Page 156 of Rejected and Pregnant By the Alpha King

Instead, her fingers trace their way down my neck, over the soreness from Nyx’s grasp.

He’s taken everything from me...

Raine whispers into my mouth with sadness. “Of course I feelsomething,” she says wistfully. “But I think we both know it’s not the same.” Her voice shakes, almost as if she is nervous. Like it did before...

I break away, looking at her misty eyes.

“Come back with me,” I plead, not caring about the desperation in my voice.” We can find it again, Raine, I—” Her sigh breaks my heart as her fingers stroke my sensitive skin. “We can pretend none of this ever happened. We—”

Raine lets out a soft sob. “That’s the thing, Aiden, I can’t pretend. I can’t erase any of it, no matter how much I want to.”

When she looks at me with regret, I hate myself.

Fate gave me everything I’d ever wanted on a silver platter, and I sent it back.

I was a fool.

I suppose rejection is what I deserve.

Tears threaten to spill out of me like a waterfall as the dam between us breaks.

“We can’t go back,” she says, carefully stroking her thumb over my bottom lip. Her gaze flashes to my mouth, and she swallows hard. “But we can move forward.” She says, her voice barely a whisper of hope.

It’s an olive branch I don’t deserve.

I can’t help but bury my face in her hair. Her scent makes my wolf want to howl and cry, his heart broken along with mine.

“I don’t know how,” I say, the first tear falling from my eyes without warning. Her warmth and scent surround me like a comforting blanket. So many times, I took it—tookher—for granted.

My palm rests on her belly, knowing that despite everything, there is one spark that cannot die. One tiny spark that will forever exist because of our bond. A gift from the gods I don’t deserve but that I want all the same.

I will always have a piece of Raine that Nyx can never own, no matter what he says.

He may have left his mark on her flesh, but my mark grows inside of her day after day, regardless of who she kisses or where she resides. Nothing will ever change that.

I cling to Raine like she’s a life raft and I’m a dying man. And perhaps, in a way, that is exactly what I am.

“Let me go,” she whispers through shaky sobs. “Let me go, and I will give you what you want, Aiden.”

Raine pulls me closer, her arms wrapped around me like she, too, is drowning.

I’m not sure I can have what I want.

But hope threatens to bloom in my chest all the same.

We hold one another as the heat between us fades until there is nothing left to ignite.

And then we hold each other some more.

70

Nyx

Raine has been gone far too long for my liking, and I am more than agitated. I gave up trying to entertain her friend Delilah, who seemed exhausted—likely from their journey and whatever had transpired between her and Raine.

Rose would not divulge what exactly that had been, no matter how hard I pushed, which only irritated me further. Which is why I have taken it upon myself to tend to my plants—if only to keep myself from going mad, all things considered.

I know Raine will eventually come to me, and she will likely have something to say about my having claimed her.

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