His Stripper Mate のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 41 - チャプター 50

I woke up to the sound of the ocean and the feeling of being anchored to the earth. For fifteen years, sleep had been a battlefield. Ever since the car accident that left me an orphan at seven, my nights were spent in a state of high alert—ears tuned for the sound of floorboards creaking in the orphanage, or the rattling of the heater in the slums. Even during the eight months I spent with Damien, I never truly slept. I was always too busy worrying about the numbers, the meds, and whether I was "too much" for the man who claimed to love me. But this morning, the silence wasn't empty. It was full. I was buried under a mountain of dark gray furs and heavy silk, the weight of them a luxury that made my skin tingle. But it was the heat behind me that made my heart do a slow, rhythmic roll. Nikolai was a wall of solid, living muscle pressed against my back. His arm, thick and heavy, was draped over my waist, his large hand splayed across my stomach as if he were guarding the very ce

The hand reaching for my arm stopped. The man in the doorway hadn’t said anything yet. He didn’t need to. He was tall, broad through the shoulders, with a dark coat that looked untouched by the filth outside. Silver threaded his cropped hair. His eyes moved from the monitor to Sasha’s bandaged wrist, then settled on the hand hovering inches from me. “Lower it.” The collector obeyed. Not because the words were loud. They weren’t. He obeyed because the man spoke with the quiet certainty of someone who expected to be obeyed. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “Victor Volkov,” the supervisor said. It wasn’t a greeting. Victor glanced at him. “You know me. Good. That saves time.” I felt Sasha move closer behind me. “Nick?” she whispered. “No. I haven’t reached him yet.” Victor’s gaze flicked to mine. “He knows you’re here.” Relief hit first. Annoyance followed close behind it. Of course he knew. Apparently everyone could reach Nikolai except me. Victor held out

I stayed.Not because the bed was softer than mine, or because leaving would have meant admitting I had nowhere safe to go.I stayed because he had asked.By morning, I was beginning to understand that choosing a place and belonging there were different things.Sasha had gone to check the clinic repairs with Toby. Nyx was asleep after breakfast, her monitor blinking beside a glass of water.I was still wearing yesterday’s jeans when a woman appeared outside my door with two clothing rails and a smile.“I’m Mara. Mr Vance arranged a fitting.”Behind her hung more dresses than I had owned in my entire life. My stomach tightened.Of course.There would be rules for standing beside Nikolai Vane. Somewhere between the silk sheets and the private security, somebody would decide I needed to look less like myself.I stepped aside.Mara rolled the rails in, opened a case, and lifted a measuring tape.“Before we start, is there anything you don’t wear?”Clothes I couldn’t afford, mostly.“How m

Leo rose to meet her touch too, eager and possessive, pushing against my restraint with the kind of enthusiasm that would have been amusing if I weren’t trying to teach the woman in front of me to control her own Alpha power. Easy, I warned him. She’s not yours to overwhelm. Ours, he answered, with the stubborn certainty of a creature who had never once respected my opinion. Not the time, Leo. Training’s in session. Zosia inhaled sharply. “Did you feel that?” Our body synched together and I could feel her arousal, and I knew she could feel my rut. “Yes. Keep going.” “Was it me?” “Both of us.” “Is that supposed to happen?” “When I reach for your Alpha power, mine answers. Yours recognizes mine, and mine recognizes yours. It can help settle the shaking, but it won’t teach you to settle yourself.” “So you’re a very expensive blanket.” “Apparently. Though most blankets don’t have my shoulders, and I suspect you’d complain if I charged you by the hour.” She turned her head. I

Bijou—she looked like a Bijou—snarled at me with her whole six-pound body. Then, confusingly, she twisted in her owner's arms and snapped at Beatrix's chin.Beatrix's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "Bijou has standards.""Clearly," I said. "You should ask her about them sometime."Nikolai made a sound into his water glass that might have been a cough.Beatrix set the wolf on the polished floor and stepped closer to the table. The temperature of the room changed. I felt it the way I'd learned to feel pressure in the gym—a slow drop, a gathering. She was an Alpha. A born one, polished and registered and hammered into shape since birth."Let's skip the part where we pretend," she said. "Zosia Kane. The Gilded Cage. Rejected a Vane in front of a hundred phones. Suppressed Omega from the slums. My brother collects broken things, little girl, but he has never once brought one to this table. So here is how it works in this family. When I tell you to do something—"She let her Alpha voic