The Alpha's Secret Luna novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Don't Touch Me

Cassandra shoves Corbin out of her bed and he leaves for Camille, wearing her hyacinth.

The shower stopped, and I was still lying on my side of the bed with my eyes open.

Corbin came out with a black towel low on his hips and water running down his chest.

His scent of cedar and cold mint filled the room before he reached the mattress.

He pulled back the sheets and slid in beside me.

His arm came around my waist and dragged me back against his damp skin.

His rough palm slid under my silk nightgown and settled on the small of my back.

That had been our routine for four years.

On any other night I would have turned in his arms and let my scent calm his wolf.

I had always been so glad to be the one who could.

Tonight I put both hands on his chest and shoved.

"Don't touch me."

My voice came out dry and flat, and I yanked my nightgown strap back up my shoulder.

Corbin went still.

His eyes narrowed, and the gold crept into them.

"What's wrong with you, Cassandra?"

"I'm tired."

"You've never been too tired."

He caught both my wrists in one hand and pinned them to the pillow above my head.

His other hand slid up my throat and tilted my jaw toward him, and his thumb pressed hard under my chin.

He had never touched me there before without biting.

His whole body was heavy over mine, and I could feel him, hard and ready against my hip.

My own body answered. It always did, because the bond made it.

I knew that was all it was. A bond made of fate had never needed his heart to be in it.

"Say it again," he said, low and rough. "Say you don't want me."

My pulse hammered under his thumb.

"I don't want you," I said.

I watched him hear it.

His grip held for one long moment, and then it opened.

He let go of my wrists and my jaw and rolled onto his back.

The wolf in his eyes stayed bright, but he did not touch me again.

"Is this about Camille?" he said to the ceiling.

I almost laughed.

Four years, and the first time he asked me how I felt, he asked it with her name.

"It's about the Elders' reports," I said. "I haven't slept in three days."

"The Elders can wait."

"Not these ones."

He turned his head and looked at me for a long moment.

I looked back and gave him nothing.

I had practiced that face in the bathroom mirror for a month.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand.

He had it in his hand before the second buzz.

The screen lit his face, and the gold went out of his eyes, and something softer took its place.

I did not need to see the name.

"Camille?" I said.

"She says someone is outside her door."

He was already out of bed, pulling on slacks.

"Corbin, the guard is on her building. Four cars."

"The guard doesn't have her number." He shrugged into a shirt without buttoning it. "I'll be back."

"You don't have to come back."

He stopped with one hand on the doorframe.

For a second I thought he heard it.

Then his phone buzzed again, and he looked down at it, and he walked out.

The front door shut behind him.

My mark burned at the back of my neck, hot and angry, and I put my palm over it and pressed.

I sat up in the bed that still smelled of him and made myself breathe.

Then I got up and went to the window.

Down on the street, his SUV pulled away from the Tower with two others behind it.

It left the curb empty.

Across the road sat a gray pickup with its engine off and its lights out.

Streetlight caught the door, and I saw the crest painted on it: a red jaw, open.

That was the Redmaw Pack. They were the people who had killed my father.

The Tower had a guard on every corner, and none of them looked at the truck.

I stood at the glass until my breath fogged it.

Then I wrote the plate number on the back of my hand with a lab pen and found my phone.

I texted it to Joan, my oldest friend outside the pack, who could find anything with a number on it.

She answered before I had put the phone down.

"Registered to Dale Mercer, Alpha of Redmaw. Cassie, that's Camille's husband. Why is his truck outside your building?"

I looked down at the empty curb where Corbin's SUVs had been.

The man who had sworn to protect the Alpha's family had just driven off to guard Dale Mercer's wife.

I typed back: "I don't know yet. Find out."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend