Page 79 of The Alpha’s Unclaimed Mate

The room’s dim, his body bent over mine, the space between us gone to almost nothing. I’ve never felt this exposed.

“Stay.” His voice drops. “Mia’s happy here. Why are you trying to uproot her?”

I try to turn my face out of his hand. “You saw what happened to her, Marcus. What if the next one gets through? You keep telling me to trust you, and you won’t tell me a single thing. All I actually know is that I can’t even stay in my own apartment, and every night I sleep in a stranger’s h—”

“I’m not a stranger.” He says it right over me, low, his eyes pinning mine. “Am I?”

My whole body locks up.

He watches me before he goes on. “I don’t want you to leave. Give me some time. Let me handle this, and the two of you can have a good life here.”

My eyes drop to the phone. “I get it. You don’t want Bella losing her playmate.”

His hand’s easy against my jaw until I say those words. Then his fingers tighten. He tips my chin up until I meet his eyes. “Is that what you think this is? You think I’m keeping you here so my niece won’t lose a friend?”

I don’t answer him. “You think I’m stupid?” His voice has gone rough. “You think I don’t know?”

My heart trips over itself. I search his face and come up empty, his jaw set, his eyes giving nothing back. “Know what?” The question comes out unsteady. “What are you talking about?”

He goes quiet. A muscle jumps at his temple, and for one held second, I’m sure he’s about to say the one thing I’ve been dreading.

He doesn’t.

“This isn’t about Bella,” he says instead. “It’s about Mia, about what’s best for her. This town is good for her, Jessa, and that scholarship comes once in a lifetime. It could take her anywhere in the world.” His thumb strokes my jaw. “So why are you so set on taking it from her? I told you nothing will touch her. Nothing forced me to bring the two of you into my home. I did it because I can’t stand the thought of either of you hurt.”

Straining back as far as his hand allows, I hold his eyes. “You’re still not telling me everything. Now I’m supposed to sit here and swallow it? You’re throwing ‘trust me’ around while you keep me blind to my own life.”

“I can’t tell you.” It comes out sharp, almost before I finish. “If I tell you what’s happening, it puts you in more danger than you’re already in.”

That does it. I shove up off the couch, knock his hands away, and put the coffee table between us. “Then let us go. If we’re not here, we’re not in your danger. Problem solved.”

“You don’t know that.” He draws up to his full height, and the room feels smaller for it.

I go still. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We don’t know who the target was. Whoever’s behind it is still a blank.” He holds my eyes. “For all we know, it was your ex-husband.”

The name hits me sideways. “Derek?” A laugh scrapes out of me with no humor in it. “What reason would Derek ever have to go after Mia?”

“Why did Derek walk out and leave you buried under every cent of his debt?” Marcus doesn’t raise his voice. “Have you ever asked yourself that?”

I open my mouth, then close it, and he presses into the quiet. “Someone you told me was practically family.” Rounding the coffee table, he closes the space between us. “He left you clawing back from nothing with a kid on your hip. Risking the two of you never once slowed him down before, so tell me why this would be any different.”

“Even then”—I struggle to get the words out—“he fled. He doesn’t know where we are. He’s never tried to initiate contact. What reason could he have to go after Mia? She’s a child.”

Marcus shrugs, holding my gaze. “Maybe he racked up more debt. Maybe this was not about poisoning Mia but taking her. Maybe somebody tried to use Mia to teach him a lesson, not knowing he doesn’t care. You don’t know. Unless you have a better idea of why someone went after the girls.”

I sink back onto the couch, the strength gone out of my legs. Derek was never violent, only weak, only gone. But cornered men do things nobody thought them capable of, and I don’t know where he is or what he owes now. The thought that he might be the one who set this in motion turns my stomach. I reach for the bottle before I catch myself, tip a third glass, and swallow a mouthful that does nothing.

“I’m already looking into it.” Marcus lowers himself in front of me, crouching so we’re eye to eye. My heart skips a beat as I feel that same familiar pull that’s been a constant throbbing inside me ever since I met him on the side of the road. I want to lean into those broad shoulders and put down the weight of the responsibilities I’ve been buried under. Just for once, I want to believe him and let him carry my burdens. It takes every ounce of willpower to stay still and not give in to that desire.

“That’s why I need you to trust me. Stay.” His hand finds my knee. “I can give you both a good life here. Let me.”

His meaning isn’t lost on me. What he’s offering has nothing to do with Mia’s scholarship. He’s never hidden his intentions before. My chest aches with how much of me wants to take it anyway. But another part of me, a wary cautious creature, doesn’t understand why.

There’s no way he knows the truth.

Making myself pull back, I shake my head. “I don’t need you handing us a life. I’ve given my daughter a good one on my own for ten years, and I’ll keep doing it.”