All Chapters of Fated to Both Alpha Heirs.: Chapter 11 - Chapter 17

11MABEL POVMy eyes bulged.I stared at the blank screen until my eyes burned. The footage was gone, it wasn't corrupted, or glitched,it was gone.Gone, the way something is gone when someone wants it gone."It's not a technical error," Ava said quietly beside me, closing the laptop lid halfway. "Someone deleted it on purpose. Whoever did this knew exactly which files to pull and exactly when to do it.""So it wasn't an accident," I said, though I already knew the answer. Saying it out loud made it heavier."It was never an accident, Mabel. This was murder, and someone is covering it up."The word sat in my chest like a stone.Murder.I had suspected it, turned the idea over so many times it almost lost its sharpness. But hearing Ava say it plainly, without hesitation, made it real again."How did you even get into the control room?" I asked, needing something else to focus on before my thoughts spiraled.Ava exhaled and rubbed the back of her neck. "You don't want to know how many

13Mabel's POVThe elevator doors slid open and my whole body went still.Xavier was standing inside, one shoulder pressed against the mirrored wall, his legs crossed at the ankle like he had nowhere in the world to be. His tie was loosened just enough to look careless instead of messy, and his eyes lifted to me for exactly one second before they slid away again, like I was a notification he'd already dismissed.My heart did something stupid and immediate, a hard knock against my ribs that had nothing to do with fear.I told my feet to turn around, I told myself there was absolutely no reason to get into a small metal box with the boy who had rejected me in front of half the pack during Mate Recognition, the boy whose voice still lived somewhere in the back of my skull saying words I wished I could unhear.My feet did not listen. They carried me inside anyway, because the hallway behind me was full of eyes and I refused to let anyone see me flinch away from him.I would rather stand t

15XANDER POVI don't think I'd ever kissed anyone the way I kissed Mabel that night.It wasn't the practiced kind of kiss I'd perfected over years of being exactly who everyone expected me to be, careless and easy and forgettable by morning. This was different.She'd kissed me back like she meant it, like something in her had finally stopped fighting itself, and when the softest sound slipped out of her against my mouth, something primal in me nearly lost every ounce of control I had left.I could still feel it even after we broke apart, the warmth of her lingering on my lips, the way her breath had caught before she found the strength to pull back.What I couldn't figure out was why the moment she stepped away from me, something twisted painfully in my chest at the sight of her expression. She looked shaken, guarded, almost angry, like she regretted every second of what had just happened between us. I wasn't used to caring what a girl thought of me after a kiss. I wasn't used to ca

17 MABEL POV I couldn't stop staring out that window, my mind refusing to accept what my eyes had already confirmed. This is both weird and confusing, I can't lie. "Mabel." Ava's voice pulled me back, and when I turned, she was holding her phone out toward me, screen glowing in the dim light of the room. "Students are already talking. Look." I took the phone from her, scrolling through a stream of messages and posts, all buzzing with the same confused speculation. Someone had spotted my father from their dorm window too, and now half the academy seemed to be asking the same question circling endlessly in my own mind. Why was Victor Sinclair standing in the middle of a crime scene at a school he had never once set foot on in all my years attending it. "I need to know why he's here," I said, already reaching for my own phone, my fingers trembling slightly as I found his contact and pressed call. He picked up on the second ring, his voice warm and steady in a way that only made