Page 33 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

CHAPTER 6

ELEANOR

Iwas drowning.

The water grabbed at me, pulling me under, and no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t get to the surface.

I screamed, and water rushed into my lungs. My arms flailed and my chest contracted at every movement.

And for the life of me, I didn’t know which way was up or down.

Then I felt pressure on the back of my neck, and someone pulled me out.

I sputtered, sucking in a grateful inhale.

Then my entire body went cold. I was suspended in the air as I processed the world around me in fragments.

My drenched clothes clinging to my skin.

The pool I’d been drowning in…the pool someone had tried to drown me in.

The secure hold on the back of my neck that had kept me underwater…and had pulled me out.

And those clear, ocean-blue eyes that were colder than ice and watched me with a casual disdain.

“Miss me, little rabbit?” Alexander Hawthorne smirked.

I bolted upright in my bed, completely drenched in sweat and panting, my chest still cold from my nightmare.

I sucked in a shaky breath. It made sense that after Alexander saved me, I’d have a dream like that to remind me why I had to remember who he really was.

The image of Alexander tenderly seeing to my injuries popped into my head involuntarily.

He’d had an almost gentle expression on his face while he’d taken care of me. He hadn’t touched me inappropriately, not even in the slightest. But it hadn’t stopped my body from reacting to his touch…and his proximity.

The mating bond was a twisted thing, and it probably didn’t help that he’d saved my life, further blurring the lines between us.

The only reason I’d come to the hunt at all was because it was one of the social bonding activities for a pack.

After being segregated my entire life in the Red Moon Pack, I was eager to find my place here. But theory was different from reality, and I’d found myself unable to talk to anyone.

I’d called it a day and was heading back home when someone clocked me over the head with a blunt object. When I came to, I was pumped full of wolfsbane, unable to escape from the wolf who held me captive.

Alexander was the last person I expected to come for me. Maybe that was why I’d returned to check on him instead of running away after I’d broken free of my kidnapper’s hold.

Whatever the reason, it had enabled me to see yet another aspect of Alexander that scared the hell out of me.

His lethal rage, his whip-fast movements, the way he’d killed those wolves…how easily he’d torn them up…

No. I didn’t want to think about it.

Just like I didn’t want to think about how Dylan helped save my life, despite the fact that I’d chosen his brother over him.

I stepped out of my room, even though I was anxious about seeing Alexander. Would yesterday’s events change the dynamic between us?

Alexander’s room was empty, and no sooner had I entered than the bedroom door opened and Lily entered with a tray of food.

She paused when she noticed me.

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