جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Chapter Three Hazel’s POV I looked at my mother.I looked at Alpha Creed.Then I turned around and walked back toward the lunch table without a single word.My mother caught up with me in three quick steps, her heels clicking sharp and fast on the stone path. She grabbed my elbow and pulled me close enough that I could smell the powder she’d caked on her face.“I will kill you, you ungrateful brat,” she whispered, a smile still plastered on for appearances. “If you ruin this for me I swear on everything I will make your life hell. Do you hear me?”I pulled my elbow free and sat down.“I have zero interest in being cordial your men,” I said quietly, unfolding the napkin across my lap like we were having a perfectly normal afternoon. “But don’t worry. Maximum three months and we’ll be back in the slums anyway. We always are.”Her hand flew up.A large hand caught her wrist before it reached my face.Alpha Creed. He’d moved so fast and so quietly I hadn’t even heard him close the dist

Chapter Five Hazel’s POV The linen curtain slipped from my fingers. For one stupid second, my brain tried to protect me. It told me I was looking at strangers. Two men I did not know, tangled together on the low bed, skin slick under the lamplight. Then Drake grunted, that low sound I knew better than my own heartbeat, and the lie collapsed. Drake. My Drake. Behind Lucas, gripping his hips, thrusting into him hard enough to shake the bed frame. Lucas’s hands were fisted in the sheets, his head thrown back, his mouth open. The smell of them rolled over me, sex and sweat and the cedar oil Drake always wore, the one I bought him for his birthday because I had saved for two months to afford it. I stood there holding the curtain like an idiot, waiting for the picture to change. It didn’t change. And then the worst part happened. The mate bond stirred in my chest, warm and golden, responding to him the way it always did when he was close. Except this time it carried his pleasure back

Chapter Seven Hazel’s POV My head pounded like someone was hammering inside my skull. My mouth felt dry and sticky. I blinked slowly, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Soft sheets. Warm bed. The scent of leather, cedar, and something masculine wrapped around me. Where the hell was I? I sat up, wincing. I was wearing nothing but an oversized black t-shirt that reached mid-thigh. It smelled like him. Alpha Creed. Memories from last night crashed over me in pieces. The rejection. The crowd. Vomiting in the parking lot. Begging Creed to kiss me. Him turning me down again and again. My phone started vibrating on the bedside table. It wouldn’t stop. I grabbed it angrily. “Who the hell is this?” My mother’s voice cut through like a knife. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone, Hazel? The whole world knows you’re a rejected mate now! Videos are everywhere.” I swallowed hard. “Mom…” “Do you know how embarrassed you’ve made me?” she snapped. “What exactly is your use in this life

Chapter Nine Hazel’s POV The Beta came back before Alpha Creed reached the stairs. “Alpha.” He kept his voice low, but I heard every word from where I stood. “Delta Dante refuses to leave. He says he’ll wait until Miss Hazel agrees to see him.” I felt my whole body go still. Creed didn’t even slow down. He glanced at the Beta the way you glance at weather. “Then he can wait.” That was it. No anger. No explanation. He climbed the stairs to his private floor, and the Beta bowed and disappeared, and I was left standing in the hallway with Dante’s name ringing in my ears like a bell that wouldn’t stop. I went to my room. There was nothing else to do. ----- I showered for a long time. Longer than I needed to. I stood under the water until my fingers wrinkled, scrubbing at skin that was already clean, as if the ceremony was something I could still wash off. The phones. The laughter. Drake’s voice. Some stains don’t live on the skin. I knew that now. I scrubbed anyway.