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Chapter51 Beautiful
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter52 First Date
Ava accepted the bouquet with trembling fingers. The sizable assortment of bright, fresh flowers was easily the brightest thing in her room, now. She stuck her nose in it and breathed in, an array of scents, ranging from sharp to subtle, filling her nostrils.Ava felt Mia perk up from her internal slumber, as they were both barraged with memories of running through fields at the peak of springtime. The recollection held the bitter bite of melancholy, but they were sweet all the same.“I’ll have to thank him for this. It was a sweet gesture,” she breathed.“You’ll never be able to if you don’t get going,” Bren made a gimme gesture toward the bouquet, placing it in a prime spot on Ava’s dresser before shooing her out the door. “Have fun! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”Ava chuckled as she was led out of the building. She didn’t know what made her more nervous, her newfound commitment to a strange man, or the fact that this would be the first time Ava had left the Green Light Club sin
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter53 Noah
Ava couldn’t stop giggling as she stared up at the Nordstrom department store Noah had parked them in front of. He reared back in feigned outrage, “I’ll have you know, this is a galleria. And I subscribe to the school of thought, that there’s no better way to get to know someone than to take them shopping.”“Shopping?” She asked cautiously.He shrugged, “I thought it’d be nice to treat you.”Ava was already shaking her head before Noah could get his entire sentence out, “I already told you that you don’t need to do that kind of stuff for me.”“Ava, need has nothing to do with this. I want to treat you to nice things.”“But, why? Our relationship isn’t real.”Noah shook his head slowly, “The romantic one, yes. I already told you that I want us to be friends.”Ava frowned, “Friends don’t treat friends to shopping sprees.”His smirk came back, this time edged with a little disdain, “They do in the circles I tend to run in. And for their significant others, they do a hell of a lot more t
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter54 Trust
Ava watched the clock on her bathroom vanity tick, tick ever closer to the time that Noah was meant to pick her up. And, still, she stayed rooted in her spot, sunk nose deep in her bathtub as the previously scalding water became increasingly lukewarm. She was undoubtedly stalling, but she didn’t know where the source of her reticence came from. Her first date with Noah had been…amazing from start to finish. Not much had happened after they’d finished their ice cream, but he’d taken her back to the club and, unlike last time, he didn’t ask for a kiss. He’d wanted one, she was pretty sure. Spending as much as she did living in a building that was perpetually filled with horny men, Ava had gotten fairly good at recognizing when someone was interested in her. What she wasn’t used to was no one simply acting on their desires without checking with her first. No, going out with Noah wasn’t the problem. If anything, Ava was a little too eager to see him again. Maybe that was
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter55 Found You
Noah held her gaze and swallowed hard, visibly affected by Ava’s confession. If he was surprised, then she was reeling. She could hardly believe she’d uttered those words. I trust you. It sounded preposterous, even to her own ears. Ava didn’t know this man. He didn’t know her. And here she was making admissions she didn’t recall ever making to…anyone before, even when she’d felt it. For Ava, admitting to putting her trust into someone felt surreal. Dangerous. She almost wished she’d said that she was in love with him instead. Somehow, the frivolity of a confession of love felt less mortifying. At least she wouldn’t really have meant it. As it was, her ill-advised words had inadvertently created a connection between them. Something like and unwanted expectation. If he told her to piss off, then she couldn’t even blame him. She knew what this was, and he’d always been clear about the parameters of their arrangement. It was her who’d gone and muddied the waters almos
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter56 The Chase
The trio of Red Moon members didn’t waste a beat before turning completely hostile. One moment, they were blinking away the confusion of suddenly coming face-to-face with their Pack’s most reviled criminal, and in the next, they were charging. As one, they came at her, pushing through the crowd, sending unsuspecting humans sprawling. Ava leapt onto the counter of the game booth behind her and took off running down the length of the counter, racing past her pursuers as she kited around them. Ava came to the end of the counter and hopped off, her feet barely hitting the floor before she was off, zigging and zagging her way through the crowd. She didn’t have a clear idea of where she was going – Noah was off somewhere in the opposite direction, and the carnival had changed quite a bit since she’d last been here. As Ava flew through the park grounds on sure feet, she only had two clear objectives – putting as many bodies as she could between herself and the people chasin
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter57 Mad House
Every moment in the maze was more heinous than Ava could have possibly imagined. It was becoming increasingly clear why this stupid place was all but abandoned – no one would just willingly subject themselves to this kind of psychological warfare, much less the children this was made for.Ava bounced off of more trick walls then she cared to admit - nearly every time the unending line of goof mirror’s threw one in that didn’t reflect anything but an empty hallway. Why would they do that?!She was constantly off balance as each step brought her across a different mirror, morphing her reflection into a perpetually shifting, amorphous blob. All the while, the demented circus music and barrage of flashing lights continued, turning this thrill house into a pure eldritch horror.She certainly wasn’t being quiet as she crashed through the winding corridors, but the people tailing her weren’t either. Even if they were following her scent, it was useless because this was a maze and Ava was fuc
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter58 Hard Truth
The ride back to the club was quiet and awfully tense, but Ava could acknowledge that all of the awkwardness probably stemmed from her. On the contrary, Noah didn’t give off any particularly strong vibes one way or the other, which only made her more nervous. Needless to say, she’d never intended for Noah to find out about the stuff with Red Moon. Far beyond the fact that she’d hoped that it wouldn’t impact their arrangement, Ava wanted to just be Ava to as many people in her life as she could manage. For a fleeting date and a half, Noah had just known her as herself. Now, she was Ava the Convict. Ava the Murderer. Just the thought of it was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach. She turned over the scrap of paper in her hand. She’d clammed up as soon as they’d left the maze, and thankfully, Aiden didn’t press her on either of the bombshells that had been dropped on him tonight. He’d simply written his phone number on the back of a flyer and handed it to her, mak
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter59 Family Ties
“So, where were you for all of that time?” Ava sat across from her brother in the empty little diner he’d brought her to. It had taken some Grade A cajoling in order for Ava to convince Bella to let her out of the club so soon after she’d been recognized. She had only agreed to let her go as long as Ava consented to staying within a mile radius of the club. And so, here they were sitting in a shoddy little diner that served eight-dollar cups of coffee and fifteen-dollar pancakes, just because it had the novelty of being located downtown. Right out front, one of the club’s guards sat outside in a nondescript SUV, waiting for their meeting to conclude. They’d only just gotten there, but Ava wanted to cut right to the chase. To his credit, Aiden didn’t seem at all put off by her straightforwardness. He just nodded in understanding, warming his hands on his dreadfully overpriced coffee. “I was the same place I’d been since graduating from the Academy,” he said frankly
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Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter150 Keep Calm And Carry On
The helicopters hovered above the arena as long dark ropes unfurled from the gaping voids of their cockpits, and soldiers in white began to descend into the Trial grounds. The largest chopper in the group tilted downward, and Xavier watched in horror as gun turrets descended from the vehicle’s hull.Just as he shouted a warning, it was drowned out by the spray of rapid machine-gun fire that bathed the stands where his people, his allies, his mate stood watching on in bewildered shock. It was a stroke of luck and good fortune that Emmaline and Marnie Adair had insisted on attending the Trial along with several other representatives from their coven.The witches were quick to respond, throwing up glimmering shields that did an excellent job of deflecting the rain of bullets, sending them careening off to join the hundreds of other projectiles currently reducing the two-hundred-year-old structure to little more than kindling.Xavier roared his fury and shifted, sna
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter149 Trial By Fire
The weeks leading up to the next month’s Blue Moon and the Trial by Combat scheduled for that night went by surprisingly quickly and quietly. The calm before the storm.Ava, for her part, spent most of that time talking, getting to know as much as she could about her newfound allies. There was a host of information that the spellcasters and the shapeshifters had to bring to the table; doors that she had never known were there to open. Her analytical tactician's mind was thoroughly stimulated at the influx of new information.She had to be thankful that Marnie and Emmaline’s coven had deemed their cause worth investing their time and resources into. And the Selkies? Ava was under no naïve misconception that their involvement was due to anything less than desperation. It just so happened that desperation was as good a motivator as any.Slowly, ever so carefully, Ava worked with Emmaline, Marnie, and the Selkie diplomats to covertly spread the word of th
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter148 Changing Tides
“The nerve of you is astounding, Adair. What, pray tell, did you think you would accomplish by bringing them here?”The hostile vibe Ava had picked up even from a dozen yards away and through several inches of bulletproof glass somehow didn’t manage to improve by coming into close proximity to the…finfolk? The Selkies, Marnie had called them. People who could turn into seals.It seemed ridiculous, given her own circumstances, that…well, anything really, could surprise her at this point. And, to be fair, it wasn’t the existence of seal people that was currently throwing her for a loop; it was being hit, once again, with the staggering realization of just how little she actually knew about the world around her, her own wider community.And it wasn’t just Ava, either. Through their bond, she could feel Xavier’s mind whirring, struggling to quickly process the new influx of information. Even now, after all this time,
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter147 Give and Take
“Alright, alright, shock aside, this is good for us, right?”“That we’re so out of touch that we didn’t even know that there’s an ancient order of witches ruling the world?” “I’m having a hard time tracking your logic, sweets.”“First, to be clear, the institution is ancient, not the witches,” “Well, save for a few that I can think of, but none that we know personally.”“All that aside,” Ava reiterated through gritted teeth. “We all want the same thing! We came here looking for allies to start a new society, and here you all already have irrefutable proof that our plan has legs.”“In theory,” Emmaline emphasized. “Once again, I feel the need to impress upon you the fact that we have no real insight on the inner workings of these pan-supernatural communities outside of the fact that they exist. Much less whether something of the like would
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter146 Into the Woods
Ava and the Alphas gaped as the two embraced. One female, one woman. One Wolf, the other a human witch. And yet, somehow, they claimed to be sisters. It wasn’t just a turn of phrase or empty words, either. Now that the idea had been spoken, Ava saw the glimmers of recognition solidify into irrefutable shared features between the two.The piercing emerald green of their eyes, the deeply rich, almost black of their hair, even the shapes of their noses and their general bearings were the same.“You’re sisters?” Ava asked.“You’re Alpha?” Liam asked even louder.Emmaline cocked her head to the side in the same bold challenge that Marnie was good for adopting pretty much anytime she found herself speaking with any Wolven male. Ava was beginning to realize that the habit was probably born of more than simply dealing with male bravado.“Why wouldn’t I be?” Emmaline asked, her supple voice thick with saccha
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter145 Grave Crown Rising
“No.”The line went silent as Ava blinked rapidly, her neurons firing at all cylinders struggling to process the fact that her brother had just blatantly shut down such a simple request for information and why on earth that would be.“Excuse me?” She finally asked. “What do you mean no?”“I mean that I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go meddling in Grave Crown affairs,” he said, his voice stern and giving no quarter. That was all well and good that he felt so strongly, but as long as he was also giving her no answers, ‘no’ wasn’t going to cut it for her.“Grave Crown affairs are Alliance affairs, Aiden. You know that,” she replied.Her brother huffed on the other end of the phone – a frustrated sound. “Even if the Alliance still existed, you, I, and everyone else knows that hasn’t been the case in a long time.”“Bullshit,&rdquo
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter144 Witch, Please!
Ava blinked in and out of consciousness as searing pain ripped through her abdomen. Whenever she surfaced, the renewed shock of pain would cause her to take a quick breath inward that would send yet another, even more, intense wave rocketing through her, sending her back into oblivion.It took a couple of tries and several hours for Ava to wake and stay awake; the pain finally dulled to a thrumming ache. When she could finally open her eyes without her eyelids feeling as if they were made of lead, the first thing she saw was Jack’s pensive face hovering over hers.And the second thing she registered, along with an intense sense of déjà vu, was Xavier’s equally pensive face a little ways off, slumped in a nearby chair.“This feels awfully familiar,” she quipped, her dry throat making her joke sound more like a croak.“Really? And to think that I was just beginning to forget what it was like trying to glue you back togeth
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter143 Watch Them Scatter
First came the rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns. Then came the screams.All around her, bodies flew into motion as she stood with her phone gripped numbly in her fist.“Ava,” she heard Noah’s desperate voice faintly through the other end of the line as if through a fog. “Ava, what’s happening? Talk to me! Has it already started, damn it?!”Without a word in response, Ava ended the call with a flick of her thumb, far too thrown by just how quickly the tide had shifted today. Neia hadn’t just crossed a line – she’d obliterated it and re-drawn a new one in her image.Ava sprung into action, doing the first thing that came to mind as she ran to the nearest emergency call button and smashed it. The system was relatively shiny and new, having only been installed after her run-in with those sadistic bastards in room 701.Now, flashing warning lights lit up every hallway in the building. The blaring alarm made it im
Alpha's Caged Mate Chapter142 Homecoming
Eight months ago, if someone had told Ava that just the sight of the Green Light Club’s garish neon sign would be enough to make her smile, she would have laughed in their face. Alright, well, she probably wouldn’t have, but she certainly wouldn’t have believed them either.And yet, here she was, grinning from ear to ear, at the prospect of feeling something familiar, even if the majority of her memories of the place were of the variety that was best left forgotten. She was fairly sure that there was probably some sort of clinical diagnosis with a long name used to describe the contextually perverse sense of relief she felt at her first glance of shiny black lacquer and crushed green velvet. Goddess, this place was awful, and she was so glad to be back.Then again, the journey getting back to the club had been fraught enough to make her eager to climb under the first black silk duvet she saw, regardless of the fact that it could never, under any cir
