Page 3 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
My chest hurt as I stared at the message and beyond it at the lock screen that was a quirky selfie of Elias, and I froze mid-laugh. Had all of it truly been a lie?
And why the hell was I still crying over someone who wasn’t worth my tears? I cleaned up and wiped my tears, heading for the pack’s garage.
There was no way I could go back to my room tonight, see my dress hanging in the corner, my shoes and jewelry already laid out for my mating ceremony in the morning, and not lose my mind.
The wolves on duty, mostly drunk and distracted by the festivities, easily let my car through the gates unquestioned. Tomorrow, I would confront Elias and Ivy in front of the pack and call off our mating ceremony. Tomorrow I would decide what to do about my stolen inheritance.
But for tonight…for tonight, I just wanted to rage, cry, and sob privately, where no one could hear me or smell my emotions. Naturally, the only decent hotel still open was farther from the pack than I had intended and fully booked except for a recently vacated room that the help was still cleaning out.
Maybe I should have just stayed in my room.
“I’ll take it.”
“The room will be ready in twenty minutes,” The receptionist took my payment with a practiced smile. “You can check out our bar in the meantime.”
With the night I had, if there was ever a good reason to get drunk, I had it. I’d taken one step into the bar when it hit me.
My stomach lurched,my heart palpitating hard as though I had just run a marathon. I went completely still, my skin feeling too tight, my palms too sweaty, and my head spun as though the alcohol I’d consumed hours ago at the bonfire was just kicking in.
Then, I heard a low growl that had my hackles rising. I took a step back, instinctively raising my head to meet the golden gaze of a predator stalking towards me, his nostrils flared.
My instincts slammed into me, and I broke out into a run.
Chapter Two
Raven
The door of the elevator was almost fully shut when the wolf caught up with me and used his hand to keep it open. My heart threatened to give up as I locked gazes with the wolf glaring down at me. I didn’t know him. I was certain. There was no way I would have forgotten a face like that.
Towering over me with a hulking physique, the wolf had thick, shoulder-length, wavy ink-black hair framed by dark, mysterious hazel eyes and a face so perfectly symmetrical and chiseled that he seemed almost unreal.
The elevator door sealed shut behind him, and the wolf reached out to halt the movement of the elevator by hitting the emergency button. I shouldn’t have tried taking the elevator to throw him off my scent before escaping into my car. I should have just run. Now I was trapped in here with him. I tried to make my voice work. “W…what do you want from me?”
The wolf ignored my words, a distant, almost glazed-over look in his eyes as he closed the distance between us, driving me up against the steel wall of the elevator.
“You,” he growled, his voice thick and guttural as he grasped mychin with surprising tenderness. His skin burned beneath mine, the brush of his fingertips sparking a sensation unlike anything I’d ever felt. I froze. What the hell?
His golden gaze latched onto mine, and our surroundings blurred to nothing until all I could see was him—the wild glint in his eyes, the curve of his lips, and the way his chest rose and fell too fast.
The air between us seemed to thicken with something intangible but undeniable that drew us to each other. It felt inevitable for the wolf to lean in, tracing the top of his nose across my sensitive skin before burying his head in my nape.
“Goddess, you smell so—” He trailed off, a feral grunt escaping him.
The sensation of his cool breath on my neck had goosebumps breaking out across my skin, and my knees became so weak that only his hold was keeping me upright. I trembled, set ablaze with wants that seemed too much for my body to handle.
What was going on? All my kisses with Elias combined hadn’t elicited even a fraction of the reaction that this stranger did.
The thought of Elias felt like a splash of cold water jolting me awake from whatever trance I had begun to fall into. How had I forgotten Elias’s betrayal and my reality in a matter of seconds? This stranger was dangerous, and the unfamiliar emotions he triggered within me were even more so.
I had to get out of this elevator.
“Let go!” I snarled, slamming my fists against his chest and raising my knee to hit him between his legs, but he easily blocked my attack, his hand pinning both of my hands above my head.
I panted, my heart racing hard in my chest. His scent overwhelmed me as he drew nearer. Goddess, he smelled divine. The salt of his sweat melded with a base scent of citrus, cedar, and an edge of something so intoxicating that my trapped hands twitched with the insane urge to pull him closer and—
No. No. I didn’t want him close. I didn’t. Right? But my mind and my body were disconnected because I found myself closing the space between us, pressing my lips hungrily to his skin.
The wolf stiffened, his free hand fisting my hair as he forced some space between us, baring my neck in the process. I bucked against his hold, trying to fight off the onslaught of need cresting within me, only to freeze when I felt his warm, wet tongue glide across my nape, tasting my skin as though he was trying to figure out what I was.
