Chapter 3
1341 Words
Adaira’s POV
Feather-like touches snaked down my arm and then curved up my side.
I let out a small sigh of pleasure, leaning closer to my mate’s touch.
Hold. Mate. Allen.
I flew out of the bed, clutching the bedsheet tightly around my body. “S-Stay away from me! I will not be giving you my body.”
His scent flooded my nostrils. The easiest way to describe it would have been Allen’s scent on steroids, like there were a hundred Allens packed into one person.
I stared at Alistair for far too long to be considered proper. Why was his gaze stirring my wolf back to life?
“Adaira,” he muttered. “Tell me. How does it feel being rejected?”
Of course, he thought to make fun of me, like everyone else. White-hot anger burned in my chest.
“How about you find your mate and have her do it?” I snapped without thinking.
After the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them instantly. “I…please, don’t kill–”
Alistair’s brow raised. “Interesting,” he said, cutting me off.
That calculating look in his eyes could not mean anything good. I studied the room, searching for a way out.
There was only one window and one door that he stood in front of.
Would I be able to get past him to it?
“Don't bother,” Alistair said, leaning over me. “And relax. I will not hurt you.”
His lips brushed my collarbone. “If you do not give me a reason to.”
A shiver went up my spine. A good shiver.
“I will not,” I said, sounding a lot bolder than I felt.
Alistair smirked. “I like you.”
“That's not a compliment.”
“I guess not.” His thumb brushed my lip, every touch wrecking havoc with my senses. “You want to know something, Adaira? Your funeral is being hosted right now.”
“What funeral?”
Alistair stepped away from me, twirling around like he was a showmaster about to tell a great story.
“Your best friend claimed that you jumped off the balcony of her penthouse.”
My jaw slacked. Jumped off? I was pushed!
I blinked in awe, shock and confusion. “And Allen believed her?!”
“Of course. You should have heard them f*****g just hours later. He was ‘comfroting’ her.”
I let out a dry chuckle. And then another.
I did not know why I was laughing but I could not stop.
“The desire to murder,” Alistair said, stepping closer. “I can see it in your eyes.”
He was so close that I could feel his breath on mine. The air between us hummed like a live wire.
“You want to be Alpha,” I stated plainly, a plan forming in my mind.
Alastair’s eyes narrowed. “And you want to help me?”
The distrust in his voice was thick but I did not back down.
“All I want is Yvonne. I will help you in whatever way you need me to so you can destroy Allen.”
Alistair scoffed. “Do you think I do not know anything about the mate bond? One sweet word from him and–”
I grabbed his hand, placing it on my face. The sparks spread through my body from the place where we touched.
There was no reaction on his face at all. Did he really not feel our bond?
Regardless, I quickly ran through all the pros and cons in my mind of what I was about to do.
My home. My cafe. My mate. All gone.
What more did I have to lose?
“I will give myself to you,” I said resolutely, baring my neck for him. “Mark me as yours.”
***
“Can you hear that?” Alistair said as we got to the entrance of the hall.
He answered his question in the next second. “That’s your best friend, ugly-sobbing about your death.”
My eyes flitted down to the small distance between our hands. What would he do if I reached forward and took his hand?
“Brother!” Alistair exclaimed as he kicked open the door.
All the people seated flinched away from Alistair, pointing their gazes to their feet.
Even inside his own pack, Alistair was a terror.
Alistair continued grinning without a care. “I heard you were holding a funeral for your mate and I thought to bring her here for you.”
Allen’s eyes fell on me and widened.
“What the hell–”
“Hi, Allen,” I said coolly. “Apparently, I’m dead.”
“You are…Yvonne said…”
He turned to Yvonne to see her face white as a sheet, her tears completely dried up.
I smirked. Clearly, someone had not been expecting me to survive the fall from the top of a thirty-story building.
“That I committed suicide?” I asked, walking to the coffin at the front.
Heaving the cover of the coffin, I let it clatter to the ground. To my surprise, there was a body inside.
“She looks nothing like you,” Alistair said over my shoulder.
I hummed. “Yvonne, who did you kill to put in here?”
“Woman, you are speaking to the future Luna of the–”
My eyes hardened at the bodyguard who stood beside Yvonne. “Shut up. I am not talking to you.”
Fury burned in his eyes. “How dare you?”
He raised his hand to hit me but I did not flinch. I had a more terrifying backer.
“Touch her and forfeit that hand.”
As his raw power swept through the crowd, I felt a weird sense of pride in my chest.
“What the hell is going on here?!” Allen snarled.
I blinked innocently at him. “My funeral.”
For some reason, my response only got him angrier. “I mean, between you two? How do you two even know each other?”
“You don’t think I can meet other men besides you.” I rolled my eyes. “You overestimate yourself.”
“You are my–”
“I am not your anything,” I snapped. “You made that expressly clear when you rejected me and f****d my best friend less than a week later.”
Allen stomped to me and tried to rip me away from his brother.
Where he touched me, warmth and sparks spread up my arm, just a lot weaker than Alistair’s.
“Don’t touch me,” I said, slapping his hand away.
“I thought you were dead. I mourned you. And all of this was just a cruel joke? If you were trying to get my attention–”
“Did you even consider the fact that Yvonne could have lied?”
Allen got defensive immediately. “No, she didn’t!”
“Were you there?” Allen went silent. “Did you check surveillance? No! Because you wanted me out of the picture and were too much of a coward to do it yourself!”
If the hall could get any quieter, it just did.
Allen took a tentative step closer to me. “Adaira, we can talk about this in private–”
“What is going on here?” a voice boomed from the end of the hall.
A man and a woman walked in. It was easy to tell who they were from their postures alone.
“Father,” Allen said, stepping towards them but both their eyes were on me.
“Who is she?” Alpha Nolan asked.
Allen’s hand held mine as he was about to introduce me to his parents.
I snapped my hand away from his, stumbling backwards and crashing against Alistair’s broad chest.
Alistair’s arm slipped around my waist. “Mother. Father. Meet my beloved.”
- Writer
