All Chapters of Bossed By My Brother's Best Friend: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

LILA'S POVI didn't sleep. Not even a little bit.How the fuck was I supposed to sleep when my entire body was still humming from Wade's fingers, from his mouth on my skin, from the orgasm he denied me like some kind of sadistic Alpha?I spent half the night tossing and turning, my hand finding its way between my thighs more times than I want to admit. But every time I got close, I'd hear his voice in my head.‘Don't touch yourself. I want you desperate and aching for tomorrow night's event.’And like an idiot, I obeyed.So now I'm standing in my massive bedroom at seven in the evening, exhausted and horny and about to make my public debut as Wade Cross's fake mate at the Silvermoon alliance event, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to throw up."Miss Reeves, are you ready?" Abigail knocks softly before entering with two other maids I don't know the names of yet."Ready as I'll ever be," I lie, my stomach churning.The past few hours have been absolute chaos. A stylist arrived at noon with

LILA'S POVI open my mouth to respond to Wade's question, my brain scrambling for some way to deflect, to change the subject, to literally talk about anything else besides my two-year relationship with his asshole cousin.But before I can formulate a coherent lie, a shift in the room's energy makes me pause.The conversations around us fade slightly, and I feel Wade's posture change beside me. His hand on my waist tightens just a fraction, and his attention moves toward the entrance.I follow his gaze and immediately understand why.A man has entered the ballroom, and oh shit, he's intimidating as fuck.He's tall, probably in his late fifties, with silver-streaked dark hair and the kind of presence that makes everyone in the room unconsciously snap to attention. His suit is impeccable, his expression stern, and he moves through the crowd like a general inspecting his troops.Alpha Douglas Hawke. It has to be.Beside him is a woman who must be his Luna. She's elegant and poised, with ki

LILA'S POVThe car ride home is quiet. Very quiet.I sit in the backseat next to Wade, my hands folded in my lap, staring out the window at the passing streetlights while my brain replays every single moment of tonight on an endless loop.Connor's face when Wade called me his mate. The shock. The rage. The way he stared at us the entire night like he was trying to set us on fire with his mind.Alpha Douglas's approval. Ruth's kindness. The cameras. The questions.Wade's hand on my ass.My face heats up just thinking about it, and I risk a glance at Wade from the corner of my eye.He's staring straight ahead with an unreadable expression, his jaw set in that way that makes him look like he's thinking about something heavy. One hand rests on his knee, the other loosely slung across the back of the seat, and he hasn't said a word since we left the venue.I wonder what he's thinking.Is he thinking about Connor? About the fact that I still haven't answered his question about how we know

CONNOR'S POVI stare at my phone screen, watching those three little dots appear and disappear, appear and disappear.Lila's typing. She's seen my message. And she's fucking ignoring me.The 'read' receipt mocks me from beneath my text, and I grip my phone so hard the screen protests under my thumb.Five minutes. Ten. Still nothing.Just those damn dots that keep appearing and vanishing like she's writing and deleting, writing and deleting, deciding what bullshit response to give me.Or maybe she's showing Wade. Maybe they're laughing at me together right now, her tangled up in his bed, showing him the desperate text from her ex-boyfriend.The thought makes me grind my teeth so hard my molars ache."Baby?"Amber's voice pierces through my spiraling thoughts, and I glance up to see her standing in the doorway to my bedroom, wearing nothing but a white towel wrapped around her body.She's fresh-faced, makeup removed, blonde hair piled on top of her head, and she's giving me this pouty l

LILA'S POVI wake up to my phone absolutely blowing up.Notifications are pinging one after another, the sound drilling into my skull like a damn alarm I can't shut off. I grab my phone from the nightstand, squinting at the bright screen, and my stomach immediately sinks.Fifty-three notifications. Fifty-three.Most of them are from social media, but there are texts from numbers I don't even recognize, and when I unlock my phone, the first thing I see is a headline.**ALPHA WADE CROSS ANNOUNCES MATE BOND AT SILVERMOON ALLIANCE EVENT**Below it is a photo of Wade and me on the red carpet. His arm is around my waist, pulling me close, and I'm looking up at him with this expression that looks way too real.I stare at the photo, my chest tightening.That's me. That's definitely me in that burgundy dress with my hair done up and makeup perfect. But I barely recognize myself.I look confident. Elegant. Like someone who isn't faking it.I scroll down, and there are more photos. Wade's hand o