All Chapters of Taming the Alpha CEO: Mine to Ruin: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

We follow the crowd inside and I try not to gape at the interior because it’s massive. The ceiling has to be at least thirty feet high with exposed wooden beams and there’s a fireplace against one wall that’s big enough to walk into. Pack members file in and take seats on benches and chairs that line the walls and I’m left standing with everyone staring and I’ve never felt more exposed in my life. Elder Blackwood settles into a high-backed chair at the far end of the hall that looks less like furniture and more like a throne and he studies me with the kind of cold look that makes me want to shrink into myself. “Tell me, human.” The way he says human makes it sound like an insult. “What makes you believe you’re worthy of an Alpha?” “I don’t—” I start but he holds up one hand and I stop talking. “You don’t,” he agrees. “Yet here you stand, having triggered a war responsible for dead in my son’s home, do you even comprehend the magnitude of what you’ve done?” “Viktor wants

Another wolf gets brought in and Judith curses under her breath. “I need you to hold him down, he’s going to try to shift and if he does it’ll rip the stitches.” I move to the new patient who’s thrashing on the bed and there’s a gash across his shoulder that’s so deep I can see the bone underneath and when I try to hold his arms down he nearly throws me off. Judith finishes the last stitch and steps back. “He’ll live, keep him still for another few minutes while the silver clears his system.” At some point I realize she’s letting me actually help instead of just keeping me busy. My hands won’t stop shaking and there’s blood dried under my fingernails and soaked into my clothes up to my elbows and my voice is hoarse from talking nonstop but I can’t stop because these people are hurt and I can actually help instead of being useless. Kade appears next to me at some point and he’s on his phone again speaking that other language and his face is grim and tight and I can’t hear w

“Not yet.” His hand slides up my thigh under the robe. “I need to make sure you’re ready first.” His hand keeps moving higher until his fingers brush against the edge of my underwear and I actually whimper because I need him to touch me properly more than I need oxygen for my next breath. “Please—” I don’t even know what I’m begging for but I need something. His fingers slip under the fabric and when he touches me I arch off the bed and he makes a satisfied sound against my neck. “You’re so wet already.” “Because you’ve been teasing me for weeks—” It comes out breathless. He lifts his head to look at me and his eyes are pure gold now. “I’m going to take my time with you, I’m going to touch every inch of you until you can’t remember your own name.” His hand slides up under the robe properly and his palm is hot against my stomach as he moves higher, and when his fingers brush the underside of my breast I make a sound I didn’t know I could make. He pushes the robe open and I

She positions herself directly in front of the cameras and every reporter immediately shifts their attention to her. “I can actually answer your question about Miss Voss’s relationship with Rhys.” Her voice carries this tone of sympathetic authority that makes me want to punch her. “Rhys Blackwood is engaged, to me, we’ve been together for two years and our wedding is next month.” The cameras explode with flashes and the reporters start shouting over each other so loudly I can barely hear myself think. “So whatever situation Miss Voss has found herself in—” Selene gestures at me like I’m a particularly unfortunate piece of furniture“—it’s temporary at best, Rhys has always been generous with his employees, perhaps too generous, and sometimes people mistake kindness for something more.” “Are you saying Miss Voss is lying about her relationship with Mr. Blackwood?” A reporter shoves a microphone at Selene. “I’m saying that Astrid is a very ambitious young woman” Selene’s smi

ASTRID I woke up to someone knocking, which was weird because nobody had bothered knocking before, they just left trays outside my door like I was a zoo animal they were trying not to startle. The tray from last night was still there when I checked. Someone had covered it with foil at some point, which meant they’d come back to check and I hadn’t even noticed. Kade was standing in the hallway holding another tray, looking at me like he was doing math in his head and didn’t like the answer he was getting. “You planning to starve yourself?” “I’m not hungry.” “That’s not what I asked.” He pushed past me without waiting for an invitation, set the new tray on the desk, then picked up the old one. “Is he back?” “He got in around ten last night.” So he was here, in this building, and he still hadn’t come to see me. “So he’s avoiding me.” Kade sighed and sat on the edge of the desk,“He’s not avoiding you. The board’s threatening him and the shareholders are losing th