Page 76 of Sweetheart: Part One

He wore one of his usual neat black suits and—just for me—a black mask over his face, obscuring his true identity.

Since the day they first brought me back to the room I’d been locked in, that mask was all I’d seen. He never took it off, and I knew now it was to make sure when this was all over, if they managed to blackmail the Crimson Fury pack, I would never find them.

None of that mattered anymore.

Old commands rose in my mind the second I entered the limo. I stepped toward him, bile rising in my throat at the thought of the ritual he forced me to perform every time I saw him.

Before I could do it, he lifted a hand.

“Not today, Vex. Come.” He nodded to the seat beside him.

I slipped into it, not feeling any less vulnerable. I’d grown up around violent alphas, but Alastor had proven more terrifying than even those nightmares.

I held the envelope out to him and he took it.

I shut my eyes, warring with tears as I heard him tug the contract out and unfold it. “You aren’t giving me much hope here, Vex, when we both have so much staked on this deal.”

Silence followed for too long.

“Come here,” he breathed, and I opened my eyes to see him place a hand on his lap.

I shivered as I stood and then sunk against him, closing my eyes once more. His hands rested on my waist, holding me tight as I began to shake. Then his voice was so close to my ear, the faintest breath. “You’ve done so well, Vex.”

I froze, eyes flying open.

What?

I tried to turn subtly enough that he wouldn’t notice, my eyes scanning for the contract. It was laying on the seat at our side.

But the bottom wasn’t the blank white that had haunted every waking moment of the last week. There was one scrawled signature.

Love Hightower.

“The pack lead,” Alastor murmured. “So things weren’t as dire as you thought?”

Still, my mind was reeling.

Lovehad signed me in?

I was choked with that fact. Love had saved me. He didn’t know it—likely hadn’t even been thinking of me at all—but hehadsaved me. Fighting tears became all but impossible.

Finally, one of my mates had saved me.

“If all of your commands are still active for our meetings, does that mean you’re wearing my favourite?” Alastor asked.

I nodded, barely comprehending, mind still reeling from relief.

There was a pause.

“Are you going to make me ask?”

I… What?

Then I truly processed what he’d said. He wanted…what?

I stared up at him.

But I’d… done what he asked. I was going back. I was theirs, now—for a little while longer, at least.

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