Page 68 of Alpha Chase

“Maybe it is,” he grumbles. “And maybe it’s not. How do you feel when you’re with her? Are you drawn to her in ways you can’t explain? Does your skin feel like it’s tingling when you touch her? Does she smell like fucking heaven to you? Has your wolf claimed her? Only the full moon can confirm it, but there are signs…”

I’m so fucking out of my depth here that I feel like I’m drowning, struggling for air. Distantly, I hear Gray’s voice, but the words are all jumbled up in my brain, like it can’t make sense of them. I just keep seeing those eyes- those big, brown eyes, so full of revulsion and disbelief. She saw my teeth, and she recoiled from me like the slightest touch would taint her somehow.

This is what always happens. I carve out a slice of something good, and it all turns to shit at the first chance it gets. And if Vienna knew what Gray was sitting here insinuating, she’d run so fucking fast that I’d never be able to catch her.

“You can’t tell her,” I blurt, jerking my chin down to stare into Gray’s eyes, my own rounded in apprehension.

Gray frowns. “Chase. Is it really smart to keep it from her? Chances are, she already knows, after what happened this morning…”

I shake my head, my tongue sticking to the roof of my dry mouth like glue. “No. She won’t want it,” I rasp. “She won’t wantme.”

His shoulders droop, his eyes sympathetic as he presses his lips into a tight line. “You don’t know that,” Gray says gently, the sincerity in his tone only plunging the knife lodged into my heart deeper. “The timing may seem off, but it’s no accident that she came into your life when she did. Maybe this is what you need, to have a strong woman beside you when you step up to take control of your pack. You may think she doesn’t want this, but what if she does?”

I shake my head, shooting to my feet. “Idon’t want it, then. I’m not ready. Ican’t…”

It feels like the walls are closing in on me, my lungs constricting painfully. I’m suffocating, black spots dancing in my vision as my legs tremble beneath me. I’m having a goddamn panic attack, and if I don’t get out of here right this second, I’m going to hit the floor.

My vision blurs around me as my feet move, carrying me toward the front door of the Goldenleaf packhouse. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I hear Gray calling after me, but his voice doesn’t register- nothing does, except the deafening thud of my own stuttered heartbeat. I throw the door open, gasping as the cold air hits my face, lunging outside onto the front stoop.

The frigid air that I’m dragging into my lungs is a shock to the system, and my body shudders as I fall to my knees.

Rage.

Devastation.

Rejection.

Despair.

I just want to feel numb again.

Footsteps pound behind me.

“Baby Alpha?”

“Give him some space.”

“What happened?!”

A hand lands on my shoulder, shaking me, and my eyes slam closed.

Even in the blackness behind my eyelids, all I see isher.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Vienna

“Thereyouare!”Nessachirps as I cross the threshold into the bedroom I’ve been sharing with her and her younger sister. She’s bent at the waist, stuffing clothes into an overflowing laundry basket on the floor. Hauling the basket up into her arms, she turns toward me with a coy smile dancing across her lips. “I was wondering when you were gonna…” Nessa’s voice trails off as her eyes meet mine, her smile falling. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head, looking away as I unzip my jacket and shrug it off my shoulders. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

After storming out of Chase’s packhouse, I drove around aimlessly for an hour, getting lost on the meandering forest roads throughout the six-pack territory. I cried angry, frustrated tears for the first ten minutes, Chase’s words replaying in my mind on an endless loop.

‘Why the fuck would I want to mark YOU?’

Like I’m so far beneath him that the thought of marking me, claiming me, is unfathomable. Like I’m nothing more than dirt underneath his two-hundred-dollar Timberland boots.

After my tears dried, I proceeded to berate myself for being so fucking stupid for getting involved with Chase Walker in the first place. I knew who he was, what he was, and I allowed myself to tumble down the rabbit hole anyways. I let myself think this was something different, something more, a notion that was reduced to ash this morning when he uttered those words, piercing my heart like a kill shot.

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