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بيت / Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha / Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

مؤلف: WeeWoo
I stood outside Mason’s office for a moment before entering.

Not because I was reluctant to leave him.

I was trying to decide how to make sure he signed.

As one of Ashridge’s founders, I had planning clearance covering trade routes, boundary maps, and defensive installations.

Back in New York, I would be working with my family’s territorial affairs.

I needed a clear resignation record establishing the exact date I stopped participating in Ashridge’s internal decisions. I would not let anyone use my former access to entangle me later.

As for Mason and me, we had no exchanged marks and no mate bond.

I didn’t need permission to leave him.

When I opened the door, I saw Sadie first.

She wasn’t at her assistant’s desk outside. She sat beside Mason’s desk, so close that her knees nearly touched his.

“Mason.”

Smiling, she reached over and lightly patted his head.

He didn’t even frown.

“Behave. Let me finish reading this agreement.”

“I am behaving.”

Sadie looked at me, satisfaction flickering in her eyes.

“Audrey’s here.”

Mason immediately shifted back and raised his head.

I swallowed the tightness in my chest and placed the folder on his desk.

“I need your signature.”

When I didn’t question what I had seen, he visibly relaxed.

“Sure.”

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Sadie said, standing.

Mason had barely opened the folder when she cried out.

“Oh! My ankle!”

“Sadie!”

He shot to his feet.

I held the folder in place.

“Sign first. It’ll take a few seconds.”

He frowned at me.

“Audrey, didn’t you hear her? She’s hurt. Can a document really be that urgent?”

Sadie crouched on the floor, clutching her ankle and calling his name through tears.

Without waiting for an explanation, he grabbed a pen and signed where I indicated.

He didn’t even read the heading.

I gathered the papers.

That was enough.

He hurried around the desk, lifted Sadie onto the couch, and crouched to examine her foot.

“There’s no swelling. I don’t think it’s the bone, but we should have a healer check it.”

“It isn’t that bad.”

She drew her foot back slightly and looked up at me.

I turned and left without a word.

I had just opened my car door when Mason caught up.

“Audrey.”

He put his hand against the door.

“Don’t misunderstand. Nothing’s happening between us. I couldn’t just ignore an injury.”

“Okay.”

I nodded, looking at his hand.

“I have things to do.”

He didn’t move.

“You’re not angry?”

I met his eyes.

“Would you like me to be?”

“Before, if you saw something like that, you’d definitely—”

“But you did it anyway, didn’t you?”

His expression froze.

I gave him a small smile.

“Relax. Will you be home for dinner?”

“I…”

He caught my hand, as though he had finally found a way to make amends.

“There’s a trade dinner tonight. But I’ll come home afterward. I promise.”

I looked at him, suddenly unable to think of a response.

Coming back to our shared home had become something he offered like a special favor.

I ate out, then returned alone to pack.

Only as I cleared things away did I understand that enough disappointment could erase any desire to keep souvenirs.

The ornaments on the shelves.

The mugs printed with our names.

His slippers by the entryway, his toothbrush in the bathroom, his lounge clothes in the closet.

If I had bought it, I removed it.

During a break, my phone lit up.

Sadie had sent a photograph.

The black Porsche I had chosen stood with its trunk open, packed with pink roses threaded with tiny lights.

**After all these years, Mason still remembers what I love.**

**Thank you for taking such good care of him for me.**

**He’s so much more thoughtful now.**

I stared at the photograph for a long time.

Everything I had treasured could be handed to another woman whenever he wanted to please her.
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  • Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha   Chapter 40

    The next morning, I sent the woman’s contact information to the alliance’s child assistance office, along with an account of what she had told me.The staff didn’t immediately decide who was telling the truth.They confirmed the baby’s circumstances first, then contacted both parents to establish how he was being cared for and who would take responsibility.A few days later, I received an update.Mason had taken the child home and agreed to follow-up visits.At the very least, the baby now had a stable place to live, and someone would be checking that he received proper care.I finally felt able to stop worrying.I no longer loved Mason.I had no wish to enter his life again.But a child shouldn’t have to pay for decisions made by the adults around him.A few months later, our daughter was born.She had Alexander’s eyes and my nose.The first time I held her, I was so nervous that I barely dared to breathe.Alexander sat beside the bed, one hand supporting her and the other holding min

  • Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha   Chapter 39

    A year later, I found out I was pregnant.Alexander stared at the result for several seconds.Then he pulled me into his arms, started to lift me, and immediately put me down again.“Audrey.”His eyes shone.“We’re having a baby.”I laughed and patted his arm.“Then be gentle.”After that, he became even more attentive.He ate breakfast with me and walked with me in the evenings.If work took him away, he told me when to expect him home instead of leaving me to stare at unanswered messages.My mother visited often.Small clothes she had knitted for the baby filled a basket by the window.One afternoon, while I was looking through our honeymoon album in the garden, the gate intercom sounded.A guard told me a woman carrying an infant wanted to see me. She claimed there was an urgent matter involving someone I used to know.By the time I reached the porch, she had been brought into the outer reception area.“Are you Audrey Sterling?”“Yes. Who are you?”“A friend of Sadie Mercer’s.”She

  • Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha   Chapter 38

    That evening, we had dinner at my mother’s house.The table held food I loved and could comfortably eat.Halfway through the meal, she mentioned my grandfather’s birthday.“We’re going to the country house for a couple of days next month. Come with us. He keeps asking about you.”“Of course.”I turned to Alexander.“Will you have time?”“Yes.”He smiled.“I promised him we’d go fishing. I haven’t kept that promise yet.”On my grandfather’s birthday, we drove out together.He seemed even happier to see Alexander than to see me.Before we had been there long, he was asking about the fund, the recently repaired roads, and half a dozen other things.Then he took Alexander straight down to the lake.My mother and I stayed in the garden, gathering vegetables for dinner.She glanced toward the water.“When your grandfather first suggested the arrangement, he worried about it too.”I looked up.“He was afraid you’d agree for the family’s sake and end up unhappy.”By the lake, Alexander bent ov

  • Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha   Chapter 37

    After we returned to New York, life gradually settled into a new rhythm.Alexander went back to managing the fund and territorial affairs.I organized our honeymoon photographs and began reviewing plans to renovate several old buildings on my family’s land.I didn’t rush into a formal position.For the first time, I wanted to make sure I was healthy before deciding how much work to take on.One afternoon, I went to Aster’s offices to pick Alexander up.Near reception stood Mason’s new assistant, holding a stack of documents.He looked startled when he saw me.“Mrs. Sterling. It’s been a while.”“It has.”I nodded.He hesitated.“Mr. Cole asked me to pass on a message. He wishes you well. He won’t bother you again.”“Thank you.”I didn’t ask anything else.Instead, I headed for the elevators.Alexander was still in a meeting, so I waited on the couch outside.When the door opened and he saw me, he smiled immediately.“What brings you here?”“I came to take you home.”I stood and straigh

  • Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha   Chapter 36

    One evening, we sat on the terrace beneath a sky full of stars.For a while, neither of us spoke.Then Alexander turned toward me.“I started liking you earlier than you think.”I looked at him.“The chocolate?”“That was the beginning.”He took my hand.“Afterward, I asked about you. When I heard you’d gone to Chicago, I thought about contacting you. I just didn’t know how to begin.”I studied his profile.The story felt different here, away from the preparations and formalities that had first brought us together.“Then I saw you at the museum last year,” he continued. “I realized how clearly I still remembered you.”“Why didn’t you come find me?”He was quiet for a moment.“I heard you had a boyfriend.”The breeze lifted the edge of my wrap.He drew it more securely around my shoulders before continuing.“I didn’t want my feelings to become a burden you had to manage.”I looked down at our joined hands.“Then my parents mentioned the arrangement between our families. When they showed

  • Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha   Chapter 35

    The day after the ceremony, we left for Italy.Alexander had arranged for his deputy to handle the fund and secured permission for us to stay temporarily within the local pack’s jurisdiction.For once, neither of us had to keep looking back at unfinished work.We stayed in a converted farmhouse in Tuscany.The sunflowers were past their brightest season, their heavy heads bending toward the earth.A little lavender scent remained along the courtyard wall.Beyond the house, hills rose and fell beneath a wide sky.Our hosts were an older werewolf couple.They prepared dinner for us on the first evening: lamb chops, handmade pasta, and grape juice they had made themselves.I couldn’t drink much wine.Alexander chose the same juice without making an issue of it.Our host raised his glass and wished us happiness.Alexander and I looked at each other before gently touching our glasses together.The days that followed moved slowly enough that I stopped wanting to check the time.In the mornin

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