Page 64 of Alpha's Impostor Bride

My heart tightens in my chest, anxiety budding up within me. “If—If I say yes, you’ll have to swear to keep Finn safe if anything happens to me. No matter what.”

Erik’s eyes turn warm. “Of course. But nothing is going to happen to you.”

“And what if I ask you to keep my identity a secret?”

He stares at me and then bursts into laughter. “I never took you to be a negotiator.”

I’m silent.

When his laughter fades, he gives me a considering look. “Do you want your identity to be kept secret?”

I nod.

“Then it can be done.”

My shoulders relax. “Okay. Okay, I’ll think about it.”

He picks up the coffee and sips it before scowling. “This is disgusting.”

“It’s black coffee.”

“Why is it bitter?”

“Because it’s coffee, Erik!” I make a face.

He clicks his tongue. “I don’t like it. I liked the other one.”

“That was hot chocolate! You asked for coffee!” I protest, following him out of the kitchen.

“I’ve never had coffee before. Everybody keeps raving about it, so I thought I should give it a try. Nasty shit.” He walks over to the door. “I’ll see you in a week. Nice doing business with you, as always.”

His grin has me blinking.

Wait, what?

As he leaves through the front door, I stare at it, dazed.

What did I just get manipulated into doing?

Chapter 13

Leanna Avery

Maya Sorin is a researcher at heart.

The Human Wolf Kingdom strives to keep its presence secret from humans, but every now and then, a human comes along who discovers the existence of the beasts residing among them. Their first reaction is generally to panic and freak out. But that wasn’t Maya’s.

I never intended to tell her what I was. I thought it would be easy to keep my true identity as a wolf shifter secret from her. After all, it wasn’t like I was going to shift forms in front of her.

Throughout my pregnancy, I craved meat. Very rare meat. Maya was more than accommodating, grilling me rare steaks when I didn’t have the strength to. I would often see the curiosity in her eyes, but she never asked.

Erik had already told me to reach out to him when it was time for me to give birth. But the pregnancy was hard enough on me, and I didn’t really trust the king of the Human Wolf Kingdom all that much. A part of me was terrified that all his kindness up till then had simply been so that he could take my baby from me and give it to Cedric. During the last few months of my pregnancy, my wolf became even more paranoid, desperate to protect our child.

When the time came, Maya was in the apartment with me. One thing about wolf shifters, a fact I never knew before, is that we cannot give birth in our human forms. When my body began to undergo the change, I panicked and tried to tell my roommate to leave.

She didn’t.

Not only did she stay, she helped me deliver Finn. My wolf had begun to trust her at that point, and when I woke up in my human form, there was my friend Maya, holding in her arms a dark, little wolf club, swaddled in a blanket.

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