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بيت / Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha / Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

مؤلف: WeeWoo
**However badly you want a mating ceremony, you can’t force him.**

**Did you think getting yourself a dress would make him mark you?**

**Mason promised me a long time ago that I was the only one he’d choose. Stop lying to yourself.**

After parking, I read Sadie’s messages and felt nothing but exhaustion.

I drove around Chicago for hours.

Past the old streets near campus.

Past the first row of houses we had built in Ashridge.

Past the woods outside the city where we used to run together.

Autumn wind poured through the half-open window, cold enough to cut through my clothes.

Soon, I wouldn’t be coming back.

When I finally arrived home late that night, the living room lights were on.

Mason sat on the couch.

He stood when he saw me.

“Why so late?”

“I went for a drive.”

He nodded and reached to embrace me.

I stepped back instinctively.

His hands stopped in the air.

“Still angry?”

I said nothing.

“I was too harsh this afternoon.” His gaze searched my face. “If you don’t want to be planning director anymore, take a break. As long as you’re happy, we can work everything else out.”

As though those signed documents were nothing more than an elaborate tantrum.

I had no interest in arguing.

“Your birthday’s coming up. Any plans?”

His birthday was the day before my departure.

It was also our sixth anniversary.

“I’ll be home with you.”

This time, he moved more cautiously when he reached for me.

I didn’t pull away, and he drew me into his arms as though that finally reassured him.

“Audrey, I keep feeling like something’s different about you.”

“You’re imagining it.”

I stepped out of his embrace.

“I’m cold. I’m going to shower.”

Once, touching my hand would have told him how long I had been freezing outside.

Now, all that mattered was whether I still allowed him to touch me.

I had reached the stairs when he called after me.

“Where’s my toothbrush? And my mug?”

I lowered my eyes.

Those weren’t the only things missing.

“There are new ones in the cabinet. Help yourself.”

I went upstairs.

By the time I finished showering, my phone was full of messages from Sadie.

I hadn’t answered her earlier taunts.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough for her. She started sending screenshots.

The conversations went back much further than the past two months.

A year.

Two years.

Even earlier.

Most of the time, Mason had contacted her first.

**I’m seeing someone now. She’s a good person. Her smile reminds me of yours.**

**Sometimes, when I look at her, I remember how we used to run through the woods.**

**How have you been? I dreamed about you last night.**

I scrolled through them.

**Sadie, I might be getting mated. We can’t keep doing this.**

**She’s been through too much with me. Ashridge wouldn’t exist without her.**

**We finally bought the two houses near the council hall. The upper-level place has just been renovated. She says we could live there for years.**

That was where Sadie began answering more often.

They started sharing their lives.

There was the breakfast I had gotten up early to make him.

He had photographed it and sent it to her.

**This is breakfast today. What are you having?**

There was the lemon tree I had nurtured for two years before it finally bore fruit.

**When they’re ripe, I’ll pick the biggest ones for you. You can make lemonade.**

There were the territorial renderings I had stayed up until dawn to finish.

**She finally finished drawing it. When it’s built, I’ll bring you to see it.**

My fingers trembled around the phone.

Suspecting that you were someone’s substitute was one thing.

Seeing exactly how he spoke about you was another.

The days I thought belonged only to us had been broken into photographs and delivered to another woman.

I had just taken a hot shower, but I was shivering hard enough for my teeth to chatter.

My eyes slowly burned.

He hadn’t fallen out of love with me later.

From the beginning, he had been thinking of someone else when he looked at me.

It took a long time before I could type.

**It’s late. Get some sleep.**

Sadie replied almost instantly.

**Stop pretending. You won’t leave because Ashridge is about to expand, and Mason finally has money and status.**

**Since you helped him, I can have him give you a hundred thousand dollars. Take it and leave with some dignity.**

**Without Mason, where else would you find an Alpha like him?**

A hundred thousand dollars.

I stared at the number and suddenly laughed.

The gown the Sterlings had sent probably cost more than that.

The bedroom door opened.

Mason stood in the doorway, holding his phone.

“Audrey, why did you list the watch I gave you on a resale site?”
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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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