Page 55 of The Alpha Wolf's Pregnant Bride

“I knowthatlook…” he comments warily as he greets me with a hug. “Lemme guess… It didn’t go well.”

“You’d think that someone with my skills would get a job likethat,”I snap my fingers with a grumpy groan, plunging onto the chair grimly. “It’s like these Americans don’t see my worth.”

“Jeez! Easy there, Ms. Chikara,” Kenji chuckles. “You almost sound like a foreigner now.”

“I feel like one,” I grouch with a roll of my eyes. “I feel so out of place here.”

Those words have never been truer. Ever since I left the small town of Mysthaven, I’d been struggling to find my footing in the world.

I’d missed my chance of pocketing a quarter of a million dollars because I’d been too kind.

Too giving to a man who had no intention of treating me like the refined woman I am.

I’m not just any she-wolf, and I’m not a measly human girl who settles for a simple one-night stand.

If I were, I would have lost my virginity a long time ago.

“No, you wouldn’t…”my inner wolf voice interrupts, reminding me that I’d been keeping myself for one man, albeit subconsciously. It was a grave mistake on my part.

He only uses women to quell his baser desires. He was never looking for something serious. I don’t know what I was thinking, as if I was special enough to change the Alpha of the Moon Shine Pack.

Shrugging my indifference at my inner wolf, who never fails to remind me of the candle I’d been holding out for Cyrus, I lift my eyes to Kenji, who’s become my roommate ever since I found myself jobless and homeless at the same time.

My latter disposition is only because I refuse to stay in Mysthaven and risk showing the Alpha my face.

“Any luck on selling your parents’ house?” Kenji asks casually, perusing the menu while he pretends to be disinterested in my response.

I know he’s worried about me, especially since I can’t reclaim my job in Tokyo. It’s been a rough two weeks of rejected resumes in every company that has no ties to Rudolph Inc.

I don’t want to risk Cyrus finding me. If, at all, he’s even looking. I hate that I care enough for a frisson of hope to spark deep inside.

I don’t care.

I shouldn’t.

I sigh, our waitress coming over as if on cue to take our order. When she leaves, Kenji throws me a worried look with one brow lifted.

“I can’t sell the place…” I begin, another heavy-hearted sigh escaping my lips as my shoulders slouch. The cottage in Mysthaven isn’t a property I’m allowed to list on the market. It belongs to the pack, like the rest of the town. Technically, the Rudolph family owns the entire town. It’s how things in the pack work. Each of us has our own little space as long as we’re a part of the pack.

Since leaving, I can kiss the property goodbye for good.

It’s not like I need it, even if the small cottage holds many memories for me.

“... Too many memories,” I lie to Kenji, only because he will never know the truth about my identity. It’s better this way—pack rules demand that humans don’t learn about our mystical identities, protecting ourselves and the pack from any harm.

I don’t know why I still feel a stroke of loyalty toward Moon Shine. The pack has always been the source of my misery.

Scratch that.

Cyrus Rudolph has always been the source of my misery.

“I understand,” Kenji sighs, a hopeful look in his eyes. “I know you’ve been struggling to find work out here, but what about…” he leans in and mouths the word, “Asuka?”

I bite my bottom lip in deep contemplation. “Let’s do it,” I say at last. The only reason I’d been holding off from taking hacking jobs was to secure something more permanent.

It seems like the States is too littered with graphic designers in these parts. I could use the money from undercover work and get a place of my own. I could have used the money from Cyrus’s job, but I’m too adamant to stay off the radar so that he never finds me.

“I already have a job in line,” Kenji reveals with a sly grin, leaning back and giving me some time to let the excitement kick in.

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