Page 140 of Traded

Pity.

“We can stop soon,” he whispers. “Not yet, but soon. And I’ll be a good alpha to you, Rosie. I swear it. This part… it’ll be over. And we won’t need to talk about it again. Carter never needs to know, and we can all move on.”

He’s rewiring mybrain.Weaving it into new layers so every order he gives me becomes a lifetime prison sentence.

But we’re leaving. The end of the regular season is a few days away, and Carter is dissolving the pack. I have an ace in my pocket, and he has no idea.

“I love you.” His lips brush mine. “It’ll be a good life, Rosie. I promise.”

You don’t know what love is.

That’s what I want to say.

But when we emerge from the bathroom with his hand wrapped around mine, Liam ordering an apologetic Jonas to clean up the mess we left behind, I can’t say anything at all.

Chapter thirty-nine

Burn Baby Burn

Games Played: 76/82

Blackwater Titans

51–17–8

1st Atlantic Division

Callum Morris, NPHL Network Analyst:

"We really are seeing a legend in the making, Jeff. As the Titans head out on their final road swing with the Atlantic Division all but secured, Carter Reynolds is playing his best hockey of the season and some of themost exciting hockey I’ve seen in thirty years. You can’t miss him on the ice— he’s blocking shots, leading the rush and taking heavy minutes everywhere you look. It's the kind of all-in hockey coaches dream about, though you have to wonder how much one player can keep pushing before something pushes back.”

“Ishould be coming with you.” I stomp after Carter, my frustration muffled by the fluffy purple socks he’s wrestled onto my feet. Possibly so I can’t chase him, because my feet skid against the wooden floor before I catch myself. “This is ridiculous. I amfine.”

For once, I really need him to believe me.

Carter dumps his duffel at the end of the hall leading to the elevator along with the other bags and turns back, cupping my face. “You heard what the doctor said. Minimal stress. Plenty of nesting. Notravel, Ro. Not this time.”

“Cart is right,” Liam says behind me. His hands settle on my shoulders and squeeze. “When do these test results come through?”

“A few weeks, they said. They’re sending them to some sort of specialist.” Carter is watching my face. Possibly digesting the absolute disgust roiling through my stomach at the feel of Liam’s hands on me. He reaches forward and tugs me away from Liam, and I inhale into his chest. “Your numbers were way off, Ro. You saw them. I’m not taking any chances. We’ll be back in forty-eight hours. As soon as this swing is done, we’re heading back.Rest.”

He steers me over to the couch and wrestles me down into it, wrapping me in the fluffy blanket equivalent of a straitjacket to stop me bouncing back up. Carter points at me. “Stay. Please. I don’t need to be worrying about you too.”

It’s not me I’m worried about. I gnaw on my lip as Carter disappears, coming back with my phone and charger. He drops it into my lap. “Keep it charged. If anything changes, you call me immediately.”

“Any of us.” Liam slides up beside him, his eyes tightening at the corners. “You should have told me you were going for a medical. I would have come with you.”

I bet he would have. I doubt we would have made it through the doors. But the doctor at the NOC clinic was concerned enough about my haywire hormone levels to order an avalanche of different tests. I toy with my blanket. “You’re already spending so much time with me. I was fine with Carter.”

His eyes narrow further. “You’re our priority. If you’re sick, I need to know.”

“I’m not sick.”Just broken, you son of a bitch, and you know exactly why.“There’s no point in worrying about it until the test results come through.”

And it won’t matter, anyway, because Carter and I will be far away from him by then. But it’s satisfying as hell to watch him panic that his Robot Rosie scheme is unraveling around him. I run my thumb over my phone screen, resisting the urge to pull up the house listings that are getting me through each day like an oxygen mask with cute window dressing.

Why yes, I would like a hot tub. And a movie room. And a double-floored nest.

Liam vanishes toward the bedrooms to round up the others, and I watch as Carter double checks his jacket pockets. “You didn’t sleep much last night.”