All Chapters of Alpha's Obsession With His Pet: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

(Rene)"Tonight," Maliyah says."The guests start arriving next Friday. I want this buried before the first car's in the drive."She's got my study organized like it's hers.Brynn scrolling her phone in the window seat, bored on purpose.Angelique standing in the middle of the rug.Angelique's face is granite.Her heartbeat's a different story, and I'm the only one in the room getting that broadcast."Too many failures, Rene."Maliyah settles against my desk."I've watched packs gossip themselves into civil war over less. Say the words like you mean them and we can all move on with our lives.""Do you ever get tired of the sound of your own agenda?" Angelique asks her."Do you ever get tired of standing where you're not wanted?""Ask the man who dragged me here.""Enough."My voice drops the room's temperature."Both of you."Don't do it, the wolf says. Last time it wouldn't take. It's stronger now. This is a cliff.It's the smallest cliff left.Next Friday brings thirty wolves with f

(Rene)Cole finds me in the study at two in the morning."Saw the light."He shuts the door and looks at the desk.The untouched whiskey, the ceremony files I haven't opened."Maliyah's people sent over the banishment language earlier. For your review.""They drafted it already?""Right after she left here. I didn’t want to bring it to you immediately. Didn’t know you’d still be in here. I was going to leave it on your desk."He sets the folder down like it's dirty."She’s certainly efficient.""That all?""That's all."He doesn't leave.He knows exactly how long he can stand there not leaving before it counts as a question."Say it or get out, Cole.""Word is you went down."No dressing on it."When you forced yourself to try and reject Angelique.”He looks at me pensively.“I’ve been your Beta for four years, and I've never seen anything put you on the floor. So whatever the official story is going to be, I'd like a day's notice before I have to tell it.""There is no official story

(Angelique)I get Zack into his coat with his eyes still half-shut."Are we going on an adventure?" His arms go through the sleeves like a doll's."Yeah, baby. A big one."The two bags come out of the toy chest.His trucks.My bit of cash, rolled in a sock.I've rehearsed this walk a hundred times in the dark.Kitchen door, not the front.Out where the delivery vans park.The east fence has a gap the guards think nobody knows about.Zack's warm against my hip, still smelling like the giant because it's not yet dawn and I haven't given him the juice.I don't dose him tonight.I want him smelling like Rene when I put him in a car and drive him off this land.It’s an extra layer of cover.Down the back stairs, forcing myself to breathe deep and slow.Keeping my pulse from tripping over itself is the biggest challenge we’re facing tonight.I picture a flat gray line and try to convince my heart to keep to it.The delivery door gives under my hand without a sound.Cold air wraps around us

(Angelique)Maliyah has me brought to her before I've even changed out of the clothes I tried to run in.She's at a long table laid with seating cards, pretending every tiny adjustment carries the weight of history.White card stock, edged with gold ink.Her daughter's name at the head of each and every one."Sit," she says, not looking up."You look like you've been awake since long before the birds."I didn’t sit when Rene ordered me to, I’m certainly not doing it for her."Suit yourself."She sets a card down.Picks up another.The roses came in yesterday and the whole room smells like a funeral pretending to be a wedding."There was a car by the east fence this morning," she says."Had the Warden’s clerk asking a whole lot of questions.""I don't know anything about a car.""How strange." She almost smiles. "The rags in it belonged to you and your brat."I let my face go empty and force my heart to follow.The bond's quiet.I've gotten better at tricking the bond."I'll be quick,

(Angelique)Cole comes for me at ten, looking like a man who'd rather be delivering firewood."He wants you upstairs.""Of course he does."I catch myself."Fine. I'm coming."The walk to Rene's room takes two minutes and I spend both of them rehearsing.Maliyah gave me one job. Make him hate me. Walk out with my mouth shut.The trouble is that two nights ago he had his teeth on my throat and let me feel everything he's been hiding, and a man that far gone doesn't get talked out of it.He has to be gutted out of it.So that's the plan.Let him have me. All of me. The parts I’ve been trying so hard to hide.Let it get real.Then poison the well while he's still drinking from it.It makes me feel like the most horrible person alive.Hurting someone I love so completely on purpose.Lucky for me I've had years of practice living with that.Parker confirmed my worst fears and I know Maliyah can’t be trusted.Zack and I have to get away from here as soon as possible.Rene’s by the window wh