Page 20 of The Alpha’s Rejected Arranged Mate (Bluebell Valley Wolves #3)

Elin’s lips grew cold and still. Finn opened his eyes, shocked at the sudden change. Her eyes were closed, her breathing coming more rapidly. Wisps of red aura filtered around her, growing stronger. His heart slammed, and his wolf howled in his chest. Was this Dukiel reaching out to take her as his host?

For half a beat, Finn was frozen, his fear overwhelming him. He couldn’t lose her! He couldn’t—

The wisps grew stronger, starting to glow. The sort of influence that he’d seen around countless people. But this wasn’t possession. The light was concentrated around her head rather than evenly distributing itself around her.

His wolf howled, and Finn sprang into action. He leaped at his desk and grabbed a sharpie. Whirling back, he popped the top and grabbed Elin’s arms. Hastily, he scrawled protective symbols down her arm before moving to the next. That wasn’t enough to dispel the demon's influence, so he tugged up her shirt and drew more on her belly. The demon light tried to creep down her body, but it seemed like it was stuck. He put three more symbols on her, one on her forehead and one on each cheek.

Elin opened her eyes. “Finn…”

He swept her in his arms. Elin let out a yelp and threw an arm around his neck to help stabilize herself. Finn carried her down the stairs and burst into the kitchen. Carefully, he lowered her to one of the chairs before he searched in the cupboards. Finally, he found the salt and sprinkled a little in her hair.

“Ack!” she yelped.

Finn dumped out the rest in a circle around her. The demon light disappeared, the wisps trailing off before they disappeared in tiny puffs of red smoke. The two of them stared at each other, Finn panting and Elin glancing at the protective symbols he’d drawn on her.

“It’s bad that the first thing I think of is that this is going to be hard to wash off, isn’t it?” Elin asked finally, breaking the silence.

“Why would you want to wash it off?” Finn demanded, leaning against the table.

Elin’s cheeks went pink. “Er… because I don’t like tattoos.”

Finn sank into a chair, staring at her incredulously.

She shivered and reached for his hands. “Thank you. I’ll get it all tattooed permanently on my body if it means I don’t… Finn, we were right. He wants the baby. He told me.”

A shudder ran down Finn’s spine. His wolf growled. “What do you mean, he told you?”

“I heard him speaking in my mind,” Elin whispered. She shivered again. “It sounded so dark. Like… like as though the night had a voice. No… worse. Nighttime brings peace and rest… this was as though I was standing in the middle of a battlefield.”

“What did he say?” Finn asked, fighting to keep his voice level.

“First, he just sort of laughed and said I wasn’t safe from him, and neither was my son,” Elin murmured. “He said that he could hear me even as protected as I thought I was. And it must be true because he said I was right… that he was going to make my baby.”

Her arms tightened protectively around her belly. Finn wanted to reach out to her but found he couldn’t make himself. Could she believe it was genuine when he’d made it clear that he wished she wouldn’t take the risk to bring the pregnancy to full term? But this was something else entirely. He wanted to protect her…

And he wanted to protect their child, too. How could he explain to her that if Dukiel were going to take the baby as a host, it would be kinder to end his life before that could happen?

I’d kill myself first. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only option, right? There’s got to be ways to protect both of them!

“I called on the Moon Goddess’s protection, and he laughed,” Elin continued, her gaze unfocused. “He said demons caught and trapped the Moon Goddess long ago. If she had any power, she would have stopped them. They wouldn’t have been able to bind her in the first place.”

“He’s just trying to break your spirit,” Finn said at once.

Truthfully, he wasn’t sure the Moon Goddess had ever existed. If she did, how did they live in a society where she-wolves were rarely Alphas? If there was a goddess who controlled their fates, why would she let men rule over the women she made in her own image? It didn’t make any sense.

But maybe Dukiel was telling the truth. Perhaps the demons had defeated the goddess if she’d ever been real.

Elin’s gaze focused on him. “Finn, he said he was going to take the host as soon as he’s born. He’s just waiting for me to give birth before he steals my baby’s life. We can’t let him. Please. Please tell me you’ll find a way to stop him.”

She reached for him, tears swelling in her eyes. The moisture darkened her irises, making the deep chocolate brown almost black. With the dark circles under her eyes, it made her look dangerously frail. Suddenly, he regretted every night he’d spent away from her. How could he soothe her nightmares if he didn’t know she’d been having nightmares? He should have been with her.

Finn scooted closer so he could wrap his arms around her while not pulling her out of the salt circle. His mind raced. How did they stop an archdemon from possessing a body? Performing the exorcism ritual and trapping him would be one way. Maybe he could find a way to do it when they attacked his palace.

“Maybe surgery is possible,” Elin murmured into his shoulder. “Humans perform prenatal surgery on babies sometimes, right? When they have health problems? Maybe Christine can perform surgery. Maybe she can implant a talisman in him before he’s born. That will protect him.”

Finn nodded. “That’s an excellent idea. I’ll talk to her about it.”

“No. No, that’s not your responsibility.” Elin pulled away slightly.

His arms ached to bring her closer again.

She wiped tears from her eyes and gave him a trembling smile. “You have plenty on your plate already. I’ll talk to Christine. We’ll come up with a plan to increase the protections around me so that my baby will be safe even after Dukiel isn’t blocked by the talismans in my body.”

Finn cupped her face, her dear face. She’d lost more weight, making his heart clench. She was still beautiful—would always be beautiful—but the way her skin was looser on her bones and the bags under her circles seemed to sag made him realize just how much this was taking out of her. He was glad that she’d started off with a curvier figure, so she’d had the stores of fat needed to see her through this.

Unlike Beth, who was thin even before she became pregnant. She’d always been thin, Rosemary had told him. They’d always worried about her being underweight. Beth went into pregnancy, frail and sick already. Elin was strong, and she would stay strong.

“I will protect you and our baby,” Finn murmured. He rested his hand on her belly. “And you fight. You fight against that bastard, and you fight to keep yourself strong. We are going to have a wonderful life together. You’re not going back to Bluebell Valley. You’re staying here. I’ll be Alpha, and you’ll be my Luna. We’ll revitalize the Moon Lake economy. We’ll make sure it’s safe, and we’ll establish schools and send the younger generation to college.”

Elin started to smile as he spoke.

“And even though this will be our only biological child, we’ll adopt,” Finn continued, pressing his hand a little tighter to her stomach. “Four, five, a dozen. We’ll have more kids around here than we’ll know what to do with. You’re going to be a wonderful mother, and I will be the father and mate you need me to be. It’s going to be wonderful.”

Elin smiled at him, causing the protective symbols on her cheeks to warp strangely. “Thank you, Finn.”

“It’s going to be a wonderful life,” he said.

She shook her head slowly, her eyes never leaving his. “No, you misunderstand. Thank you for your pretty words. It shows me that you care, even if you don’t mean them.”

His mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“I know you don’t mean it because you don’t want it. And that’s okay. Because knowing that you care enough to pretend, even if it’s only for a little bit…” She cupped his cheek in her hand. “Thank you.”

A flood of emotions washed through Finn. He hated that he couldn’t tell her she was wrong, that maybe he did want all of that. Maybe he could work through his own fears to give her everything she dreamed of. But his wolf was howling again. Pain and fear flashed through him as he thought about arguing with her.

It was hard to know what to say when he didn’t even know how he felt.

“Just hold on, okay?” he finally managed. “I don’t want you to give up. I want you to keep fighting. He’ll be back. And I need you to fight him. Don’t let him get under your skin. Whatever he says, it won’t be true. Even when it sounds like truth.”

Elin kept a straight face as she asked, “So if he says the sky is blue, don’t believe him?”

“Exactly,” Finn said fervently. He pressed his forehead to hers. “Because he’s nothing.”

As he sat there, their foreheads touching and breathing the same air, he realized that the image he’d painted with his words wasn’t just a fantasy he’d woven to comfort Elin. He wanted it, too. He wanted her to stay at his side as his mate. He wanted to hold her, to be a man worthy of her. He wanted to have a family and be a father.

His heart ached. He wanted it more than anything… except one thing.

What he wanted most in this world was for Elin to be safe. And he wasn’t sure that he could have both.