Page 58 of Alpha Ruined
Bree shifts uncomfortably. “Okay, but…it’s just hormones. There’s no such thing as soulmates, or anything like that.”
“You really believe that?” Darlene asks.
“I’ve never really had to think about it,” Bree says.
“What about with your exes? Did you ever feel that certain pull, as if you’re supposed to be with that person?”
Bree swallows nervously, Cole’s voice from the night before playing in her mind.
“You feel it too. The pull.”
She did. If she’s honest with herself, she’s felt it since the moment they met in the prison.
But she can’t say that to Darlene.
“I’ve never dated an Alpha before,” she says. “So, this would be new territory.”
Darlene looks dumbstruck. “Oh,shit,” she hisses, her eyes widening. “So, you’ve never spent your Heat with one?”
Face flushing, Bree picks at the hem of her sweater sleeve. “I know. I sound stupid.”
But her friend shakes her head. “No, you don’t. Being with an Alpha is intense; I get it. It makes a lot more sense why you’re so nervous with Cole.”
Bree bites her lip. “I was frightened of how I felt…with him,” she blurts out. “It was a lot, all at once. So, I told him to leave and never see me again.”
Darlene tries to hide a smile, and Bree scowls. “What’s so amusing?” she demands.
“He’s going to come right back to you, Bree. If anything, he saw that as a challenge.”
She ignores the twinge of hope in her chest. “I doubt it.”
“Well, if he does, maybe say some of what you said to me to him. If you think he’s worth it.”
Fat chance of that happening,Bree thinks.
“Darlene, are they all this intense and obsessive?”
“When they find their mate, they can be. But if he’s ever too much, let me know and I’ll kick his ass or have Oscar sit on him.”
Bree snorts.
They spend the rest of the time in the store talking about everything but Cole. She gives one last longing look to the pen set, running her fingers gently over the leather case before heading to the front, where Darlene is chatting with the shop clerk.
Her friend’s face is stricken as the clerk looks between them.
“What’s wrong?” Bree asks, dread building in her gut.
“Another body was found around forty minutes from here,” the worker sighs. “Another murder.”
Her skin prickles.
“It was some corrupt officer,” Darlene adds. “He pissed off a lot of people, so I’m not surprised. But I would appreciate it if people could stop dying once in a while.”
For some reason, Cole’s face flashes through Bree’s mind.
“The Elmwood victims were rapists,” the clerk adds. “So…if they’re connected, someone’s got a vigilante complex.”
“Either way, I don’t like knowing that there’s a murderer lurking around,” Darlene groans. “Especially after what happened at the prison.”