Breeder To The Brutal Alpha King

​Rebecca’s POV

​Kaden didn’t say anything while I ate.

​Every few minutes, I caught him glancing in my direction before returning to whatever document was in front of him. I pretended not to notice. By the time I finished the last piece of toast, my stomach was full, and the tea had gone cold beside me.

​Apparently satisfied that I’d actually eaten, Kaden closed the file in front of him and pushed his chair back.

​He stood, walked around the enormous desk, and crossed the study toward me. Instead of sitting beside me, he lowered himself onto the leather sofa directly opposite mine, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, his dark green eyes holding mine with an intensity that made my pulse race.

​His expression had changed. The teasing softness I’d seen earlier was gone.

​”So,” he said quietly. ”How did it go?”

​I knew immediately what he meant.

​”Kane?”

​Kaden nodded.

​I placed my empty cup back onto the tray, wiping my mouth with a linen napkin. ”We argued.”

​His jaw tightened slightly. ”About last night?”

​”Not about us, if that’s what you’re asking. He doesn’t know we slept together. Most of our argument was just about his absence.”

​Something passed through Kaden’s face. Relief, followed almost immediately by guilt.

​”He’s barely been around lately, and I told him I was tired of it,” I continued.

​Kaden looked away.

​For some reason, he looked terrible. Even beneath his immaculate composure, there were faint shadows under his eyes, a sharp line of tension tightly drawing his jaw. I couldn’t tell whether it was guilt over betraying Kane, lack of sleep, or something else entirely.

​”Did you settle things?” he asked, his voice low and tight.

​”No,” I said, shaking my head.

​His eyes returned to mine. ”I’m sorry,” Kaden murmured, a heavy sigh escaping his chest as he looked down at his hands.

​”Don’t be.” I flatly shrugged, trying to sound unaffected. ”He’s not even here anyway.”

​”I know,” Kaden replied, his eyes lifting back to mine. ”He left early this morning.”

​I frowned. ”You know?”

​”Yes.”

​A humorless laugh escaped me. ”There you go.”

​Kaden’s face hardened. ”Did he tell you where he was going?”

​”No.”

​”Did you ask?”

​”Yes.”

​”And?”

​”He told me his personal matters weren’t my business.”

​Kaden’s jaw clenched.

​I could practically see his opinion of his brother getting worse by the second, which made guilt prick at me. Kane wasn’t exactly innocent. He was disappearing to see another woman, but that woman was his mate, and our relationship had never been real in the first place.

​Kaden didn’t know any of that. He thought I was some heartbroken pregnant woman being abandoned by the father of her child while secretly seeking comfort in his arms.

​The lies were becoming tangled.

​Kaden leaned back slowly, rubbing his hand across his jaw. Then his gaze dropped to my stomach, his eyes softening with a raw vulnerability that caught me completely off guard.

​”What about the baby?”

​My body stiffened. ”What about the baby?”

​He hesitated before speaking. ”Have you thought about what happens if you and Kane don’t fix things?”

​I looked down at my hands. ”What do you mean?”

​”If this isn’t temporary.” His voice became quieter. ”If Kane really has moved on with someone else, what are you planning to do?”

​My chest tightened, my stomach dropping into a cold, hard knot. The reminder of the baby, the fake identity, and the web of lies I was spinning felt like a crushing weight in my throat.

​”Kaden...”

​”I’m not trying to pressure you.” He leaned forward again. ”I’m asking because there’s a child involved now. You can’t spend the rest of your pregnancy wondering whether Kane is coming home.”

​”I’ll manage.”

​”That’s not what I asked.” His expression was deadly serious. ”Ruby... what do you plan to do about the baby?”

​”I don’t want to talk about this.”

​He fell silent. I expected him to push. Kaden was good at pushing until he got whatever answer he wanted.

​Instead, he nodded. ”Okay.”

​That surprised me. I looked at him suspiciously. ”Okay?”

​”You said you don’t want to talk about it.” He shrugged slightly. ”So we don’t.”

​For some reason, that made my chest ache worse.

​I looked away.

​Kaden remained quiet for several seconds before standing and walking toward the window. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweater and stared outside.

​”I just don’t want you thinking you’re trapped with Kane because you’re carrying his child.”

​My fingers curled against my thighs. ”I’m not trapped.”

​”I know.” He glanced over his shoulder. ”I’m saying you have choices.”

​Choices. The word almost made me laugh. If only he knew. I had spent months without choices. The choker around my neck was proof of that.

​My hand instinctively lifted toward it before I stopped myself.

​Kaden noticed anyway. His gaze dropped to the band around my throat. Then something seemed to occur to him.

​”The locket.”

​My heart stopped. Fuck.

​My fingers immediately went beneath my shirt, touching Helen’s necklace.

​Kaden turned fully toward me. ”I completely forgot about it last night.”

​My pulse began pounding in my ears. Of course. Of fucking course he remembered now.

​I forced my face to remain calm. ”Oh.”

​”I told you that you could keep it... but.”

​He walked toward me, every step making my stomach tighten. This couldn’t happen. Not yet. Without the locket, stealing the pin key was useless.

​Kaden stopped directly in front of me and held out his hand. My heart sank. ”Give it to me.”

​I stared at his open palm. No. After everything I’d done to get this far, I couldn’t lose the locket now.

​Slowly, I reached beneath my shirt and pulled the chain out. Kaden watched me as I wrapped my fingers around the pendant.

​Then an idea hit me. Instead of taking it off, I looked up at him. ”Can I keep it a little longer?”

​His eyebrows pulled together. ”Why?”

​I swallowed hard, pulling my cardigan slightly tighter around myself. ”I don’t know,” I whispered, looking down at the locket. ”I just... like having it.”

​Silence.

​When I finally looked at him again, something strange had entered his expression. ”Helen’s locket?”

​I nodded carefully.

​Kaden stared at me for several seconds. Then, unexpectedly, his hand lowered. ”Keep it.”

​My eyes widened. ”What?”

​”You heard me.”

​”But you said—”

​”I changed my mind.”

​Relief almost knocked the air from my lungs. I quickly hid it behind a small smile. ”Thank you.”

​Kaden nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on the pendant. Then he frowned, a strange, distant look crossing his face.

​His hand slowly lifted toward the choker around my neck. The second his fingertips brushed the metal, his entire body stiffened. His eyes lost focus.

​”Kaden?”

​He didn’t answer.

​”Kaden?”

​His pupils suddenly widened, and his hand snapped around my neck.

​And somewhere deep inside my chest, my heart stopped. Because I recognized that look.

​A memory was coming.