Rejected and Pregnant by the Alpha King (Forbidden Alpha Kings #4)

47. Raine

47

Raine

Pissing Nyx off is the last thing I ever expected to do.

For the past few weeks, he’s been systematically avoiding me, and while it isn’t so obvious to the people around us, it most certainly is for me. Now, it’s not like I’m used to Nyx blending himself into every facet of my life, but his sudden staunch absence from it is getting to be too noticeable.

Even if Rose thinks I’m crazy.

“He’s a busy alpha, Raine. What do you expect?” she says on our walk through the human town closest to Soleus. She readjusts a few bags looped over her arm. “Besides, isn’t it kind of nice not having a pack alpha breathing down your neck?”

While my first instinct is to tell her that, yes, it is, considering the kind of situation I come from, I’m not exactly in the same boat now as I was back in Andromeda.

Sure, I have freedom here now to do most things, like follow Rose into town to shop with her while she avoids going on a patrol run with her squad. Except that doesn’t make up for the weird want I have to see Nyx.

He’s gone before I get up in the mornings and isn’t back until I’m well in bed. Looking at it from an outsider’s perspective like Rose, I can see how she would see this as normal. Nyx is in fact a busy alpha—a king, no less—so of course he wouldn’t be sticking around to simply hang out with me.

Except for one thing: before all of this, he was constantly seeking me out, whether consciously or subconsciously.

And now he isn’t.

The only logical reason for that was if I pissed him off so badly that he’s taking the time away from me— avoiding me— in order to cool off. But how long is that going to take? Sure, he is under no obligation to talk to me until the baby arrives, and even after that it isn’t exactly necessary.

How am I going to properly apologize to him if he doesn’t fucking let me?

Day by day my frustration is growing into agitation. Soon I’ll be full-blown pissed. Blame it on the hormones or whatever, it doesn’t really matter.

Maybe I’m coming at this all wrong. The trick to getting an alpha to pay attention to you isn’t by demanding their attention, especially one like Nyx who seems to come and go as he pleases. I’ll need to be more cunning than that—trick him into talking to me so that I can actually apologize to him and get him to stop avoiding me.

He is kind of my only life raft in this godforsaken ocean of new beginnings.

“Hey, Rose.”

She turns to me just as we’re passing a small bodega. “What? You want to go in?”

“No…you wouldn’t happen to know what Nyx’s favorite food is, would you?”

***

The key to a male’s heart is through his stomach, right? And what better way to get Nyx to forgive me for tricking him into talking to me than by making his favorite meal and presenting it to him right before he reams me for doing what I’m about to?

Walking through the woods at night with a pack strapped to my back is stupid on too many levels to count, more so than I’m usually allotted.

The problem is that I have no other options. Being new to this pack, and technically the property of the alpha king, give me a certain kind of detachment from the rest of the pack that I can’t exactly use to my advantage.

Everyone tends to treat me as a delicate flower, one that if touched, would get them punished. Involving anyone in my dumbass scheme is the last thing I want to do anyway, considering this issue is between Nyx and me and no one else.

Thankfully, my memory of the trails around here is pretty good and soon I find myself at the same watering hole that Rose showed me late last week. With the overgrown vegetation around the bank, which made it hard to really see where the trail leading up to the old woman’s house is.

Since she’s human, she won’t be able to see me coming—another blessing in disguise when I finally find the beaten path and make my way up it and through the brush.

There’s not actually any way for me to know if Nyx will find me. My only hope is that when he comes home for the night, he’ll realize I’m not in my room and come searching for me. That, or he’ll pick up my scent way out here when on patrol.

If…he’s even on patrol in the first place.

This is such a stupid idea…

Sighing, I stop just as I reach the woman’s old, worn cottage.

Turning back would be wise. In fact, if I did so now, I probably wouldn’t be caught by anyone on my way back into the pack. The late hour almost certainly guarantees me that, at least.

The sound of something snapping behind me has my hackles rising, a low growl rumbling up from my throat as I spin around. Even with my night vision, I don’t see anything moving. Not a leaf, not even dirt kicking up from the path.

Probably just an animal passing by, then.

No need to actually be worried.

Breathing out slowly, I turn back around and climb the two steps leading up to the old woman’s cottage. The worn floors creak quietly under me, causing me to freeze in place and listen for any sounds of her rousing inside of her home.

When I hear nothing, I relax and move over to the swing to take a seat, moving the pack off my back and resting it in my lap.

Now, we wait.