Page 55 of Alpha Reid

Slowly, I catch my breath, coming back down to reality and peeling my eyes open. Serena pants as she lies limp on the desk beneath me and I slowly pull out, stooping to grab the pants bunched around my ankles. I stare down at her glorious ass, committing it to memory as I yank my slacks up and fasten them quickly. I wish this could be different. I wish this wasn’t goodbye.

“You broke my fucking heart, Serena,” I mutter through clenched teeth.

I turn on a heel and walk away, leaving her bent over my desk, freshly fucked with my cum dripping down her thighs and her leggings bunched around her ankles. I make it as far as the doorway when I hear a little sniffle from behind me, the salty scent of her tears making me freeze in my tracks.

Fuck.

I reach out to grasp the doorframe on either side, gripping the wood so hard that it feels like it could splinter beneath my hands. I want to keep going, to be callous and unfeeling and walk out of there without looking back, but my feet are rooted in place. My wolf won’t let me take another step, and if I’m being honest, this isn’t me. As much as I want to hurt her like she hurt me, I can’t bring myself to go through with it.

I heave a sigh, pushing off of the doorframe and turning back around to look at Serena. She’s still bent over the desk, facing away from me, her body shaking as she silently cries. What’s left of my heart fucking shatters.

“Come here,” I sigh, walking back over to her. I stoop down to pull up her leggings, then fold my body over hers, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her up to stand with her back to my front. I walk her backwards until my own back meets the wall, sliding down it and taking her to the floor with me. I hook my chin over her shoulder, holding her tight to my chest as her body continues to shake, tears slipping down her cheeks.

“Hey,” I say gently, raising a hand to sweep her hair out of her face, taking her chin between my fingers and turning her face toward mine. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” I press a kiss to her shoulder, my throat burning with guilt. As maddening as it is, no matter how much this girl fucking hurt me, I can’t bring myself to hurt her.

More tears slip down her cheeks and the sight of them wrecks me. My wolf howls in agony, all of my instincts pushing me to fix this somehow and take away her tears.

“I know I have no right to ask for anything from you, but please…” Serena whispers, her voice breaking. “He can’t know I told you. He’ll kill them all…”

My body goes rigid, my heart stuttering in my chest and my breath catching in my throat. “Who?”

She sniffles. “Xavier. He’s got my sister and what’s left of my pack, if he knows I failed, he’ll kill them.”

My heart drops. Of course she had a reason- I didn’t give her a chance to explain. I was too angry in the moment.

I grab Serena by the waist, maneuvering her on my lap until she’s facing me, my arms secured around her back and her legs draped over my thighs.

“Your sister’s alive?”

She nods, eyes still shiny with tears.

“Tell me everything.”

And she does, right there on the floor of my office. Serena tells me about the night the shadow pack attacked hers, how it was just like any other night until the door to the packhouse swung open and the enemy walked right in. They immediately executed the pack’s alpha- her brother- and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a concrete cell as a prisoner. She tells me about how her guards taunted her and she mourned her family, and how she lost hope until she found out that her sister and some of her pack were still alive.

She tells me how she was groomed to carry out her mission here, how a phone number was drilled into her head until she had it memorized so she could keep in contact with them once she was successfully in. She tells me about the thumb drive they left for her, and how Fallon almost caught her when she retrieved it.

“I didn’t know I’d find you,” she says quietly, looping her arms around my neck. “The more I got to know you, the more I didn’t want to go through with it, but… I can’t leave Olivia with those monsters. They promised they’d set her free if I did what they said…”

I heave a sigh, shaking my head. “The shadow pack doesn’t keep their promises, Serena.”

Fresh tears well in her eyes. “What are you saying? Do you think she’s already…”

I give another quick shake of my head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I just mean that I doubt they ever had any intention of letting either of you go.”

My wheels are already turning, trying to figure out how we can use this information to our advantage. How we can get Serena’s sister back and defeat Xavier and the shadow pack once and for all.

“If they find out that I told you anything…”

I reach up to cup her face in a hand, looking into her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

It’s a loaded question- trust isn’t something that we’ve been able to build, given the depth of the secrets being kept. Even so, Serena sinks her teeth into her lower lip and nods.

“Then believe me when I say I’ll do everything I can to get your sister back,” I say, stroking a hand down her back. “But no more lies.”

“No more lies,” she agrees.

I blow out a breath, pressing my forehead to hers. I just hold her for a moment, still trying to wrap my mind around everything before pulling back to look at her again.

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