Page 42 of The Alpha Under My Bed

Unknown Number: There’s a package on its way to your door. Drink the tea inside. Then I’ll take the belt off.

Cold, sick dread splintered through my ribs.

Me: No fucking way.

Unknown Number: It won’t hurt you.

Unknown Number: I just want to make sure you’re okay before you go without it.

I wanted to scream.

This was bullshit. All of it.

My fingers trembled, my pulse pounding, the weight of the belt against my waist suddenly so much heavier.

I knew—I knew—that if I drank the tea, I would regret it.

But I also knew that as long as I wore this belt, I wasn’t free.

And no matter how badly I wanted to fight back?—

I needed it off.

A sharp knock at the door shattered the stillness, a sound so abrupt and unexpected that it sent my heart spiraling into wild, erratic chaos.

I stopped breathing.

Every muscle in my body froze, the tension in my limbs coiling so tightly I swore I could feel my bones creaking under the strain.

He wouldn’t.

He wouldn’t come here.

Would he?

The knock came again, softer this time—measured, deliberate. Patient.

Not like someone trying to break in. Not like a stranger.

My lungs burned in protest. I hadn’t taken a single breath since the first knock. I forced in a shallow, trembling inhale, desperate to keep my thoughts from spiraling into madness, to keep my body from crumpling under the weight of something I couldn’t even name.

The soft vibration of my phone against my palm nearly sent it clattering to the floor.

My fingers clenched around it instinctively, heart hammering as I turned it over.

Unknown Number: It’s here.

A heavy, awful weight settled in my stomach, sinking deep, rooting itself in the space between panic and resignation.

My feet moved before my brain could catch up, like my body wasn’t mine anymore. Step by step, I crossed the apartment, my hand tightening around the doorknob like it might break apart in my grip.

I shouldn’t open it.

I knew I shouldn’t.

And yet?—

I twisted the lock.

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