Page 5 of A Baby for the Beast (Beastverse #3)

Hayley

O h, I am in so much trouble. And, like, don't get me wrong, this is without a doubt the best trouble I think I've ever found myself in.

I'd be on cloud nine right this second if not for the fact that I can't just get into trouble or run around with alphas who want to get all growly and territorial after just meeting me because I have a whole baby that's going to be dependent on me in like two months.

Gone are the days of shacking up with an alpha for some fun and some orgasms. Now I'm going to be responsible.

For the most part. Which means no calling up the beast to see where he's staying tonight.

Nope. I'm driving straight home, well, as straight as I can when I'm going to have to stop at least twice to use the restroom.

Nothing good comes from me getting involved with him anyway.

If Remus has problems with the asshole sperm donor, then I'm going to get caught in the crossfire more than I already am.

There's a greater than zero percent chance that Kyle makes this whole signing-over-parental-rights thing harder than it needs to be now that he thinks it might affect his competition. And what hot competition he is.

It's one thing to know an alpha wants you, an alpha with a beast talking about scent-matching? That's easily the hottest thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life.

I wish my nose was working so I knew if Remus was just saying it to blow smoke up my ass.

I don't think he was, and he had the other guy, Jace, confirm it.

That seemed to embarrass the beast, so maybe he did scent me.

He didn't jump me and fuck the living daylights out of me as soon as it happened, though, and that's what has me unsure if he was telling the truth or just wanted to get his dick wet.

He didn't seem like that kind of guy. Then again, here I am, six months pregnant, because I'm not the best at picking them.

I turn the radio up to get myself out of my head. As fun as it is to be thinking about hot alphas fighting over me, the longer I think about it, the more I wonder if they're not both trying to use me.

Kyle, because he thinks Remus and his alpha want me, and Remus, because he knows I'm carrying Kyle's baby. I could be awkwardly in the middle of whatever beef they have with one another, and once their fight is over, they might both be bored with me.

I don't care about Kyle. he can kick rocks.

What I don't want is to fall for some other alpha who's out here telling me he scent matched me just to up and leave after his fight because I was a means to an end.

Yet, the more I think about it, the more I'm almost certain that's what's happening.

Remus didn't act like a male who scent matched his mate.

There's no way he's just interested in me because, again, I'm six months pregnant with a baby that isn't his.

"Why do I make such bad decisions?" I whine at the steering wheel.

I blame my omega genes. They've made me enjoy rough, dirty sex with beasts so much that now I'm in this predicament.

Ugh, and thinking about getting it rough and dirty has me thinking about Remus up in that ring with sweat dripping down his back.

I imagine myself on my knees, kissing down the hard line of his abs, indulging in the taste of him, the way his abs would flex as I dragged my tongue lower and–

"What the fuck was that?" I screech to no one in particular as my car makes a sound like I've just hit something when there was nothing on the road.

I pull over to the shoulder of the highway as I slam on my brakes.

Thankfully, there are barely any other cars out on the road.

But it's dark, and I hope nothing is wrong with my car.

Fingers crossed, the repetitive thunk, thunk sound coming from where I think the wheel is supposed to be is in my head.

I turn my hazards on, you know, safety first, and then check to make sure no one is going to hit me if I open my door. When the road looks clear, I open the door and wiggle myself out of the car. Something that's taking more and more effort the further along I am.

I joke to myself that by month nine, I won't be able to get out at all. It's a joke because I have to laugh at it, or I'll cry because I have no one to help me get out of the car.

"Please don't be a flat," I say as I turn on my phone's flashlight and round the front of my car to where I think I heard the sound that caused a little bit of pee to free itself from my body.

"Oh fuck me!" I shout into the night sky when I see the very obviously flat tire, mocking me in the spotlight from my phone.

Now that I've moved to the side of the road, it's eerily quiet.

Like no other soul on the highway, and nothing but weird wilderness off to the side.

The kind of overgrowth that's part of someone's land, but they don't do anything with it, so it just grows and grows.

In the dark, it turns into an actual nightmare because I don't think there are bears around here, but I don't know where all bears live, so there could be a bear in the overgrown woods watching me.

Okay, and that's enough freaking myself out.

I open the passenger side door and slide inside.

I'd much rather have to wiggle out on this side, where I'm not in danger of someone hitting me if I move too slowly.

Now, I just have to figure out who can save me from getting eaten by a bear.

Oh, god, what if I have to stay in my car all night? Will it even stay on that long?

I open my phone and go through my contacts. It's Friday night, which means no one from the bar will be able to get me. They're either all working or all out partying. I had to give up a shift tonight, which would've been good money.

Mom and Dad live two hours in the opposite direction of the city I'm coming from, which means it'll be four hours before they'd even get here, and it'd be the middle of the night. I'd hate to have to do that to them.

I scroll over a name I don't recognize for a second.

Lucas. Is it a dick move to get the alpha who maybe possibly actually has the hots for me to fix a flat tire?

If he's not interested in me and only pretending to be interested in me to get at Kyle before their fight, he'll likely come up with an excuse not to help me, right?

This can be like a test to see if he's really into me.

I click the call button before I can tell myself this is a terrible way to judge anyone's character, because who in their right mind would want to do manual labor for someone they just met? I don't even know what he was doing after his fight or if he was headed in the same direction as me.

"Lucas," he says, his tone different from the low, growling voice I heard earlier, which makes sense if the alpha's in control and not Remus.

"Hi," I say lamely. "This is Hayley. I don't know if you remember me." He better fucking remember me. He gave me his number twenty minutes ago. "But–"

" Omega? "

And the growly one is back, along with the ratty-sounding rumble of his purr.

An alpha who doesn't even know how to purr should be a giant red flag, but my rose-tinted glasses are doing some heavy lifting because some part of me thinks it's kind of sweet how terrible it sounds.

After all, it means he's using something he rarely uses, and he's used it on me nonstop. That has to mean something, right?

"Yeah, the omega." I chuckle, trying to figure out how to ask him to rescue me without sounding every bit like the damsel in distress I currently am.

" What's wrong? Where are you? " Remus asks, somehow already knowing that something is the matter even though, for all he knows, I could've been calling for a booty call already.

I sniffle, cursing myself for crying so easily and for this being what I'm about to cry about. He sounds genuinely worried, and my crying won't make that any better. Damn, what if he actually likes me, though? I clear my throat, hoping I don't sound as close to sobbing as I feel.

"I have a flat tire, and I don't know where I am, and there are bears, or at least I don't know if there are not bears." Oh, I'm such a hot mess.

" Okay, it's okay, there aren't any bears here, " Remus tells me, and I sniffle again, at least appreciating that I now know I'm not going to be eaten by a bear tonight. " Can you send me a pin of your location? We're on seventy-five heading south, but we'll get to you as soon as we can. "

My brows furrow as I pull up my location to send his number. "I think I'm heading south on seventy-five, too."

" Then we'll get to you even sooner. " Remus pauses. When he speaks again, his voice is further away. " I got your location. We were right behind you, baby. We'll be there in a couple of minutes. "

I whimper at the pet name slipping so easily from his lips and then curl my toes in my shoes because I shouldn't be that easy to win over.

A single baby, a lousy purr, and I'm falling head over heels.

It's a miracle I haven't been bitten and claimed by some jackass already because my standards are in the gutter.

" Are you hurt? " Remus's care for my well-being would be sweet if it weren't for the snort that comes through the other end, telling me he put me on speaker phone when he got my location, so he wasn't the only one in his car to hear the needy little whimper I just let out.

"That omega is not hurt," a familiar voice, Jace, the other alpha with him, jokes.

Remus huffs on the other side of the phone instead of saying anything else. I'm not about to confirm that I'm not hurt either because I don't trust my voice right now. Will I be weepy? Will I be horny? Who knows? Not me.