All Chapters of MY ALPHA STEPBROTHER IS OBSESSED WITH MY SECRET IDENTITY : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

🌸VIOLET🌸 The door clicked shut behind me, and I stood there a full second with my back pressed against it, my heart slamming so hard against my ribs I could feel it in my throat. The room smelled the same as it had nights ago, expensive cologne layered under the faint sweetness of spilled champagne, the lighting dimmed low and gold, and he sat exactly where I expected him to, sprawled in the same leather chair, one arm draped along the back of it, watching me with a stillness that filled the entire room before I'd even taken a second step. "Angel." My name in his mouth, deliberately low, testing the shape of it against his tongue. "Alpha." I let the title roll off my own tongue slow, and I watched his jaw tighten at the sound of it, some flicker of surprise crossing his face that I already knew exactly who he was. "You've heard of me." "Everyone's heard of you." I crossed the room toward him, my heels silent against the thick carpet, my hips already finding their sway, years o

♣️XAVIER♣️ The fear on her face did something to me I wasn't prepared to feel standing over a headless body with blood still cooling on my boots. Terror carved clean across every feature, her eyes locked wide and unblinking on Jackson's twitching body, and something dark and satisfied uncoiled low in my chest at the sight of it, something that made me want to walk back to that corpse and open it again just to watch her flinch a second time. Has she always been this beautiful when she's terrified? She hadn't moved. Not an inch. Her whole body had locked rigid against the stone wall, her eyes still fixed on Jackson, and the bag she'd been carrying lay scattered at her feet, small orange bottles rolling loose across the ground. "Clear off the body." I said it without looking away from her, and my men moved fast behind me, the familiar sounds of boots and cloth and low murmured instructions filling the space where the silence had just been. I turned to Dorian last, my eyes catching

🌸VIOLET🌸 Dinner started normal enough, or as normal as anything got in this house, my mother and Marcus deep in conversation about seating arrangements and flower arrangements and a guest list that kept growing every time either of them mentioned it. "The Ashfords confirmed," Marcus said, cutting into his food without looking up. "That's another twelve seats we'll need to account for." "I told you this would spiral." My mother laughed, soft and easy, the kind of laugh I hadn't heard from her in years before this engagement. "We'll need to move the ceremony to the east lawn at this rate." I sat there pushing a piece of chicken around my plate, my fork tracing slow circles through the sauce without ever actually lifting anything to my mouth. My stomach hadn't settled since the courtyard, and every time I tried to force myself to eat, the memory of blood arcing dark against packed ground rose up thick enough to close my throat. I could feel him watching me the entire time. Xavier

♣️XAVIER♣️ Get off me. Something cracked wide open in her voice on those three words, real fear bleeding through underneath the fight she'd been putting up until then, and I felt it land somewhere low and satisfying in my chest before I could stop the reaction. Fear looked good on her. Fear looked better than the defiance she usually wore like armor, because fear was honest in a way pride never let her be. I pushed off her anyway, rising in one clean motion, my knee lifting off her thigh, my hand releasing her wrist last. She sat up slowly behind me, her arms shaking under her own weight, her chest heaving, and I let myself enjoy the sight of it a beat longer than I needed to before I reached for my towel instead of offering her a hand. "You don't have to be so violent to take down an opponent." My voice came out flat. Perhaps bored. Exactly the tone that would needle her hardest, and I didn't bother turning around to confirm it worked. "See you in class tomorrow morning. Viole

🌸VIOLET🌸 "Begin," Xavier said. Bryce moved first, faster than I expected for someone his size, closing the distance between us in two quick strides before I'd even settled fully into my stance. I got my forearms up just in time, the punch aimed at my jaw glancing off bone instead of connecting clean, and the impact still rattled straight up through my arms hard enough that I stumbled a full step back, my sneakers skidding against the mat. "Come on." He circled me, loose, unhurried, already reading my footwork the way an experienced fighter reads someone who's never actually been tested against a real opponent. "Show me what you've got, princess." The word landed sharp, and I let the anger sharpen my focus instead of my temper, the way I'd trained myself to do alone. I threw a jab, testing his reach, and he slipped it easily, barely moving his head, countering with a shot to my ribs that drove the air half out of my lungs in one ugly rush. I doubled slightly, gasping, and forced