Page 74 of Rejected and Pregnant By the Alpha King

She laughs. “Good one. Okay, I’ll be back around six-thirty. Can you survive until then?”

“I’ll try. No promises.”

“Try the tub while you’re hanging out,” she says while walking to the door with her empty bag slung over her shoulder. “It’s niceand deep so you can completely soak and relax. I think there are candles in the linen closet too.”

Actually, that sounds pretty nice.

I’ve never had a luxury bath before. Delilah was always telling me about hers whenever she got stressed out, and I’d always had to hold back my jealousy. Since I’m here, I might as well take advantage while I can.

“Thanks, Rose.”

She winks at me before leaving. “No problem.”

33

Raine

My evening with Rose goes better than expected.

Her infectious energy keeps me company all through the night until we both settle down long after the moon rises. She sleeps on a couch across the room, curled up with a blanket tucked up to her chin.

While she sleeps peacefully, I toss and turn with a restlessness that I haven’t felt in a long time, not since being with the Pollis pack.

Eventually, I push back my covers and slide out of bed. With it being so late at night, there’s a chance that not many of Nyx’s packmates are up, and as long as I avoid any of his enforcers wandering the town, I should be able to sneak out and get some fresh air.

The mansion is quiet—a little too much for my liking. It has the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I slowly descend the stairs to the main floor, my ears perked for any sign of footsteps approaching.

I hear nothing, which is both encouraging and scary. My wolf is alert along with me, but nothing seems to catch her attention either, so instead of staying frozen at the bottom of the staircase, I make my way over to the foyer.

I’ve yet to map out this entire place, but at least I know how to get to the front door and back again when I come back from my midnight stroll.

The door is unlocked when I try it, surprising me more than how quiet this place is. While a pack alpha leaving the door to his residence unlocked isn’tthatunusual, I expected more security for the goddamn Southern Alpha King.

Nothing stops me from leaving though. Not an enforcer, or an alarm system, or hell—even Nyx himself.

The night breeze is surprising considering the valley is practically a desert. Up above, the sky is dark, with stars speckled all around. The moon glows softly, casting a halo of light that guides me down the front steps and onto the main dirt road of the town.

Instead of heading into it, I shift and move around to the back of the property where Nyx told me the conservatory is. I’m not all that interested in greenery, but the pond sounded nice.

I keep my ears perked while I trot through the clipped bushes and toward the back of the property. It’s kind of strange seeingso much green around me when the rest of the town is the complete opposite. Nyx never really struck me as the type to care about curb appeal, though what do I know?

At the end of the day, he’s still a stranger to me.

When I finally make my way through the maze of hedges, I spot a large greenhouse. There are dim lights on inside of it, drawing my curiosity. It’s darker out here than it was back at the mansion, but somehow much more peaceful.

I shift and head for the greenhouse, and just as I take my first step forward, the ground completely disappears out from under me.

A small yelp leaves my lips just as I plunge under cool water, the air from my lungs bursting out of me from the shock. I grasp for the surface, something brushing against my leg that has me kicking at it. My foot hits something solid before it darts away, my eyes cloudy from how murky the water is.

So much so that I can’t tell which way is up and which way is down.

Oh fuck, am I actually going to drown on my first day in this fucking pack’s territory?!

Something grabs me by the back of my nightshirt, hauling me up and breaking me through the surface of the water. I choke out whatever I breathed into my lungs, my chest burning from the pressure.

My body is slapped down onto solid ground and rolled over onto my side, where I can properly cough up more water from my lungs.

“I distinctly remember telling you that the pond sneaks up on you,” a dark voice says, hovering over me.

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