Chapter 5: On the Doorstep

The knock came at ten past two in the morning.

I had been awake for hours, sitting on the motel bed with Tobias's contract on my knees.

Three slow knocks, then a pause, then a fourth.

Only one person had ever knocked like that.

I crossed the room and put my eye to the peephole.

Alexander stood on the walkway under the yellow light, one hand on the railing.

His lip was split. His left eye was swelling shut, and blood had dried in a line down his shirt.

I opened the door on the chain.

"Go home, Alexander."

"Nina." His voice was cracked and low. "Please. Two minutes."

"How did you find me?"

"I smelled you. I walked the whole way from the pack house." He swayed and caught the rail. "I can't shift. I tried five times tonight."

"What happened to your face?"

"My cousin challenged me. This afternoon, in the yard, in front of everybody. I had never lost a challenge in my life."

I stood with my fingers on the chain.

"He hit me, and I couldn't call my claws," he said. "I couldn't even fight back. The Alpha watched the whole thing."

"I'm sorry you're hurt," I said, and I meant it, a little. "I'm not sorry I said it."

"I know." He put his forehead against the door frame. "I know I did this. I'm not here to ask you to love me."

"Then why are you here?"

"To ask you to take it back."

I laughed in his face.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fated Mate Chose My Sister, So I Left from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.