Pregnant And Rejected

Chapter 168 – Arriving in Ta… #Chapter 168 – Arriving in Tartarus

Arabella

I have to admit, I like life much better with Bastien unconscious. It’s so much less stressful not having to play pretend every second of every day, especially with the constant news stories about Selene and Frederic. Part of me feels vindicated that Frederic exposed himself through utter overconfidence and stupidity – after all the times he called me names and criticized my mistakes, it feels good to see him get his comeuppance.

Still, there’s no denying it’s inconvenient. Not to mention I very nearly slipped up with the memory potion. It hadn’t occurred to me that it Bastien wasn’t awake to drink the potion, it’s effects might have worn off by the time things have finally settled down enough for him to rejoin the waking world. It wasn’t until he started muttering Selene’s name in his sleep that I realized my oversight, and I very quickly called in another favor from my underworld contact.

The injections won’t take away the memories of his dreams, but they’ll certainly ensure he doesn’t recall the distant past. If I wanted to start this entire process over again and have him forget all the progress I’d made with him in the past few weeks I could have arranged for a different concoction, but in the end I decided dreams are always so strange and mystical that it will be easy to convince him whatever truths they showed him were just his imagination.

After a week of planning my wedding in blissful silence without any interference from bossy Alphas or having to worry about counterfeiting newspapers, I finally let Bastien wake. Selene and Frederic are still frequently in the news, but at least they’ve stopped playing the videos of their confrontation on loop. There’s a chance that Bastien might catch some coverage about it, but if it comes to it! should be able to convince him that Selene betrayed Frederic in order to take over the pack on her own. As long as he doesn’t see Frederic admitting to his crimes, my plans can still move forward.

When he emerges from the bedroom the morning after I cease giving him the sedative injections, he looks drowsy and confused.“ You’re finally awake!” | cry, throwing my arms around him.

“How long was l out, I feel… Goddess I’m starving.”

“I bet,” I nod in understanding, moving into the kitchen to prepare some food. I wouldn’t normally cook for anyone, but I need to stay on his good side right now. “You’ve been really sick.”

His brow furrows in confusion. “I don’t get sick.”

“Well you’ve slept the week away with a fever.” I inform him wryly, “if that’s not sick I don’t know what is.”

“That must be it.” He mutters to himself, elaborating when he sees my confusion. “I had the strangest dreams. They must have been from my fever – only they didn’t seem like nightmares… they were more like memories.”

I freeze in place, “Oh? What kind of memories?” “All kinds of things.” He answers vaguely, “Flynn when we were little, my father teaching me to run the pack.”

“Is that all?” I press nervously, slowly chopping up some vegetables to throw in an omelet.

over his face. “There were a few

a few times.” I tell him, drawing his rapt attention. “You have to remember what a good actress she is, Bastien. I can see that you’re confused, but

tricks on me, if what I saw was

caution, “She has powers you and I cannot fathom. I’m sure it’s how she fooled

even have a wolf – she was so helpless.” He

helpless people never raise suspicions.” I remind him. “She needed you to underestimate her at every turn so you’d never

long moment before

“I do.”

Selene

going to find them?” I ask Helene as we near the border.

able to narrow down a radius easily enough.” My mentor answers. “How much do you know about the

pack?”

it’s another mountain pack – that and their

dryly.

interesting way of segregating his city.” Helene explains, “in fact he and your step-father had a

do you mean?” I inquire, smothering a

and nobility are allowed to actually roam the city freely, everyone else: the poor, other shifter species, his political opponents, they’re forced to live underground. You see Tartarus was rebuilt over and over again over the centuries, but instead of expanding outward, they just kept building on top of what former

am shivering, “And

would she

already know the answer

see, already we’ve eliminated three quarters of the city.” The old woman smiles. “My suggestion is that we head for the center city and wander around a bit, that way we can get our bearings while also seeing if we can pick up either of

if we

we can’t find them then tonight we’ll start practicing some of your other