Page 38 of Alpha Geek

Tripp looked at the burner phone, his hands trembling. He felt like he was holding a knife in his palm, one that would be responsible for the destruction of the only woman he had ever loved.

TWENTY-ONE

AMELIA

The time apart from Tripp had been difficult for Amelia but doable. She was a master at structure, at following routine, and when it came to coping with the harder points in life, she was the person most people would call. She relied on this natural ability to focus on work, looking forward to hearing from Tripp during their scheduled calls just before she called it a night.

It was a lovely way to lull her to sleep, feeling like he was right there in bed with her, whispering into her ear. She bit her lip as she organized files at work, thinking about it as a keen wash of warmth moved up her spine.

It was then, just before her lunch break, then she heard her phone on her desk vibrate. She tilted her head, expecting it to be a telemarketer or something, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was Tripp.

She sprang to the phone immediately with a mix of concern and exhilaration. Why was he calling outside their usually scheduled chat? Did he just miss her that much?

She slid the phone open and pinned it to her ear, her breath hitching in her throat like she had just run a marathon.

“Babe?” she said breathlessly. “Is everything okay? Are you …”

“It’s over, Amelia,” he said sharply. “I can’t do this to you anymore. I have to end this before it becomes too much to bear. I need to find other women to sow my seeds with. You should move on as fast as you can, and I will too.”

Amelia blinked hard, the words coming through, but she was unable to compute the message. She floated over to the window, her limbs beginning to weaken like she was walking through quicksand.

“Tripp, what’s wrong?” she said, her voice shuddering. “You don’t sound like yourself. What’s going on?”

“Did you not hear me?” he said in a tone she’d never heard before. “You need to move on with your life. Find someone else. Because it isn’t going to be me.”

Amelia could feel her lip beginning to tremble, her breath slowly vanishing out of her lungs like a drain pipe. His voice was strange, like it was being put through a robotic machine of some kind.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” she whimpered. “Tell me what’s wrong, and I will fix it.”

“You can’t fix anything,” Tripp said, his voice shaking. “Just move on.”

Tripp abruptly ended the call, and Amelia stood at the window, watching an icy rain begin to fall. The phone nearly slid out of her hand as her strength began to melt away before someone behind her managed to catch it.

“Amelia, what’s wrong?”

Nick’s sister, Scarlet, often came into the office to help Nick when things started to get frantic. She had a lovely female energy that Amelia enjoyed having around her, filling her days with lighthearted banter and poking fun at her dramatic brother.

She caught Amelia’s phone before it plummeted to the floor, and she took Amelia by the hips to keep her from disintegrating. But Amelia didn’t care; the floor might as well be an endless black hole.

“Amelia!” Scarlet said in a sterner voice. “What the hell is going on?”

Amelia felt she couldn’t speak, so she let Scarlet lead her back to her chair behind the main reception desk. She didn’t realize tears were streaming down her face, taking her finely applied mascara and eyeshadow with it.

Scarlet bent over and took her by the shoulders, trying to meet her gaze.

“Okay, you are going to tell me what's going on, or I’m getting Nick. And you know how dramatic that one can get.”

Amelia did not crack a smile. She spoke in a small voice, which wasn’t anything anyone around her was used to.

“Tripp just … told me to move on with my life.”

Scarlet stared at her, her expression similar to her brother’s in its mystery. She looked as lost as Amelia felt.

“That’s insane,” Scarlet replied, standing to pick up Amelia’s coffee cup she had left by the filing cabinet. “I’ve never met someone more in love with another person before.”

Amelia nodded in agreement. The world around her was a reluctant blur.

“He said he wanted to sow his seed …” she trailed off. “Maybe because he’s a shifter now, he can explore with other women?”

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