Page 58 of Half Wolf Mate
His eyebrows elevated. “I’m listening.”
“You don’t have to hold me hostage to draw out Benjamin. I’ll happily help you if you do something for me in return.”
Adam folded his arms over his chest. “He might be your father. You understand that I intend to kill him, right?”
I frowned. Helping to lure a man to his death didn’t sit well with me, but if he really killed our mother…screw him. Besides, I doubted Benjamin was my father. Adam had that part wrong.
“I understand perfectly,” I said.
“In that case, what can I do for you?”
“Help me get out of New Orleans.”
The room became quiet as we stared at each other.
“After I help you find who you’re looking for, of course,” I added. “Although I doubt I’ll be of any help.”
“Why do you want to leave?”
There was a likely chance that Adam was my half-brother. We may be strangers, and he may not be excited about the idea of another sibling, but what the hell? I’d confide in him. He’d have to do it since I didn’t speak with Macy or Violet as much. They’d been going on with their lives while I sat in Cole’s apartment for months.
“Leaving will be the best thing I can do for Cole,” I revealed. “The guys who attacked me near his apartment were his own people. His pack is turning against him because of me, and I doubt Cole has any idea. He’s going to suffer for helping me.” I raked my fingers through my hair and fought the ball of emotion trying to surface. “Not just him but everyone else who has helped me. I have to save my friends from…me.”
Adam frowned. “Are you certain?”
“Positive. My attackers got cocky and spilled a lot of information. I guess they thought they could share since they were going to kill me. The elders and other members of the Moon Guardians are plotting against their Alpha, and it’s all my fault. I have to leave.”
“I get where you’re coming from, Sydney, but are you sure you want to skip town in your condition?”
I gawked at Adam. “My condition? It’s a wounded leg, Adam. I’ll get over it.”
He regarded me with bewilderment. “I don’t mean the leg. I’m talking about the same reason why I was reluctant to give you anything for the pain when I carried you here.”
Still, I stared at him blankly.
“Look, I don’t like Cole Grayson, but even I have to admit what you want to do is messed up.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You want to skip town with the man’s baby?” Adam shook his head. “Now that it is truly a dick move, Sydney.”
My jaw dropped. I struggled to process Adam’s claim. “Excuse me? What baby?”
Adam’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit. You didn’t know?” He rubbed his jaw and watched me guiltily. “I didn’t mean to beat you to the punch. I assumed you knew you were pregnant.”
“P-pregnant? How do you even…” My hand dropped to my stomach as I went over the last few weeks. My cycle had always been irregular, so I thought nothing of it when I didn’t see my period. The few days I felt ill, I passed it off as anxiety caused by uncertainty about my future. I constantly wondered when my life would get back to a semblance of normalcy.
Cole and I didn’t use protection when we were together. The few times were always so spontaneous and passion-fueled that we didn’t even think to be responsible. “Oh, God. What am I going to do?”
The question wasn’t really for Adam, but he answered. “You mean, what are you and Cole going to do? I have no experience with mates or babies, but I’m pretty sure this is something you deal with together.”
The thought of having a child without a stable partner had me terrified. Cole wouldn’t even claim me as his mate. There was no way he’d welcome a child with me. However, I was never one to take the coward’s way out. I had to at least tell him about the baby. I’d see how he reacted before I went further with my plan to leave New Orleans.
“You’re right,” I told Adam. “That’s why you have to take me back. I have to tell Cole.” Not just about the baby but about everything I’d found out about his pack.
“How on earth didn’t Cole detect your pregnancy? When I brought you back here, the moment I started cleaning your wound I smelled that there was something different about you.”
I rolled my eyes. “It annoys me when you guys do that. A girl has absolutely no privacy,” I grumbled.