Page 75 of The Alpha Under My Bed

Tear-streaked cheeks, swollen lips from biting them raw, glasses missing, eyes wide and ruined with something I recognized far too well.

Panic.

Grief.

Desperation.

She was barefoot, swallowed by one of my shirts, its fabric hanging off her frame like a second skin. She clutched her arms around herself, as if the act alone could somehow hold her together, keep her from unraveling completely.

And then?—

“I don’t want to lose you.”

The words broke from her, jagged and raw.

Her voice—fragile, trembling—hung on the edge of a collapse, as though every syllable could splinter her apart.

I didn’t have time to process what she’d said before she moved, fast and desperate, throwing herself at me. Her body collided with mine, knocking the air from my lungs, her presence consuming every ounce of space between us.

Her arms locked around my neck, clutching me like I was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.

I caught her on instinct, hands firm on her waist, steadying her as she buried her face against my throat, her whole body trembling like she was unraveling from the inside out.

And then?—

Her teeth.

Sinking into my throat.

Right over the same spot on me where I had left my mark on her during her heat.

My vision tunneled.

My whole body locked up, blood roaring in my ears as my instincts snapped like a rubber band stretched too fucking tight.

She—

She bit me.

She sealed the bond.

The one-sided claim I had left on her was now permanent.

Two-sided.

Unbreakable.

Mine.

Twenty

ELEANOR

I woke up wrong.

It wasn’t the bed—though it wasn’t mine.

Wasn’t the heat—though my skin felt too tight, too flushed.

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