جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 70

~Amber’s POV~There wasn’t an ounce of recognition.He didn’t know I was his mate.I didn’t understand why and that exact perplexity was exactly how Roxanne felt. It was the only thing that registered as I made my way back to my room, found my things where I had left them, pulled them into the space, fished out the spare phone I had gotten because maybe I already knew that somehow in this process I would end up losing my phone again.Then I collapsed on the bed that carried his scent and dialed one of the two numbers programmed into it.The sound of it ringing was the last thing I remembered before exhaustion fully hit and sleep pulled me under like a wave I had no strength to fight.And it was the same sound that filled the space of the room when my eyes finally blinked open again.My hands in their state of drowsiness moved around blindly so I could find it and toss it away and get it to stop. By some miracle, I found it, clicked a button. By another miracle, it stopped.Now I could

~Amber’s POV~Unfortunately… he was right.But more specifically, he was right because I looked worse than a beast. My hair was tangled into what could only be described as a bird’s nest on top of my head, mascara smudged under my eyes, and was that… dried spit at the corner of my mouth?I didn’t need anyone to tell me.I threw the sheet off, grateful beyond measure that nine minutes later I had been able to coax my hair back into its curls as I stared at myself in the mirror, looking almost human again after that really weird moment of almost-civility between us.With a sigh and a stronger promise to myself that I was going to be nothing but calm, I walked out of the bathroom. Kept walking through the beautiful white room, down the hallway, until I reached outside.That was when I felt it.A shift in the energy outside, something wrong and urgent, before my eyes even found him just as he was turning away from Cleopatra’s friends, his entire body radiating tension.Without even think

~Axel’s POV~I didn’t register the moment I moved.One second I was standing in the hallway, watching Amber smile at my sister through the doorway.The next, Cleopatra was gone. Yanked backward through the incomplete window behind her like someone had pulled a rope.Ash surged forward so fast I didn’t have time to think, didn’t have time to process, just felt him take control and push my body faster than it had ever moved.I was already at the stairwell.Already taking the stairs four, five, six at a time, my legs burning, my lungs screaming, but Ash wouldn’t let me slow down.Faster.The floors blurred past me, twenty-ninth, twenty-eighth, twenty-seventh.I could hear her screaming, the sound echoing down through the empty building, high-pitched and terrified and so loud it drowned out everything else.Faster.Fifteenth floor. Tenth. Fifth.My heart was slamming against my ribs so hard I thought it might break through just as I burst through the exit door, my eyes finding her immedia

~Amber’s POV~ There was never a point in my life I would have thought I would be caught in a place like this, much less that it would be my choice to be here.But if I had gotten into that car with Axel, I would have killed him.There was no doubt in my mind about that.Unfortunately, Roxanne would have made it difficult because the bastard was still our mate even though neither of us understood why he couldn't recognize us but I would have gotten creative. The seatbelt wrapped around his neck. A well-placed elbow to his throat. Something.Ending the reign of an asshole seemed like a public service at this point.And to prove just how much of an incorrigible asshole he truly was when I had thought seeing him with Cleopatra meant there was actually a beating heart somewhere in that chest of his, he had driven off.Left me here.Well in defense, I did spit the words at him. "I would rather lose my title than go anywhere with you."Then with an equal amount of ice coating every syllabl

~Axel’s POV~ ‘Axel Edgewood, what did you do to my daughter?’The surprise of it, the sudden intrusion into my mind, the King’s voice cutting through my thoughts without warning stopped me mid-motion.Because of it, I almost dropped Cleopatra right onto my bed instead of the careful placement I had been attempting.I snapped out of it fast, lowered her gently, pulled the covers over her sleeping form, stepped back, stared at her for a second longer, watching her breathe evenly, peacefully.The guilt that had been sitting in my chest like a stone eased up just slightly then the voice sounded through my head again, more insistent this time.‘You do realize that it doesn’t matter how powerful you are, I am still King. And I could have your head for ignoring me.’But I felt his amusement ripple through the psychic link even as he delivered the threat, which told me he wasn’t actually planning to execute me.Today, at least.I turned away from Cleopatra, was about to turn the lights off w