006

"Matilda."

The voice was like a bucket of ice water over my head. I didn't even have time to turn before Maxine’s fingers clamped around my upper arm like a vice. His grip was bruising, Without a word of explanation, he yanked me upward, nearly tripping me over my own feet.

"Let go! Maxine, you’re hurting me!" I thrashed against him, digging my heels into the carpet, but he was a wall of moving muscle. He dragged me through the side exit,, cutting off the music of the party.

He flung my arm away as if I were something contaminated. He was pacing, his chest heaving under his designer wear. "What the kind of game are you playing tonight, Matilda?"

"Game?" I rubbed the red marks on my arm, my eyes stinging with heat. "This isn't a game, Maxine. You gave me the green light. You told me I was free to do whatever I wanted, and I’m just getting started."

He stepped into my personal space, his shadow looming over me. "Are you really this desperate for my attention? You're going to throw yourself at a predator like the Alpha just to get a rise out of me?"

I let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "Don't flatter yourself. You have your partner. You have your secrets. You told me to go find someone else to fuck, and now that I'm actually on the road to doing it, you're suddenly playing the concerned husband? Which is it, Maxine?"

"Among all the men in this world, you choose him?" He sneered, his lip curling in disgust. "He’ll play with you like a toy. He’ll use you and discard you before the sun comes up."

"And what do you care?" I stepped closer, my chest leaning into his, defiant. "I'm not breaking the contract. My heart isn't part of the deal, remember?"

"It concerns me because I own you!" He roared, the sound echoing off the brick walls of the hotel. He grabbed my shoulders, his eyes dark and manic. "I own you, Matilda. And you will only sleep with whoever I tell you to."

My stomach turned. "And who would that be? Give me the list, Maxine. Who?"

"Tony Abraham," he hissed, his face inches from mine. "You are only permitted to sleep with my assistant so we can have a baby."

I froze. The world seemed to tilt on its axis. "What the fuck?" I pushed him back with everything I had. "You want your... your gay partner to sleep with your wife? God, Maxine, you’re even more twisted than I thought. You're disgusting. Get out of my face!"

He lunged forward, his voice dropping to a deadly, vibrating whisper. "You don't have to be so loud about it. I'm warning you—the moment the world finds out the truth about me, I will kill you. I will make sure your body is never found. If you want to keep breathing, you will listen to me and me alone."

I looked him dead in the eye, my voice trembling but certain. "I’d rather die."

"Linda is looking for you, baby."

The silkiness of Alpha Rue’s voice broke the tension like a knife. He was leaning against the far wall, shadows dancing across his face, looking entirely too bored for a man who had just interrupted a death threat.

Maxine spun around, his face contorting. "Who the fuck are you calling 'baby'? That's my wife! Why don't you find a dark corner to go stick your tail in?"

Rue didn't flinch. He straightened up, his predatory grace making Maxine look small. "You know we’re enemies, Maxine. The only reason your throat is still intact is because you’re still married to her. But mark my words: if you touch so much as a hair on her head again, you’ll watch every brick of the empire you’ve built burn to ash."

Rue turned to me, his expression softening as he offered a hand. "Come on, Tilda. Let's go."

I didn't look back. I placed my hand in his, my skin still crawling from Maxine's touch. I couldn't wrap my head around the filth of it—the man I called my husband wanted me to sleep with his boyfriend and have his baby, who did I marry??