Lahat ng Kabanata ng Alpha Daddy Take my Cherry : Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

They were still at the counter when Elias set his coffee down and turned toward her."So," he said quietly. "Now that we both know where we stand."He was close. Closer than the counter required.Liora's brain sent a very reasonable instruction to her feet to take one step back.Her feet consulted Freya instead.*Stay,* Freya said immediately. *Absolutely stay. Don't move an inch.*"Freya," Liora muttered under her breath."What?" Elias asked."Nothing." She held her ground. "I just—"*He's leaning in,* Freya announced, delighted. *Liora he's actually leaning—*Liora put her hand flat on his chest."I don't think—" she started.*Don't think,* Freya said. *Stop thinking. Thinking is the enemy right now.*"You're doing it again," Elias said. Low. Almost amused."I'm not doing anything.""You are." He looked at her hand on his chest. "You walked toward the wrong door this morning and now you're pushing back when you have never once pushed back in this entire—"A door slammed somewhere up

Owen looked at him across the desk. Elias looked back. "I'll make the refund once I get home," Elias said. "Today." A pause. Owen studied him the way powerful men studied each other — looking for the crack, the hesitation, the small tell that separated a promise from a performance. He found none. "Today," Owen repeated. "You have my word." Owen nodded once. Short and final. "Then we have nothing more to discuss." Elias stood. Buttoned his jacket. Walked out. --- The drive back was quiet. He kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road and didn't let himself think about the number he had just committed to moving before nightfall. He had built enough over fifteen years that it was possible. Painful, but possible. It would leave gaps that would take months to rebuild and he would feel the weight of it across every part of the pack's operations well into next year. But it was done. He had said it and he would do it and that was the end of it. He did not do situation

She waited in the study.For about four minutes.Then she picked up Niko's marked workbook from the desk, told herself she was being productive, and listened to the muffled sound of voices from the living room down the corridor.She couldn't make out words. Just tones. Elias — measured, controlled. And another voice, older, unhurried, the kind that belonged to someone who had never once in their life felt the pressure of a clock.She put the workbook down.---The Lycan King had taken the best chair in the living room without being directed to it.He sat with one leg crossed over the other and a cup of tea he hadn't touched on the table beside him, looking at Elias with the particular expression of a man who had already decided the outcome of this conversation and was simply waiting for the other person to arrive at it."The transfer cleared," Elias said. He remained standing. "Full amount. This morning.""It did," Owen agreed."Then we're settled.""Are we." Owen looked around the ro

"I heard something," Liora said. "From the corridor. It sounded like — I thought there was a fight. After last time I wasn't going to just sit there and—" "There was no fight." "I didn't know that." "That's why I told you to stay put." His grip finally loosened. Not all the way. Just enough. "Go to my study. We're not finished." Liora looked at him. Then she turned and walked down the corridor. At the fork she turned left instead of right. Her room. Her door. The lock clicking into place behind her. She stood with her back against the door and breathed. *That was not the study,* Freya said. "I know." *He said study.* "I know what he said." She moved to the bed and sat down. "I also know that I just watched two men grab my arm in a living room while another man tried to trade me like I was a line item on an invoice." She pressed her hand flat on the blanket. "I need five minutes where nobody is angry at me or grabbing me or telling me where to go." Freya was quiet. "Five

Leoric sat in Elowen's living room with his phone face down on the table and a glass he hadn't touched in his hand. He'd been quiet for twenty minutes. Elowen knew his quiet. There were different kinds. The distracted quiet when he was bored. The calculating quiet when he was planning. And this one — tight and still and sitting just behind his eyes like something building pressure — this was the dangerous kind. "You've been staring at that wall for a while," she said. "I'm thinking." "About?" He set the glass down. "How close she's gotten." Elowen didn't ask who. She knew who. "She's a tutor," Elowen said. "She's not just a tutor anymore." He looked at her directly. "You know that. You've seen it. The way he came into that room. The way he warned you." He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "Do you understand what happens if Elias Duskfangor decides to keep her?" Elowen was quiet. "She goes from a broke Omega with a dead father's debt to the chosen woman of the mo