Page 9 of Rejected Bullied Mate

I ignored him, paying and carrying my overly heavy bag back to the car. I hoped I'd given the two of them enough time to talk, but if not, Kiera was just going to have to deal with it. Letting her explain alone was the only kindness I was ready to give her right now.

I was pleased to see Kit staring out of the car window with a big, goofy grin on his face. Something in my chest seized when he opened the back door and popped out of the car, offering me his hand like I had done for him earlier.

My son was taller than I expected, and that made the tug in my chest even worse. Still, I shook his hand, man to man, somehow holding my composure when the handshake turned into a quick, shy hug from the boy before he jumped back.

"It's nice to meet you, Papa."

The tug in my chest got harder, and my composure cracked, but only for a moment. I felt my lips stretch into a genuine smile as Kit jumped into his seat again. "You too, kid."

Kiera was silent in the front seat, but her silence was far less friendly.

I handed the bags to the two of them before taking a moment to call ahead and have them start preparing everything for our arrival. When I returned to the driver's side, I found Kit watching me, a smile on his face and a chocolate bar in his hands.

"Only one," Kiera told him, harsher than I think she intended, "Or you won't sleep for the rest of the ride."

I doubted it—Kit was happily eating his candy between yawns, and looked more than ready to return to slumber now that the mystery of the trip and my identity had been solved. He seemed happy and well cared for. His smile made the bitter, resentful feeling in my chest even worse, so I focused on Kiera and the cold distance in her eyes.

"How did it go?"

"Well, enough. We don't need to talk about it." She kept her attention focused on Kit, avoiding me. “He has a million questions, but I told him to hold onto them until we were settled in wherever you’re taking us.”

Pulling back out onto the road, I could already see Kit snuggling back down into his blanket cocoon to sleep. Whatever we needed to discuss could wait until he was out again.

The car ride back was mostly quiet. Kit fell back asleep quickly, and the only sound was the rumble of the car engine and the wind. Kiera was so quiet that I thought she might be asleep at times, but then she would move ever so slightly, or her scent would shift. Then I could feel her eyes on me, and I knew that she was watching.

"What?" I said, without taking my eyes off the road, "You want to yell at me again?"

Her silence stretched, and for a moment, I thought that was it, but then her voice came, soft and cautious, "How did you find me, Samson?"

The question caught me off guard. It had never occurred to me that she would even ask, much less sound so nervous. "What does it matter how I found you?" I snapped, my rage returning with a vengeance, "The point is I did, and you can't run anymore."

She seethed in her seat, and when she didn't respond, I continued, glancing at my sleeping son in the rearview mirror. "Should I be worried that he sleeps so much?"

Kiera seemed surprised, but relaxed a few degrees. "He's always been a deep sleeper, and he's going through a growth spurt, which makes it even worse. Some days, I feel like he's endlessly hungry and endlessly tired." She smiled at the thought, her expression softening. "Don't worry. It's normal."

It should have comforted me, but instead, it just made the bitter anger flood back. I wanted to keep quiet, to at least wait until we were back in Crystal Creek before getting into a full-on fight again, but my mouth had other ideas. "Ah, well, good to fucking know. If I had known my son in the last seven damn years, maybe I'd know more about him.'

Kiera bristled and leaned back against her seat, crossing her arms as best she could with one cuffed. "What's your problem with me?" she asked in a tone so cold I half expected the windows to frost over.

"What's my problem? You're my problem. You left, and you didn't have the fucking guts to tell me about my kid, and now you're here, and you're refusing to take your rightful place in my pack as my wife."

Kiera made a strangled noise. "Rightful place?"

"Yeah, you heard me," I growled. "It's your duty, Kiera, your destiny, to be at my side as my wife. My mate.”

Kiera stared at me like she thought I had lost my mind.

"I can't fucking believe this. I knew you were stubborn, Samson, but I never knew you were so arrogant and stupid, too." She scoffed. "You have no claim on me! I'm not one of your pack. I don't bow and scrape to your will just because you say so! I don't give a damn what the hierarchy says about our status!"

"Our status is Alpha and his mate! Don't you get it? There is no other status for an Omega other than the one who's tied to her Alpha!" My voice rose, and my eyes burned in a way they hadn't since I was a teenager. Fuck, she made me so angry.

She turned back to her window. "You don't get to tell me what to do," Kiera said, and it almost sounded like she was in pain, "Not after what you did."

"What I did?" I growled.

Kiera was silent. I wanted to reach out to her and grab her, pull her around to look at me, and demand that she speak, but I kept my hands on the wheel, my gaze ahead. I knew what she was talking about, and it infuriated me that she had the gall to even bring it up. Rejecting her when I had no idea she was pregnant was nothing compared to her running away and hiding Kit from me. Nothing.

"Don't," she said quietly, "I'm not talking about it, Samson. Don't push it."

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