Page 27 of Alpha Chase

“I went through the same thing, I came around,” Gray reasons.

“You and Chase are two very different people.”

I hear Gray heave a sigh, the floor creaking beneath his weight. “Just give him a little more time. I’ll work with him.”

“Fine,” Rob huffs. “I’ll keep running this pack and keep them at bay, but I can only do it for so much longer.”

I stand there frozen, bewildered and barely breathing. I shouldn’t be here- the last thing I want to do is get caught eavesdropping on a conversation that was obviously supposed to be private. I slowly back away from the doorway to the office, then turn and scamper back the way that I came, ducking out of the hallway before I’m seen.

Fuck, is Rob making a play for Alpha? Should I do something, tell someone? Should I tell Chase?

I don’t even have a chance to fully process my thoughts before I’m heading for the stairs, gripping the railing and ascending them as fast as I can. I’ve never been up here before, but I know Chase’s room must be on the second floor because I saw Stasia lead him up this staircase the other night.

FuckingStasia. The thought of her hanging all over Chase gives me pause and I stop abruptly, lingering at the top of the stairs, unsure whether I should turn back around. This is none of my business. I’m not even part of Chase’s pack. I don’t owe him anything. I could just turn around and go back downstairs and keep on living my life, pretending I never heard that conversation.

Then I hear the faintest melody coming from somewhere down the hall, something so eerily familiar that it draws me in like a siren. My feet start moving, carrying me further and further down the hallway until I’m at the last room. Chase’s room.

As soon as I reach the doorway and peer inside, it’s like my brain short-circuits and I forget the reason I came up here. Chase is standing inside with his back turned to me, rifling through the top drawer of his dresser for something. He’s shirtless, jeans riding low on his hips as his toned back muscles ripple with his movements. And the song that’s playing- that fuckingsong. Even though I was named after it, I haven’t heard it in forever. My dad used to sing it to me all the time. It's like I can still hear his voice mixing with Billy Joel’s during the chorus. It’smysong- ‘Vienna’. Memories surface of how my dad would turn that song on and crank up the volume, dancing with my mom in our living room. I’d just sit there and watch them until the second chorus, when he'd always turn to me with a big smile and hold out his hand to beckon me to join. Back when he was alive, I felt like we had it all. We were all so happy.

That happy memory is now being muddled with something else because seeing Chase half-naked has my heart pounding erratically in my chest, my breath caught somewhere in my throat. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of shirtless guys before- I mean, it’s part of shifter culture- but seeing Chase like this has heat crawling up my neck, my heart racing and palms sweaty. He swings around to face me, but his phone is in his hands and his eyes are fixed on it, allowing my own to roam his bare chest unabashedly. My jaw goes slack as I drink in the sight of his naked torso like I’m dying of thirst. The way his lean muscle cuts lines across his abs, the V of his adonis belt dipping into his jeans- his body is truly a thing of beauty, every inch of rippling muscle beneath his tan skin like pure perfection, chiseled and hard and strong.

Hornets.

I’ve seen Chase before but I’ve never reallyseenhim, not like this, in all his bare-chested glory. Suddenly his head snaps up, dark eyes colliding with mine. The cold look in them quickly dissolves into a glimmer of amusement as he takes in the sight of me in his doorway, the corner of his mouth tipping up into a sexy smirk as a dimple sinks into his cheek. “Stalk much?”

All at once I realize how this must look- that I’m standing in the doorway of his bedroom perving on him with my damn mouth hanging open. I snap it shut, desperately grasping for some semblance of composure. This is all too weird- Chase Walker, shirtless, standing in front of me. My song playing from the speaker on his dresser. The way I go from wanting to murder him one minute to wanting to jump his bones the next.

I swallow past the lump in my throat, casually stepping into the room and folding my arms over my chest, leaning back against the wall beside the door. “Interesting song choice,” I muse.

Chase furrows his brow. “Huh?”

I roll my eyes, lips curling into a smug smile. “Vienna?”

He frowns, touching the screen of his phone to skip to the next song. The mellow voice of Billy Joel is abruptly cut off, replaced by the heavy bass beat of an MGK song. “Didn’t even notice,” he says flippantly, tossing his phone onto the bed. “Had it on auto shuffle.”

“Sure you did,” I tease, still grinning.

Chase pins me with a stare, the intensity of it enough to make me squirm as he starts crossing the room toward me. I straighten, smile falling as my arms slip away to dangle at my sides, and suddenly he’s right in front of me, taking up all my space, breathing all my air. His bare upper body is inches away from my own, my hands itching to reach out and touch his skin.

“You like what you see?” he asks, brow arching.

Any retort I might’ve had dies on my lips when he suddenly reaches out and wraps his fingers around my wrist, bringing my hand up between us and pressing my palm to his broad chest. “You can touch, if you want.”

His chest is firm, his skin warm, and it feels like sparks of electricity are ricocheting beneath my palm from our contact. My hand trembles with the effort it takes to hold it in place and resist exploring the contours of lean muscle spread before me like a canvas. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I grit out, though I can hear the slight waver in my own voice. He’s too close. The heat radiating off his body is too much. The grip he has around my wrist is too strong, trapping my hand against him.

“I thinkyou’dlike it,” he murmurs, voice low as he crowds me in, swallowing what little space was left between us. His huge body presses firmly against mine, one of his legs slotting between my own, the weight of him pinning me to the wall.

It’d be ridiculously easy for him to overpower me, physically, but that’s not what someone like Chase wants. When he seeks to dominate, it’s mind, body, and soul. He wants to wear me down until I beg for it, just so he can wield his power by snatching it away. I’m well versed in guys like him, but I have a feeling that he doesn’t know the first thing about girls like me.

“Is that what you want, Alpha?” I ask sweetly, batting my eyelashes as I slide my other hand up between us to press beside the one already on his chest. I suppress the shudder that threatens to run through me in response to how fucking good it feels to touch him like this. Chase’s eyes blaze with excitement and he releases my wrist, freeing my hands to slowly cruise over the hard planes of his chest. I can feel the frantic pounding of his heartbeat beneath my palms. “You want me to tell you that I want to touch you?”

Chase tugs his lower lip between his teeth, golden shimmers swirling in his irises as he stares down at me intently. “Yeah, I do,” he rasps. His own hands glide down my arms, settling on my hips before they tuck up underneath the hem of my shirt. My breath hitches as he grips the sides of my waist firmly with both hands, thumbs softly tracing circles on the bare skin of my belly.

I gaze up at him as I drag my hands down his chest, fingertips tickling his tight abs. “You want me to tell you that I want tofuckyou?” I ask, inching closer to the waistband of his jeans. When I say the word ‘fuck’, I feel a shudder run through Chase’s body, his expression pained as his fingers tighten their grip on my waist.

He leans down to press his forehead against mine, breath coming out in short pants. His eyes blaze with intensity as he says “yes.”

Chase’s breathing grows more labored as my hands continue roaming his naked torso, hovering when they reach his waistband before cruising back up to his pecs. “Sorry,” I whisper, lips sliding into a devious grin. “That’snevergonna happen.” I throw all my strength behind giving him a hard shove with both hands, sending him stumbling backwards.

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