Page 55 of Alpha Chase

She steps out in her dress from last night, frowning down at her phone in her hands. “My phone’s dead. Nessa’s probably worried sick,” she mutters. Then her eyes widen, meeting mine. “Shit, I was her ride home!”

I sit up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. “My boys already took care of it,” I say flippantly, reaching down to retrieve a pair of sweatpants from the ground.

Vienna’s brow creases in confusion. “What? When?”

I shrug a shoulder, sticking my legs into the sweatpants and standing to tug them up my hips. “I texted them last night.”

Her eyes narrow on me suspiciously.

I scrub a hand over my face, sighing. “Remember when you were complaining about thinking someone would hear us and made me put on some music? I had a message from Cal asking if your girl needed to find another ride home.”

Vienna folds her arms over her chest, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. “So you just assumed I was spending the night?’

“I mean, from the way you were screaming on my dick at the time, it was pretty clear you weren’t going anywhere,” I chuckle.

She frowns, stomping over to her boots and snatching them from the floor, balancing on one leg to pull one on as I watch her in amusement.

“So since your friend’s taken care of and you don’t have to rush outta here…” I stride over to the dresser, picking up an abandoned whiskey bottle and holding it toward her. “Stay and have a drink with me?”

“What?” she blurts, shaking her head in disbelief. “It’s nine in the morning!”

I grin. “So?”

“So, is that all you do all day?” Vienna eyes the whiskey bottle with distaste.

“Why not?” I shrug.

She shakes her head again. “No wonder your leadership is being questioned,” Vienna mutters.

My body goes rigid. “What?”

She clamps her mouth shut, eyes widening like she just realized she accidentally let something slip. Anger claws at my gut, my wolf pushing forward as I stalk toward her.

“Did you hear something?” I ask, closing the distance between us in two long strides.

Vienna shakes her head, hair swishing around her face as she backs away from me. “No, I just… I shouldn’t have said anything, it’s none of my business.”

Blind rage fuels me as I advance on her, backing her into the wall and crowding her in, looming over her like a fucking predator. “What did you hear?” I demand, a sharp edge to my tone that should give her every indication that I’m not fucking around.

Vienna blinks up at me, her tough mask slipping as her eyes dart around nervously. “I overheard a conversation that I shouldn’t have… that if you don’t step it up, someone could challenge you for Alpha.”

A low growl rumbles in my chest, my lip curling back from my teeth. “Who?”

She presses her lips into a tight line, uncertainty written all over her face.

Something in me snaps.

“Who?!” Vienna yelps as I slam my fist into the wall beside her head, sending it right through the drywall. She flinches, eyes rounded in fear as powdery white drywall particles rain down on her.

My chest tightens when her fear registers, but she quickly recovers, her eyes igniting with a bronze glow as they narrow on me in fury.

“Gray and Rob!” she shouts, pressing her hands to my chest and shoving me back. She whips her head around to gape at the hole in the drywall, snapping it back to me with her features etched in a deep scowl. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” Vienna shoves me again, turning to storm out the door muttering a final, biting remark under her breath. “Grow the fuck up and get your shit together.”

My fists clench, blood boiling, and I fly out of my room in a blind rage. Vienna freezes in her tracks when she sees me coming, but I hurl myself down the hall past her, hitting the stairs and taking them two at a time until I reach the bottom and head straight for my dad’s office. I lunge through the doorway, a surprised looking Gray glancing up to meet my eyes.

“You’ve been talking to Rob about him challenging me for Alpha?!” I roar, crossing the room in two seconds flat and slamming my fists down onto the desk.

Gray calmly rises to his feet, eyes narrowing on me as my chest heaves. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I assume it was out of context.”

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