Chapter 7
In the end, I lent him the soy sauce.
Consider it a form of gratitude.
Besides, maintaining a good relationship with neighbors is essential.
The days after leaving Alpha Jackson were strangely quiet. Other than work, my life suddenly had a lot more free time–time that used to be spent wrapped up in his world, entangled in his presence.
But it wasn’t all bad. I had more opportunities to focus on things I actually wanted to do, like learning oil painting, which I’d always been curious about.
On my way back home with the supplies, a
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shiver crawled up my spine. My wolf stirred uneasily. I wasn’t alone.
I kept walking, my grip tightening on the bag in my hands. Footsteps echoed behind me, matching my pace. Every time I turned to look, the street was empty, but the scent lingered–faint yet distinct.
My heart pounded.
Then, the footsteps sped up.
Panic kicked in. I bolted, dropping my supplies in the process. “Ahhh-!”
A strong hand grabbed me from behind, stopping me mid–run.
“Why are you running?” Zachary’s voice was laced with confusion as he steadied me, brows furrowed. “Didn’t you hear me calling
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you for ages?”
I let out a shaky breath, the adrenaline still coursing through me. “Why were you chasing me?!”
He pulled out a palette knife, waving it in front of me. “You dropped this.”
I stared at it. Then at him. Then back at the palette knife.
Mortified.
I snatched it from his hand. “Great. Thanks.”
Since we were neighbors, we ended up walking the rest of the way together. I stayed silent, still embarrassed. The air between us grew awkward, thick with unspoken words.
Then, a rustling sound behind us. My wolf
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tensed, ears perkirking up.
I turned my head slislightly.
Alpha Jackson. Anthovonne.
His gaze locked onto timene, then flickered to to Zachary. Something in inisisyeyes shifted. A probing, assessing looko AnAnd then, the smirk -slow, mocking, drencheldeid in disdain.
“It’s you.” His voice was shamerp, his scent thick with Alpha’s dominancece.
Zachary didn’t react, simply slippiping his hands into his pockets, expressssion umreadable.
Jackson llet out a dry chuckle. “So that’at’s why you refused to let me bail Nicole udut last time. Turns out, you had your eyeyerom my mate alll allong, didn’t you?”
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mate.
The word hit me like a slap.
I stepped forward before he could get closer, positioning myself between them. “Jackson,” I said firmly. “This has nothing to do with him. I was the one who wanted to break up with you!”
His smirk faltered, but the darkness in his eyes didn’t fade. His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“Nicole,” he said, his voice suddenly lower, rougher. “Do you remember?”
“Do you remember what you told me… that you’d never break up with me?”
My breath hitched. My wolf stirred
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uncomfortably. I remembered. Of course, I
did.
Back then, we’d only been dating for six months. I had always been reserved, but being with him had slowly pulled me out of my shell. Others began noticing me more -one junior from the student council in particular.
Because I often visited Alpha Jackson at the council, I had gotten to know the junior well. One day, he approached me, claiming Jackson needed to see me. Trusting him, I followed.
Only to be led into an empty lecture hall.
He shut the door behind us. And then, he began talking.
He told me Jackson wasn’t as great as I
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thought he was. That he wasn’t truly next in line for his father’s Alpha position, that his father had multiple illegitimate children, that his own mother was hated by his father. That the gifts Jackson gave me were bought with money from part–time jobs, not wealth.
That his family would make my life miserable.
Unlike him.
I barely processed half of what he said before the doors flew open.
Jackson stood there, disheveled, breathing hard. He ignored the junior entirely, storming toward me and pulling me into his arms.
I had never seen him so… shaken. So raw.
His hands trembled as he clutched me,
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his voice barely above a whisper. “Did you believe him?”
I hadn’t. And back then, I had stroked his back, whispered reassurances, and told him
“I’ll never break up with you.”
Because I hadn’t loved him for his future Alpha status.
But that promise had been made under the assumption that he would stay loyal.
I glanced at Yvonne, who lingered behind Alpha Jackson like a shadow, her presence an unwanted ghost between us. My voice was cold as I asked him, “Jackson, the moment you chose her, didn’t you already know those words no longer held any
weight?”
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His jaw tensed, but I didn’t stop.
“I just want to know–on the night I was detained, did you sleep well?” My voice dropped lower, the bite in my words unmistakable. “If I were crying quietly in there, could you still have slept soundly?”
Alpha Jackson’s pupils dilated, his wolf stirring beneath the surface. The raw emotion in his face was almost painful to look at. He reached out, gripping my shoulders too tightly, his entire body trembling.
“That’s because… because she has a heart condition!” His voice cracked, desperation threading through it. “I don’t even like her!”
“Nicole, you have to believe me!”
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Once, hearing him like this would have made my heart ache. I would have rushed to soothe him, to tell him that I understood.
But now? Now, all I felt was the pain in my shoulders from his iron grip. My heart remained eerily calm, like the stillness before
|
a storm.
I struggled to free myself, but he held on like a desperate man clinging to the past.
Then, another hand–cool and sure–reached
over.
Slender fingers wrapped around Alpha Jackson’s wrist, prying his fingers off me one by one with effortless precision.
Zachary’s voice was smooth as silk but sharp enough to cut.
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“Let go.”
His lips curled into the faintest smirk as he glanced at Yvonne, his gaze filled with open disdain..
“With behavior like that, I’m amazed you even had a girlfriend to begin with.”
Alpha Jackson growled low in his throat, his wolf bristling beneath his skin. But Zachary didn’t so much as flinch. If anything, he looked amused.
He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice as if sharing a secret.
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you?” He tilted his head. “If you want to keep a woman, the first thing you do is cut ties with the others.”
Then, as if to deliver the final blow, he added,
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“Tell me, does she share blood with you?” He gestured lazily toward Yvonne.
“And even if she dies, what does that have to do with you?”
Alpha Jackson stiffened, his expression cracking like shattered glass. For the first time, he had nothing to say.
As Zachary and I walked away, I caught one last look at him.
His face was hollow, like all the life had drained from him.
No matter how Yvonne called out to him, tugging at his arm, he remained silent and still, like a broken doll abandoned in the rain.
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