Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Best Friend's Dad Is My Alpha Mate: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 5

POV: NayaI told myself the heat crawling up my spine was just the New York summer.It wasn't.It was the iron gates of the Lopez estate sliding open in front of my Uber, and the knowledge that somewhere behind them was the one man I had no business wanting."You good, miss?" the driver asked."Yeah. Just tired."Tired was easier than terrified. Easier than the truth: that three weeks ago I'd found my mother's name erased from every record I owned, that I had nowhere else to go, and that when Santana texted, "Come stay all summer, Daddy already said yes," I'd stared at the word Daddy for a full minute before typing back, "ok."Because I knew exactly what I was doing.I was walking straight into the fire.The car crunched up a gravel drive lined with black oaks, forty minutes north of Manhattan, where the Hudson glittered through the trees like something expensive. The Obsidian Crest Pack didn't do subtle. Stone, glass, a fountain out front. Men in dark suits stood at the corners of th

POV: NayaI did not touch myself in the shower thinking about my best friend's father.That was the lie I told the bathroom mirror, anyway.The truth was messier. The truth was that I'd stood under scalding water for ten minutes, forehead against the tile, trying to wash off the feeling of that voice in my head. Mate. Not mine. Not a hallucination either. It had sounded like him.My skin still hummed. My breasts felt heavy, sensitive, aching for a touch that wasn't mine.Every drop of water felt like fingertips. I hated how badly I wanted them to be his.I slid one hand over my stomach. Lower.Just to take the edge off, I told myself. Just so I could sit through dinner without combusting.I closed my eyes and let myself see him. The rolled sleeves. The veins in his forearms. The way he'd said my name, low and rough, like a man breaking a rule. My fingers moved between my thighs and my breath hitched. I bit my lip to trap the sound, cupped my own breast, pinched my nipple hard and imag

POV: NayaNothing prepares you for being ignored by the man who had his mouth on your breast eighteen hours ago.Zayden didn't show up to breakfast. Or lunch. Dorian said he was "handling Council business in the city." Vespera watched me across the kitchen island like I was a bomb with a loose wire.By nightfall, I was ready to scream."Stop sulking," Santana said, zipping me into a dress I'd never have picked. Red silk. Backless. Thin straps. Cut so low in front that a bra was impossible. "It's your birthday. You're getting drunk, you're dancing, and you're looking hot. That's the plan.""Whose plan?""Mine."I'd begged her not to make a fuss. She'd ignored me, obviously. The whole terrace over the Hudson glittered with string lights and a hundred pack members in cocktail dresses and dark suits. Champagne towers. A DJ. A cake the size of a tire.And a fire in my blood that hadn't stopped since the west corridor.It was worse tonight. My skin felt too tight. My pulse thudded in places