Page 53 of Bite Me Alpha Cole

“Where are you evengoing?”

“To the Children of Solace,” he replies, holding my gaze. “The…town, for lack of a better word. We need to –“

“Hey, Cole!”

Rose’s voice rings out in the clearing.

I clench my teeth, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as I whip my head to the left, glaring at her sunny blonde form as she crosses to us, a pack slung over her shoulder, her camera bouncing on her chest.

“I’m ready!” she calls, basically singing the words in her excitement.

My eyes just narrow. I haven’t seen much of Rose in the past few days, but absence certainly did not make my heart grow fonder. Not one fucking bit.

“Hey, Rose,” Cole calls, sounding exhausted, glancing down at me.

“You’re going somewhere withher?” I hiss. “To – to theChildren of Solace?”

“She’s requested permission to document it and –“

“And it’s going to help my storyas wellas provide the military with visual evidence of what was going on there,” Rose says, all smug, looking right at me with a stupid pretty smile slapped on her face. She taps her finger demonstratively on her camera and gives me awink–

A fuckingwink–

God, but I want to smack her.

“No way!” I shout.

Her face twists with disgust as she looks me up and down. “Why do you evencare?”

I snap my mouth shut because…

Okay. So…she’s got me there.

But screw Rose. I snap my eyes up to Cole. “I’m going too.”

A shocked little noise climbs up his throat, strangled by his surprise. “What?”

“Yeah!” I say, tightening my arms across my chest, glaring at him. “I’m going too!”

“Cole!” Rose cries out, snapping her head to glare at him too. “She can’t go! This isourtrip!”

“Oh my god,” Cole murmurs, dropping his face into his palm.

“Yourtrip,” I growl, glaring hard at her. “What, you’ve planned some kind of adatein the middle of a war zone?”

“Yeah,” she says, low and wicked, leaning towards me. “Got a problem with that?”

“Hey, this isnota date –“ Cole says, firm, dropping his hand and glaring between us. “My fatherapprovedthis because it will beuseful–“

“I mean, it’s a date if we want it to be,” Rose says, all low and throaty.

I groan and roll my eyes, spinning around, heading into the tent to grab my sweatshirt.

“Nadia,” Cole calls after me, sounding right at the end of his rope. “What are you even –“

“I’mcoming!” I shout, not giving myself the time and space to consider why I’m suddenly so determined to do this. I’ve never eventhoughtabout visiting the ghost town the Children of Solace left behind after the attack.

But quite abruptly, there’s absolutely nothing that could hold me back.

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