Page 29 of Cruel Alpha

Then he broke it; reaching up with one hand, he gently brushed a stray curl away from my face. He didn’t lower his hand, though, letting it come to rest on the side of my face, his other hand beginning to rub more purposeful circles on the meat of my thigh.

“Alyssa,” he breathed, and it was like a siren call. I leaned down, my breasts brushing his chest, until we were nose to nose. I wanted so badly to kiss him. My memories of that night, that one night, were so painful and tainted—I wanted new memories of his touch on my skin, but I couldn’t risk it, not again. Taking a shaky, uncertain breath, I asked,

“Do you mean this?”

“Yes.” He gripped my thigh hard, and I gasped. I wanted him, I wanted his hands and his mouth, I wanted his cock inside me—I could feel it, hard and insistent beneath his jeans—but not without certainty. Not without knowing it meant the same to him as it did to me.

“Do you claim us?”

He blinked, confused.

“Us? Alyssa, I can’t—”

It was like a bucket of cold water had been dropped on top of me. I scrambled to my feet, eyes suddenly brimming with tears that I would not,couldnot shed here.

“I think we’re done here,” I said, my voice thick and trembling. I needed to get out of there, to get home to my babies. “Thanks for the training.”

I shoved myself back into my clothes, not bothering with underwear, but even that took too long, and Caleb was on his feet.

“Don’t do this,” he said. “Alyssa, you can’t seriously think—”

“Stop,” I said, not wanting to hear the rest of it. I couldn’t hear it all again, not when I’d been stupid enough to let him close. “Just stop, Caleb.”

I didn’t bother with my shoes, and the stone was cold beneath my feet as I fled the hall, letting the door close with a slam behind me.

Chapter 14 - Caleb

I was sick of doors closing in my face. I was sick of nothing I did being good enough. I was sick of distance and awkwardness and that hurt look in her eyes. I jabbed the punching bag with another hardone-two,imagining my younger self smirking back at me. This was all his fault. If he’d never been so weak, never given in to his stupid desires only to back out afterward, then none of this would have happened. If I’d only waited until I was Alpha, until I could claim her regardless of my father’s approval, then perhaps she would have forgiven the years of neglect. She couldn’t forgive an outright rejection, though, and I didn’t blame her.

Was that why she wanted me to claim the kids, too? Was that the price of her forgiveness, to claim children who weren’t mine, to name them my heirs? To sacrifice my pride for the sake of hers? If I were any other man, I’d do it, and gladly. But I wasn’t any other man, I was the Alpha of Lapine, and claiming her would already be a blow to my reputation—to claim the kids as well? I’d be admitting that I sent my pregnant mate out into the world alone, without my protection. If I couldn’t protect my mate and my own young, how could the Pack trust me to protect them?

My arms were burning with the effort, but I couldn’t stop. Rage and frustration poured out of me, an endless pool of it. I punched again and again, lost to the push-pull-pain of every blow until a voice pierced the fog of it.

“Dude, slow down,” said Noah. “You’re gonna fuck up your hands.”

Sure enough, when I finally pulled back and looked down at my hands, the knuckles were visibly bloody through their wraps. I shook them out, relishing the sharp burn of it.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Let’s go again.”

Noah dropped the bag and stepped away.

“Nah. You need to run off that energy or something. You’re gonna go feral if you keep this up.” His tone told me there would be no arguing with him on this. Noah might be a little smaller than the rest of us, a little less obviously Alpha, but he was stubborn as hell, and no amount of posturing would get him to back down when he’d made a decision.

When I took a breath and looked around the space, I saw that the rest of the guys were looking at me, too. Xander dropped his dumbbells onto the rack, picking up his towel to dry the back of his neck as he said,

“What crawled up your ass and died today?”

“What is it always?” said Jace, sitting up on the bench beside him. Xander clapped him on the shoulder.

“More mate shit.”

“More mate shit,” Jace agreed solemnly.

“Makes you feel grateful to be single,” said Xander, moving across to where Ethan was doing concentrated pull-ups. “No drama for us, huh?”

Ethan said nothing, but his pull-ups got a little faster. He and Xander weren’t always the best of friends—Ethan found Xander’s attitude grating, and Xander insisted that Ethan was a stick in the mud. Despite being the oldest of our group, and an Alpha in his own right, Xander never missed an opportunity to have fun like he was still just an Heir. I understood the urge; it could be freeing to be away from your own Pack and all the responsibilities of being Alpha. Ethan, however, had never let something as trivial as being away from his own Pack get in the way of his serious and stoic attitude.

Leo, however, was paying close attention. His gaze flicked from Xander to me and back again before he said,

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