The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate (Jason and Laila) by Caroline Above Story novel Chapter 170

Knowing what was expected of me, I opened my mouth.

Yet, even when I tried to speak, requldn’t make any sound come out. I couldn’t lie to the pack, not about this.

I closed my mouth and stepped back from the microphone. My father looked at me with disappointment, Brittany with hurt and annoyance both.

I just couldn’t do this.

Turning, I walked down the back of the stage and toward the house. The reporters started shouting again, but I ignored them. My father moved to the microphone.

“One question at a time please,” my father said. “I’m sure you can understand how nervous my son is to be a father for the first time.”

The first time? The word sliced through me. I had a daughter already. She was still out there. She could ever be Ava!

I wasn’t going to throw that away just because my father wanted to paint a different kind of narrative.

I just reached the house, pushing into the main hallway, when I realized Brittany was following me.

“I want to be alone,” I said loudly, hoping she would get the hint.

She didn’t. “Why couldn’t you tell them about the baby?”

“What baby? There is no baby.”

Brittany hurried to stand in front of me, stopping my further retreat.

“There will be a baby,” she said. “As soon as you stop being stubborn.”

“I’m not in the mood for this.”

“You are never in the mood.” She pouted. “I know you don’t like to lie. But what’s the harm in this? I’ll be pregnant soon enough anyway.”

I swallowed hard. She was right. She had to be, for the sake of the pack. An heir would be enough to keep our enemies at bay. They were still sniffing around our borders, scenting weakness.

Brittany placed her hand on my chest, and it took everything inside of me not to physically recoil from her. In my head, my wolf started growling.

She doesn’t have the right to touch us…

“We should start trying,” Brittany said stubbornly, her face scrunching up with frustration. “I need to get pregnant as soon as possible.”

“To keep up the lie you started,” I said.

Her frown deepened. “Stop fighting this, Jason. We are mates. Having a child is only natural.”

She might have been right, but I couldn’t change my body’s reaction to her. Mate bond or no, I didn’t want to touch her.

“Kiss me,

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she demanded, which only turned me off further. I wasn’t going to take orders from her.

“No,” I said flatly.

“You refuse to kiss me? Do you also refuse to sleep with me?”

I gave her an emotionless look.

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Brittany hiiffed, her fury corning to the surface, making her cheeks red and her eyes flash. “If you can’t sleep with me. If you can’t get me pregnant. Then maybe you might as well step down as Alpha right now!”

“What’s all this now?” my father asked, entering the hallway himself. He must have ended his press conference.

Any other time, my father’s presence would have made me back down. Hearing him reminded me of my duty to my pack, but in this… I was at the end of my rope. Even my father couldn’t bring me back.

“I am done being threatened,” I said. “By my mate. By my family. By my pack, and especially by the enemies at our borders. I will not bend my desires to fulfill their sense of what an Alpha should be. I am Alpha, and any who question me, should mind their own damn business.”

My father startled. “You tell the other Alphas that, and you could start a war.”

Fury pumped through my veins. “So be it.”

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