72

ALINA

I cleared my throat and looked down, my thoughts tangled with everything that had happened and everything still happening.

Now didn’t feel like the right time to tell him James was my mate. Not when the first thing he’d done was reject me.

I remembered the jolt of hope I’d felt when I first realized it when I believed it meant I’d finally be safe and protected. That he’d shield me from the whispers, the stares, the cruelty of the pack.

But he hadn’t. He’d rejected me.

Whatever flicker of excitement I’d felt in that moment, I couldn’t feel it anymore.

I must have taken too long to speak, because Alexander shifted beneath me with a sharp sound between a growl and a sigh. I’d forgotten I was still on his lap, and when he stood, I almost fell.

But he caught me before I could hit the ground. His arms wrapped around me. For a split second, I hated how safe I felt there.

Once I was balanced, he turned and started to walk away.

Panic surged. I couldn’t let him leave like this. Maybe it wasn’t my job to protect everyone from his mood, but I still couldn’t stomach the silence.

So I said the first thing that tore free.

“He rejected me.”

That wasn’t what I’d meant to say. Not exactly. But it was out now, and I couldn’t take it back.

Alexander turned.

The look he gave me made my blood chill. Like he’d just swallowed something that tasted like poison.

I instantly regretted telling the truth. I should’ve lied. I should’ve said I didn’t know the man. I should’ve said anything else.

Because Alexander didn’t seem like someone who liked the idea of anyone else laying claim to what he considered his, even if it was in the past.

“Is that why he was back?” His voice was low and dark with a deadly undertone. “He wanted you back?”

I flinched at the question, biting my tongue. “No,” I said quickly. “It wasn’t that.”

“Then what the fuck did he want?” he snapped.

I opened my mouth only to close it back up. I related that a few times, but no words came.

And by the time I looked up, he was gone.

The door hung open.

I let out a shaky breath and stared after him, my heart pounding in my chest at the realization that i just made everything worse.

Now I definitely couldn’t tell him about the baby. Not after this. If he was already spiraling about my past, about someone else claiming me, what would he think of this?

He’d assume the worst. That I was keeping it from him. That I’d slept around. That I was carrying someone else’s child.

He’d see himself as second choice. As the man I settled for.

And Alexander wasn’t the kind of man who tolerated being second in anything.

I nodded to myself. Keeping the pregnancy a secret, for now, was the best decision.

The only decision.

⸻

ALEXANDER

I’d hit every shade of rage in the past few hours but after that conversation with Alina, I was ready to detonate.

Why the hell was she so hesitant to talk about him?

Was she still hurting from his rejection? Did she want him back?

Was he the boyfriend she gave her virginity to? The same man she’d told me was dead?

Had they been in love?

The thought made my jaw clench until it ached.

Love. What a fucking joke?!

It’s a lie we tell ourselves to believe happy endings exist. They don’t. Not for people like us.

But maybe she believed in it, grown up in that pathetic excuse of a pack, playing at being a werewolf when she was always something more. Treated like dirt. Living as an outcast.

That line of thought brought me to a screeching halt.

Wait.

How the hell is a lycan mated to a werewolf?

It didn’t add up. Alina was Lycan. It’s rare enough for Lycans to be mated to other Lycans. My own parents’ bond had been an anomaly and even that had been spoken of like some omen.

So how the fuck had she ended up mated to a mutt?

“Hey. Where you storming off to like a pissed off thundercloud?”

I looked up to see Killian in the hall, hands in his pockets, casual as ever. I hadn’t even noticed him. That only added to my frustration. I was slipping.

She was a fucking distraction.

I ran a hand through my hair and gritted my teeth. Killian watched me with faint amusement, which only made me want to punch him in the throat.

“Where’s your precious virgin contestant?” I asked dryly.

His smile vanished. His face hardened so fast it made my mood feel like a candle next to a wildfire.

Good. That’s what I was going for.

“She’s not a virgin anymore,” he muttered. Maybe to himself. Maybe for me.

I didn’t comment. I’d gotten what I wanted, confirmation she’d gotten under his skin. One of the few people on this earth I knew to be truly emotionless, and he was slipping.

I’d mock him if I wasn’t in the exact same boat.

“Found out she had a secret ex-mate,” I said under my breath as I pushed open the office door. I didn’t invite him in.

He followed anyway, his air darkening like a thundercloud dragging behind me.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked, one brow raised. “You having a meltdown or does this have something to do with that little explosion yesterday?”

“So that’s why you’re here?”

I paused. “Wait, how do you know?”

He gave me a pointed look. And I didn’t need to ask again. He always knew.

The bastard probably had a dozen ears on every corner of this city.

“You’ve got your boys on the street?” I asked.

Killian smirked. Of course he did.

You look at him in his suit, polished and precise, and you’d almost forget he grew up on the street. Fought his way up. Took everything that wasn’t given to him and built his empire with his bare hands.

He’s the kind of man who doesn’t need power handed to him.

He takes it.

“I figured you’d ask,” he said, the snug asshole.

But right now, he might be the only one who could help me untangle the mess Alina just dropped into my lap.

And if I had to deal with his ego to do that?

Fine.

Let the games begin.