“I—I don’t know.” He thought back, trying to remember.
“Wake up, son. Seems like you’ve been so busy with your Unseelie problem that you’ve been blind to what’s most important.”
Kalen blinked at the man. “You must be mistaken. She wouldn’t keep something like that from me.” Would she?
“Actually, Dad, I was waiting for the right time to talk to him,” Mac said, her voice tight with stress and irritation. “So thanks for bulldozing right over me.”
“Shit! I’m sorry, baby girl,” he said contritely.
Kalen felt like his head was going to explode. He rubbed his temples, staring at his mate. “You’re pregnant.”
“Yes.” Her blue eyes were clouded with worry. “I was going to tell you. There just hasn’t been a good time.”
Some thread of knowledge was trying to come to the forefront, but he hadn’t grasped it yet. He was still too busy assimilating the facts to think about how excited he was over the news. “How long have you known?”
Her face paled and she licked her lips. “A few days.”
A few days. Okay. He processed that and the unwanted information slowly dawned. She wouldn’t have—but yeah. She fucking had. A hot flare of anger ignited inside him and built rapidly toward something very, very ugly.
“You knew,” he said in a deceptively low voice that quickly ramped up in volume. “You sent me out to battle with the pendant around my neck. The pendant that should have been protecting not only you but our child.”
The general frowned. “What pendant?”
“The one she’s wearing that protects against evil. I gave it to her, but she took it off when we went into battle against some Sluagh and begged me to wear it.”
“Mac,” her father began, “what were you thinking?”
“I can explain!” Her eyes filled with tears as she fingered the disk in question. “It seemed safe for me and the baby here, and I didn’t want anything to happen to you!”
But Kalen’s rage was far from averted. “You chose to protect me over our baby? How the fuck could you?” he roared. He hadn’t even realized he’d taken a giant step toward her until Grant was between them, a palm on his chest, holding him back.
“Okay, let’s all calm down.”
“I’m sorry!” she cried. The tears broke free and rolled down her cheeks. But Kalen wasn’t swayed.
Malik pounced on the situation. Didn’t I warn you, my boy? Do you believe now that I’m the only one you can trust to tell you the truth?
“You endangered our child, Mackenzie,” he said hoarsely, grabbing his head in both hands. The pain of her betrayal was so great, it threatened to send his anger over the edge. “I don’t know if that’s something I can forgive.”
There’s something else she knows that you do not, Malik said, his voice sly and pleased. Ask her.
“What else are you keeping from me?”
Sobbing openly now, she shook her head in confusion. “What? Nothing!”
She lies. Come to me and I’ll forgive your betrayal. I’ll reveal the answer to the question you asked me not so long ago. The answer she refuses to give to you.
“You’re lying,” he hissed at her.
“Wait a damned minute,” Grant began, his face reddening in anger. “My girl wouldn’t lie to you. Maybe she made a mistake. But she only did that because she cares about you.”
A mistake that could have caused you to lose your child.
“I can’t—I have to get out of here before I say or do something I’ll regret.”
Spinning on his heel, he pushed out the door and summoned the rest of his clothing onto his body with a wave of his hand. His mate cried out his name, but he kept going. Faster and faster until he was running, nearly barreling into Ryon as he rounded the corner at the end of the corridor.
“Hey, dude, where’s the fire?”
He kept going. But the facts chased him anyway, dogging his steps. His mate had endangered their baby. Sure, the wards over the compound meant that the child was probably safe. Probably. But nothing was ever one hundred percent. She’d gambled with a defenseless child’s life.
That’s right. She refused to protect your child. Just like your mother refused to protect you.
His anger and shock were much too hard to contain. His shift happened almost without conscious thought and his panther was set free. Streaking through the compound toward the rec room, he was hardly aware of the surprised shouts. A teammate calling after him, asking what was wrong. If he could’ve laughed, he would’ve.
What was right?
He bolted through the rec room, leaping and easily clearing A.J. and Kira, who were sprawled on the carpet watching television. He ran straight for the outside door—and right through the glass, which shattered on impact. Alarms blared. Somebody would have to fix that. He didn’t give a fuck.
There was no pain from any possible injury. Only pain inside that had no outlet.
He ran through the forest for a long while, moving in the direction of Malik’s cabin. The place that was nothing more than an illusion, filled with wickedness. So wrong. But he needed to know what the damned Unseelie was talking about. Was his mate really keeping something else from him, or was it a trick? If she was, he might not be able to forgive her.
But didn’t everyone deserve another shot? What if nobody had been willing to give him a chance when he arrived in Cody? What if Nick and the Pack had turned him out? They could have at any point in the last few weeks, when it had become obvious Kalen came with a battleship full of trouble. If they had, where would he be now?
Right where he was currently headed. Of that much he was suddenly sure. Malik would have simply lured him in sooner. In an epiphany, it struck him that Malik was, almost without a single doubt, the one responsible for bringing Kalen to the Shoshone in the first place. Until now, he’d always chalked it up to fate that he’d ended up here.
Now he knew better.
The rustic cabin came into view and he slowed, trotting into the yard. The front door opened before he even reached the porch, Malik standing there in his guise as Kerrigan, looking as handsome and urbane as ever.
“You could have teleported,” the Unseelie observed with impatience. “I don’t appreciate being kept waiting.”
Letting his magic flow, he shifted back into human form. “Tough shit. I’m here now, aren’t I?”