Page 24 of Her Bully Alpha (Honeycomb Valley Alphas #1)

I hummed to myself as I walked down the street. I had a pep in my step, unable to hide my happiness. Sam and I were both on the same path and we seemed to have a strong understanding of what each other wanted. It felt like our relationship was almost perfect.

I turned the corner and paused when I spotted Katie across the road. She had her head in a book as she walked, almost smacking into a tree but paused. She flipped the page in her book, took a step to the left and continued down the road. She missed the three almost like she knew it was there. I couldn't help but smile because it was just like Katie. Since becoming friends, I found her quirky and entertaining.

I thought of the few times I stopped at her lab. She was always in the middle of something, but happy to set it aside and chat. I never saw any of her coworkers, but I got the impression they didn't come around often. I was really the only person that visited her.

"Katie!" I called out her name and started to cross the street. Katie looked up from her book, and her eyes landed on me. She smiled.

"Sam, hi. What are you doing out here?"

I avoided a car as I continued across the road. "I was just leaving work. What are you doing? Also is it safe to be reading and walking at the same time? You almost hit that tree back there."

She looked back, taking in the tree, and then looked at me. "But I didn't."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Is the book that interesting?"

She looked at the book and then chuckled. "No, not to you probably. I was trying to look into something. With the news of girls dropping like flies, I've been trying to broaden my reading, and I'm running out of time in a day."

"Have you found anything?" I asked, pausing as I stopped next to her. I read the title of the book, finding they were big words.

Katie shook her head. "No. But I'm not giving up. I know I can find the answer. I have other books to read as well."

I looked around and scowled. "Shouldn't you have someone with you? All females are supposed to have someone with them at all times right now. That includes you, Katie."

She shrugged. "I'm fine. I don't have time to worry about that when I'm trying to find a cure. Besides, I'm not pregnant, and I don't have the virus."

I felt my stomach tense up. Katie was my friend, and I didn't want to imagine anything happening to her. She was the person looking for a cure, so she needed to be careful, probably more than everyone else.

"You are not untouchable, Katie. You need to heed the warning just like everyone else." I hooked my arms with her. "And you're lucky that I'm free. I can spend time with you until someone else is free to."

She snorted as we started down the road. "How have you been? Has work settled down for you?"

I nodded. "I have asked to have a little less work and told them when I would be taking my maternity leave. I think I'll take three months and make sure things are settled before returning to work."

Katie nodded. "A lot of women don't go back to work. Do you think you might change your mind later?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. I love what I do, and while I don't mind being a stay-at-home mom, I don't think that's my path at the moment."

I glanced at Kaie. "Do you think you could ever do it?"

"Be a stay-at-home mom?" Katie said with a quizzical expression.

I nodded. "Yeah, step away from being a scientist. Change your life when it's surrounded by something you love so much."

Katie smiled. "I've been around a lot of pregnant women, and most of them are very eager to be parents, but I did have this one woman who wasn't. And the best advice I could give was rather simple."

We paused at a red light as she turned to me. "When you have a baby, your entire world shifts, and your mind is never the same. Your body is never the same. It was designed to be a mother. You feeling this way is only natural."

I had thought about it at first. I knew a lot of people decided to do it, but I didn't want to step away from something I had worked so hard to achieve. I spent years getting where I was and didn't want to step away so easily.

I chewed on my lower lip. I knew people had been asking me more if I was going to return to work. If I had changed my mind at all about staying home. Jay hadn't asked, and I knew he would happily agree no matter what I said.

"But to answer your question, no. I would never be a stay-at-home mom. I wouldn't want my child to grow up and think I couldn't do it all." Katie stared ahead. "Being a scientist is a large part of who I am. And while I don't look down at women who are, I wonder if they miss who they used to be."

The light changed, and we started to cross the street. "But that isn't in my future. I'm a lot closer to buying a dildo and calling it my husband than I am to finding a man and marrying him."

I gave Katie a gentle chuckle. "I'm sure your future husband is just around the corner. I never expected that I was going to be here six months ago. If my past self saw me now, she would probably shit herself."

Katie laughed, nearly tripping over her feet. "My god, you paint a beautiful picture."

I smirked. "Says the woman that brought up dildos." I elbowed her. "You're a beautiful woman. You have someone out there. You just haven't met him yet."

She shook her head. "I doubt it, and with how busy I am right now, I'm okay with not having one. I can't have anything getting in the way of my work. I don't need a distraction."

We took a left turn, getting closer to her lab. I always shivered when I got close to the building. The building was large and without life. It reminded me of a prison cell. The inside wasn't any better; it was white everywhere you looked, and it smelled like cleaning supplies. The lights were extremely bright inside, and several security guards surveyed the area.

Katie always had a different reaction when she spotted the building. She said the lab was an extra home to her.

She smiled, a sparkle gleamed in her eyes, and she had a skip in her step as she grew closer.

"I will never understand how you get so excited to be here," I sighed, scanning the building over. "It's so…empty of life."

Katie laughed. "It's how I like it. And it's not empty of life. It's clean and organized. Everything has a place."

I gave her a look. "Your lab is just as terrible. It's white and empty."

Katie nodded. "It's sterile."

I snorted. "I think the correct word is uncharacteristic."

Katie laughed. "And your office is what exactly?"

"Warm and welcoming." Katie had stopped by one to invite me to lunch. So, she had seen my office, which was the opposite of her lab.

"I don't exactly get a choice in the matter of what my lab looks like, Sam."

"I know, but still. You should be able to hang up pictures. You could have a plant or add something in there that says it's your space."

Katie frowned. "I don't have many friends to take pictures with."

I scowled at that, wondering why. After I got to know Katie, I realized that she was intelligent and funny. She enjoyed rambling off information and got excited about the oddest things, but everyone had quirks. I didn't understand why people weren't friends with her.

"Well, we are friends, and we've taken pictures. Hang those. Just promise me I look good in them before you hang them."

Katie smiled softly. "You're probably the first person who would say we're friends."

I tilted my head. "What about Nessa and Kirk? You're friends with them, aren't you?"

She made a face and shook her head. "They hired me to make a birthing chart for them, not the same. They are nice to me because they need something from me, which is most people. I can't count those because they need me."

While I understood her point of view, that didn't mean you couldn't become good friends with someone because they needed you for work first.

"I think that's okay. I have some friends that were clients first. I got to know them because of work, but continued to hang out with them even after I was done."

We stopped at another light, and Katie slid her hands into her pockets. "I don't often have people staying in touch with me." She gave me a weak smile. "How are you and Jay getting along?"

I stared at her, wondering why she was changing the subject, but decided to move past it. While Katie and I were friends, it was still new, and it was okay if she wasn't ready to drop her life story at my feet.

"We're doing really well, actually." I couldn't help but smile thinking of the sex we'd been having. I couldn't get over how close I felt to him and how…normal it all seemed. It was like we'd been doing it for years rather than months.

"And?" Katie nodded her head to my stomach. When I told Katie about the pregnancy, I told her we hadn't shared this information with everyone yet. That it was still a bit of a secret.

"It's going well," I said, placing my hand on my stomach. "We're in a decent place right now. The baby is healthy, and everything is going smoothly."

Katie smiled. "Science doesn't lie. I told you that you guys were a perfect match."

I snorted at her and elbowed her in the side. "Oh, hush."

Katie laughed. "I'm just saying. Everyone questioned me, but I was right. Science does not lie."

I couldn't argue with her. I didn't understand how the science showed that Jay and I were meant to be together, but I could feel it. Jay had even expressed his pull to be near me, his urge to take me when he saw me.

"I know you're working on pairing up all the Alphas. Do you have the next couple set?" I asked.

Katie nodded her head. "I am, but I can't say who."

I chuckled as we got closer to her work just in front of the doors. "Do you want to come up for a little bit?"

I nodded, and Katie waved her badge in front of the door, pulling it open. I looked into the lights inside, and I wince, letting my eyes adjust.

But suddenly, I wasn't standing in the lab anymore. I was walking around in the woods, but I wasn't alone. Someone was watching me.

I was cooking dinner in the house, but someone was watching me from the window. I was leaving work in a hurry, but someone was watching me from another vehicle.

Fear grabbed at me as I realized each of these visions was me. These were all moments when I thought I was alone, but clearly, I wasn't because someone was watching me.

"Hello, Sammy," a dark voice growled in my head with a hint of laughter. "Did you like the little warnings I sent your way? I thought it was nice to let someone see them when they died."

I wanted to scream, but my body wouldn't move. I turned, looking around the darkness, not finding anyone.

"No?" he laughed a little louder. "Pity, I thought you would have."

I tried to break free, to pull myself back into my body, but I was frozen. I couldn't break free. It was like someone had chained me wherever I was.

Jay. I wanted to scream his name, scream for him to break me free.

"I was waiting for you to finally come to your true potential, Sammy. Waiting very patiently to get inside your head like this."

Stop. Who are you?

I turned, and a large man stood in front of me. The darkness faded away slightly. He had a scar across his left eye where his eye was missing. He was tall, and I could feel the magic emanate off of him in waves. He walked towards me, but I was still frozen. I couldn't step back or move away from him.

He smiled, and it sent a chill down my spine. "I'm just a man getting his revenge."

"I don't understand," I said, shaking my head. "What do you want with me?"

He chuckled again. "Just your power."

I didn't understand, and before I could even ask, pain radiated through my entire body, and I screamed.