Page 7 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

Alexander sat at the small table in the side of the room, eating his breakfast without a care in the world.

I didn’t know what to say to him, so I just watched him eat. He handled his cutlery with almost as much expertise as he’d handled me the night before.

Goddess, what was I thinking of?

“You can stop staring any moment now,” Alexander said dryly, his gaze never leaving his plate.

Bury me. Just bury me now.

“Last night—” I began awkwardly, my cheeks burning, but before I could string my words together, Alexander interrupted me.

“Spare me your sentimental pleasantries, little rabbit. It was nothing special,” he said caustically, making a dismissive gesture with his hand. “You wanted revenge, and you got it. Now get out.”

It felt like Alexander had doused me with ice-cold water, freezing any intimacy that remained from the night before.

Of course he’d be like this.

The reality was that Alexander still hated me, and last night had been… interesting, but in the grand scheme of things, it was just a fluke that had helped me move closer to achieving my goal.

I was only using him to get my bonding ceremony today called off.

“Don’t worry, the feeling is mutual,” I said, matching Alexander’s flippant tone as I got out of his bed and picked up my discarded nightdress. “I don’t want anything to do with you, either, Alexander Hawthorne.”

When I opened the door to my room, Father was waiting for me.

His face was twisted with rage. The emerald-green eyes I’d inherited from him burned with ire. The door had barely closed when he slapped me so hard that I fell to the ground.

Usually, he preferred to hit me where no one could see the marks, even if literally everyone in the pack knew of his violent tendencies—he liked to keep up appearances.

The only thing that would make Father pissed enough to discard his normal rules would be if he knew about my night with Alexander.

Good.

Dylan hadn’t been in his room when I left Alexander’s, but if Father had found out so soon, then it was only a matter of time until he did as well.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Father spat with disgust and anger, a growl warping his voice. “You had one duty, just one, but you spread your legs for the wrong brother at the detriment of our pack?”

Ourpack? I almost laughed.

What pack?

The Red Moon Pack that had socially ostracized me?

The pack that never let me participate in pack runs?

The pack that had looked the other way while Father and Drew, my younger half-brother and the future alpha of this pack, tormented me?

The pack whose members thought it was fun to bully me as a child, claiming I was clumsy until I learned how to defend myself?

That was the pack I was supposed to sacrifice my future for?

How silly.

The Red Moon Pack had never truly been my pack. It was a prison I’d been desperate to escape, until I’d been faced with an even worse fate—being Dylan’s mate.

I met Father’s gaze unflinchingly.

“I won’t be Dylan’s mate,” I announced.

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