14

ALEXANDER

Heat coiled tight in my chest as I stalked away from where Keisha stood, pretending she hadn’t just crossed every line.

I could practically hear Claude’s smug voice in my head, that annoying laugh that always meant he was right.

“Rule number one of a friends with benefits arrangement? Don’t do it with someone in your circle,” he’d said, eyes raised in mock warning, the day he walked in on her on her knees in front of me in my office.

I’d brushed him off back then. Told him he was being dramatic. We weren’t even friends. She was just my associate’s wife who happened to be good with her mouth. It meant nothing. At least, on my end.

I should’ve shut it down the moment it started. Definitely before she left her husband, moved across continents, and clung to the fantasy that there was something real between us.

I didn’t catch the signs. Claude did, of course. The observant bastard always did.

“She’s basically moved in,” he muttered one day. I’d waved him off, but the comment stuck. Made me start noticing things.

She used to leave right after we were done. No cuddles, no small talk. Then suddenly, she had excuses. Her driver disappeared. She was too tired to drive. She just needed to catch her breath, sit for a minute, recharge.

Bullshit.

I started engineering her exits. ‘No’ wasn’t doing the job anymore. So I made sure my driver was always parked out front, engine running, ready to take her straight back to her overpriced penthouse. I stopped offering her rides. Stopped bringing her home.

But the peak of it, the turning point that turned my stomach was the morning I walked out of my room and saw her wearing one of my shirts. The same one I’d tossed on a chair the night before. I’d left her in the guest room. But the next morning, she crept into my room, dropped to her knees, and woke me with her mouth on my cock.

And I almost let myself enjoy it until she mentioned making me breakfast.

That was it. She had to go.

I didn’t “get rid of her” exactly. I ended whatever twisted version of a relationship she thought we had. But that didn’t stop her from popping up at my door, pretending nothing had changed.

As if I hadn’t spelled it out for her: we were done.

She nearly blew up her entire life for me. And for what?

The memory makes something crawl under my skin. I hated the thought of her. Hated the idea of being tied to her in any way.

Hell, I hated the idea of being tied to anyone.

But you’d lock that little mate up and chain her to your bed if you could.

Alina.

Just the thought of her name made heat flare low in my abdomen. That mouth, too soft, too tempting. Her face that walked the line between innocence and seduction.

Alina was sin wrapped in soft skin. A dream molded into a woman. Every fantasy I’d ever had came to life in her, wrapped in a body that made me want to forget my name.

The only flaw? Her softness. Her quiet. Her meekness. I needed a Luna who could stand beside me, not hide behind me. Alina didn’t have that fire.

She’d never be Luna. The title wouldn’t touch her. But everyone would know she was mine. My mate. I owed her that truth. But marriage? Not a chance.

She’d bear my children, though. No one would question it. Even if I mated with an Alpha’s daughter, my children wouldn’t have the strength they’d get from a fated bond.

For my pack’s survival, for my heir. I needed her. And for diplomacy, I’d find someone more… presentable.

Something sharp tugged at the edges of my thoughts.

Claude’s words about this being too easy came to my head. He has been breathing down my neck, always mentioning how I should keep an eye on her.

“You trust her because she looks like she doesn’t know what she’s doing. That’s the dangerous kind, Alex. The ones who don’t need to try.”

She didn’t have that sharpness in her. Even Keisha that wasn’t Al hot fire has some fight on her that Alina didn’t.

Or maybe she was just smarter about it.

Maybe she knew how to keep her head down while worming her way deeper.

The doubt tasted bitter in my mouth. It sat there, stubborn, like a thing with teeth.

My cock didn’t care. My instincts didn’t, either.

Thinking about her was enough to scrub Keisha from my mind completely.

I opened the door to the lounge where Kilian was sprawled across the couch with his latest distraction clinging to his side. He changed women like he did his shirts.

I’d heard the elders were breathing down his neck, pressuring him to settle. They’d probably pick out a blushing virgin from a powerful bloodline, wrap her in lace, and expect him to behave. And he’d toss her in a gilded cage while he fucked his way through the city.

Bastard had it easy.

“Took you fucking long enough,” he said, standing the moment I stepped in.

I ignored the smirk on his face, my gaze locking onto the girl seated across from him. My girl. Her hands rested on her thighs, posture stiff, too proper. Alina looked like she didn’t know what to do with herself, too pure for the filth clawing its way through my brain.

I wanted to grip that silky hair, pull her to me, and bury myself in her mouth. I wanted to hear her gag around me. Right now, that was the only sound I wanted.

Kilian’s voice cut through the haze, dragging me back with a snap.

“I didn’t know meek and virgin was your type. I’d have forwarded all those bride proposals I keep getting from the elders.”

He turned toward her, eyes dragging over her in a way that made my vision pulse with red.

“She’s hot, though. I guess her lying there, all folded hands and missionary moans, could be worth it for that sweet little—”

His sentence broke off in a grunt as my fist connected with his gut. He saw it coming but didn’t move fast enough to stop it.

I didn’t think, I reacted. And I knew I’d hear about it later.

But the way he looked at her. The way he spoke about her made something primal crawl to the surface. Something I couldn’t reason with.

“Fuck,” he wheezed, clutching his stomach, still wearing that smug-as-sin grin. “She’s got you throwing punches already. Must be some damn good pussy.”

A low growl crawled up my throat, but I swallowed it, shoved him aside, and walked past.

“Stop being a dick. It won’t make yours grow any bigger.”