Page 59 of Game Over

Charlie: love to, want me to pick you up? Or meet you there? I can do in an hour?

I chewed my lip, the big, giddy grin that often preceded seeing my alpha getting less embarrassing but somehow bigger by the day.

“He said yes!” I said to Jesse excitedly. “Fuck, I better find something to wear.”

“I told you so. Go with that little strappy top. The one you wore to the movies.”

“And got so cold my nipple piercings were going to give me hypothermia?”

“That’s the one,” they said, sucking on a candy with a loud, wet noise. “Makes your tits look amazing, and it shows off your tattoo. Perfect for showing Glitch your new presents… and I guess the stupid alpha might like it too.”

At least the word stupid sounded playful now. It was a nice shift.

“I’ll bring dinner and stuff around for the subathon? Make sure you’re still alive?”

“That’d be really nice, sweets. You have fun today, okay?”

“But not too much?” I offered. “Save that for cuddling and watching a movie with you?”

“I am so fucking lucky.”

“You have no idea, lemon drop.”

He laughed. “I love you, be good with your alpha.”

It pricked me a little to hear it said like that.

Your alpha.

Charlie wasouralpha, but now wasn’t the time for that conversation.

I couldn’t even broach the topic without wading into some fucking muddy water and potentially absolutely destroying Charlie’s trust in me. There was sort of an unspokenrulethat whatever information was learned through the bond you didn’t tell anyone else.

I wouldn’t cross that line. Certainly not to make myself feel better. This was about Jesse and Charlie.

I’d just…inserted myself into the middle of it. Accidentally!

“I love you, win heaps. If you get too tired, text me. I’ll bring coffee!”

“‘Course sweetie, make his pockets hurt.”

“You know I always do.”

“Not just Glitch,” Jesse pressed. “See you tonight.”

I laughed as the phone beeped, sending another text to Charlie.

Tara: please!! I’ll see you in an hour!

Charlie was a lot of things, few of them were what I expected.

He was tall, but where most alphas would also be pretty muscular, he was all long, lean limbs and gangly, half clumsy vibes. Like the distance between his brain and feet was so great it took them a minute to communicate—leaving him tripping over his feet as we stepped off the escalator, smoothies in hand.

Chocolate and banana for him.

Blueberry, lemon, and peach for me.

“Any idea what you’d like to look at or are we just wandering?” he asked, sucking hard on his straw.

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