Se connecter"CALEB'S POVYou’re insufferable," I muttered, shaking my head as I finally wrenched myself away from Evander’s iron grip and stood up from the table.Evander didn’t look offended in the slightest. In fact, his chest rumbled with a low, vibrating chuckle that sent an entirely unwelcome shiver down my spine. "Save your breath, Caleb. You’ll need it."Across from me, Chloe slid her napkin onto her plate with deliberate slowness. A brilliant, knowing smirk played at the corners of her lips, entirely devoid of any real annoyance. She smoothed her silk blouse one last time and tilted her chin up."Well," Chloe said, her voice dripping with dry amusement as she looked up at the two towering alphas. "Do try to return him in one piece, boys. If his GPA drops because you two keep kidnapping him from our dates, I’ll have my father audit your packs."Lysander offered her a mock, lazy salute, though his eyes never left me. "Noted, Chloe. Thanks for keeping him warm for us.""Go to hell, Lysander,
CALEB'S POV"Don’t you ever touch her again." Evander’s voice wasn’t a roar.It was worse... it was a low, fractured rasp that scraped against the lining of my ribs, carrying the weight of a restraint that was threatening to snap."Do you hear me Caleb?" Evander asked again... his alpha presence was dominating the place.Around us, the sophisticated murmur of the restaurant died. The five-star dining room, usually a sanctuary of soft jazz and clinking crystal, fell into a breathless, suffocating hush.I could feel the eyes of every waiter and wealthy patron boring into our corner, but I couldn't tear my gaze away from the absolute devastation twisting across Evander’s face.God, my internal monologue screamed, a frantic, breathless refrain. They are completely, utterly unhinged.Across the table, Chloe didn't flinch... she is someone who looks like getting used to these kinds of situations. She simply smoothed down the front of her silk blouse, a slow, triumphant glint shining in her
CALEB'S POVWe abandoned the movie before the first plot twist, marching out into the cool evening air with our pride bruised and our date completely hijacked.Desperate for a semblance of peace, Chloe steered us toward a five-star, candlelit restaurant nestled right along the waterfront, hoping the exorbitant prices and strict dress code would finally deter our shadow-like pursuers."Good evening, Ms. Chloe and Mr. Caleb. This way please..." The hostess greeted.We walked in, requested a corner table for two, and ordered a bottle of expensive red wine. For five glorious minutes, the tension melted away.The ambient classical music washed over us, and Chloe was smiling, her eyes bright as she told me a ridiculous story about her chaotic childhood.Then, the restaurant doors swung open with a heavy, deliberate thud.I didn't even have to look up. The drop in air pressure, the sudden, oppressive weight of two massive alpha auras flooding the room, was enough to make the hairs on my arms
CALEB'S POVThe cool leather of Chloe’s passenger seat still carried the faint scent of her jasmine perfume. I let out a long, slow breath, leaning my head back against the headrest and rolling my shoulders to work out the lingering stiffness from those damn hemp ropes."You look entirely too pleased with yourself for a guy who was just held hostage in a master suite," Chloe remarked, keeping her eyes fixed on the winding estate road ahead, though a corner of her red lips twitched upward."Hostage is a strong word," I muttered, flashing a dry grin. "Let’s call it... aggressive negotiation. And I’ll take a pair of unhinged stalkers."Chloe laughed, a rich, melodic sound that filled the cabin. We had agreed on this weeks ago... no grand romantic declarations, no jumping headfirst into a messy entanglement. We were going to be friends first. We were going to hang out, eat bad popcorn, and figure out if we even liked each other outside of the adrenaline of the underground circles we ran i
EVANDER'S POVI pulled back slowly, dragging my lower lip against his just enough to leave him breathless, though his chest was still heaving against the ropes.Caleb’s eyes were bloodshot, pupils blown wide, glaring up at me with enough pure, unfiltered venom to melt steel. If looks could truly kill, Lysander and I would have been ash a dozen times over.I let out a low, amused hum, tracing the sharp angle of his jaw with the back of my knuckles. "Stop glaring, little alpha. You'll strain something, and we need you pliable.""I am going to castrate both of you with a rusty garden trowel," Caleb spat, his voice dropping into a harsh, trembling growl that only made the blood rush hotter to my groin."Ooh, feisty," I murmured, leaning down to press one last, lingering kiss to his burning cheek before straightening up. "Keep that fire. You're going to need it."I turned my back on his sputtering protests, pulling a heavy-duty pocket knife from my slacks and flicking it open with a sharp
CALEB'S POV The words hit my brain with the force of a freight train. Stepbrother. The sheer absurdity of it temporarily short-circuited my anger, leaving me staring at Evander like he had grown a second head. My jaw slackened, and for a split second, the frantic tug-of-war inside my chest paused. "Are you completely out of your cotton-picking minds?" I finally blurted out, the absurdity slicing right through the suffocating tension. I threw my weight against the ropes again, though it was entirely useless. "Victoria is marrying your father next month! We are going to be... legally speaking, family! What kind of sick, twisted, backwoods Alabama fantasy are you two cooking up right now?!" Lysander didn't even blink. He let out a low, dark chuckle that vibrated right through the mattress, his thumb tracing the curve of my cheekbone with a maddeningly gentle possessiveness. "Technically," Lysander murmured, his voice laced with a dangerous sort of amusement, "we share no blood. And







