Page 55 of Betrayed Knocked-Up Mate

Marcus's voice cuts through the silence like a blade. He doesn't look at me, keeps his eyes fixed on the winding road ahead, but I catch the tremor in his hands, the way his scent spikes with something complex and terrifying.

"Does it matter?" My own voice sounds strange to my ears, rough with tears I refuse to shed.

"Of course, it matters." Something raw breaks through his careful control. "Camila, you're carrying my—" He cuts himself off, swallowing hard. "How long have you known?"

"Two weeks." The words taste like ash. “It was… two weeks before that. I’m… it’s been a month. There or thereabouts.”

The truck swerves slightly as his hands tighten on the wheel. "Two weeks. You've known for two weeks and didn't—"

"Didn't what, Marcus?" Fury rises in my chest, hot and sharp. "Didn't tell you? Like you've told me anything? Like you've given me any reason to trust you with this?"

"This is different—"

"Is it?" The laugh that tears from my throat holds no humor. "You walked away from me once without explanation. Rejected our mate bond like it meant nothing. Why should I believe you won't do the same to this child?"

"I would never—"

"You already did, so Ican’tbelieve you when you say that to me, Marcus!" The words explode from me with five years of suppressed rage. "You left me alone with a half-formed mate bond, a broken heart, and no explanation. Just walked away like everything we had meant nothing. And now you're doing it again—keeping secrets, making decisions about my life without consulting me, dragging me across the country 'for my own good' without telling me why! Can you blame me for being afraid?"

"I was trying to protect you!" He slams his hand against the steering wheel, making me flinch. "Everything I did—leaving you, pushing you away, all of it—was to keep you safe! Do you know what it was like? Do you know what it did to me, Camila?"

"Safe from what?" I demand, fury making my voice shake. "Safe from loving you? Safe from having a real life? Safe from—"

"Safe from Kane!" The words tear from his throat like they're being ripped out. "Safe from watching him murder everyone I love, just like he murdered my parents!"

The truth hangs between us.

“Marcus.” My voice comes out barely above a whisper. “I knew he… I mean, I suspected. I have for a while. But he…” The memory comes back hard, surging out of some suppressed part of my shaken mind. “He said something about mates, just now.”

Marcus's hands tremble on the wheel as we take another curve too fast, the truck's tires skating close to the edge. "He killed them because they believed in cooperation between humans and shifters. Because they were building bridges instead of walls. Made me watch as he—" His voice breaks. "Then he promised he'd do the same to anyone I ever loved. Said he'd find my mate, when I found them, and make me watch them die too. Just like he made my father watch my mother—"

“Marcus—”

“And then you asked me—I loved you—” he rambles, unable to stop. “You asked me, and they’d—they were dead, Camila, and you thought we were mates, and I… I knew he’d hunt you down; I couldn’t do that to you. You have to believe me—”

I reach one hand out toward his on the console. I’m not sure what I intend to do.

My fingers brush his arm.

The crack of gunfire outside cuts through the night like thunder.

Everything happens at once. The back tire explodes. The truck spins out of control, then the horrific screech of metal on metal as we hit the guardrail. My hands move without conscious thought to protect my stomach as we careen toward the edge, and I curl my whole body forward over itself like a wilting flower.

Through the windshield, I catch a glimpse of dark vehicles emerging from the shadows further down the road, their headlights cutting through the darkness like predator eyes.

Time fragments like broken glass: Marcus reaching for me, desperation painted across his face in the strobing headlights. The car flips. The sickening lurch as the truck tips toward the ravine.

The taste of blood in my mouth from where I've bitten my tongue.

As he screams my name, Marcus's voice carries notes I've never heard before—terror, love, and fury all at their maximum.

The world tilts sideways as the truck goes over again. My last thought before darkness claims me is that I never heard the rest of his explanation. Never got to tell him that despite everything, despite the secrets and the lies and the years of running, I never stopped loving him either.

Then everything goes black, and even that truth slips away into silence.

Chapter 24 - Marcus

Pain drags me back to consciousness.

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