Page 3 of Cruel Alpha: Season Two

But despite wanting to rush ahead, wanting proof of whether our efforts were all in vain, Jezebel is right.

Only time will tell if our best was anywhere near good enough.

2

From Bad to Worse

Annalise

Despite there being onlya thin sheet covering my body, I’m warm. Blinking toward the faint, orange glow that radiates from the fireplace, it seems I’ve identified the source of heat that’s taken the chill off my feet.

It’s night, and I’m in my room, but with my sense of time scrambled, this feels like a fever dream.

Stretching my toes toward the end of the bed, the soles of my feet brush a set of long, strong legs.Barelegs. My movementcauses the body behind me to stir, and then an arm reaches around my torso.

Suddenly more coherent than a moment ago, I catch his scent.

Cas.

His soft, rhythmic breathing brings me comfort as the fire crackles, but my head’s still spinning as I attempt to put together the events of the last several hours. At least, Ithinkit’s been hours. It could very well have been days.

I’m stiff and sore everywhere, connecting me to my most recent memory. A memory in which Cas drags me from a burning car, carries me up the stairs, and then to my bedroom. I recall the gentleness of his touch as he stroked the side of my face, the concern that was heavy in his eyes. But after that… everything went dark. Now, as I lie here naked, I’m drawing a blank as to what happened next.

“You’re awake,” Cas rasps, propping himself on his elbow to stare over my shoulder. It isn’t lost on me how surprised he sounds seeing that I’m conscious, making me wonder just how bad things got.

And also making it even more strange that we’re here. Together. Naked in my bed.

“I—I don’t understand. It was…”

He kisses my shoulder as I ramble. “You took a turn for the worst,” he says. “Jezebel sent for me, and I came to you as quickly as I could.”

He falls silent, and I turn, glancing over my shoulder to take in his expression. It’s distant, like he’s suddenly gone someplace else in his mind. Only now am I grasping just how dire things must have been. At the thought of it, I swallow deeply, the dull sting in my throat pointing out the rawness I hadn’t noticed before.

“I thought I was going to lose you.”

His grip tightens around me with those words.

“I… I almost died?”

That’s a strange question to string together, but when Cas takes a moment to speak, I can guess what his answer will be.

“Almost,” he says, and I blink a few times, finding it strange that I can’t remember even apieceof what happened after the accident.

“How am I still…here?”

Cas breathes deep, and the air in the room suddenly feels heavy. “Jezebel. She performed a ritual that saved you.”

My brow scrunches at his word choice. “Ritual?”

“Likely something she dug out of her archives. My guess is it’s ancient, rarely used,” he adds casually, and it’s as though he’s attempting to convince me this has all been no big deal.

But when I focus on the clues—the disorientation, the echo of pain that still lingers—my body says otherwise.

“We weren’t entirely sure it would work,” he admits, and his arm tightens around me even more. “I insisted that she try, though. I told her to do whatever it took.”

I place my hand on top of his, and despite being naked beneath the sheet together, no space between our bodies, the intimacy I feel has nothing to do with sexual attraction. And it’s with the sensation of his heart racing against my back that I become aware of how deep his concern for me actually runs.

How deep hisfeelingsfor me run.

---