MasukVALEN DEVERAUX’S POV You’d ask why I kept count of the number of wolves who’d stripped naked in front of me in the past few days. The truth is, I need a number to measure the depth of my current misery.The girl currently standing on the center rug of my private office, the twenty-eighth, drops her dress to the floor shyly. It lands in a heap around her ankles, revealing her toned upper body. Her perky breasts, the dip of her waist. Valerie stands across the room, leaning lazily against the bar counter, sipping bourbon. She’s the critic, the curator, and the reason I’m here. Every time a dress drops, she cocks a perfect, impatient brow at me, urging me with her eyes to make a decision.I don’t even need to look at the girl properly. A flicker of my finger is enough.“Next,” I say, tone flat. The girl flinches, quickly pulling the dress back up, her cheeks red with shame as she hurries out the side door.I settle deeper into the cushions, letting the low rhythm of the soft music th
Unbothered, Jordan pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one, the smoke curling around him. Leaning against the bike, he watches me, eyes hooded and unreadable.“You know,” he says, almost conversational, “before I met you, I always wondered what was so special about you.”I hug myself tighter in the jacket, still very shaky, “What do you mean?”He smirks, dragging on his cigarette, smoke spiraling into the air. “I’ve never met you.”I nod, confirming. “And I’ve never met you either.”It’s true. Until a few minutes ago, he was a stranger. All my life competing against the Paxon Wolves and I’d thought I’d met everyone worth noticing, the top players, the ones representing the team, but Jordan had slipped completely under my radar.Same as the twins, if I’m being honest. Then again, I’d been gone for years, probably still too young back then to make the main team.But Jordan…Judging by his height and build, he could probably dominate as a center, and it strikes me as odd that
Exceptions, exceptions, but after a few minutes, he’s leading me to a bike. I can’t even remember the last time I’d been on one, hell, I don’t think I ever have. Yet here I am, standing next to Jordan, the Paxon Beta, watching him walk up to a motorcycle that is parked among Reid's luxury fleet. I still feel shame from my shouting earlier, but Jordan doesn’t seem to care. He acts like me screaming “fuck your exceptions” is just a normal Tuesday night activity.He is massive.Very huge. Very tall. Next to him, I barely come up to his elbow. It’s ridiculous how small I feel. I shove my trembling fingers into my jacket pockets just to hide it.We don’t get far before two pack guards, huge, buffy men, step out of the shadows near the garage entrance.“Beta,” one starts, “Alpha Reid's orders were clear. She stays confined.”“We’ll be in trouble if you let her out now,” the other adds reluctantly, as if sensing the trouble before Jordan even opens his mouth to speak.“Do you think I’m
ALEX'S POVThe door to Reid’s office creaks, and my heart slams against my ribs. Before he even looks up, I’m already bolting. My pulse crashes in my ears, drowning out everything else. The hallway blurs. My breath catches.God, I should’ve known better. Reid Maddox was never the kind of man who kept his word. He was the kind who smiled while twisting the knife.I heard everything. Or the most part. There is a spy in Ragriz. He planted her. She is in his office. She sounds awfully familiar...I catch myself against a wall, gasping, my chest heaving. Reid’s out for Valen. The peace treaty was a lie. I’m just a part of the pawn. I’ve always just been a part of the game. In Ragriz, even now in Paxon. A way to make their team better.And the sickening realization washes over me, sitting uncomfortably at the bottom of my gut. This is my life. This is all I ever am. The replacement.My value was never me; my value was always my function. And if I had none to offer, I'm discarded for the
REIDThe first buzz goes off.Then, the second.And the third.Alexandra’s chest is heaving like I just tortured her by standing up. Truth is, I’m hard. Uncomfortably so. My cock’s straining against my pants like it’s got a mind of its own. It wants what it wants. And right now, it wants her bent over the fucking bed. The smell of her arousal fills the room and my wolf’s thrashing under my skin like he’ll tear out of me if I don’t do something about her.Mark her.Mate her.Fuck her. Rip that oversized shirt off her body. Tug aside those little panties, bury my cock in her and not stop until she quivers beneath me. I glance at the phone on the vanity. One look is all I need.Urgent.I scoop it into my pocket without answering.Then I look at Alexandra. She’s quivering in bed, lips parted, surprisingly, not from fear. “Don’t wander the halls,” I warn, in a growl now. “I won’t say it again.”I don’t wait for a response, I just turn and leave, having a gnawing feeling
ALEX“I’m not hungry.”“You haven’t eaten all day,” the maid presses gently.This is the third time today she’s showing up at my door with trays of food I don’t touch. Instead, I lay in my bed and I think endlessly about the cryptic messages the twins seemed to have been trying to pass along or hide from me. Either way, it makes me uneasy in a way I don’t understand. Everything makes me uneasy. Everything seems too spontaneous. The sudden allegiance between the Ragriz and the Paxon pack tops the list of shit I’m unwilling to believe. The enmity has been ongoing since the first set of our ancestors settled in Crystal Falls which ages back to hundreds of years ago. There’s no way I want to believe a life long enmity ended within five years I hadn’t been in town. Food is the least of my problems, but this maid, Zara, redhead and soft looking doesn’t want to give up. “I don’t want ” I repeat, for the hundredth time today. “Please,” the girl sighs, standing a little closer to the d







