Rejected By My Brother’s Alpha Best Friends のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 51 - チャプター 60

HUNTER'S POVThis felt wrong. Completely wrong. But sitting there drunk while Penny slowly peeled off her blouse, I wasn't thinking straight.I'd always assumed the kids were mine. They were supposed to be mine.The thought stung harder this time than it ever had.Penny climbed onto Axel's lap, already half undressed. She dipped her head down, their mouths crashing together. My chest tightened watching it, heat pooling low and unwelcome.I knew I should look away but I didn't. The way she clawed at Axel's waistband when he moved to her breasts, eyes rolling back, lips parting, held my attention more than I wanted to admit.Her soft, satisfied sigh as Axel trailed sloppy kisses down her neck sent a jolt straight through me."Penny." Axel's voice came muffled against her skin. "It's been so long."She tugged his hair, pulling his face up to hers, then turned to look at me while rolling her hips slowly over him. His groan made something twist low in my stomach.As if she'd read my mind,

BRIELLE'S POV"She looks peaceful."I looked up from Nora's bed to find Darius in the doorway, watching my daughter sleep with an expression I still hadn't learned to fully read. His shirt was rumpled, the cotton ball still taped in the crook of his elbow, evidence of a night that had upended his entire life in ways neither of us had fully processed yet."She's exhausted." I kept my voice low, careful not to wake her. "We all are."Nora's monitor beeped steady and even beside us, the most reassuring sound I'd heard all night. I sat beside her bed, her small hand curled loosely around two of my fingers, and let myself finally breathe for the first time in hours.The room smelled faintly of antiseptic and the lavender lotion the nurses had used on her hands after the transfusion, a strange, domestic detail in the middle of everything else. Down the hall, Maya and Lila were asleep in the family room, exhaustion finally winning out over fear. Darius had refused to leave the corridor despi

BRIELLE'S POV "Nothing." Darius kept his voice steady. "We were just talking. It's been a long night for everyone." Hunter's eyes moved between us, clearly unconvinced but too exhausted to push. "You two look like you've seen a ghost." "It's been that kind of night." I gestured toward the empty chair, though I doubted either of them would sit. "It's been that kind of everything, honestly." He didn't ask further, which surprised me given how he usually was. Instead he crossed the room slowly, stopping at the foot of Nora's bed, staring down at her with an expression I couldn't fully read. "She looks so small," he murmured. "She is small. She's four." "I know. I just—" He shook his head, not finishing the thought. Whatever had happened to leave him looking like this, disheveled, hollow-eyed, shirt buttoned wrong, he clearly wasn't ready to explain it, and I didn't have the energy left to ask. "You should both go home." I kept my voice firm despite the exhaustion dragging

AXEL'S POV Sunlight cut hard across my eyes before I'd even fully surfaced. I lay still for a moment, disoriented, my head pounding in a way that told me exactly how much whiskey I'd gone through last night. Then I felt the weight beside me, the warmth of another body, and everything came rushing back at once. Penny. I sat up too fast, the room tilting slightly. She stirred beside me, blinking awake, her hair a mess against my pillow, looking entirely unbothered by the whole situation. "Morning." Her voice came out rough with sleep. "Morning." I dragged a hand down my face, trying to piece together how much of last night had actually happened the way I remembered it. "That happened." "It did." She stretched, unhurried, watching me with an expression I couldn't quite place. "You regretting it already?" "I don't know what I'm feeling yet." "Fair enough." She sat up, pulling the sheet loosely around herself, entirely unbothered by my obvious discomfort. "For what it's wo

BRIELLE'S POV"These need to come down two inches. The client already flagged the proportions once." I tapped the tablet screen and slid it across the table toward Claire. "Get the vendor on a call before end of day.""On it." Claire was already typing when the elevator chimed behind us.I didn't need to turn around to know who it was. The room went quieter first, the way it always did whenever Penelope Flowers walked into a space that wasn't hers."There she is." Penny's voice carried across the open floor, bright and easy, like she'd been invited. "I heard you were back up here and I just had to see for myself."I set the tablet down slowly. "Penny. This is a closed session.""I won't stay long." She dropped into the chair across from me without waiting to be offered it, crossing her legs, folding her hands like she belonged at the table. "I just wanted to say hi. It's been ages.""It has.""You look incredible, by the way. Motherhood clearly agreed with you." Her eyes swept over me