Layla Carson is the newest widow in town. After being sold to an old billionaire and enduring her firsts at his hands, she's scared of what life might throw at her next. But the billionaire's son is here with her. Her stepson, who is two years older than her, handsome as hell, and also insisting on sleeping in her bed sometimes. When Layla asks him why he's doing that, he simply leans low and whispers, "Don't act like you don't want me to." And that's odd because she doesn't, does she? Ryan hated his father. He still hates him even now that he's dead, so he wants to take the one thing he thinks his father might have actually loved, something named Layla, with bright green eyes and the kind of body that'd make men drool for days, except he's not the only one here for her. Two other Alphas are here too, and each one of them have their eyes set on the beautiful widow now looking for a man to care for her and tend to her deepest desires. Layla has four months to decide who she wants to be with forever. Is it the stepson she can't stop thinking about, who makes her heart race when she sees him? Or is it Damien and Alex, the first - who rejected her for all to see when she was eighteen? Or the latter - who was the one person she had trusted in her pack, the one who had said he would accept her no matter what, but who rejected her too when she needed him the most. Both of whom are now back and asking her to forgive, and love them again.
View More38: Alek doesn’t ask me weird questions anymore and I feel thankful for that. There would have been a limit to my answers and once I passed that limit, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have snapped at him.Right now though, there’s something else on my mind, something more pressing.How do I…deal with all this?I know that sounds incredibly vague but it’s still what’s on my mind. Today is the first day of 120 days I need to be around Damien and Alek.Alek just said he and Damien came into the city to track down someone who’s been giving the pack trouble, and even though I have no idea who that might be, I want to assume that it will take up most of their time.This trial we’re having is for them to see if they can get me to come over to them, but for me, it’s a way to fulfill a simple formality. I don’t think Damien and Alek can ever change.Sure. I might have thought that yesterday, but today, I feel differently.The images of Damien I caught while in his wolf form as he hunted still flash p
“Is Ryan being rude to you?”I find that I haven't really forgotten how to ride. It just feels like it’s a memory I locked up for a while, and which is now taking some time to come back open. I try to keep my hands to myself, and not in my hair aiming to get out the twigs and leaves that have taken root in it.My horse shot me right into the copse of trees on the Earl mansion grounds.Alek dangles the reins in his hands lightly so I can return my attention to him and I do. He’s helping me lead the horse now, so I have to pay him some attention at least, I respond to his unanswered question,“Why should that be any of your concerns?”I sound like I just got told my favorite cat died.“Because there was tension between you two earlier today?”And in response to that, I look up to meet Alek’s eyes in a gesture that I hope shows I do not appreciate whatever it is he’s doing right now, and he looks away, shrugging and clearing his throat. The air between us grows awkward even before he sp
Alek’s voice is an annoying presence when it enters my head,“Trouble in paradise?”But I ignore him. He sidles up closer to me, and this time he asks verbally, clearly seeing I don’t like how he speaks into my mind,“Trouble in paradise Layla?”Alek’s voice is a husky soft thing and I take it in, letting myself breathe a bit before shaking my head and responding to him calmly,“What paradise?”Alek chuckles and out of instinct, a smile lines my lips. I wipe that smile away immediately because it’s obvious I'm letting their joint effect influence me too much. The task in front of me is what I should focus on right now, and I do, trying to clear my head as I look at the stables.Ryan is gone like I asked.Damien is somewhere behind, and I don't know if he’s behind trying to talk to Ryan, or if he’s behind because he’s trying to figure out where he can get what we’ll need for hunting. Absentmindedly I ask,“Is Damien still…”I catch myself before I can complete the statement but Alek
Layla’s pov.Alek and Damien are waiting for me by the time I get back to my room and something in me squirms at the sight of them. I did not think they’d be here so I was not ready for them. I still am not, and for some reason, I feel it’s because of what happened just now with Ryan.I frown because what even happened with Ryan?The confusion that question brings to my heart is brief, and yet it plagues me in an odd way. Damien’s voice interrupts my thoughts and I snap my head to him as he asks in his deep baritone again,“Are you okay, Layla?”Ryan’s voice echoes in my mind as he asks me that same question and I shake my head just to get it out. That felt like deja vu just now, and there’s no need for anything like that.I feel Damien’s and Alek’s gazes fixed on me and I decide I have to take some deep breaths, just to get this choking feeling out of my heart.They watch me close my eyes and take those deep breaths.They watch me as I try to stabilize this strange pounding in my hea
Ryan’s pov. Layla is standing outside my door when I open it and I can see it in her eyes. She’s caught me.She caught me red-handed, And while I don't want to let her know if that affects me, I know it does.There’s a stilted kind of hurt in her green eyes, and then it seems she gathers herself rapidly, pulling on a brave face and giving me the kind of look that tells me she understands this game, she’s brought herself to understand it for a while now and she’s done all that for a reason. Her eyes tell me if I want to screw half the population of the help in the mansion, then I can. If I want to have more girlfriends that she can count on the fingers of her hand, then I can too. She’s not going to stop me. It’s not like we had an agreement that I wouldn't take my fun where I could find it.Somehow that makes the reality of all this even more depressing, because as much as I can, I’d like her to know it’s not like that. This was just a one-time thing, but before I can even formulate
Damien is the first to show up at my door the next day.I feel surprise run through me when I open the door to meet his face, and he also looks surprised when he sees me, all dressed up, all ready for whatever the day might bring. He swallows awkwardly, and then he drops a statement,“You forgot this outside yesterday.”I frown, lost at first as to what he might mean, then I look at what’s in his hands and I see it’s a bracelet. My bracelet.How…I snatch it back almost selfishly, because this is one of those things I do not joke with. How did it even get outside?Damien huffs, a sound that I think is laced with amusement, and I recollect myself immediately because this isn’t what I'm meant to be doing. I’m not meant to be grabbing things so greedily. I should show them I am as in control of myself as I need to be.“Thank you.” The words, thankfully come out sincere, and also aloof at the same time. I clear my throat and go on, “I didn’t know I'd taken it out yesterday.I must have fo
Layla’s pov.I am left alone and the moment I get to my room, I close the door and crumple right behind it - my heart pounding in my chest and my breath coming in decidedly short bursts.I don’t know why I feel like this. Or why this even affects me, yet I can't get the image of their faces out of my head, and I wonder if I'm not in over my head.Ryan and Damien seem to have made up, and if they have then I'm guessing he’s going to be helping them in… wooing me, or getting me to trust them. I suspect he’s doing that already, and I know Ryan.Ryan does not do anything that does not benefit him first, and this is a game we’re all playing - a sly game, and to succeed, I have to be as smart as they are. If not smarter.I go through all Breanne said to me earlier again and I recount the points in my head.Men do not like an easy woman, or sometimes they do, depending on the type of man, but to be on the safer side, be the difficult type.I tuck that away in my mind and move on to the next
Ryan’s pov.Layla leaves and we are plunged into silence again.Damien sits to my far right, by the window and nursing an astrology book, Alek sits to my far left, nursing a book on music and musical chords.I am also with a book, because I couldn't bear to sit here without anything to do when they came in, yet when I look at the book in my hands, I see that it isn’t one I like.I never really liked books.My father never really liked them either. My mother did, and she almost taught me to, but when she died, my father killed it.Alek and Damien seem like people who like to read, genuinely like to read, and I guess with reading comes silence, and so they have been silent.They have been silent ever since we came here, but right now I can feel the tension in the air. Layla is gone now, probably back to her room.She’s announced that she has agreed to stay for four months, the way I had asked her to agree to it, yet something feels bitter in me at the fact that she is actually giving th
I go back into the manor to look for them.The strangeness of this action feels like ice on my skin, because two days ago, if anyone had asked me what I would be doing at this moment, I'd have said I'd still be in my room, not doing anything and waiting to die from hunger or lack of sunlight.Yet here I am, looking for the same three people I consider the current punishment the world is dealing to me.Their scent fills the whole place….It’s almost like everywhere I step foot, there’s a slight fragrance that tells me Damien has been here, Alek has been there,Ryan has been… literally everywhere in this house.I find them in one of the relaxation rooms, and the moment I come in, all three of them snap their heads to me. It’s an eerie sight, but it becomes less eerie when I feel the mate bond pulsing. Damien and Alek must have sensed me, and Ryan… must have heard my footsteps.They’re reading books.They each have a book in hand, and the sight of it makes me feel something squirm in me
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