Alpha Maddox's Mortal Temptation のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 151 - チャプター 160

She doesn’t answer. The tears, though, start falling.“She did not.” It’s Father who responds, even though I’m rapidly losing interest in what he has to say. “I would know otherwise. Like I said, I monitored her for years. Even when your tenure as the Collateral ended, nothing that she did set off any alarms. In fact, she seemed to have no interest in Weres at all. Did you, Miss Holt?” He smiles at Anna, and the hatred in her glare could burn him as viciously as the sunlight. He ignores her and turns to me. “She was all about financial journalism, or something or other. I must say, our vigilance lapsed for a few years. The girl had grown into a promising, if very Human, young woman. Sometimes she’d disappear for a few days without warning, but that’s the youths. Carefree. Adventurous. I never suspected that it might have something to do with her genes. Until . . .”“I despise you,” Anna hisses.“I would expect no less. Human-Were hybrid that you are, you are well predisposed to, and I

“Watch your language,” Father admonishes lazily.The blade nicks my skin. The single purple drop of blood sliding down my neck has Lucien thrashing to free himself, but the restraints Malcolm put on him hold.“You love to purchase the good of the Vampyres by paying with the lives of others, don’t you?” I taunt Father. “Only a coward would put others in front of himself.”“I will leverage what I can.”“Well, I won’t. I’m not going to ask Lucien to choose me over his sister.”“But there is no need, is there?” Father turns to Lucien. “What do you think, Alpha? Should I murder her in front of your eyes? I hear that Weres who lose their mates can sometimes go insane. That there is no greater pain,” he adds with relish.Don’t be in pain, I think, staring him in the eyes over the glint of the blade. Whatever happens, don’t be in pain over me. Just be with Daisy, and draw, and go on your runs, maybe think of me sometimes when you eat peanut butter, but don’t be in—“Seraphine,” Anna’s voice i

Father is blindfolded, I assume to save some moron from wandering in and getting themselves thralled within an inch of their life. The headphones they put on him must be noise canceling, but he knows exactly who’s in the room, from heartbeats and blood scent alone. His enforcers are gone, and so is his power. For the first time in his adult life, he’s defenseless. I close my eyes and wait for feelings of any kind to hit me.None arrive.“May I?” Malcolm asks cordially, pointing at Father. Lucien nods, observing him calmly as he rips off the blindfold and the headphones.Malcolm crouches down, sitting on his haunches. It’s my first time witnessing an interaction like this one: my brother as the active, dynamic part, and Father restrained and unmoving. Weak. Losing.They regard each other. It’s Father who finally breaks the silence by saying: “I want you to know that I would do all of it again.” His voice is too strong for my taste, almost obscenely calm. I wish I could watch him beg fo

I don’t see Lucien for the following three days.Or: I do see Lucien. Several times. Constantly, even. But it’s never Lucien, the guy who hung out with me on the roof and drew me baths and once pulled back my hair to stare at the tips of my ears and then mouthed pretty to himself. It’s always Lucien the Alpha.Discussing urgent matters. Shuttling between Were and Vampyre territory with Cal and another gaggle of seconds in tow. Conferring with Malcolm and Maddie Garcia in closed-door meetings I don’t care to be part of, but find myself wishing I were.Anna and I are attached at the hip, surgically, like we’re twelve again and figuring out trigonometry together. We go on long, comfortably silent walks at dusk. We make jokes about the fact that she can grow fur on her elbow at will.We hang out in my room, Anna reading up on everything that’s happened while she was cut off from the world, me blinking sleepily at the black dots on the ceiling, trying to figure out whether they’re tiny bu

His lips part.“No. No. You don’t get to be surprised about what I feel for you. Not when I’ve been nothing but honest about it, and you know what?” My hands are starting to shake, and I fist them against his chest.“No. If I want to be in love with my stupid Were husband, I’m going to be in love with my stupid Were husband, whether he wants to admit that he loves me back or not. And there’s more—I’m going to be living here, so you can unpack those boxes right now. I’m going to be in Daisy’s life, because she likes me and I somehow like her, okay? And I’m going to stick around Were territory, because my best friend is one of you, and for once in my life people have actually been pretty fucking nice to me, and I like living on a lake, and I wouldn’t mind being the bloodsucking weirdo of this pack, and—” I could sputter my way through more threats, but he interrupts me.“The windows. I’m changing them.”“How does that even—”“I saw the ones you have at the Nest. Malcolm explained how th