“A sex club?”
He nods his head in confirmation. “One of our more popular services, although we offer others. But the real question is why are you here? By yourself, Simona? You know better than to walk alone, or do you have guards waiting outside that I don’t know about?”
Then it’s my turn to blow out an obviously shaky exhale as my anxiety starts to climb. I’d like to be as composed as possible facing off with such a strong Alpha, but my anxiety isn’t about being locked in his office along with him, it’s got to do with sharing with him the reason I’m here.
“To meet an Alpha.”
“Brody Henderson, I take it? Or is it someone in his party you were meeting? How about you explain the connection to me because I can’t see it.”
I forbid you.
Nausea claws up my throat, my scent starting to leak through the blockers in my distress. Again, it’s not because of his questions, it’s the reminder of the truth.
I forbid you.
In a perfect world, I’d never be forced to say the wordscircling loudly in my thoughts. I rip the band-aid off. “He is my pack. Brody is my Alpha.”
Honestly, I feel like I am confessing my sins. The weight of the guilt and remorse I carry around is mine to bear, but speaking those words aloud, especially to him, makes the burden even heavier.
I forbid you.
My gaze falls low but not low enough. I see the impact of my words as clearly as if I slapped him across the face.
I feel awful confessing to him, knowing that, in some cruel twist of fate, he’s mine too. But that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t admit it. I already hurt—I don’t need to say, ‘Are you aware we are scent matched?’ to know how he would feel. I’m already feeling it for the both of us.
It takes no time at all being in his presence to fall back into the same sense of homecoming I felt the first time I saw him at Unity. Inside me, he unlocks a thunderstorm of regret—a confirmation I never wanted. I hate him a little for it, for how effortlessly he makes me feel so much, simply by being in the same room.
I forbid you.
The bitter truth burns on my tongue—the anger, the fear, the certainty of how bleak the future with Brody looks. But those truths are mine to bear. Why burden Hendrix or myself with something that changes nothing? All it would do is magnify how truly alone I am.
I let myself get caught up in the sweet romance of meeting him before. But the stark reality is undeniable: I already have an Alpha. An obligation. A duty.
Before I even properly realise, I’m on my feet backing further away from him with a growing need to escape.
My manners flare bright, memories hold me from running without asking for permission to leave. “Please may I leave?”
“Please, Simona, we’re not at Unity. If you want to go, Iwouldn’t stop you,” he insists, pointing towards where I desperately want to go. “Or you could stay and tell me what is going on.”
I forbid you. I forbid you. I forbid you.
Brody’s bark slams against my subconscious. Shredding everything in its path. The need to leave Hendrix is visceral. It’s nearly impossible to fight against. Even in my memories Brody makes me feel weak and pathetic. Except everything about Hendrix stirs things back to life. And some of those things should stay dead and buried, if I want to survive my life back home.
I’m torn, by the soft tender compassion in Hendrix’s suggestion, to tell him what is going on. It slows my escape enough to have me wondering if I can actually share with him my reasons.
I probably should be asking why Brody is in a sex club, but the questions I want to ask aren’t about Brody. Everything I want to ask is about him, me, us. I’m completely thrown by the fact Hendrix and I have been pushed together by fate again. Like the instant I walked into his classroom back at Unity, it feels so right being in his world.
That’s the hardest thing about the situation: the sense of peace I feel. My thoughts are rushing past like leaves caught in gusts of winds. My heart pounds heavy and out of sync leaving me feeling giddy—or maybe it’s the fullness of my soul, so overflowing that it’s giving me a sense of lightness. It’s extraordinary the way his thunderstorm scent breaks through the scent blockers we were both wearing almost like he knows I need a guide to cling to.
I forbid you.
And that’s the final push. My resistance fades. Along with my hopes and dreams.
Shaking my head, I cut Hendrix off before I sever whatever strange connection we have. “Photography clashes withmy schedule and the additional workload seems pointless really, considering I won’t be pursuing a career in it. The other students are more deserving of your time. I’m going to switch electives.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t get up, nor does he stop me. I know I need to leave, because of Brody, but mostly because of me.
Something is happening. Meeting Hendrix at school, now here? Meeting Ryder and pleasuring myself on a phone call? Brody here, playing games, making me chase him from one destination to the next.
