3. Kai

I locked the door of the apartment and put a chair against it like I’d seen in the movies. Though, when Dante and the people of Tarrin were watching my life, and I was eating popcorn and watching movies, who were the movie actors watching? My head hurt trying to figure it out.

I hadn’t done that in a while because I went round and round and there were no answers. Or maybe there were but not for people like me with little power to peel back the layers of lies and subterfuge.

Closing the curtains dimmed the light in the apartment and comforted me, as though someone had wrapped a blanket, just out of the dryer, around my shoulders. After making a pot of tea, I crept into bed, alone with my thoughts, and sipped the hot liquid.

Safely ensconced in the bedroom where Dante and I made love, resulting in my pregnancy, I ran through the events starting from when I left the baby store. I’d been on a high, my nesting instinct sated, until I caught a scent.

My head shot up, convinced he was there because I caught a whiff. But when I sniffed my shirt, the alpha’s aroma lingered on the fabric, so I pulled it off.

Ridding myself of my remaining clothes, I tossed them in the trash and showered, scrubbing my skin until it glowed pink. I changed the bedding too because I’d been in the covers and put it on the hottest wash cycle.

Back in bed, I felt for my phone. I hadn’t checked it in hours and fumbled for it in the mess of fresh bedding. My heart rate increased, thinking I’d lost it until a little voice in my head reminded me I’d thrown away my clothes.

Oops!

Damn. After grabbing my phone from my pocket, I scrolled through unanswered message after message with tears spilling over my cheeks. Not only had Dante been trying to get a hold of me, but he’d sensed something was wrong. Even if I’d never believed it previously—and I did—the universe had sent me a sign that Dante was my one and only. Forever and ever.

I read and re-read every text, falling more in love with my mate. He not only cared for me but somehow sensed when I was in trouble and needed him.

I’m fine. Forgot to check my messages. Just had an “I’m pregnant and I cry over the tiniest things” moment. Love youto the moon and back.

Returning to bed, I pulled the clean bedding to my chin and sipped the lukewarm tea. Ewww. I was exhausted and didn’t want to brew any more. And instead of thinking about Dante and our life and how I’d successfully carved out a career with my blog, my mind wandered to the other guy, the alpha stalker. Or was he a stalkerish alpha?

None of his scent remained on my bedclothes, but my memory reached back to earlier when his scent clung to me, trying to recall the fragrance notes.

“No, dammit. That’s not how this works. Dante is my fated mate and the father of my baby.” I cradled my bump with one hand and shook my fist in the air with the other.

After landing in Martslock and my life being turned upside down—literally—mating with Dante and finding purpose in my new life acted as a salve. Those terrifying and confusing early days were a thing of the past. But now, the alpha who’d followed me had opened up those memories, and they flooded into my head until I pulled the covers over me, seeking solace in the darkness.

I hated how my mind reeled me in to that alpha’s freaking scent every time I concentrated on my current happiness.

The ringing phone jolted me up, my eyes darting left and right, thinking the alpha had found where I lived and my phone number. But I forced myself to check the display, and my anxiety level plummeted.

Dante!

“Hi.” I kept my voice even so as not to alert him to how shaken I was.

“Thank gods, Kai. I was worried when I couldn’t get a hold of you. I almost went to the store, thinking you were lost in swarms of different-colored sleepers and onesies and all things baby.”

“I…” Start again, Kai. My voice was octaves higher than usual. “I was. Yes, indeedy.” What the fuck? Indeedy? I sounded like a character from an old-timey movie.

“Are you okay? You sound as though you’re in a tunnel.”

I cleared my throat. “I’m at home in bed.” Oops. Shouldn’t have said that. Since being pregnant, I’d taken day time naps on the sofa but not in the bedroom, using the excuse to Dante that I missed him when he wasn’t beside me.

“Kai, what are you not telling me?” The phone crackled, and a voice in the background asked my mate for a file.

“Nothing.” Did that make sense? I wasn’t telling him nothing. Not grammatically correct and a double negative… meaning that… I did have something to hide? My head hurt as I recalled my high school English teacher drumming rules into us. She’d be shaking her head if she could see me now.

“I’m coming home.”

“Dante, no!” But he hadn’t ended the call and was talking to a colleague, saying something about how he’d finish his current project this evening. “Dante, can you hear me? There’s no need to leave work early. I’m fine.”

My squeaky voice was anything but, and I dashed out of bed, checking myself in the mirror. Pale, tear-stained cheeks, hair sticking out at all angles after I’d run my fingers through it, eyes red from rubbing them and the skin on my nose raw from blowing it. Hardly the picture of health.

I threw water over my face, expecting to be greeted by a brand-new me when I checked the mirror. Instead, I was the same person but with droplets of water dribbling over my face and onto my paternity shirt.

What would Dante think when he saw me, and what possible explanation could I give my mate?