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บททั้งหมดของ Fated To My Best Friend's Alpha : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

36

CHAPTER ONE

THE ROAD HOME “I can't believe you’d kiss my own best friend Chris…I saw you two, don't even deny it” Carly shrieked pounding on the chest of the young man standing in front of her. “Carly… please this is more than I can control, you won't understand this, you wouldn't, even if I had proof that this isn't our fault. Neither Anna or I wanted this but it's just fate, Carly… fate” Chris said trying his best to calm the already fuming Carly. “Don't… don't fucking talk to me about fate… I won't be surprised if fate drives you to sleep with her as well… what the hell are you talking about Chris telling me about fate… so what happens to us then? Did fate decide you'd date me for two years and dump me for my best friend who you barely know?” Carly said bursting into tears. Chris reached out to embrace her, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead and moved to kiss her. She pulled away, her voice seeming shaky. “No Chris… you can't fucking kiss me with the same lips that tasted Anna's. You

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CHAPTER TWO

FAMILIAR FACES, NEW FEELINGS The Silver Spoon Diner sat on the corner of Main and Elm like a chrome-and-neon promise, its windows fogged from decades of frying bacon and brewing coffee. Anna pushed through the door at eleven sharp, and the bell overhead sang its same tinny song, the exact same note she'd heard a thousand times before, ordering milkshakes after school, grabbing burgers after football games, nursing coffees the morning after prom. Carly was already in their booth. "Anna!" The shriek carried across the diner, people that sat comfortable sipping their coffees glanced towards their direction, making Anna grin despite herself. Carly had always been louder than the room could contain, bright in a way that made people want to orbit her. She was sliding out of the booth before Anna could cross the black-and-white checkered floor, blonde hair swinging, arms already open. The collision smelled like vanilla body spray and bubble gum, and Anna laughed into her best fr

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CHAPTER THREE

UNSETTLING UNDERCURRENTS The days that followed took on a rhythm that should have felt familiar, coffee in the morning, the lake in the afternoon, dinner as the fireflies emerged but Anna couldn't shake the sense that she was learning her hometown by heart all over again, every sense heightened, every moment slightly too sharp. It was Chris. It was undeniably Chris. She noticed it on Tuesday, when they met at Henderson's for ice cream and he laughed at something Carly said, his head tipping back, throat exposed,. The sound vibrated through Anna's ribcage like a tuning fork struck against bone. She'd had to grip the metal table to keep from reaching toward him and claiming his neck line with kisses. She noticed it on Wednesday, walking through the fields behind his house. The wind shifted, carrying his scent to her, not cologne, nothing so artificial, but something earthy and warm, like sunbaked stone and pine needles and the faint, electric tang of a summer storm building on the

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CHAPTER FOUR

A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE VEILThe afternoon had started out innocent enough. Carly had dragged them to Millbrook's annual summer garage sale crawl, a tradition she took with the seriousness of a religious pilgrimage. They'd sifted through Mrs. Patterson's collection of ceramic cats, debated the merits of a vintage record player at the Hendersons', and eaten their weight in lemonade cookies from the church bake sale table. By three o'clock, the heat had wrapped itself around the town like a wool blanket, and Anna's hair clung to the back of her neck in damp curls."We're almost done," Carly promised, fanning herself with a rolled-up newspaper she'd bought for fifty cents. "I just need to pick up the dry cleaning for my mom. She'll murder me if I forget her sundress again."They were standing in the gravel lot outside Chris's truck, the vehicle ticking as it cooled. Anna had just opened the passenger door, grateful for the blast of oven-hot air that meant soon, air conditioning, when Carly

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CHAPTER FIVE

THE INSTINCTS AWAKENThe Silver Spoon had run out of cherry syrup. It was a small tragedy, the kind that shouldn't have mattered, but Carly had set her heart on a cherry Coke and the denial sent her into a dramatic sulk that required an immediate walk to clear her palate.So they found themselves strolling down Main Street in the bronze light of late afternoon, the sidewalk radiating the day's stored heat up through the soles of Anna's sandals."You're actually pouting," Anna said, bumping her shoulder against Carly's. "Over soda.""I'm pouting over injustice," Carly corrected, shoving a stick of gum into her mouth. "They knew summer was coming. They knew I'd be here. This is a failure of infrastructure.""We could go to Henderson's. They have fountain drinks.""Fountain drinks are not the same and you know it." Carly chewed aggressively, then looped her arm through Anna's, swinging their joined hands. "Chris, back me up. Tell Anna that a summer without cherry Cokes is no summer at al

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CHAPTER SIX

WHISPERS AND WORRIESThe hammock in Chris's backyard had always been Carly's favorite throne. She'd claimed it the summer they started dating, draping herself across the woven ropes with the territorial certainty of someone who had never been made to feel unwelcome anywhere. Now, she swayed gently, her bare feet pushing off the oak tree, while Anna sat rigid in the Adirondack chair ten feet away, pretending to be fascinated by a chipped nail.Chris stood at the grill, spatula in hand, his back to them both. Smoke curled around his shoulders, carrying the scent of char and hickory, but Anna could smell something beneath it, that storm-and-pine musk that seemed to thicken in the air whenever she was near him."Earth to Chris," Carly called out. "Those burgers are going to be fossils if you don't flip them."He startled, the spatula clattering against the grate. "Right. Sorry.""That's the third time you've checked out in an hour." Carly's voice held its usual teasing lilt, but Anna hear

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CHAPTER SEVEN

FATHER'S PAST The truck wasn't running right. Anna could hear it from the driveway, a rough idle, a catch in the rhythm like a skipped heartbeat. She followed the sound around the side of the house to the detached garage, where her father stood hip-deep in the engine bay of his Ford, a work light clipped to the hood casting his face in harsh shadows. "Bad spark plug?" Anna asked, her voice sounding hollow in the quiet evening. Pete didn't look up. "Worse. Timing belt's fraying. I keep patching it, but she's telling me it's time to let go." Anna leaned against the workbench, her arms wrapped around her middle. The garage smelled of grease and cut grass, of her father's particular scent of sawdust and peppermint. It was the smell of safety, of childhood, and it made the pressure behind her eyes build until she thought her skull might crack. "Dad?" "Mmh?" "I need to tell you something." Her voice broke. She pressed her lips together, hard, until the trembling stopped. "And I need

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CHAPTER EIGHT

THE WEIGHT OF DESTINYAnna didn't sleep that night. She couldn't sleep at all. She lay in her childhood bed with the quilt pulled to her chin, staring at the ceiling where glow-in-the-dark stars, remnants of a twelve-year-old's decorating phase, had long since lost their charge.The house was silent, her parents' bedroom door closed down the hall, but she could feel them both awake. The weight of revelation pressed against the walls, thick as humidity before a storm.Werewolves are real.She tested the thought, rolling it across her mind like a marble, waiting for it to drop through some trapdoor of denial. It didn't. It sat there, heavy and solid, clicking into place with every memory she'd been dismissing: Chris's eyes in the firelight, the protective stance on Main Street, the way the town deferred to him like he was royalty in flannel. The dreams of running through forests, of teeth and moonlight and belonging.And beneath it all, the bond. The invisible chain that tethered her to

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CHAPTER NINE

THE ALPHA'S STRUGGLE The Whitmore property sat at the edge of the wild country, where the wheat fields gave way to forest and the night belonged to creatures that didn't bother with human names. Chris ran there now, four paws pounding the earth, the wolf finally free after days of caging it behind human manners and careful words. He should have felt relief. The change always brought clarity, the simplicity of scent and speed, of instinct over thought. But tonight, the forest was full of her. Anna's scent clung to every breath he took. Not physically, she hadn't been here, would never trespass without invitation, but in the wolf's memory, in the way his beast-self carried her impression like a brand. Rain on warm skin. Salt and something sweet, like summer peaches. The particular electricity of her fear and want when he'd pinned her against the pharmacy wall. Mine, the wolf insisted, the thought rising from his spine like a song. Ours to claim. Chris threw himself into the

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CHAPTER TEN

THE INEVITABLE CONFRONTATION The bonfire at Miller's Field was supposed to be a fresh start. That was Carly's thinking, anyway. She'd spent three days icing Chris out, waiting for him to crack, to explain, to beg forgiveness. Instead, he'd only grown quieter, more distant, his eyes taking on that haunted look she was beginning to hate. So she'd taken matters into her own hands. She'd texted the group, bonfire, Saturday, everyone come, let's reset the summer. She'd watched Anna read the text from across the diner booth, watched her friend's face go pale, watched her make excuses about the fake summer class. Carly had smiled through it and said, "Perfect. See you there." Now, standing by the flames with a warm soda in her hand, Carly wondered what she'd been trying to prove. That they could all be normal? That the thing she kept glimpsing in the corners wasn't real? Because it was real. She knew it was real. She'd seen them at the lake yesterday. She hadn't meant to spy. She'd go

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