Alpha's Obsession With His Pet のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 71 - チャプター 80

(Rene)"You haven't heard a word I've said," Cole tells me on the east lawn, holding a clipboard I'm supposed to be reading."Seating for the visiting Alphas. Karth's seat stays empty out of respect. I heard you.""That was ten minutes ago. I've moved on twice since."I haven't slept.She left my room with her lie hanging in the air and I spent the night taking it apart instead of resting, because the pieces don't fit and I don't tolerate things that don't fit.She shut the bond before the cruelty, not after.She ran with two bags and a child toward nothing.She's lying, and there's exactly one man in my house worth lying for."The Warden's car just cleared the gate," Cole says."Two days early. His clerk didn't know he was coming, which I find interesting, because that clerk knows everything. Where do you want him seated?""I don’t care. He can watch Brynn get crowned from whatever seat he likes."That's when I see them across the lawn.Zack's in the grass by the garden wall, running

(Rene)The lock turns behind her and she stands just inside my study like the room might bite."Ask your questions, Alpha. I'd like to get back to my son.""Sit.""I'll stand."I stay by the window, because the width of the room between us is the closest thing to discipline I’ve got left when it comes to her."Why did you run, five years ago?"Pain rushes through her at the unexpected question before she can hide it."I didn't want this life. I wanted to be free.""Try again. You loved me, I loved you. If you didn’t want to be Luna you could have just turned the offer down if I made it. I wasn’t Alpha yet. You never even asked if I wanted to be Alpha. Neither of us expected me to be in this position so soon. There are much simpler ways to say no than faking your own death.”I watch her face give me nothing."I don’t believe you did it to run from me, but maybe you did it to run to someone else?"The bond sits between us, gray and flat, that dead hum she manufactures.I've come to hate

(Angelique)"Is the giant getting his crown TOMORROW?"Zack's bolt upright in Tova's bed.Having a sleepover because I don’t want him being alone if Rene sends for me."Who told you that?""Cole. He gets one and Brynn gets one, but his should be the BIGGEST because he's the biggest. I wanna see.""You're not seeing it, baby.""WHY?""Because it's a boring grown-up party and you and me are staying upstairs."He flops back with his arms crossed like a man cheated out of money."That's not FAIR. He's my friend."I kiss his forehead and turn off the light.He's still awake when I shut the door.Here's what this week taught me.I can't make Rene hate me.Maliyah wanted me to earn my own exile. Get him sick of me, get the paper signed.I lied to his face with his hands on me and the bond called me a liar in the same breath.Every time.You can't lie to a man who feels what you feel.So I have to wait until he’s distracted and get away for good.Far enough that the bond will shrivel and die.

(Rene)The crown is lighter than it looks.Cole puts it in my hands, steps back, and three hundred wolves go quiet at the same time.Brynn kneels on the step below me in white with her chin up and her hands folded.Her thumb is moving nervously against her knuckle, over and over.She's twenty-one.We don’t love each other.Her mother concocted this.Let her be nervous."Alpha Rene Beck," she says, on cue. “I pledge myself as your Luna.”Alpha Doyle's in the third row with his arms crossed, and he hasn't stopped glaring at me since he sat down.Half this room is here for the ceremony and the other half is here to watch me put the crown on the wrong woman.I've decided I don't care.At five o'clock this ends.It’s a ridiculously long ceremony with all the pledges and swearing and praying to the Moon goddess and waiting for the Warden to pronounce it all done by the book.Then the feast, and shaking everyone’s hands before I can finally go up those stairs and not come down until she can'

(Rene)"Sit down."Three hundred wolves sit down.Not all of them at once.Doyle takes his time about it, because he wants to prove he doesn’t take orders from me.Warden Levi Knox doesn't sit at all.He's at the foot of the altar steps with his hands behind his back, and he's looking at the door Cole carried my son out of."Warden."He turns."Alpha Beck.""You came here to witness a crowning and pronounce it done by the book.""I did.""Then witness this instead."Angelique is standing in the side doorway, shaking, one hand on the frame, looking at me like she knows exactly what I'm about to do and can't work out how to get across the room fast enough to stop it."Come here."She doesn't move.'Make her,' my wolf says. 'She's ours. Say it in front of all of them and let them choke on it.'"Angelique Pruitt. Come here."She comes, because I've used the voice, and I'll hate myself for that later along with everything else.Brynn's still standing on the dais in her white dress, next to