Page 36 of Betrayed Knocked-Up Mate

"Put me down!" Her nails dig into my arms, drawing blood. "Marcus, I swear to god—"

Ignoring her cries, I carry her toward the front exit, where a dark, broad four-wheeler sits parked up against the curb outside, waiting for us in the shadows. Her struggles grow more desperate, more furious, but I don't let go.

I can't.

Because Kane is coming, and this time I won't let him take anything else from me. Won't let him destroy another mate bond, another family, another person I love.

"I hate you," she snarls as I navigate the back stairs. "I hate you, Ihateyou—”

"I know." The words come out rough as I push through the exit door. "Hate me all you want. As long as you're alive to do it."

“At least let me say goodbye to my brother—”

But there’s no time. Dawn paints the world in shades of blood and shadow as I carry her toward the truck. The morning air tastes like fear and the cold makes my teeth ache. Camila's heart beats hard and fast where she’s held tight against my chest, the familiar rhythm of it drowning out everything else.

Through the pack bonds, I feel the mournful acceptance of my pack. I’ll miss them desperately, I know. But it’s better this way—for them and for Camila.

I wrestle her into the passenger seat, my hands shaking with more than just urgency. She fights me every inch of the way, all predator grace and righteous fury. Her eyes flash gold in the growing light, and for a moment, I see everyone I've ever failed to protect reflected in them—my parents, my pack members, all the people Kane has hurt to get to me.

"I will never forgive you for this," she snarls as I buckle her in, her claws leaving fresh marks on my arms. The scent of my blood mingles with gunsmoke and morning dew.

"I know." The words come out rough, heavy with everything I can't tell her. Not yet. Not until she's safe. "Hate me if you have to. Just stay alive to do it."

Through the windshield, I watch smoke rise far in the distance, above Rosecreek's rooftops like storm clouds. Everything I've tried to prevent for five years is happening anyway, and all I can do is run.

Again.

I slam the door of her side hard and lock it. Whatever she needs, we can buy with cash out on the road.

Forcing down my overwhelming guilt, my fear, my nausea, I slide behind the wheel just as another burst of gunfire splits the air. Camila's fury fills the car like smoke, an overwhelming and fierce force. She’s stopped fighting, stopped wrestling with her seatbelt and clawing at the door handle, but she glares out of the windshield onto the road with a ferocity I’ve never seen in her eyes before.

She hates me, I know. She meant it.

"This isn't over," she says quietly as I start the engine. The words carry more weight than threats, more promise than fury.

"I know," I say again, because what else can I say? How do I tell her that nothing's been over since the moment I met her? That everything—the running, the fighting, the desperate attempts to keep her safe—has led us right back here?

The truck roars to life as dawn bleeds across the sky. Behind us, Rosecreek prepares for battle. Ahead, the road stretches into uncertainty. And between us lie all the truths I still can't tell her, with five years of choices and consequences and things left unsaid.

I hit the gas.

Chapter 15 - Camila

The morning light is sharp. Sharp enough for me to want to capture it in my lens, painting everything in shades of accusation as the speedometer inches past ninety and we tear down yet another empty stretch of Minnesota highway. The world outside blurs into streaks of spring green and morning gold. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful, and my camera is back in Rosecreek.

My hands rest in tight fists on my thighs, nails biting into my palms hard enough to draw blood. The sharp sting helps ground me, keeps me from doing something stupid like trying to grab the wheel or jump from the moving vehicle—not that either would work. Marcus's grip on the steering wheel hasn't loosened since we left Rosecreek, his knuckles white with tension as he pushes us faster, further, away from everything and everyone I love.

Away from myhome. From everything I've spent the last three months carefully building, piece by piece, like assembling an image from scattered fragments. The home I hardly got to have before it was gone again.

At this point, it feels like I might never belong anywhere.

The pack bonds still hum at the edges of my consciousness, stretching thinner with each mile, reminding me of everything I'm leaving behind. Maia's quiet strength, Thalia's fierce loyalty, the way Rafael looks at me over morning coffee like he can't quite believe I finally came back. The solid, immovable presence of the team members. All my friends, my new almost family. All of it slipping away in the rearview mirror while Marcus drives us toward some unknown future I never asked for.

The thought sends a fresh wave of fury through me, hot enough to make my wolf strain against my skin. I've spent five years running from place to place, never letting myself put down roots or believe I could belong anywhere again.

Then Rosecreek happened—Rafael and his quiet understanding, the fierce friendships I was just starting to form, the gradual interweaving of pack bonds I'd forgotten how to feel. For the first time since California, since Marcus, I'd begun to feel... whole.

And now here I am, being dragged away from it all by the very man who taught me to run in the first place.

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