Page 69 of Our Deceptive Heat

“My name is Tara Shillings, and Alpha Raines himself chose me to write your next hit. I don’t tolerate slackers. We will work, and we will work hard every day. You will learn my lyrics and my choreography, and you will perform my new songs in one month at the Silver Falls concert.”

My stomach has been filling with lead with each word. But as the meaning sinks in, my fear doubles. Did my father send her here to stop me from foiling his plans to sell me? Does he know?

“You will cease acting like teenage boys and stop this dalliance with the Raines’ help right now. All your focus is to be on music. If you want to fuck a woman, go choose a fan.”

Raines'…help? Really?

How can she not feel the growing rage in the room? It’s throbbing in the air. She’s a beta, I remember suddenly. She must not have strong senses because anyone with a lick of sense would run.

“You will not alter or change the lyrics or melody of any songs I write for you. You will learn them as is and know that my genius will save you.”

She reaches out, her long claws slide over Envy’s chest. A low growl fills the air, and with a start, I realise it’s coming from me. It takes everything I have to stay where I am and not throw myself at her and claw her damn eyes out.

Tara looks at me and smirks. “You can go now.”

The rage I feel in that moment, from the outrageous dismissal, is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I have never wanted to hurt someone the way I want to hurt her.

I look at the fingernails still on Envy’s chest. Everything in me is screaming to get her off him, to make her stop touching him, to do something, anything, because she shouldn’t be touching what’s mine.

I inhale roughly and stalk from the room before I do anything stupid and blow everything out of the water.

I have a plan. If I screw with that plan, I don’t just fuck up my life. I fuck up theirs as well.

I go out to the garden and sit down, putting my head in my hands. I keep hearing the words she said and seeing the suggestive and sexual way she touched him.

Envy is mine.

No, he’s not.

I get up and pace, frustrated tears falling. This is a joke. A couple of months ago, I was prepared to live the rest of my life without them. I mean, I wasn’t going to be joyfully in love, but I was going to find my happiness.

I had a plan. I have plans.

So, why are they all falling apart?

I put a hand to my forehead and try to breathe through it. Fuck it. I pull out my phone and call Raider.

“Hey, shrimp.”

“I’m not a shrimp.”

“You’re teeny tiny, thus a shrimp. Wassup?”

I scrunch my nose up. “Nothing.”

There’s a silence. “Hey, you know you can’t lie to me, right? I’m the one who knows how your brain works. What’s going on?”

I take a breath and let it out in an effort to hold all the emotions back.

“Raider…I’m in trouble.”

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

I pace back and forth and sit down, dropping my head between my legs.

“Dad. It’s always Dad.”

“What’s he doing now?” Raider’s furious growl is almost as good as one of his hugs.

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