Page 18 of Cruel Alpha

I waited and waited and waited. It was nice, actually, taking the time to admire her profile: the cute slope of her nose, the softness around her jawline, the curls that had escaped from her ponytail to tumble around her face. Alyssa’s hands began to fiddle with the edge of the bedspread, her posture growing more and more tense until finally, she stood all at once, storming past me and out of the room into the hallway, her arms crossed.

“What do you want?” she asked once the door was shut behind me. Neither her voice nor her expression showed any hint of the rage that had been so obvious only a few moments ago; it was as if a mask had come down over her face, shielding her true emotions.

“To know what I did wrong.” As far as I was concerned, I’d done nothing to warrant this amount of ire—not in the last couple of hours, anyway. Alyssa rolled her eyes, turning away to head down the stairs.

“You’re being weird,” I said as I followed her, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. I was probably failing, but Alyssa only rolled her eyes.

“I tell you that I just saw my family for the first time in three years, and they barely care that I'm alive, but I must be upset because of somethingyoudid,” she said. “Sure.”

It was obvious that she was lying. Her flippancy was too perfect, like she’d studied how to seem careless. Still, it was a good enough act that I couldn’t quite see past it, and I found myself wishing once again for the emotional transparency that came with a claimed and marked mate.

“No, that’s not it.” I insisted as we emerged back into the living space. Julia, sprawled on the couch, sat up and started to say something, but Alyssa got there first.

“Isn’t it?” she said. She was smiling—more like grimacing—and her voice was edged with irony. “Please tell me more about my own feelings, oh powerful and insightful Alpha.”

If she wasn’t going to admit it, then I was going to have to be the one to bring it up.

“You didn’t like that I was talking to Mellie,” I said, and the fake smile dropped from her face. There was an endless, cavernous pause, like the silence before a shootout.

“Wow, would you look at the time,” said Julia. “I’ve got somewhere to be all of a sudden.”

Neither of us spared her a look as she swept her coat from its hook and all but sprinted out of the house, leaving nothing but a cold breeze and the sound of the door slamming in her wake. Alyssa didn’t even flinch.

“You can talk toMellieas much as you like,” she said, her voice icy. “I don’t care.”

“Oh really?” I stepped forward into her space, looking down at her. “Seemed like you cared a little bit.”

“And what gave you that idea?” she asked. She sounded almost bored,while I was getting more and more frustrated. If she just told me what I’d done, I would fix it—or at least try.

“You didn’t want to hang around,” I told her, which was a kind way of putting it. She’d all but stormed off in a huff.

“The twins needed putting down for their nap,” Alyssa said, as though it wasn’t a transparent excuse. “Youmight not need to prioritize their well-being, but—”

“Bullshit,” I snapped. “You were jealous as hell.” Fuck—the more unaffected she pretended to be, the angrier I got. In return, my anger only seemed to feed her indifference.

“That’s quite the ego you’ve got there,” she said like I was some—someschoolboytrying to impress her.

“I’m your mate,” I growled, the truth of the words hitting me with an unexpected force. Suddenly, I wanted to reach for her, to crush her against my body, to kiss her plush lips, to mark her neck and her breasts and belly with my teeth, to show her she wasmineand that I’d never paid an ounce of attention to any other woman.

The words clearly had an effect on her, too, because her defensive posture had dropped. All of a sudden, she looked so fucking vulnerable, and when she spoke, her voice was soft and cracking.

“You know, that’s the first time you’ve ever admitted that out loud.”

“Alyssa, I—” I started to say, but that awful, careless mask slipped back into place before I could get any more words out.

“You do whatever you want with Melanie Simons,” she said with a shrug. “We don’t owe each other anything.”

God, but I hated that mask. I hated the way she leaned against the back of the couch like we were talking about the weather, I hated the flatness of her voice, I hated the utter blankness of her expression and the shutters that had gone down behind her eyes.

“Clearly,” I snarled, and I knew I was going to regret what came out of my mouth next, but I was too angry and too set on cracking that awful fucking mask. “You’re the one who let some worthless dog knock you up, after all.”

The words hung in the air between us, poisoning every breath we took in the silence that followed. I wanted to grab them, to stuff them back into the dark, twisted, jealous pit of my mind where they belonged, but there was no unsaying them now. The worst part was it didn’t even work. Alyssa only smiled a tense, fake smile and said,

“You’ve got me there. I really did.”

Chapter 9 - Alyssa

You’re the one who let some worthless dog knock you up.The words rang in my head long after Caleb stalked from the house, letting the door slam behind him. That had woken Jack up, which had woken Emmy up, and it had taken half an hour to get them both back down. I hadn’t lied: hewasa worthless dog, and I’d known that from the start.

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