Page 18 of The Alpha's Forced Pregnant Mate

“Tell me about it.”

The demon was already decaying, its flesh sloughing off like it had never been attached to the bones at all. The pop of light it created was small and unimpressive, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it…

Because there was more.

I pulled my blades from their sheathes as the new demons fell from the trees above, and I could see Laura and Julian preparing to fight, too. It didn’t take long for me to realize something odd was going on, because not a single demon turned to face my two allies. Instead, they all seemed fixated on me.

Shit.

I dodged the first attack, lashing out with my knife to slice open a demon’s arm as it sailed past me. Its wail was loud and piercing, and I winced at the sound. Julian’s shotgun boomed as he took down another one, but I knew we had to move. If these were scouts, they had to report back to their master. We needed to take them all out.

“Laura!” I called, running over to her. “We need to move! They’re scouts!”

She nodded, pulling two throwing knives from her belt. She let them fly, sinking into the eyes of two demons that had been advancing on her. “On it!”

I counted six demons, and every single one was trying to get to me. They were so insistent they barely fought back when Laura or Julian tried to attack from behind, and my heart was starting to race. Why in the hell was I a target?

“Watch out!” Julian cried, his shotgun booming as he tried to get the attention of a demon that was advancing on me. Its head exploded like the last one, but two more took its place.

I was moving before I even realized what I was doing, slashing my blade across the chest of a demon. My blood boiled in anger because I wasn’t some kind of damsel in distress that needed saving.

I kicked out with my left foot, catching a demon in the gut and knocking it backward, then spun to cut down another one. I saw Laura out of the corner of my eye, taking down a demon with her bowie knife, and Julian had dropped his shotgun and was using his machete to finish off the last two.

We’d done it. We’d managed to kill all six demons in a matter of minutes.

But why? Why had they come after me?

“Damnit,” I said, wiping the ichor off my knives. “That was unexpected.”

Laura walked over to me, cleaning her blade on her pants leg. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Why would they attack me like that? None of the others made a move to harm either of you.”

Julian walked over to me, scowling at the demons. “They’re definitely scouts, but I don’t know why they didn’t try to hurt me or Laura.”

“Maybe we’re not considered threats,” Laura suggested. “But I’ve been fighting alongside Whitney for a long time and that’s never happened before.”

A terrible thought was starting to take shape in my head—our conversation from earlier, Julian talking about Faye’s wolf-witch bloodline the reason why she was so desirable to the demons…

No. There was no way. I had so little that it barely mattered…

“You’re thinking,” Julian accused. “What are you thinking about?”

I glared, even as my heart was in my throat. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. “I know this must be news to you, but most people are thinking ALL the time.”

Laura snorted out a laugh, and Julian shot her a look before turning to me. “What were you thinking about?”

“It’s just a theory,” I said, looking down at the bodies, stepping back as each one popped into balls of light.

“A theory about what?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking at Laura for support. She nodded, gesturing with her hand for me to hurry up. “The reason why these demons came after me and not the two of you.”

“I’m listening,” Julian said, his jaw set. I knew he’d never be happy to hear this, but the sooner we had it out, the better off we would be. I could hear my blood pounding in my ears, and I’d broken out in a cold sweat—this was more terrifying than any demon fight. It had been something I’d been told to keep hidden my entire life, but if the demons really were after Faye and Sienna for being wolf witches, then it’d be more dangerous to keep my mouth shut.

“I…” I licked my lips, and swallowed, trying to relieve my suddenly dry mouth. “I’m a little bit of a witch. Like, I have enough magic that I can use small spells and charms, which is how I keep my blades spelled. My mother’s side of the family is human, but her great-grandmother was a powerful witch, and she passed some of that power down to me.”

Julian stared at me, his eyes wide and his face pale. “You’re a witch?”

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