All Chapters of The Mate Curvy of the Forbidden Alpha: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

A Date Without Touching Should Count as TortureAnneThe idea that my emotions could turn into magic without asking my permission accomplished something neither Garret, nor Willow Creek, nor a poisoned arrow had managed to do.It made me afraid to kiss Nathan.And that was quite a revelation.I spent the entire afternoon in the bakery trying to prepare a basic dough and watching my hands as if they were two repeat offenders.Nothing glowed, nothing exploded.No rune decided to burn anyone.And that didn't help.Nathan was standing in front of my mother's mural, reviewing some copies of the secret report with Thalia. I stared at him longer than I should have and, as if he knew what I was doing, he lifted his head."You're thinking very hard," he said with one eyebrow raised."It's a skill.""It looks painful.""It is," I admitted honestly.Thalia looked at us over her glasses."If you're going to have an emotional conversation, I'd appreciate five minutes' warning so I can leave," she

Family, Rain, and the Price of My LifeAnneThe rain started before we crossed the last bridge out of Ravenshade and kept falling with the persistence of an offended mother-in-law.I was sitting by the window, watching the forest turn gray behind the glass. Nathan was driving. Thalia occupied the back seat with three folders, a bag of provisions, and the satisfied expression of a lawyer who could smell conflict from miles away."We can go back," Nathan said for the third time."No," I replied firmly."You haven't had a proper breakfast.""That doesn't make the border any less necessary," I muttered under my breath."We can stop.""We can arrive," I said seriously.Thalia looked up from her papers."I love traveling with you two. It's like listening to a married couple argue about logistics without admitting they're married," she said as she took a licorice candy and bit into it. "It's obvious what you are.""We're not married," I said immediately.Nathan kept his eyes on the road."We

Ghost Payments and Boyfriends for HireAnneThe rain was still falling when Nicole came back outside. I turned to look at her, but something about her felt wrong and then she took two steps toward the house to go back inside. That bothered me, so I decided we weren't finished yet."Wait," I told my cousin, and she stopped.Nathan did too, that last part mattered more.My hands were still cold from the blue box, from the confession about the Circle, and from the certainty that Garret had known far more about my life than he'd ever told me. Nathan was beside me, soaked, with his jaw so rigid it could probably cut wood.He didn't move forward, didn't growl, didn't turn my family into a military operation.He only looked at me."Do you want to continue?" he asked."Yes.""Then I'm staying here," he said firmly.Nina let out a satisfied sigh.Now that's sexy.We're interrogating my cousin.I can appreciate several things at once.Thalia activated the recording again, Nicole looked at the p

Dead Ovens and Missing AlphasAnneThe day before the opening started with smoke.Not romantic smoke, not pretty wood smoke, not that dramatic mist one accepts because it makes everything look more expensive.Black, criminal smoke.Smoke coming out of my new ovens.I ran down the street with my skirt gathered up to my knees, Pippa behind me and Bernard shouting something about valves he couldn't understand. When I reached the bakery, two of the windows were broken and one of the doors was hanging from a hinge.My heart dropped into my stomach and something inside me jolted."No," I said in horror.I went inside immediately and the scene made me curse under my breath.One of the ovens had its front panel ripped off. The other was full of sand, bent metal, and something that smelled like burned oil. A tray had been smashed against the floor and everything was a damn disaster.Pippa stopped beside me."Anne...""Don't touch anything," I told her immediately.The girl obeyed.Nina woke in

A Suspect, a Storm, and Only One BedAnneThe saboteur woke up handcuffed to a chair, with a broken nose and an expression suggesting he was reconsidering every decision he had made since birth.I watched him from the other side of a table.Thalia was on my right and Nathan, on my left.That last part mattered because Nathan's hands were still cold.Not freezing like the night before, but cold enough that I had considered wrapping him in another blanket and denying him civil rights until his temperature stopped worrying me.Some of that worked.The detainee looked at Nathan."It was Cassian," the man said without hesitation.The air changed, but Nathan didn't blink, he simply focused on the man."What did he order?" he asked."Destroy the ovens. Threaten the workers. Stop the opening."Thalia rested a pen on the document."Full name," she said, and the man swallowed."Marcus Hale," the stranger replied, and my friend frowned."Who contacted you?" Thalia asked."Cassian Blackstone."Na