Page 72 of Sweetheart: Part One

Had Drake just…punchedme?

He’d been the last to join us, but still in four years being bound to him, I’d never seen him as the aggressor. I’d barely seen him use his aura, let alone throw a punch.

His low growl echoed through the space. “You’renotsigning it.”

I cracked a smile, still trying to catch a read on him, but his side of the bond was now locked down harder than I’d felt in years.

I didn’t need the bond to see how serious he was—that was stark in the fury burning his eyes.

“You’re really going to fight me for this?” I asked.

“I’ll put you both through the wall before I let you or Ebony destroy her.”

“You’re being melodramatic as fuck, dude,” I said rubbing my cheek.

More goddamned ice packs, for fuck’s sake.

And the Diamond Tide Gala was coming up—I had a bloody award to claim.

“We can’t have anyone else in this pack,” Drake snarled. “I don’t give a shit how lonely you are.”

“Lonely?” I choked, a grin spreading on my face.

I wasn’tlonely.

I was a bonded alpha, and the world was literally my fucking oyster. I could fuck whoever I wanted whenever I wanted to.

“You’re going to bind her to Ebony—and for what?” Drake demanded. “We have as much as we’re ever going to get. There’s no room for anyone else.”

I stared at him.

I understood, truly.

We were a mess. A bunch of strange circumstances that had left us tied to a man like Ebony. There weren’t many alphas or omegas on the planet who would accept a bond like that.

I’d chosen this with my eyes wide open—I’d been friends with Love my whole life and bonding with Love meant Ebony. Love was bound to him by blood. And Drake and Ebony… they had something different. I’d never found out how much Drake knew before he joined, but he cared about Ebony. Always had.

“She can’t be stuck with him because of your pride,” Drake hissed.

“She’schoosingthis,” I laughed. “What do you think that contract is?”

But I realised, as I said the word contract, how much I hadn’t even been thinking of it. Both me and Drake were talking as if Vex was going to enter the bond.

Sweethearts were bonded sometimes, but not always.

Yet, without a shadow of a doubt, if I signed the contract, I pictured her in the bond.

“You’re seriously making this challenge?” I asked.

I couldn’t help the little thrill of my alpha side as Drake squared me up in answer. He might be the sweetest, but none of us were soft. I’d been born to a pack of the most ambitious, unhinged alphas you could find—I’d never stood a chance.

But it’s how we’d all reached these heights: we were determined, driven, always on the edge of cracking—directing it into the grind instead of less palatable areas of society. Drake was the best at hiding it, but I saw it in his eyes right now.

Well.

Shit.

Hewascompletely goddamned serious. “If I win,” he growled. “You don’t sign.”

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