5. Kai

Dante burst through the front door earlier than I expected, catching me by surprise.

I’d planned to be in the living room, flicking through a magazine or watching TV when he arrived. He must have run from the subway.

I struggled to get out of bed, but my feet got tangled in the sheets, and I cursed, hoping the baby didn’t hear me.

“Stay where you are.” Dante collapsed on his knees beside the bed and took both my hands. “I was so worried when you didn’t answer.”

I shrugged and avoided his eyes. Since we’d mated, he’d had an uncanny ability to read behind my gaze. He’d suss out that I was fibbing if he looked into my eyes.

“You know me and anything baby. I lost track of time surrounded by clothes and equipment.” I hoped he was buying it and wouldn’t pester me for more details.

“Did you lose your sense of hearing?” He picked up my phone and waved it in front of me.

I giggled, or tried to. It sounded as though I was gagging. “All things baby involve sight and touch. Maybe smell, too.” That would change once our little one arrived, but in the months I’d been carrying the baby, the colors and textures of the clothing was paramount.

“Nope.” He lifted my chin, and I couldn’t avoid his piercing gaze. “You have to come up with a better story than that. Preferably, the truth.”

Hunching my shoulders, I let the tears flow because I was about to destroy the man who was my everything. I adored him, and when I told him about the stalker’s intoxicating scent, my explanation would rip out his heart and stomp on it. This man saved me when everything was torn away. But most importantly, he was my one and only, the father of our child, the one alpha in this world or any other who was my mate.

How could I tell him I’d been attracted to another alpha’s scent? I couldn’t. But I also couldn’t think of a plausible excuse.

“Is the baby healthy?” He cupped my belly.

I nodded. My lips pressed together as I kept the truth prisoner inside me.

“Then tell me. No matter how bad it is, my love for you won’t waver.”

How wrong he was.

“There was a stalker.” The words gushed out of my mouth without permission.

Dante glanced at the window. “That’s why it’s so dark in here and there was a chair against the door. I wasn’t certain of its purpose.”

Maybe if I could convince my mate my confusion was due to an overexcited fan, we could get past this without me spilling all the details and losing Dante in the process.

I rested my tear-stained face on his chest. The familiar pattern of his heartbeat reassured me we were going to be okay and that I wasn’t about to become a single dad.

“But there’s more.” He wrapped his arms around me, my baby bump rubbing against his belly.

Damn my mate and his ability to wring information out of me. I was staying strong and refusing to admit the truth.

“What was so special or different about this fan? Did he touch you? Was he someone from the before time?” He leaned back, searching my eyes, his wolf at the forefront of his gaze.

Oh gods, my news would devastate my mate and his beast. They’d fall like pins at a bowling alley.

“He smelled kinda different.” Either Dante would think the guy never bathed or… or he’d pick up that my distress was woven in with… something else. Lust, maybe?

“Good different?”

Damn that alpha and his ability to ferret out secrets.

“Maybe.” I fiddled with his shirt button, undoing it and buttoning it again.

“Kai?”

My eyes welled with tears as I pictured the life we’d built together being snatched away and a door slamming in my face.

“His scent was… alluring.” I counted the seconds until my mate replied. One, two, three.

“That’s not so bad.”

My shoulders trembled as sobs wracked my body, and I clawed at Dante’s shirt. “Yes, it is. You are my mate, the love of my life. No one can come between us.”

I followed Dante’s gaze to my bump, and he giggled. “You sure about that?”

“Stop making light of this.” I smacked his arm, grateful for the distraction but understanding I couldn’t back out and avoid the truth. I had to be looking at Dante when I told him everything and witness the hurt and pain in his eyes, the result of what I’d done to him. “He said I was his mate.”

“Okay. Is that it?”

There must’ve been something wrong with my mate’s hearing. I just dropped a truth bomb in his lap, and he was acting like everything was hunky dory. I was tempted to shake him but held back.

“What do you mean by is that it? A stranger wants to be with me, to break us up, to ruin the life we’ve built together, and you just shrug it off?” Now I was mad at Dante for not being angry. What was wrong with me?

“Kai, it’s possible to have more than one mate.”

“No.” I pushed back at what he was telling me, that the family we had created was broken and the love we shared was nothing special. “I am your mate. You told me I was the only person in this world or any other for you.” I was talking through sobs and hiccups.

“True. But omegas are different here in Tarrin. It’s possible for an omega to have more than one mate.”

No way was I agreeing to be shared like an old-fashioned harem in the human world with husband number one, ten, and a hundred and fifty juggling for a night with the alpha.

“I am a one-mate omega. No one will ever replace you in my affection.”

Dante took me in his arms. “We’ll see.”