Chapter 169
I clear my throat. “I didn’t mean to snap.”
He waves it off. “You always snap.”
“That wasn’t an apology.”
He smiles faintly. “I know.”
Another pause.
He studies me again, more seriously now, his eyes tracing my face like he’s trying to read something written under my skin.
“Dang. So this is it. You’re not going to leave him,” he says quietly.
It’s not a question.
It irritates me immediately.
“Oh?” I lean back slightly, crossing my arms. “And how exactly would you know that?”
He shrugs, but there’s no humor in it this time. “Because every time you talk about him, you look… different.”
I scoff. “That’s not a real answer.”
“It is to me.”
I open my mouth to argue.
To tell him he’s wrong.
But I’m too tired.
He leans forward slightly, his voice softer now.
“You love him.”
The certainty in his tone makes something in my stomach twist.
Ew.
I look down at the table, tracing the faint scratches in the wood with my fingertip.
What good would it do to deny it? What good would it do to tell him the truth?
That this is a contract. That this is survival. That love has nothing to do with it.
If I did and Dominic found out I said that, or I was even here with Lucas, it would only make thing messier.
And I have enough messes already.
So instead, I shrug.
“You’re right,” I say.
The words feel strange as they leave my mouth.
“I love him.”
Lucas goes quiet.
Really quiet.
Chapter 13
+30 Bonus
He leans back slowly, studying me with an expression I can’t quite name. Then he lets out a quiet breath, running a hand through his hair.
“…Yeah,” he murmurs.
Not surprised.
Not convinced.
Just… accepting it.
And somehow, that feels worse.
Before I can decide whether Lucas meant that last part as comfort or accusation, a shadow falls across the table.
I nearly slam my head into the wood.
Dominic rests his arm along the back of my chair, not touching me, but close enough that the heat of him seeps through the thin fabric of my shirt and settles against my spine.
Territorial without being obvious.
Subtle enough that anyone else would miss it.
I do not miss it.
“Having a good time?” he asks calmly.
His voice is smooth, same tone he uses in public, in meetings, in front of people he doesn’t trust. Not like we didn’t just have a
fight.
And, shocker, he doesn’t sound happy.
Lucas looks up at him slowly.
“Not at all,” Lucas replies lightly. “Just congratulating your wife.”
Wife.
I stare down at the table. At the condensation gathering on my water glass.
“Can I just get my pizza,” I mutter, already exhausted. “Please.”
Neither of them look at me.
Lucas holds Dominic’s gaze another second before pushing his chair back and standing. He picks up his laptop, tucks it under
his arm.
“Enjoy your lunch,” he says.
Polite, but a lie.
The look he gives Dominic isn’t surrender.
Then he walks away, leaving me alone with the aftermath.
I just wait for him to say something sharp. Something accusing. Something cold and Alpha and angry, the way he had been earlier, the way he gets when he feels challenged.
Instead, when I finally look up at him—
He’s smiling.
+30 Bonus
What the-
I narrow my eyes immediately. “Why,” I say slowly, circling a finger vaguely in his direction, “do you look like that?”
His gaze doesn’t leave mine.
“You said you loved me.”
Oh.
He heard that?
Heat creeps up the back of my neck.
I force my face into something neutral.
“I did,” I reply evenly.
He studies me like he’s trying to peel the truth out from under my skin.
Dominic moves, stepping around the table and taking Lucas’s abandoned seat without asking.
“You looked angry when you said it,” he says.
I blink at him. “That’s my face.”
His mouth twitches.
“Why are you here?” I add, folding my arms across my chest. “Am I allowed to exist unsupervised for five minutes, or is that against Alpha policy now?”
–
Dominic POV
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