บททั้งหมดของ MATED TO MY BESTIE'S ALPHA DADDY: บทที่ 81 - บทที่ 90

Zephyr parks across the street from my apartment building. He doesn't turn off the engine."I'll wait here," he says.I look at him. "You're not coming up?""She asked to see you. Not me." He reaches for my hand. "If you need me, call. I'll be there in seconds."I nod. I squeeze his hand. Then I get out of the car.The building is suddenly too quiet. The elevator takes forever. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat.I reach my door. I stop.She's in there. She wants to talk. She might forgive me. She might not.I take a breath as I open the door.Ivy is sitting on my couch.She's wearing one of my sweatshirts—the grey one with the holes in the sleeves. Her hair is pulled back. Her face is pale. But her eyes—her eyes are clear.She looks up when I walk in. We stare at each other. Neither of us speaks. The silence is heavy, thick with everything we haven't said.Then Ivy stands."You're late," she says.I blink. "What?""I've been waiting for twenty minutes. You're neve

"I want you." Raylynn's breath shudders out of her when my fingers move, and her hands fist in my shirt like she's afraid I'll let go. "Zephyr, please.""Please what?""Don't stop."Her whisper goes straight through me, and my heart slams so hard against my ribs that I can feel it in my throat. She's been away from this office for two days, and every hour of it has felt like a year.I slide my hand out from under her skirt, and she lets out a small, unhappy sound that almost undoes me."Not here," I say, lifting my head. "Not on a chair."Before she can ask what I mean, I pick her up by the waist and set her on the edge of the conference table, and her legs wrap around me on instinct."Zephyr!" She glances at the door. "Someone could walk in.""No one will.""How can you be so sure?""Because I told Drew to end the meeting and keep everyone out of this hallway for ten minutes." I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "And because no one in this building opens a door I've closed."

"Stop bouncing your knee," Dee mutters without looking at me. "You'll wear a hole in the carpet.""I'm not bouncing it." I glance down, and my knee is bouncing. I press my palm against it until it stops. "Okay, maybe a little.""A lot." She chews on her unlit cigarette and shifts her folder from one arm to the other. "Breathe, red. You've got the best work in this room.""You haven't seen everyone's work.""I don't need to."The top-floor hall is quieter than I've ever heard it. The long table at the front has been covered in green cloth, and behind it sit three strangers I've never seen in this building. Drew told us this morning that Zephyr asked for the review to be done by council members from other packs, people who owe him nothing and who can't be pressured by him or anyone close to him.Nobody here owes Zephyr anything, and I'm not sure whether that makes me feel safer or a lot more scared.The woman in the middle is the Chair, with a silver braid that falls past her waist and

"You said you'd stay away," Raylynn says the second she sees my face, and there's no relief in her voice at all, only fear. "Zephyr, what happened?" "Nothing happened to me." I hold up a hand before she can come closer. "I'm not here to save you." "Then why are you here?" "Because I found something the Council needs to hear before they waste another twenty minutes waiting on a file that was never going to prove what Daniella wants it to prove." The Chair's rings click once against the table, sharp in the silence. "Alpha Zephyr. This review was set on the condition that you'd be absent." "I am absent from the review." I walk to the front of the room, not toward Raylynn, and I feel her eyes on me the whole way, confused and a little hurt that I don't stop beside her. "I'm here on a separate matter. A security breach inside my company." "A breach," the bald councilman repeats, and he stops chewing his mint for the first time all afternoon. "Three days ago, someone accessed the shar

"Ivy." I drop to my knees in the wet grass beside her, my breath tearing out of me in ragged gasps, my hands already reaching for her shoulders. "Ivy, look at me."She doesn't look at me. She's staring straight ahead at the headstone, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped tight around them, and her whole body is shaking so hard that her teeth are chattering even though the night isn't that cold."I'm sorry," she whispers. "I'm sorry, I just needed—""You don't have to apologize." My heart is still slamming against my ribs from the run, and my hands are shaking almost as badly as hers, but I make myself keep my voice soft. "I'm here."She finally turns her head, and her eyes are red and swollen, her usually neat ponytail half falling apart with strands stuck to her wet cheeks. Ivy has always been the steady one between us, the one who color-codes her calendar and reminds me to eat when I forget, the one who hums off-key while she cooks because silence makes her nervous.