Page 12 of Alpha's Claim

“Don’t tell me you preferred your old partner.”

“Chinless Chad? No.”

I bark a laugh, but she lifts a shoulder. “I prefer to be left alone.” Despite her words, her gaze roams my face with what I hope is interest.

“Yes. It looks like you have a long line of suitors.” I glance over to see her former dance partner’s father angrily speaking to her retinue of guards.

She mutters something in Spanish.

“I’m sorry?”

She lifts her chin. “Underneath all that muscle you must actually be a very small man.”

Wow. Okay, now it’s getting personal. I’m not sure what I did to inspire this attack, but my bear likes that she can give it back. Last night I imagined her to be cowed by her foster father and his men.

“I don’t know, most women find me to be more than adequate in, ah,thatdepartment.” I flick my brows above the mask.

Her bodyguards surround the dance floor. Two of them shoulder their way through the dancers on the floor toward us.

What in the ever-loving fuck is going onhere? Does Thom not realize what spectacle his men are making in front of his Hampton guests? Does he not care?

A flush appears on her cheeks and throat from my innuendo. She attempts to pull away, but I keep her against my body, loving the feel of her soft curves. I turn our bodies, dancing away from the approaching guards.

“You disgust me.” Her nostrils flare. “Any man who bids on a woman’s virginity must havedeepinadequacies.”

Her words hit me like a blast of concrete to the chest. I stop dancing, releasing her abruptly.

Bid on hervirginity?

That’swhat’s going on here this weekend? Oh, hell no. Not on my watch.

My shock distracts me momentarily from the approaching guards. Before I can reply, they’re upon us.

“Time to go, Paloma.” The asshole who was making her eat last night takes her elbow.

“She’s not going anywhere,” I snarl before I remember to hide my aggression.

Paloma disengages from me, though. “Watch it. I’m not your property yet.”

Thom drops a hand on my shoulder. “Looks like my daughter doesn’t care to dance, Darius.”

I grind my teeth as the guards hustle her away, not just out of my grasp but out of the room. The concrete that hit my chest has traveled down to my gut now. I want to pummel Thom to a pulp. My bear wants to rampage, but I contain myself.

I’ve spent the last fifteen years learning to control my impulses.

Every action must be well-thought out when you live among vultures. Especially when you’re not the same species as them.

I won’t win a hand-to-hand fight against the nearly forty security guards I’ve clocked around the premises. I need to bide my time, find where they took Paloma, and bust her out of the horror that appears to be her life.

I force myself to turn and give Thom a bland smile. “Fantastic party. Too bad your security team keeps making a spectacle.”

“I suppose I am overprotective of the ones in my care. It’s my biggest flaw.” He drops his tone like he’s confiding in me. I need to get away from him before I punch his throat. Paloma’s scent is fading, and my bear is urging me to follow her before I lose the trail. But then he says something that makes me and my bear focus. “Paloma is…not well.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” That might explain the bitter quality to her scent. A medicine perhaps? “Can anything be done?”

“Already handled, my boy. It’s nothing the doctors can’t deal with.” He pats my shoulder again, looking past me. “Ah, I see I’m needed elsewhere.”

At the opposite end of the room, a bunch of geriatric billionaires are exiting the ballroom, along with their sons. Thom walks to join them.

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