Page 12 of Rejected Pregnant Mate

"So... about that. Scott is actually my mate. The bond popped up when I presented as an Omega for the first time, but he...ah..."

"I rejected her," he said simply, but I caught an edge of guilt in his voice. "I knew it would be a shit show, me taking the Saltfang Alpha's cousin, and we felt nothing for each other."

I snorted. "Wow. Thanks for that."

Scott raised a brow at me. "Well, we don't. Do we?"

I pressed my lips together, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. "No. We definitely do not."

Samson looked like he was in shock, and Kiera wasn't much better. "He'swhat?" Samson yelled. "Nayeli, tell me this is a sick joke!"

Kiera stood up slowly, moving to stand beside me. She wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me against her side. She looked ready to fight Scott, and I couldn't help the small smile that touched my lips. For all that, my cousin was an Alpha jerk sometimes, his mate was a true gem.

"Everyone needs to calm down. So Nayeli and Scott had a rejected mate bond before he was hit with this spell. That explains why it manifested as a bond like this."

Samson glared at Scott. "I don't give a damn what happened before. He needs to get the hell away from my cousin. This is a nightmare."

"I agree," I muttered, still glaring at Scott. He wasn't even bothering to hide his amusement at the situation, and he was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite figure out.

"This isn't Scott's fault," Kiera said gently, rubbing her hand up and down my shoulder. "Nayeli, how long have you had magic, and how much had you used it before this?"

I dragged myself to the couch, sitting as far away from Samson as possible, and explained everything that I could. I told them how my magic manifested during my first heat as anOmega, and how Scott had rejected me not long after. I told them how I'd still been grieving my parents, and because of that, I kept everything a secret because I didn't want to be vulnerable in front of anyone, and how my magic had been a small, secret joy for me. Then I told them the effects of the spell, the pain that it caused me, and the lack of control it fed in Scott.

By the time I was done, Samson was less pissed, and I could sense some understanding from him finally. But he still wasn't happy. "You could have gotten hurt, Nayeli. Hiding something like this makes you seem unstable."

"Maybe I am," I snapped, but I was too tired for there to be any venom behind it. "But I'm not stupid."

"She's right," Scott said, surprising everyone. He'd been quiet throughout my entire explanation, but now he stepped away from the wall he was leaning on and turned to Samson, his eyes steely. "You're acting like she's a threat to your pack because she made a mistake, but we both know Nayeli couldn't be malicious even if she tried. She just explained that she wasn't trying to deceive anyone. She was just trying to understand herself."

My heart started to pound, and a warmth spread through me at his words. I looked at him in wonder, thinking how strange it was that he was the one to come to my defense.

"So what, you think I should let this all slide?" Samson asked Scott.

"I think we should all just accept that it happened, and now we have to deal with it. The bond is real. We've confirmed that separation causes physical pain for her and behavioral instability for me. That means there is a single, viable solution."

He looked at me, his brown eyes so dark they seemed bottomless in the dim lighting of Samson's living room, and Icould sense that he was about to do something crazy. But Scott seemed calm. Certain.

"I'll marry her."

The room fell into stunned silence.

"I'm sorry, what!?" I said, blinking.

Scott kept going, as if he'd had this planned for weeks instead of an hour at most. "We'll make it official. She'll move in with me in Shadowbay territory. It'll unify our packs in a positive way, and if she's living with me, we can manage the bond easier so there aren't any negative effects until this thing is fixed."

I couldn't help it. I gawked at him. "Are you out of your mind?"

"A positive way?" Samson laughed without an ounce of humor. "You want to steal my family and pretend you're doing us a favor?"

Kiera hadn't said anything, but she put her hand on Samson's knee and gave him a look. Everyone in the room knew that Samson had indeed stolen Kiera away in the dead of night to marry her, so his outburst was a bit hypocritical, to say the least.

I agreed with him for this situation, but it was still laughable that he was objecting as much as he was.

"I'm trying to help all of us," Scott insisted. "This isn't just about romance—"

"Good," I cut in sharply, "Because there isn't any."

Scott paused, and looked at me, expression unreadable.

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