Todos os capítulos de FAKING IT WITH THE ALPHA CAPTAIN RIVAL : Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

ElenaThey already lived there.I read that line so many times the words stopped looking real. I didn't sleep that night, turning it over, the estate, the keycard, three weeks until a wedding built entirely out of fear and timing and by morning, I still had no idea who it meant, only a cold, crawling certainty that whoever had hurt Marcus Hart was someone who sat at his own dinner table.I didn't expect Victoria to be the one to hand me the next piece of it.She found me outside the campus bookstore, alone, no entourage trailing behind her for once, which should have warned me something was different before she even opened her mouth."Elena." Her voice was pleasant. Too pleasant. "Just the person I wanted to see.""I don't have time for this, Victoria.""You'll make time." She fell into step beside me, smiling in that practiced, camera-ready way that never once reached her eyes. "I wanted to talk about your little friend."My stomach tightened. "Aiden's not my—""I don't actually care

The cup Ryder had just set down cracked clean in half beneath his own hand, the plastic splitting with a sound sharp enough to cut straight through the pounding music, and every single person within twenty feet of us went instantly, completely silent."Ryder." Victoria's voice, low and urgent now, all the sugar gone out of it. "Not here."He didn't look at her. His eyes were locked on Aiden, and something moved behind them that wasn't quite human anymore, a flicker of gold, gone as fast as it came, but I'd seen it, and judging by the way Aiden's smile faltered for half a second, so had he."You want to finish that sentence?" Ryder asked. His voice had dropped into something rougher, something that scraped instead of spoke."Not particularly," Aiden said. "I think I made my point.""You made something." Ryder's hands were shaking now, faint but visible, the plastic shards of the cup still gripped in his fist. "Careful what you think you understand, Cross Pack.""Careful yourself, Knigh

ElenaRun.I didn't move. My legs wouldn't listen to whatever instinct was screaming at me to get up and leave, because some other part of me needed to understand what he meant first. Needed to know exactly what I was supposed to be running from, and whether staying still made me brave or just stupid."Elena." Aiden's hand closed around my wrist, gentle but firm. "Did you see that? His face just now?""I saw it.""That's not a metaphor. That wasn't him being dramatic." Aiden's voice had gone tight, careful, the way it always did when he was trying not to sound as worried as he actually was. "That's a wolf on the edge of losing control in front of a full arena. You don't stay in the blast radius of that just to prove a point.""He's not going to hurt me.""You don't know that. Not tonight, not like this."I didn't answer him, because I wasn't sure I believed my own words either, and because Ryder was already moving.He skated straight for the boards, cutting across the ice in a hard, d

RyderMarcus Hart moved through the crowd like a man who'd walked out of a hospital bed against every doctor's warning, because he had. Even from here I could see the strain in his stride, the careful way he held his ribs, the fury in his face doing absolutely nothing to hide how much the movement cost him.He was staring straight at Elena."Ryder." Victoria's hand shot out and closed hard around my sleeve, her nails digging in through the fabric. "Ryder, look at me. Right now.""Not now, Victoria.""Yes, now." Her voice dropped, sharp and low, urgent in a way I'd never heard from her before not performance, not calculation, something closer to actual panic. "You need to understand what you're about to do before you do it.""I haven't done anything.""You're about to." Her grip tightened even further, hard enough to hurt. "I can see it on your face. Whatever you two were just talking about, whatever you were about to say to her. Ryder, if you choose her, right now, in front of your fa

ElenaThe envelope arrived three days later, cream-colored and heavy in a way that made it feel like it belonged to someone else's life entirely. My name was printed across the front in careful calligraphy, and when I flipped it over, the sender line made my stomach drop straight through the floor.V. Hart.Not a request, not an invitation in the way the word usually meant something you could decline. I opened it anyway, some numb part of me already bracing for whatever came next.Elena, per Marcus's instructions, you are expected at the following pack functions over the next month. Attire will be delivered to your apartment two days prior to each event. Attendance is not optional. — V.Beneath it, a list, four dates and events. An alliance dinner, a charity gala for pack elders, a "family portrait sitting" that made my chest tighten just reading the words, and something called simply The Founders' Circle, no further explanation given.I called Ryder before I'd even finished reading