Page 291 of Knot What I Expected

That knowledge is the only reason I can make my feet keep moving.

My skin itches with my other nature. She wants out.

Yes, does she want out.

Heat prickles beneath my skin, threatening to erupt through every pore. Something restless unfurls inside my chest, enormous wings stretching against a cage made of flesh.

She remembers Ethan, too. She remembers chains.

Pain.

Fear.

She remembers him threatening our child before Matteo ever took his first breath. She wants to come out. To reclaim her child. To destroy the male who thought he could tame her.

Not yet.

I swallow.

Not yet.

Ethan will get his. But that part isn’t my job.

I’m here for my baby.

I stop twenty feet away. His mouth curls.

“Well, well. You’ve changed.”

My stomach twists.

“Gotten older.”

His eyes crawl down my body.

“Fatter.”

Once, those words would have hurt me. They would have found every insecurity and dug their claws in.

Now? I almost laugh.

Because just last night, I stood naked in front of my mate without a single fucking apology for the body I live in. Rowan worships these curves.

He kisses my soft belly. Grabs my thick thighs. Looks at every stretch mark like it belongs to something precious.

Ethan’s opinion suddenly seems very fucking small.

“Don’t worry, mate. I’ll have you back in shape once I get you home.”

My other nature snarls. So does something far away in the trees. So low I almost think I imagined it.

Almost.

My pulse settles.

Rowan.

I lift my chin.