Page 40 of Targeted By Temptation
One even asked me what my skincare routine was and then looked flabbergasted when I said, “Soap.”
So as I walked through the health and beauty aisle, I grabbed a pregnancy test from the wall, figuring if I took it and I wasn’t pregnant, then I wouldn’t get my mate’s hopes up for nothing. But if I took it and I was, it would give me time to plan… and I had planned.
I planned a whole meal for us. I was going to cook little baby corn and carrots, and I don’t know, whatever little baby things I could find. I was going to give him a present, and inside would be a baby’s first birthday frame for when our child was here. I was going to give him an invitation to a first ultrasound, and every little cute thing I’d ever seen on Pinterest, I was planning on doing.
But as I looked at the two pink lines, joy filling my heart, my phone buzzed. It was my mate, telling us we had this meeting with the Alpha. That had to come first.
My mate picked me up and we drove to the meeting spot. It was neutral territory, and when they said neutral territory, I had noidea we were going to meet at a food truck with picnic tables. But there we were.
It put me at ease to see the Alpha grabbing his cheese fries from the window. I wasn’t hungry, and even if I was, I didn’t want to wait long enough to get food. I wanted this meeting to move quickly and be done.
My mate and I joined him at the table.
“I’d expected more people here,” I said. “Are we waiting for anybody else?”
“No. This is between the three of us.” He looked directly at me. “I want to give you the respect you deserve and let you know I’m not going to bleed your father, not in the wolf way. I plan to take every single cent from him, to cripple all of his connections, to leave him homeless. But I’m not going to kill him.”
“That’s fine. I will,” my mate growled on the side.
“Please don’t.” My father didn’t deserve mercy, but it wasn’t only about him.
“Why? He’s not worthy of breath.” My mate wasn’t wrong.
My father was willing to trade the person he should’ve been protecting with everything he had to someone for money.
“That may be, but I don’t want to start our life together with guilt hanging over it. I’ve had enough of that. I’ve already lost one parent; losing another because I gave the okay, as deserving as he is for that, that would crush me. He’ll pay his price. He’ll learn his lesson. Viktor is stripping him of everything he loves.”
“But what if he comes after you again?”
“Then you bleed him dry.”
That seemed to settle my mate. The Alpha across from us was looking at this with such curiosity.
“Do you forgive him?” Viktor asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know if forgiveness is the right word, but I can’t hold on to the bitterness. If I do, he’ll win every single day, time and time again.”
He popped a cheese fry in his mouth. It seemed so out of place for this man of power.
“Humans will always perplex me. But you, Reign, you’re a good one.”
Ezra’s hand came around me, and he pulled me close to his side. Not gonna lie, I liked this jealous side of him.
We talked about details, and he let me know which things he protected for me and how I could have access to them. I didn’t want any of it, but I appreciated it.
And then, as quickly as it started, we parted ways.
I was so excited to get home, to tell my mate about the baby. So excited that he noticed I was a nervous wreck, and pulled over into a random parking lot, turned the car off, and looked me straight in the eye.
“You need to tell me what’s going on, because my wolf can’t stand it. He’s sure something’s wrong and we need to fix it, but I don’t know how to fix it, so tell me how to fix it.”
“There’s nothing to fix, mate.” I took his hand. “Nothing at all. I’m not nervous in the negative sense. I’m excited. Excited because I?—”
He brought my hand up to his cheek and held it there, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I was gonna do this all fancy-like, but here we are. I’m pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” He lowered our joined hands to my middle. “We’re going to have a pup.”
