Novels by Tipsyyy

Maya's POVI found out about the article the same way most of the pack did — through Elias slamming a tablet down in front of me at seven in the morning, coffee still in hand, looking personally offended on my behalf."Read it," he said. "Then get angry with me."The headline alone did most of the work.*WOLFLESS AND WORKING IT: Rejected Bride Lands Cushy Job in Supreme Alpha's Bed — Sources Say She's Already Angling for Luna.*"Oh, come on," I said, scrolling past a photo of me and Damon leaving the mansion together three days ago — professional, entirely innocent, and somehow captioned like evidence in a trial."There's a quote," Elias said grimly, "from an anonymous 'family friend.'"I found it near the bottom. My stomach dropped before I even finished reading.“She's always had big ambitions for someone without a wolf. First she tried to trap the Cross Alpha, now she's moved on to bigger prey. Her own family says she'll do anything for status.""Karen," I said flatly."Almost cert

Maya's POVBy day three, I'd learned that "personal assistant" was, at best, a generous description of the job."Explain to me again," I said, staring down at a plate arranged with what looked like eleven identical pieces of seared duck, "why I'm tasting all of these.""Council banquet is Friday," Elias said, not looking up from his tablet. "Alpha Ashford can't be seen eating something that disagrees with him in front of forty visiting Alphas. Imagine the headlines. Supreme Alpha Excuses Himself Mid-Toast. Pack morale would never recover.""So I'm a food taster.""You're quality control." Elias finally glanced up, entirely too pleased with himself. "Very important role. Extremely dignified.""This feels like something out of a medieval court.""Welcome to pack politics." He slid the plate closer. "Now, rank them. One being 'acceptable,' eleven being 'diplomatic incident.'"I picked up the fork, mostly to have something to do with my hands, and only realized Damon had entered the room

Maya's POVThe mansion looked different in daylight than it had from the sidewalk outside my old apartment — bigger, somehow, in a way that made the word "house" feel like an outright lie. Mom hadn't said much since we arrived, just stood in the marble entryway clutching her suitcase like it might anchor her to something familiar."Mrs. Ellison if I’m not mistaken." A woman appeared from somewhere near the staircase, warm-faced, maybe sixty, wiping her hands on an apron before extending one. "I'm Ruth. I run the kitchen. Alpha Ashford said you'd both be staying, so I've already made up the blue room for you — good morning light, quiet side of the house."Mom blinked. "You... already made up a room? For me?""Last night," Ruth said, like this was obvious. "He called down around midnight."I looked at Damon. He was very studiously checking something on his phone."You had a room ready before I even agreed to any of this," I said."I had a room ready in case," he corrected, not looking

Maya's POVCassandra's phone dropped several inches, her arm going slack, mouth half-open around a word she didn't manage to finish. For one full second, I actually watched hope flicker across my own chest — watched Karen's face drain of color, watched the two of them look at Damon like he might actually be exactly who he so obviously was.Then Karen laughed.It wasn't a good laugh. It had a crack running through it, the kind of laugh people used when they were trying to convince themselves of something more than anyone else in the room."Supreme Alpha?" She pressed a hand to her chest, shaking her head like the very idea was beneath her. "Oh, sweetheart, no. Absolutely not."Cassandra recovered fast, latching onto her mother's certainty like a life raft. "Yeah, right. The Supreme Alpha, standing on this street, in front of this house?" She gestured at the cracked driveway, the sagging gutter Dad had never gotten around to fixing, like the setting itself disproved the entire theory.

Maya's POVDamon's driver pulled away from the curb the second we were both inside, smooth and silent, and it was only once the door shut behind me that I realized how small the back seat actually was. Or maybe it wasn't small at all, and it just felt that way with Damon's shoulder inches from mine, his cologne doing something distracting to my ability to form complete thoughts.I stared very hard out the window.Somewhere low in my chest, something hummed. Not nerves, not exactly — something warmer, steadier, entirely inconvenient given that I'd known this man for less than two days and my mother was currently somewhere being terrorized by her own sister-in-law.It's not a bond, I told myself firmly. I don't have a wolf. I don't get to have whatever this is.I was still arguing with myself when the driver pulled up outside the house, and whatever calm I'd managed evaporated instantly.Mom was on the front lawn, one hand braced against the porch railing, the other clawing uselessly at

Maya's POVI told myself sleeping in the car was temporary. Just for tonight. Just until I figured something out that didn't involve waking my mother at midnight to explain that her daughter had gone from almost-Luna to homeless in under twenty-four hours.The back seat wasn't built for sleeping. I found that out slowly, one aching muscle at a time, curled up under the one coat I'd managed to grab before the landlord's patience ran out completely. I told myself I'd just close my eyes for a minute.I didn't remember actually falling asleep. I only remembered the tapping.Knuckles, light against the window, patient in a way that felt entirely too familiar even through the fog of sleep.I cracked my eyes open, squinting against the grey morning light, half convinced I was still dreaming, and found Damon crouched beside my car door, dressed like he hadn't slept either, watching me with an expression that was working very hard to stay neutral."You have got to be kidding me," I said, voice