The Wolf’s Pregnant Rejected Mate (Bluebell Valley Wolves #2)

Chapter 25 - Tess

Tess woke with a start, utterly alone. The space where Ryder had been was cold. No doubt he’d snuck out some time ago. Her stomach twisted. Was this how he felt when she snuck away when he was sleeping?

She rolled to her back, cold despite the blankets piled on her. He was gone, and she doubted they would speak again before tonight’s meeting. When everyone would find out she was pregnant, and Ryder would have to leave to face the demons. Her wolf was oddly quiet, subdued. Maybe because of this cold, grim acceptance that weighed her limbs down.

Even when her parents kicked her out, she didn’t feel this alone. Then, she knew she could go to Mica and Echo, even if she didn’t know them well at that time. Even though she knew she had people who cared for her, she felt utterly alone.

“Ryder, I want you as my mate,” she said aloud, her voice ringing in her ears. “I love you. But I can’t tell you any of that because… because why? I’m afraid of further rejection?”

Or because she was afraid of forcing him into something she didn’t know?

One thing was clear. She had two choices. The first was to lay here wallowing in her self-pity and fear. Let the crushing weight of it all render her paralyzed and helpless, so she was nothing more than a huddled mess at the window, watching for Ryder to come back.

Or she could actually do something. Find something that would help him come back home safe and sound.

It was an obvious choice, really. She didn’t have the luxury of lying around feeling sorry for herself.

She got out of bed, rolling her stiff shoulders to loosen them. Then, she showered and got dressed in the clothes discarded throughout the room. After running her fingers through her hair to remove any knots, she left the room behind, walking with determination.

Hayden was in his study, working through a few stacks of papers. They looked like pack bills. Strange to think that with the threat of demons around every corner, the Alpha also had to take care of such mundane things as keeping the lights on.

He looked up as she approached. “Tess. What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping I could speak with you, Alpha,” Tess said.

He nodded. Tess shut the door behind her and faced Hayden.

“Ryder told me you agreed to the plan for tonight,” he started.

“I did. I’m here to see what else I can do to help weaken the demons,” she said, straightening her back.

Hayden’s frown deepened. “There really isn’t anything you can do, Tess. Continue to help Mica look through the texts—”

“We’ve been through them too many times already,” Tess interrupted. “We’ve picked through it and learned everything that we can from those texts. I need to actually do something. I can’t just keep sitting around, Hayden. You’re sending Ryder to collect information, but in the meantime, we can still do something to either capture or take out more of those demons.”

Hayden shuffled the bills into a file folder that he slid into his desk. He gestured at an empty chair, and Tess slumped into it, breathing hard.

“Ryder told me that the last time demons attacked you, you dragged one over the salt line, and it killed the host,” Hayden said evenly.

Tess winced. She had been trying very hard to forget about that. “The demon killed the host. It wouldn’t have done that if the host wasn’t already dead.”

“We’ve never had a situation where dragging a possessed person across a salt line expelled the demon,” Hayden said slowly. “Finn and I have our suspicions on why that was, but to test it out, we need to get our hands on more demons.”

“To experiment on them?” Tess clarified, wincing as she said the words.

Hayden nodded. “I suspect that only the demons who hold their hosts via the Demon Seed will be killed like that. And since we cannot save those hosts, it might give us a better chance at killing off a bunch of the demons all at once. We also have to keep moving forward while Ryder is gone. Otherwise, it will look suspicious.”

“What can I do?” Tess asked eagerly.

“You can be bait. We’ll set a trap for them, and if you’re out there, they will come after you.” Hayden’s gaze was surprisingly gentle.

Tess hesitated. She had the protective talisman, but would her baby still be vulnerable to possession? For that matter, it was still early in the pregnancy. Could too much stress cause her to lose the baby? If something went wrong, it wasn’t just her life that was in danger.

Hayden folded his hands on his desk. “Of course, you are free to say no. No doubt Mica is going to give me an earful for even suggesting this in the first place.”

Something shifted in his expression, some look that Tess couldn’t read. It was gone so fast that she wasn’t sure if she had seen it. She sat there, thinking it over. Once, she had been the one to make the suggestion that she could be used as bait. That was before, though.

“Every demon that we capture or kill is another demon that can’t hurt the pack again,” she said slowly. “But aren’t you worried that the big wolf will want to take vengeance on Ryder if we whittle down his pack? It will make him want to possess Ryder even more.”

“These are risks that the special ops team has to make,” Hayden said softly. “It’s not the first time we’ve put our lives on the line, and it won’t be the last. This is what it means to love us, Tess. Every day we go into that forest, we might not come back. What we don’t know about demons vastly outweighs what we do know.”

“But you keep going.”

“But we keep going,” Hayden agreed. “Because if we don’t, who will? If we’re not here to stand against the dark, who is going to drive it back? If we don’t fight for the pack, how many of the people we love will die?”

Did he know? Was there some special Alpha sense that he used to realize that she loved Ryder? Even if she couldn’t admit it?

Hayden’s expression remained steady as he waited for her to speak. It was firm yet compassionate. Tess lowered her gaze, her wolf continuing to be oddly quiet.

“I want to help,” she finally said. “I want to do my part. If you asked me to risk myself for the pack a few months ago, I wouldn’t have done it. But I’m willing to risk it for the people I love. Mica and Echo. My baby. I just… I need to make sure that I’m not risking my baby unnecessarily. I want a better life for them. I want them to grow up free of fear.”

“I understand. This must be a difficult thing for you to do. I know how the pack treated you.”

“Thank you.”

Hayden might know what the pack did, but he could never fully understand what it was like to be in her shoes. He was never an outcast, but he didn’t understand how it felt to be worried that her baby would grow up being treated the same way she had been as a child.

She had a better position here now. But if the demons weren’t stopped, then what? They might kill Hayden eventually and put their own Alpha in charge of the pack. If they got another Monroe?

No. No, she had to do this. It wasn’t just about Ryder.

The door opened.

Hayden frowned over Tess’s shoulder. “What are you doing here?”

Tess twisted to find Elin shaking as she entered the study. Her eyes bulged as she twisted her hands so tightly that her skin turned white. She looked like she was about to vomit or faint. The first thing Tess thought was that something terrible had happened, like Elin was about to topple over and reveal a knife in her back as one of those old corny murder mystery shows.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping, Alpha,” Elin stammered. “But I heard… and I want to help, too.”

Hayden frowned at her. “Are you saying that you want to take part in this trap, Elin?”’

“Y-yes,” Elin whispered. Her eyes bulged even further. “I want to be part of this. I don’t want to sit around waiting for the demons to come after me again. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. I can’t do much. But I can do this. I can be bait.”

Tess reached for her hand. She was ice-cold. A surge of affection rushed through Tess. Despite how terrified she clearly was, she still wanted to help. She knew how that felt. She knew the moment she’d hit the point of ‘fight back’ or ‘give up and die.’ That was the point Elin was at now. And she was glad that whatever trap Hayden came up with, she wasn’t going to be alone.

Tess turned back to Hayden, holding Elin’s hand tightly in her own. “When will it be, Alpha?”

“Soon. I will get back to you with the details.” Hayden gave them both hard looks. “Keep it to yourselves for now.”

That meant don’t tell Mica…

Or Ryder.

Tess nodded, the weight of this decision settling on her shoulders. Goddess! She hoped she wasn’t making a big mistake.