Page 36 of Cruel Alpha

“What?”

“All those books you read,” she said, “which was your favorite?”

Honestly, I hadn’t liked many of them. There had been a pretty cool one about a girl with magic powers, but mostly, Alyssa was into the classics—too many old people from a hundred years ago writing too many words about not very much—and in any other situation, I’d have put most of them down after ten pages. One had stuck with me, though.

“Persuasion,” I said. “I liked the idea of second chances.”

I let myself drink in the sight of her a few seconds longer—her hair mussed by my hands, her lips kiss-swollen, her skin covered in the marks of my mouth—before I let myself out.

Chapter 17 - Alyssa

Everything was chaos. The kettle was screaming at me from the stovetop, and the smell coming from the grill was starting to smell distinctly burnt, but I couldn’t deal with that because Emmy was running a toy car over every possible surface, and Jack was crying because that washistoy car, and we were barreling towards twin tantrums.

To make matters worse, someone was knocking on the door. If I was anywhere else, I would have just ignored it, but if it was one of the Betas checking in, then they’d only take my silence as a sign that the kids and I had been kidnapped or murdered or both. Caleb hadn’t been back in the last couple of days, not since—I wasn’t going to think about that. There was too much going on already.

“It’s open!” I yelled, turning my attention back to the twins. Emmy ignored every attempt to get her to stop, and Jack’s tearful protests only grew louder. I was a terrible mother, and whichever Beta had just wandered in would see that and judge me, and then the whole Pack would know. Caleb would know.

“You know something’s burning in here, right?”

The sound of Caleb’s voice sent my heart sinking. I wasn’t prepared for this. I wasn’t ready to face him again, let alone with dinner burning and ketchup on my shirt and the twins running around like they were determined to bring the house down. He’d probably decide he didn’t want us all over again.

“Yeah,” I said without turning to face him. “I’ve just got a few other things to deal with.”

To my surprise, he didn’t turn around and leave. I heard him drop something heavy onto the floor before he said,

“Okay. You go deal with the burning; I’ll deal with this.”

There wasn’t time to consider whether that was a good idea because the burning smell was getting worse.

“Be my guest,” I said as I rushed over to the stove, pulling the sausage links out from under the grill. They were pretty crispy but maybe salvageable. I set them down on the side before moving the screaming kettle off the heat and pouring it over the waiting pot of pasta. As I let out a breath of relief, I watched Caleb approaching Jack, crouching slowly down next to him. When he spoke, his voice was low and gentle.

“What’s up, little guy?”

I appreciated him trying, but I doubted Jack would respond. Unlike his sister, Jack was afraid of most people who weren’t me. To my surprise, Jack swallowed back his sobs with two pathetic little hiccups before he replied,

“That’smycar.”

“Oh, that’s your car, huh? Hey, my sister used to take my things, too.” He nudged Jack gently with his elbow, giving him a conspiratorial wink before he turned serious. “Alright. Emmy, come here.”

In her great benevolence, Emmy drove the toy car over the back of the easy chair and over the coffee table, coming to a stop in front of Caleb and Jack. I began to scrape the burnt bits off the sausages, watching intently.

“What?” Emmy asked, as if she had been interrupted doing something enormously important. Her sass had only gotten worse since we’d lived with Julia.

“Did you ask your brother before you took his toy car?”

“Everything ‘longs to everyone in the Pack,” Emmy replied. She’d been fascinated with the concept since we arrived on Lapine, having never really experienced that life on Arbor. She’d not quite gotten the hang of communal property, though.

“Sure,” said Caleb, clearly holding back a smile. “That doesn’t mean we can just take things, though. If everything belongs to everyone, then Jack gets to have a turn, too.” His words and his tone were gentle, but there was just a hint of Alpha authority in it, and Emmy looked at him hard, no doubt surprised to have encountered someone whose will was stronger than hers.

“I guess,” she acknowledged, eventually.

“I think you’ve had it for long enough. Maybe if Jack wants to, you can play with it together.”

Emmy scowled but held out the car for Jack to take. Then, as if nothing had occurred, they were both off, racing around the room and making cacophonous engine sounds.

“Wow,” I said, stirring the pot on the stove. “You’ve got a gift.”

“Oh yeah?” he replied. His chest puffed out a little at the praise, and it made me feel hideously soft. Shit. I was going to fold and give him whatever he wanted if he kept this up.

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