Page 22 of The Alpha's Stolen Mate

“What are we going to do?” I squeaked.

“People already think she's sick,” my mom muttered, her eyes on her husband. “She’s been in the house for two weeks, and she just fainted in front of the whole town.”

“What are you getting at, honey?” my dad asked her.

“We start a rumor,” my mom said with more confidence in her voice.

My father might be the one to always break the bad news to me, but my mother always found a solution to the problem.

“We say that she's deathly ill and has to be sent to a specialized healer up north. In reality, she will go to your sister's house to have her child in secret,” my mom said. “I'll go with her, of course.”

My dad nodded as if considering my mom's crazy plan.

“That could work,” he admitted.

“What the hell do you mean that could work?” I cried. “Why are you guys acting like I'm not sitting right here? Why are you trying to plan out the rest of my life for me? I don't want to go live on Aunt Mia's farm. Isn't there another way? Can't we…”

But my mind was too full of anxiety. I couldn't come up with another way to protect Gabriel and me from being exiled.

“Isn't sending me away from the only home I've ever known like a kind of exile in itself?” I pointed out and swallowed back tears, trying not to let my emotions consume me.

“Oh, honey,” my mom said and gripped my shoulder, tears sprinting down her pale cheeks. “We love you more than anything. And we don't think you did anything wrong. This isn't a punishment. It's a precaution.”

My father nodded in agreement.

“We can't risk your life, Summer. If anything happened to you, I—” My mom became choked up with emotion. “I'm going to come with you, sweetheart. I'll be with you every step of the way.”

“I'm coming, too,” my dad said.

“No, Theo,” my mom told him gently. “You have to stay here and continue to help protect the pack.”

“I'm not sure I'm making a difference,” my father muttered. “That's besides the point, though. We need to start planning.”

My mom held one of my hands while my dad held the other. They talked logistics over my head.

Annoyance filled me. Why were they acting like I was simply a pawn in their plan? I knew that they were worried about me, especially since I was lying in a hospital bed, just like when I was attacked by the Rogue. But their fear for me was blinding them from seeing my side of things. Didn't they care what I wanted to do with mylife?

“Healer Elijah is the only one who knows besides us three,” my dad muttered. “And he won't tell anyone. He would never break healer-patient confidentiality.”

“When we leave the hospital, Summer will have to be in a wheelchair and pretend to be asleep. No one in the pack can see her again for our plan to work,” my mom added.

That's it.

I had to find a different way to keep myself from being exiled. I cupped my stomach again. It wasn't just my own life at stake anymore. I would pretend to go along with my parents’ plan for now to avoid an explosive argument, but I had to tell Gabriel about my pregnancy. This was his baby, too.

We were Destined Mates. Gabriel would find a solution.

I tuned my parents out, silently making my own plans.

Chapter Eight: The Other Side

Gabriel POV

I’m trapped, stuck in my thoughts that keep cycling as I try to find a solution to two impossible problems.

When I got back from the hospital, I locked myself in my room, paced the same five feet of my bedroom floor, and made myself crazy with worry.

If something happens to Summer…

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