Page 11 of Bullied Pregnant Mate

As if the touch of her hand has unlocked my mind, more memories from school flick through my head. Taunting her at lunch. Making jokes about her in class. Calling her names in the hall. The laughter of my buddies as they cheered me on is only horrifying background noise behind the years of torture.

She’s so fucking weird, man. She deserves it.

Have you seen her just staring out into space? She’s dumb as a post.

A space cadet.

Pale as a ghost.

Dull as an old blade.

No one would ever go out with someone that weird, even if she was hot—but she’s not!

Holding her hands gently, looking deep into her eyes, I want to scream, “I’m sorry!” I want to howl it into the sky, shake the mountain peaks with my voice and the force of my apology.

She looks so unmoved by this. Does she even recognize me?

Suddenly, Carson announces that it’s time to kiss the bride, and I realize I just missed my own wedding ceremony. Alisa leans forward, her slight smile still locked on her face, her eyes still and pale like frozen pools.

I lean forward, too, and something takes hold of me. Before I even realize what I’ve done, my arms are around her and I’m pulling her close to me, pressing my lips against hers.

She feels like an ice sculpture in my hands. A frozen beauty, ice-cold and calm. But her mouth is hot. Burning, like there is raging fire inside her.

When I pull back, her cheeks are flushed pink and her lips glow deep red. Instead of looking like ice frozen across a lake, her eyes look like lightning flashing across a clouded sky.

“Hello, Alisa,” I say, my voice very soft.

“Hello, Jenks,” she whispers.

There is a brief moment when we smile at each other and I feel like everything is going to be okay. As if she knows without being told that I was just a stupid kid who did ugly things I now regret.

Then she pulls away from me, and her shields slam down. I can feel it in my heart as well as see it—a wall of ice surrounding her heart and chasing the warmth from her eyes.

I’m sorry!

Bae claps me on the shoulder, grinning and congratulating me. Other guests hurry over to us, the girls crowding around Alisa, moving her away from me. Reluctantly, I go with Bae and the others, throwing lingering glances across the deck to look at my wife.

Wife. That’s going to take some getting used to.

“Well done, old buddy,” Jack says, giving my arm a tap with his fist. “You won’t regret this!”

“No,” I mutter, barely listening to him.

“I want to thank you for stepping up,” Bae says. “I’ve worried about you for a while now. You’ve never been interested in pack business, and it’s not good for you. Rogues don’t survive, Jenks, you know that.”

“I know,” I answer, nodding as I look at the ground. “You can count on me, Bae. I want to help as much as I can.”

“Good,” Bailey says, smiling. “Pulling together is the best thing we can do to keep the pack strong.”

While Bae’s talking, my eyes begin to slide back to Alisa. The sound of Bae’s voice fades.

“Check out this boy,” Kyle quips. “He’s elf-struck.”

“Elf-struck?” Bae asks, pouring all of us a drink.

“It’s when a human gets so badly enchanted by a magical creature, he forgets everything else in his life to follow and serve her. It’s a fairy tale thing.”

“I don’t think it’s just a tale,” Jack says, nudging me. “Are you still with us?”

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