Page 61 of Alpha Reid

“No,” I reply quickly. “They have no idea where it came from. I’m going to try again in a few days when I have a chance.” The lies leave my lips so easily that I almost believe them myself.

“Fine,” he grumbles. “Report back.”

The line goes dead and I let out a shaky breath, dropping the phone on the desk and melting back into Reid’s hold. I don’t know what it is- the events of the past few days or the anxiety of the situation or hearing that monster’s voice- but I’m suddenly overcome with a flood of emotion, and I can’t stop the tears that spring to my eyes and start to flow freely down my cheeks.

Reid just holds me, rocking me gently and letting me cry it all out. Almost like he knew this was going to happen- like he’s more attentive to my needs than I am. And in that moment, any lingering shred of doubt I might’ve had about coming clean and trusting Reid is gone. I finally understand why fate paired me with someone like him.

My life may be in shambles at the moment, but for this man I am so, so grateful.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Reid

“Fuck,” I sputter as I hit the dirt, Serena’s forearm coming across my throat to hold me down. She leans her face in close to mine, a devilish smirk on her lips.

“That’s twice in a row, tough guy,” she teases, waggling her eyebrows.

All I can focus on at the moment is the way she’s straddling me, pinning me down with her lithe body resting on top of mine. The heat between her thighs is almost right where I want it- a few inches lower and she’d feel just how much. We’re both panting heavily from the exertion of sparring, but if it were my choice, we’d be doing something else to make us pant like this.

I bring my hands to her legs, pressing my thumbs to her inner thighs as I run them all the way up to rest on her hips. “Guess you’re just that good,” I smirk.

She leans in closer, her lips brushing mine as her long red hair drapes around our faces like a curtain. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were letting me win.”

“Never,” I whisper against her lips, digging my fingers into her hips as she slowly grinds down, teasing the fuck out of me.

“Ugh, you two either need to get a room or swap partners,” Jax calls.

Serena sits up, giggling, and I snap my head sideways to see Jax giving us an exaggerated eyeroll.

“Fuck off,” I growl, my hands still holding Serena in place. “I’ve been watching you paw at Quinn out here for months now.”

Theo steps up beside Jax, wiping sweat from his brow and resting his hands on his hips. The two of them have been partnered up for training this morning. “Good point, you should both knock it off,” he says, his gaze sliding between Jax and me.

Jax turns to Theo, giving him a playful shove. “You’re just jealous that you can’t get your hands on your mate during practice like we can,” he smirks.

“Trust me, I get plenty of hands-on time with her.” Theo waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

“Ugh,” Fallon grimaces from the other side of me where she’s been sparring with Quinn, wrinkling her nose. “Glad you’re keeping my sister happy, but spare us the details. Can we all get back to training now?”

Jax points toward Serena and I. “Ask those two, they’re the ones sucking face on the field…”

“Oh fuckoff,” I groan again, finally relinquishing my grip on Serena so she can climb off of me and stand. I rise to my feet, too, brushing the dirt from my clothes.

“What’s up?” Gray calls from his position on the field nearby, offering a downed Brock his forearm to get up. Brock wraps his hands around Gray’s arm, pulling up off the ground. Those two have been partnered up all morning as well. “Are you guys ready to call it?”

“Already?” Fallon protests.

“Chill, Barbie Beast, you can kick ass again this afternoon,” Brock chuckles, shooting her a grin.

Gray rolls his eyes, making his way over to Fallon and slipping an arm around her shoulders. “We’ve gotta talk teams, remember?” he asks, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. She heaves a sigh, still pouting a little as Gray looks up, cupping his other hand around his mouth to call out to the rest of the squad. “That’s all for this morning, see you back here at one!”

The pairs on the field disengage, everyone quickly dispersing and heading toward the complex doors. I spot Chase with a few of his friends nearby, calling out to him and giving a little flick of my head to beckon him to join us. Astrid also makes her way over- she was sparring with Vienna all morning, and by sparring, I mean she was basically throwing the poor girl around like a sack of potatoes. While those two are evenly matched size wise, there’s a big disparity when it comes to their skill sets. Astrid is a hell of a fighter. Vienna is just average. She isn’t even a full-time squad member; she was cut from training and is on our reserve squad. While we’ve been preparing for battle, though, we've got the main squad, the reserve squad, and the high school recruits all grouped together.

“So we’ve been talking about splitting our skilled fighters into teams for a while, like we did in Denver,” Gray begins once we’re all gathered together and most everyone else has gone inside. “Each team will have different battle positions, and it’ll be up to the team leads to train and place their fighters. We figured that each of us would head up a team.”

“My brother’s doing the same with the Denver fighters that are heading down here,” Astrid supplies, stepping under Brock’s arm and tucking into his side. “They’ll be here in a few days so we can get some group training in with them.”

“So are we gonna start splitting up into the teams for practice, then?” Jax asks, reaching an arm up to scratch the back of his head.

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