Chapter 5

~ ALEXANDER

Haze had started.

And Margaret had come back to our house very early this morning. When I opened the door, I had been surprised to see her.

“Hey. What's up?” I said in form of a greeting. She smiled at me, and my heart leaped in my chest.

She was so fucking gorgeous.

“Hello, Alexander. You okay?” she asked as she walked in.

“Yeah. Sure. What about you?” I asked as we walked down to the living room. Her smile fell from her face at the question, and I instantly started to worry.

“Is everything okay, Margaret?” I asked softly. She shook her head at me, and fear trickled into my bones.

Something seemed to be wrong with her.

“It's my knee. The one…the one you treated the last time I was here. It kind of got worse,” she explained. I gestured for her to sit down.

Raising her dress up a bit, I saw that the bruise she was talking about. It hadn't healed like I expected It to. It had worsened a bit, and even though it was something I knew she could have gone to a pharmacy to get some antibiotics for, I was glad that she had come to me instead.

“Wait here for a second,” I stated and walked upstairs to grab my first aid box.

I was in the middle of applying some ointment on Margaret's knee when Evangeline walked in on us.

“Hey,” she called out. I stopped what I was doing to look at her, and as soon as our gazes met, unfiltered lust slammed into me.

The emotion took me by surprise and I gasped slightly, my lips parted as I struggled to breathe.

Evangeline cocked her head to the side as she stared at me.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

 No.

No, I was not okay. I wanted to grab her and kiss her so bad, and an ache was spreading rapidly across my chest.

This…lust, this unbridled desire I was feeling had to be because of the Haze.

I mean, I had never been attracted to her before. Never. And yet here I was, barely managing the urge to stand up, grab her and take her to the bedroom to do some unspeakable things to her.

“Alex? Are you sure you're fine? You look slightly pale,” Evangeline spoke again.

Before I could respond though, Margaret did.

“Of course he's fine. What's with the million questions? Don't you see that he is busy?” she snapped.

And Margaret's voice jolted me out of the sudden fog of lust I had descended into.

I swallowed past a lump in my throat and smiled at Evangeline.

“I am fine, Evangeline. Just…got distracted for a second,” I said.

She shrugged and walked past me to sit on the couch adjacent from where Margaret was. I had no idea if it was intentional or not, but her legs brushed against my back as she walked past, and the lust in my blood surged to my brain again.

I pushed it away, confused and slightly scared. What was happening? Why was my body suddenly reacting to Evangeline in this manner?

Margaret was the person I was in love with, yet here I was, barely a day into the Haze period and already losing my mind over my wife.

A wife I hadn't done as much as look at romantically since we got married.

I eventually managed to finish applying the ointment on Margaret's knee, and she flashed me a grateful smile. I smiled back at her, grateful that she had come to see me today.

If she hadn't been here when Evangeline was talking to me, what would I have done?

Kiss Evangeline and sleep with her?

I tried to shudder with disgust at the thought, but there was no disgust left in me. The only emotion left was lust.

Hot, flaming lust.

“If you're done applying the ointment, I have something for you,” Evangeline spoke.

I stood up and held her gaze.

“What's that?” I asked.

My wife handed me a beautifully wrapped box. “Happy birthday, Alex,” she stated with a small smile.

My heart skipped a beat as I took the box from her. I hadn't expected her to give me a gift, to be honest.

Hell, I hadn't even expected her to remember that it was my birthday.

I was about to thank her, a smile already stretching across my lips, when Margaret stood up and snatched the package from me.

“Today is your birthday? Why did I not know that?” she asked.

I pushed back the smile creeping across my lips and stared blankly at Evangeline. Smiling at her might give Margaret the wrong impression, and I didn't want to scare away the woman I love.

“Thanks for the present, Evangeline ,” I stated coldly. Then I turned to Margaret and flashed her an apologetic smile.

“I had no idea that you didn't know today was birthday. That's fine though,” I said softly.

“Seriously? That's all the thanks I get?” Evangeline interrupted. When I said nothing, my wife shook her head at me as she scoffed. Then she stood up and left.

I tried not to feel guilty at how I had reacted towards her gifting me.

Turning back to face Margaret, I was surprised to see tears in her eyes.

I sat beside her and gently took her hand in mine. She was still holding the gift Evangeline gave to me, and even though I was dying to know what was in there, I didn't take the box from Margaret.

Instead, I raised my hand to her face and gently wrapped the tears streaming out of her eyes.

“Why are you crying, Margaret? What's wrong?” I asked.

She turned red rimmed eyes to me.

“I don't know. I…I feel like you're too close to Evangeline. I know she's your wife and everything but you told me…you said you didn't love her. And I believed you. But now…I don't know what to think. Why is she giving you a birthday gift? Why did you even accept it from her?” she sobbed.

A mixture of guilt and anger slid into my bones. I pushed the guilt away, and irritation surged in to take its place.

Evangeline was my wife, and we were still married. Even if I didn't love her, I think it was normal for her to gift me on my birthday.

I mean, bare minimum, right?

So why was Margaret upset about that?

I was about to tell her that when she leaned forward, and the guilt I had been suppressing rushed in.

My breath caught in my throat.

She was wearing the necklace.

The necklace.

Many years ago, I got into a car accident. My parents had been with me in the car, and while my Father died on the spot, someone — a lady— had managed to take me and my mother to the hospital before it was too late.

I had survived because of that lady, and but I had been in so much pain due to the blood loss from the accident, and I didn't get a chance to thank whoever it was.

When I got discharged, I tried to find the lady. But I didn't remember who she was. Her face had blurred out of my memory, and all I remembered was her necklace.

I eventually found her though. With the necklace, I found her and took care of her. I owed her my life, and to me, that was a debt that would last for the rest of my years on earth.

Things were going well between us, and I was so in love with her.

But when she met my elder brother, everything changed. And even though my brother was the Alpha of the pack, even though he was always too busy to care about someone else, Margaret had fallen in love with him.

Seeing her with my brother broke my heart, and a part of me wanted to confront her, to talk to her. I wanted to tell her how I felt.

But then I saw how happy she was. She was so I

hopelessly in love with my brother, and even though it broke my heart to see them together, there was nothing I could do about it.

So I gave them my blessing and loved her from a distance.

But now, my brother was dead, and she was still wearing the necklace.

The sight made my love for her increase. Now that she had no one to protect her, I had to be there for her.

I had to love her and take care of her. Let her know that I would do anything to keep her safe and protected and loved.

Pushing thoughts of Evangeline and her gift away, I hugged Margaret, holding her with all the love in my heart.

She was the only one for me.