created when it entered, but I don’t intend to give him time.

The second thing that happens is a hidden door to the left of Varun’s throne bursts open, and Bigby tumbles through first, followed by Linnea, who gasps when she meets my eyes, her hands flying to her mouth. Bigby sees Varun and me and tries to project something to me, but I’m so outraged at seeing Linnea—my mate, my blond-bond—standing here in the middle of the violence, in such a dangerous position, that I can’t think to hear what he’s sending.

What are you doing here? I hear it roar inside my own head, and with how Linnea flinches back, it seems our connection has finally snapped into place.

Aris, Bigby projects, Look—

Sir, Byron sends, I finally got a match on the trace, on who sent that information. It’s—

But I don’t have time to hear any of them over the intense swirl of emotions in my body, which has been beaten, bruised, sleep-deprived, and is now working through a newly developed mental link with Linnea.

Varun takes advantage of the chaos by planting a boot in my stomach and sending me stumbling backward, which causes Linnea to lunge forward, calling my name. In the same movement, slowly, as though in a nightmare, I watch Varun snatch Linnea by her hair and yank her into his chest. Bigby lurches, trying to pull her back to keep her from moving to my rescue, but it’s too late.

Linnea cries out, and I whirl for Varun, feeling my body urge to shift, but wanting to kill him with my hands. His hands on her, his body so close to her, is making my wolf-sense run wild.

“Uh-uh,” he says, casually tracing a dagger over Linnea’s throat. “I wouldn’t move a muscle if I were you, Aris. I’ve got something here that’s very important to you. Your—”

I tense, waiting for Varun to say mate, to admit that he knew the truth about Linnea and me all along. The forced blood-bond on his part was intentional, cunning, because knowing we’re mated, all he has to do is pull that knife across Linnea’s throat and I’m done.

But he holds, probably because he knows Eva, Ado, and Bigby can easily kill him, even with the few remaining rogue shifters under Varun’s command, who seem to be watching the scene play out before they decide who to back.

I think I understand the dynamics in the room until Varun grins, finishing his sentence.

“—heir.”

Chapter 26 - Linnea

I can feel the exact moment Aris processes the truth, realizing I’m pregnant. It’s like when I realized it for myself, all the pieces clicking into place as soon as the words were spoken out loud. I can practically feel him probing at me with his senses and hearing the second heartbeat I’m carrying for him.

A memory of my mother comes back, her holding a baby picture of me, smiling sweetly down at it. Your father knew the day after I conceived. He said he could feel that there was more life inside me, pulsing with potential.

First—joy, which is quickly overrode with anger, fear, and an intense protectiveness that I understand now. The baby shifts, and I feel the bond between us growing stronger.

It will be okay, little one, I send to the baby, and I can see on Aris’s face that he heard it, too.

“Let her go,” Aris says. “Or I swear to God—”

“No,” Varun says, his cool voice cutting across the room. “No, Aris, it must kill you that you’re not calling the shots right now, but unless you want me to bury this dagger in your wife’s stomach and rip the little beast out of her womb, you’re going to listen to me now.”

I grow nauseous at the image Varun is painting and feel my body go a little lax in his arms. As Varun starts to talk, I meet Bigby’s eyes, which are wide and angry. Then, I look to Byron, who has moved across the room and is glaring at Eva.

That’s odd.

Eva is standing with her arms crossed, her hip jutting out, and her blonde hair pulled back into a perfectly slicked ponytail. Something like pleasure flits across her face. I look back to Byron, who meets my eyes and very carefully flicks his toward Eva for just a moment, and I know.

Varun knows I’m pregnant because Eva told him. Eva is the traitor, and she’s standing just behind Aris, who has turned his back to her. I lock eyes with Byron again, who gives me a subtle nod. Ado is also looking at me, and it seems the two of them are aware of Eva and ready to intercept her if she goes for Aris.

“Did you know that your daddy begged me not to do it, Aris?” Varun is saying, running the tip of the blade against the sensitive skin on my neck. I push to get away from the knife, but all that does is nestle my body closer to his, which makes Aris growl. Varun ignores this and keeps going. “It turns out, if you want to become alpha, you don’t go after the alpha himself—you go after his luna. I called your mom that night, begging for her to come and help my mom, who was so sick. She didn’t usually do house calls on her own, but she was such a kind soul, and she came. Too bad my mom was already dead—hanged herself just days after your father killed my dad. Tragic, isn’t it?”

Aris stares at Varun with open contempt. “Your father challenged mine in a drunken state. My dad told him to go home, sober up, and come to his senses, but your dad attacked anyway. He gave my father no choice.”

“He had a choice!” Varun thundered. “He didn’t have to kill my dad, leave him lying there in the street, his throat sliced open. That’s how I found him the next day. Gray, with maggots swarming in his open flesh. That’s when I decided that if tradition must be followed, I would follow it to the letter. I’d create hell on Earth for your dad’s pack and his people, and I was going to start with you, but you were too much of a coward. When you left, your dad was distraught enough that he let his wife do a house call solo, and once I had her, it wasn’t hard to get daddy down on his knees, begging me not to hurt her.”

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