All Chapters of Too Late to Mark Me, Alpha: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

When my plane landed in New York, the last person I expected to see waiting for me was Alexander Sterling.The man who would soon exchange vows with me.I had seen him in alliance news reports and interviews about the fund he managed. On a screen, he always looked composed, the sort of man who never spoke before deciding exactly what he meant.Seeing him in person was different.He stood beside a car in a black cashmere coat, tall and still against the movement around him. He wasn’t making any effort to look imposing. Even so, the people with him seemed instinctively to leave him room and wait for him to speak.Before I reached the car, he came forward and took the handle of my suitcase.“Is this everything?”“Yes.”The wind struck my face. I drew my shoulders inward, suddenly aware of how tired and cold I was.“I left behind anything I didn’t need.”The words applied to more than the contents of my luggage.I had spent two weeks deciding what belonged in my life and what no longer did

I stood there, trying to make sense of the time.The drive from the airport usually took a little over forty minutes.Which meant Alexander had sat with me outside the gates for nearly two hours.Waiting for me to wake up.He hadn’t mentioned it once. Not when I apologized for his coat, not when I said the trip had been quick, and not when my mother thanked him for bringing me home.The realization left me strangely quiet.It also reminded me of Mason.Whenever he had done something for me, he used to tell me about it with a smile.“I changed buses twice to get this. Come on, try it.”“I waited downstairs for half an hour. Didn’t have the heart to wake you. Luckily, your breakfast is still warm.”Back then, I treated those words as proof of love.I remembered the trouble he had taken because he made sure I knew it. I had thought being loved meant being shown, again and again, exactly how much effort someone was willing to spend.Later, I learned that even the smile he first fell for ha

One sleepless night had left me more exhausted than I wanted to admit.The two hours I had borrowed in Alexander’s car had helped, but they weren’t nearly enough.After lunch, I went upstairs.My bedroom looked almost exactly as it had when I left.The bookcase by the window. The bench at the foot of the bed. The postcards I had mailed home during college, still arranged on my desk.Nothing demanded an explanation from me.I didn’t have to account for where I had been or prove that coming back meant I had failed. I could simply stand in the room I knew and finally let my shoulders relax.After a shower, I climbed beneath the covers.My phone rang almost immediately.Brooke.“Audrey, where on earth did you have these invitations printed?”With my eyes closed, I felt around for the phone and answered.“What’s wrong?”“The paper, the wax seal, the embossing—none of this can have been cheap. And somehow they managed to print the wrong man’s name on the most important invitation of your lif

Only after I came home did I remember the pendant.It belonged to a private tradition in our family, not to any official pack custom.On my eighteenth birthday, my grandfather gave me two platinum crescent moons. Their edges fit together to form a single shape.One was mine to keep.The other was meant for the person I wanted to spend my life with.It carried no authority. It didn’t confer a title, and it couldn’t establish a mate bond.It was simply a promise.At the time, I believed Mason would be the person who kept the other half.Now it had no reason to remain with him.After I explained, Brooke agreed immediately.“Leave it to me. I’ll bring it when I come to New York next week.”The next day was the weekend.When Brooke got up, she called Mason directly.She had spent so many days chasing him about pack business that irritation was already in his voice when he answered.“It’s the weekend. If you need something signed, can’t it wait until Monday?”“Where are you?”He didn’t answe

“If you want to explain, find someone who wants to listen.”Brooke had no intention of analyzing expense reports for him.Audrey no longer cared.There was no reason for her friend to keep investigating a relationship Audrey had already left.“Give me the pendant.”Mason lifted a hand and pressed it against the metal beneath his collar.“Tell her to come get it herself.”He answered too quickly.Some part of him seemed to believe that as long as he kept this one object, Audrey would have a reason to return.A reason to stand in front of him.A reason to listen.But unease had begun working its way through him, slow and persistent.This didn’t feel like the situation Sadie had described.Audrey might not be waiting for him to give in.She might really have decided she didn’t want him anymore.Brooke pressed her lips together.“She can’t.”“Why not?”He held out his hand.“Give me your phone. I’ll talk to her.”If he could speak to Audrey, he could fix it.There had to be a way to bring