Page 118 of The Heat of Us

Too soon. She’s only just come to terms with losing her alpha and accepting us into her lives.

But the feelings didn’t go away, growing and growing the longer she was in my arms.

We were both a little melancholy on the drive home. It hadn’t even been a full 24 hours but we both felt so different from the day before. She was holding my hand on her thigh, lifting it to kiss me every now and then.

“Will you tell the others about…the pyjamas?” I asked nervously.

Yes we wore them.

Yes she managed to get photos.

I was already planning on how to get them into the apartment without anyone seeing. And falsifying an alibi that coincided with a suspicious fire at an undisclosed location later on.

“No,” she assured me. “Maybe,” she added after a beat.

Great.

“I’m kidding!” She nuzzled my wrist. “But things might change if you annoy me…”

I couldn’t stand the back and forth. “Which is it, Hazel?” I demanded.

She still didn’t answer and just laughed.

Wicked, evil creature.

I wasn’t sure why the universe couldn’t let us have this moment just a little bit longer. We pulled into the underground car park at 101 Riverside and Hazel stopped to check her mailbox on the way up.

She pulled out a single letter.

An envelope without a stamp.

Hand delivered.

Hazel tore it open on the spot and her face went utterly bloodless.

“Aleks,” she stuttered.

Bold black font on white paper.

HI HAZEL WU

OR IS IT SIERRA ECHO?

42

HAZEL

I was fucking furious. Devastated.

Of course it manifested itself into the sensation of needing to throw up constantly. Chest squeezing, blood pounding in my skull.

It must have been through my panty selling somehow. That was the weakest link between my real life and Sierra. I didn’t put a return address on domestic orders and used a PO box I never checked for international ones. Maybe it was some sick fuck at the post office?

Ben’s hand came to rest on my shoulder. “Hazel, you need to stop.”

I shook his hand off. I continued to stare at the screen as I googled every single one of my recent orders. Names. Addresses.

I had been at it for hours.

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