Page 35 of Hunted Temptation (Alpha Nights: Unlikely Heroes #4)

HALE

Reluctantly, I leave Marlowe when Lucille knocks on the door and I hear a crying Stellan on the other side. He’s probably hungry. There’s no way he’s tired since I think he’s slept longer here, in Lucille’s arms, than he ever has.

I open the door and smile down at Lucille, lifting my hand and placing my palm against Stellan’s back. I rub a few circles there before I lower my chin and touch my lips to the side of his head.

“Be good for mama,” I murmur.

“Wanna tell me what happened?” Lucille whispers.

Shaking my head, I look back at Marlowe, who is watching silently with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Not mine to tell,” I state before my hand falls from Stellan’s back, and I walk past her, heading straight for Theron’s office.

I knock on the door, waiting about five seconds for Theron to call out my name. He does, just as I’m opening the door. I was going in whether he called out my name or not.

“What’s wrong?” he demands.

Sinking down in the chair across from his desk, I lean forward and place my forearms on my knees as I lift my gaze up to meet his. “Her baby daddy violated her. Then he had the balls to call me and demand Stellan.”

That’s the best way I can describe this situation. Theron’s eyes widen as he sits back in his chair. His gaze searches mine before he brings his hands up, pressing his fingers together in front of his mouth.

When he lowers his hands, he lets out a heavy sigh. “He called your cell?”

“He called my cell from an unknown number. I don’t have any information on him other than his first name and that he’s Myla’s boyfriend’s boss.”

“Which means he could run the whole area, have a whole team of roaches beneath him.”

Dipping my chin in a single nod, I clear my throat. “Yeah, he could. I don’t know if he’s found her, but Nights isn’t that big. She might be at the safe house, but that doesn’t mean he won’t find us at some point.”

“And he wants his son, because he’s one of those pricks who doesn’t give a fuck about the kid, only the fact that he’s got his blood running through his veins.”

“Pretty much,” I snap. “He can’t have him.”

“I would think fucking not,” Theron growls. “How are you going to fix this?”

“Kill him?” I ask.

Theron smirks and shakes his head. “I like that option, but it’s going to send those roaches our way.”

“Then what?”

He stands from his chair and walks around his desk and to the window to look down at the sidewalk before he turns to face me. His eyes find mine, and I can tell that something is working inside his head. He doesn’t tell me what he’s thinking immediately.

“How do you really feel about her, about Marlowe and Stellan?”

“They’re mine,” I state.

“Then make them yours. Both of them.”

I know exactly what he means.

Marry her. Give Stellan my last name.

Keep them forever.

MARLOWE

Lucille bounces Stellan while I make his bottle, formula number six that we’ve been trying. None of which has changed anything about his crying and complete upset, but I’ll keep trying until there is nothing left to try.

Once the bottle is made, Lucille hands over a crying Stellan, who is starving.

The moment he sees the bottle coming toward his mouth, he lets out a coo, then his lips part wide for his milk.

I smile at the sight of him right before Lucille rolls an office chair behind me, and I sink down into the cushion.

“What the hell happened?” she asks in a whisper. “It’s just us still. Nadine is running late this morning. She had an appointment before work.”

“Stellan’s father found us. He called Hale’s cell,” I confess.

I don’t know if I should be telling her any of this or not, but I decide there’s nothing to hide. They know that Stellan isn’t Hale’s. They know I’m essentially hiding out, because even if Hale and I didn’t plan that, it’s what inevitably happened.

“Is he dangerous?”

“He is,” I confess.

“He wasn’t your boyfriend, was he?”

I don’t ask her how she knows that. It’s probably clearly written all over my face.

I hate Dorian with every fiber of my being.

He is evil. Completely and totally fucking evil.

Hale isn’t wrong when he says that he needs to die.

I’m sure my life would be easier if he did, but I can’t imagine what his soldiers would do if they suspected us.

“He wasn’t my boyfriend.”

She hums, but thankfully doesn’t ask me any more details. She stands and quietly walks out of the room. I should probably find it odd, but I don’t know her. Maybe she had something she needed to do. Maybe that work she hasn’t done all morning. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.

Closing my eyes, I lean back in the office chair and feed my baby, enjoying the silence. I love holding my son and feeding him. I want to do this forever. I wish he could stay this little forever and sleep.

Please God, that sleeping part.

“Sweetheart?” Hale murmurs.

Opening my eyes, I turn my head and look over at him. He’s standing in the doorway, leaning one shoulder against the jamb, his legs crossed at the ankles as he watches me from across the small room.

“Hey,” I exhale.

“You good?”

I could ask him the same thing, but I don’t. Instead, I just give him a bigger smile. I don’t know how else to say it. To express my happiness and fear all balled into one. Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I nod my head once. I’m not sure if I can verbalize how I’m really feeling.

“I have a plan.”

I suck in a breath and let it out slowly. “You have a plan?”

“I could kill Dorian. I still might, but I don’t think that would solve our problem.”

It wouldn’t. I don’t know if anything could truly solve my problem. A man took advantage of me, forced himself on me, and I had his baby. A baby who he thinks he has some kind of right to. I don’t owe him shit. Not a single thing. Stellan is mine. He will never be Dorian’s.

Not ever.

Over my dead body.

“Then what would solve it?” I ask.

His lips twitch into a smirk. “Marry me and let me sign a voluntary paternity acknowledgment form.”

“A what?” I exhale.

He smirks and pushes off the wall, then walks over to the table across from me and leans against it before he speaks. “You didn’t put a father’s name on Stellan’s birth certificate, did you?” he asks.

“I didn’t,” I whisper.

His smile grows. “I didn’t think so,” he says. “If you fill out that form, you can name me as the father.”

“No DNA test?”

I shake my head. “No DNA test. And I love Stellan. He’s mine. You’re mine.”

“But marriage?” My heart is racing, slamming against my chest.

He pushes off the table, then closes the distance between us before he crouches down in front of me. I feel his hands grip my thighs, his gaze focused on mine, never leaving. I try to keep from panting but fail.

“Marriage,” he confirms. “Be my wife. Move into my home. Let me be Stellan’s father and take care of both of you until the day I die.”

I don’t know what to say. I want to scream yes, but at the same time, I’m scared to death that this could be the biggest mistake of my life.

This is either going to work out better than I could have ever dreamed, or I’m going to fail, and we’ll be entirely destitute. But as long as it’s me and Stellan, together, I know I can do anything. I will do anything for him.

Although I’m not sure what the alternative is going to be. I’m pretty sure destitute is going to be what I’ll be if this marriage doesn’t work out. It’s pretty much just thrive or fail, nothing in between.

I’m sure I should ask more questions, but since I didn’t ask any when I agreed to move in with him, I take that same approach now and jump into this with both feet. I don’t know why Hale wanted to give me a place to live, let alone take care of a newborn.

I don’t know why he would pay all our bills, support us both mentally and physically, as well as emotionally.

I don’t know why any of this has happened or why he would adopt Stellan, why he would want us.

I don’t know a lot of things, but one thing I do know is that I’m going to continue to trust him.

I’ve never felt safe in my life other than the months I’ve spent with Hale.

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”