Page 76 of Instant Bond

“I’m making mimosas,” she told us cheerfully, waving a bottle of orange juice in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. She’d become more comfortable around me over time, probably because she was starting to figure out I wasn’t some gold digger that just wanted in on Karter’s cushy lifestyle. “You want it strong or extra strong?”

Praying I wouldn’t blush or stutter or anything else that would ultimately reveal the real reason I didn’t want one, I shook my head. “None for me, thanks.”

“I’ll take one,” Karter said quickly, hopefully turning her attention to him, instead of my refusal.

“Wow!” Ty cried, from a different room. “Look at all these presents! And most of them havemyname on them!”

Tracey laughed at my side, before rushing out to intercept his curiosity before it got the better of him. “Those are for Christmas day! No peeking!”

Unable to hide my smile, I threaded my arm through Karter’s, snuggling into his side. Everything was so warm and cheery and lovely. When I reached into my pocket to glance at the time in my phone, I found it empty.

“Ah, damn it,” I sighed. “I left my phone in the car.”

“I’ll get it for you,” he offered immediately, setting his drink down.

“No, I don’t mind,” I said. “I’m not exactly an invalid yet,” I added softly, after subtly glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to us.

“And when you are, I’ll carry you everywhere you need to go. You won’t need to take a single step on your own,” he promised me. I scoffed, shaking my head at his ridiculous statement.

“You’ll throw your back out.”

“I’m not quite at that advanced age yet,” he retorted dryly, but his eyes were sparkling with humor and affection.

“I’ll be right back,” I promised, scurrying out of the hustle and bustle of the party, to the snowy outside.

Taking in a deep breath of the brisk air, I pulled my coat tighter around me. As I made my way around the house, a sharp voice startled me, freezing me in my tracks.

“Look, I already told you I’m done with all this. Just let it go, okay? You’re psychotic.” It was Lucas Caldwell’s voice.

“Me?” A woman’s voice shrilly answered him. “You’re going to let that ditzy little ragamuffin beat you?”

Lucas let out a single bark of laughter. “Beat me? I don’t have control over who Karter Morrison gets his rocks off to. And you’re the one who was obsessed with getting us to date. I told you I tried, and he isn’t into me. I mean obviously I’m not his type. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

My eyes widened to the size of saucers as I realized the ditzy little ragamuffin in question was, in fact, me. Flattening myself against the wall of the house, I prayed they wouldn’t keep walking around and notice me there.

“Alphas don’t have a type,” she scoffed. “They’ll bond with anyone that looks good and does what they say. You didn’t try hard enough.”

“You’re nuts,” he said dismissively. “And by the way, in case you didn’t notice, I’m not like you. I don’t need to trick some rich alpha into knocking me up and supporting me. I have a career.”

“How dare you speak to me that way!” The woman’s voice was supremely offended. “You wouldn’t have that career if not for your father and I putting you through school and paying for your modeling classes and everything else.”

He sighed, and I could tell he wanted to be done. My head was spinning with confusion as I tried to decode the conversation by combining it with the information I already had.

He wasn’t all that upset over Karter turning him down, which fit with his reaction to me at the Halloween party. It might have bruised his ego at the time, but his logic and reason surrounding the fact that he just wasn’t Karter’s type seemed to have put it all into perspective for him.

“If you think that I’m going to carry out some crazy ass villain scheme over an alpha who’s already hung up on someone else because you put me through school, as my parent, you’reinsane. I can’t believe you reported his kid to some abuse line or whatever.”

“I was doing what I had to do to get Karter to realize that he belongs with someone from our world, not some slutty little teen dad.”

Her words were all too familiar, nearly identically echoing the ones from that recent article about me online. She was definitely the one who’d called it in, not Lucas.

“Yeah, well, evicting a bunch of random people from their homes probably wasn’t the play there, Cruella,” he scoffed. “You just pushed them closer together, anyway.”

“You’re so ungrateful,” she snapped. “If you want to give up, then fine. Maybe you want to be like him, and get with some low rent alpha you’ll end up having to pay for, for the rest of your life.”

“How about I just fuck who I want, and you stay out of my business?” He suggested. “And for the record, if he does end up making a big deal out of the whole abuse report and eviction thing, I am not taking the fall for you. I will sing like a canary.”

“Oh, be serious.” Her tone was ripe with disdain. “I’m sure he knows better. I doubt he wants some drawn out legal battle over nothing.”

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