Marked By My Best Friend's Dad

055

~iris

There he was, alpha Duncan starring at me.

I felt Alice gaze on me.

I turned my gaze away from him and turned to leave. I heard Alice call me, but I was gone already.

I was furious.

Fury simmered beneath my skin. How dare he? After everything, after months of running, he had the audacity to appear here, so polished, so untouchable, and look at me like nothing had changed. Like he hadn’t shattered the mate bond by sleeping with someone else.

I found the balcony and slipped outside, letting the cool night air hit my face. The city lights stretched endlessly, but they couldn’t calm the storm in my chest. Inside, Alice was still chatting with her father, laughing lightly, her smile like a beacon I couldn’t reach.

I fumbled with my phone. My aunt had arrived,thank God.but I needed just a few minutes, just to breathe, just to think. I texted her quickly: Give me 10 minutes.

I barely had time to sit on the railing before I heard it. That voice. Calm, smooth, and impossible to ignore.

“Little wolf.”

I froze. My body stiffened. Of course it was him.

Duncan. Alpha Duncan. My mate. My torment.

The man I had been running from for months.

I turned slowly, heart hammering in my chest, and there he was closer than I expected. His presence didn’t just fill the balcony; it seemed to wrap around me, magnetic and suffocating at the same time. His eyes, sharp and knowing, traced my movements as though he could read every thought before I even had it.

“You’re avoiding me,” he said, voice low but steady. Calm. Controlled.

I swallowed hard. “I’m… not avoiding you.” My lie sounded thin even to my own ears.

His lips curved into a smirk, slow and deliberate.

“Oh, you are. But that’s okay. I like a challenge.”

I clenched my fists at my sides. His calm infuriated me almost as much as it drew me in. Every instinct screamed at me to snap, to yell, to run,but a part of me, the part that had always recognized him as my mate, fought to stay.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said finally, voice sharper than intended. “Tonight’s not for you.”

He tilted his head, eyes glinting. “Is it not?, I'm the Alpha.” He took a step closer. The heat of him was unbearable, the smell of him,metal, leather, alpha,filling my senses. “Or is it because you know I’ll notice… you.”

I felt my breath catch. He didn’t just notice me. He saw me. The words wouldn’t come. The courage I had mustered minutes ago was collapsing under his gaze.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I demanded, finally finding a shred of anger. “Do you think this makes it okay? After everything?”

“Everything?” His tone was incredulous, like he was genuinely puzzled by my fury. “Little wolf, don’t make this about everything. You… you’re standing here, ignoring me, but I can smell your fear, your frustration, your pulse. And you’re mine.

You always have been.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that the bond had been broken, that I had a life and a girlfriend and boundaries. But his words, his presence, dug deep.

“I’m not your… I’m not some… some possession,” I spat, stepping back, but my heel caught the railing just enough to remind me I wasn’t fully in control.

His smirk softened just slightly, just enough to make my pulse spike. “I know.” He stepped closer, slow, deliberate, and I felt it,every movement, every inch he closed, tugging at me like the bond itself was pulling me forward. “That video,” he said quietly, his eyes never leaving mine, “the one you saw… that was a long time ago. Before I ever met you. Before I knew who my Omega was.”

I froze. His words cut through the storm in my chest, softening it just enough to make me question my own fear. “It… it was before me?” I whispered, barely daring to breathe.

He nodded, tilting his head down slightly, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him.

“Before you, Iris. That was someone else, a mistake. You… you’re the only one now.”

My knees felt weak, and I gripped the railing to steady myself. He moved closer, fingers lightly brushing my arm, tracing a path down, lingering dangerously close to my chest, teasing the edge of my cleavage. My breath hitched. The feel on his hand on my cleavage. The fact that someone could walk in on us.

I pressed my legs tightly to offer some semblance of relive to my twitching p***y.

“You have no idea how impossible it is to keep away from you,” he murmured, voice low, full of restraint. “You… you make everything else irrelevant.”

I swallowed hard, trying to step back, but the pull of him, the weight of his gaze, the warmth of his touch,it was magnetic, unrelenting.

“Tomorrow,” he said, leaning even closer, just above a whisper, “come to my house. Just you.

No one else. I want to… talk. Really talk.”

I shook my head, words barely forming. “No. I can’t. I… I have… plans.”

He chuckled softly, the sound warm but dangerous. “Okay,” he said, stepping back with that infuriating smirk I hated and loved at the same time. “Suit yourself, little wolf.”

Even as he turned and walked away, leaving me trembling on the balcony, I couldn’t stop thinking about the heat of his fingers, the weight of his eyes, the pull of the bond. My pulse was still racing, my body still aware of him even at a distance.

I should be angry with him.

But instead, I needed him near.

I took a deep breath, trying to control my emotions.

After minutes of getting myself together, I headed back to the party. Wanting to find my aunt,so we can wrap this up and get out.

However, when I saw my aunt, Duncan was there, it added to the ball of anxiety I was feeling.

Jealousy.

Because my aunt was also a f*****g w***e.

She cheated on her mate with two guys.