Page 19 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
I threw back another shot. Like all the others, it offered no comfort. My wolf was just as unhinged as I was—pacing, restless, wild. I wanted to know where Leila was. Right now. This minute. I wanted to go to her and pour every ounce of this fury, this helpless craving, into every kiss I gave her.
I collapsed onto the sofa, allowing my head to fall back against the cushion with a dull thud.
The door swung open.
“Damn, Luca. You look like shit,” Charles said flatly, announcing his presence.
Charles was my Beta. My second in command. The closest thing I had to a best friend, and the only man on this earth I could trust.
I yanked at the loose tie around my neck and ripped the damn thing off. “Thanks for stating the obvious.”
“I heard you ripped into the marketing team,” Charles said, dropping a file on my desk.
“They’re lucky they still have their jobs. Might not by tomorrow.”
I stood and crossed the room, grabbing the file he brought.
“Security details from the last sweep,” he said as I flipped it open. “Pack territory is marked in green. Human side in red. Neutral zone’s yellow.”
Even with the pages in front of me, my brain wasn’t registering a thing. I slammed the folder shut and tossed it back on the desk.
Charles gave me a look. One of those cautious, quiet assessments that always preceded him prying. “What’s going on with you, man?”
I paced toward the floor to ceiling windows and stared out at the city. And like it had been doing all damn day, my mind wandered to her—pinned against this very window, my hands on her hips, her breath fogging the glass.
I remembered that day like it had just happened. She’d stormed into my office with blazing eyes and a tongue sharp enough to cut flesh. All because I’d told her to redo the presentation—for the thirdtime. Not because it wasn’t perfect. It was. I just liked riling her up. Watching her snap, watching that fire ignite in her.
It turned me on more than it should’ve. And that afternoon? It snapped something in me.
I had kissed her like I owned her. Tasted every inch of her skin. Pressed her up against this very window, and had been ready to take her right here, right then, had we not been interrupted by a knock on my door.
But that had been the day I realized I couldn’t stay away from that woman. I’d been so irritated with Victor and everyone else for the rest of the day. I had been so restless and uneasy I had asked Charles to look up her home address, then stormed to her house.
My eyes fluttered close as I recalled the moment I’d been inside her for the first time, the moment I realized that she was a virgin, and she’d honored me with the opportunity to be her first. She was so tight, so warm, like heaven wrapped in sin. Just thinking about it now made my cock twitch in my pants. I’d never felt so completely undone, so consumed, like I was the first and only man meant to touch her in that way.
Even back then, I think some part of me knew. Not in my head—but in my bones. In the way my body reacted to hers like gravity had changed direction.
She wasn’t just another woman. She was mine. Meant for me in a way I didn’t yet have words for.
Fuck.
I ran a hand through my hair, my fingers tightening in frustration. No matter how hard I tried, I was never able to get enough of Leila.
And these last twelve hours had made one thing agonizingly clear: I’d never been able to get over her either.
I let out a deep sigh and turned back to Charles, who was still waiting. Then I dropped into my seat.
“I saw her,” I said, after a long stretch of silence.
He didn’t have to ask who. There was only one woman who had ever broken me like this. Only one who had driven me halfway to madness.
“Shit.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Shit.”
Charles sat down across from me. “And?” he probed. “Where did you see her? How? I mean, you searched all of Manhattan back then and came up with nothing. Did she just, what, reappear?”
“She was in the Bronx,” I said. “At the Moreau Estate.”
