Page 63 of Alpha Ruined

“Bree.”

She shakes her head and curls in on herself, wrapping her arms around her waist.

Both hands clench into fists as she struggles to hide what shames her every day.

“They’re so ugly,” she chokes out. “I don’t want you to see them. You’ll run.”

She realizes how dramatic she sounds, but it’s the narrative that’s been in her head since the doctors removed the stitches years ago.

People in her life have made it clear how revolting they are on numerous occasions.

She hears Cole chuckle humorlessly beside her. “I promise, the only one that will run from us is you. Nothing you show me would send me away.”

“You sound ridiculous,” she says weakly. “What if I’m a murderer?”

“I highly,highlydoubt that.”

“You don’t know that. I could be responsible for what happened in Elmwood.”

Cole barks out a laugh, tilting his head back in dark delight. “Sure, sweetheart. Whatever you say.”

That term of endearment makes her heart flutter, and itgives her the bravery to turn to face him. His smile fades and his gaze falls to her, the piercing blue of his eyes so breathtaking it makes her freeze in place.

“You’ve ruined me, you know,” he tells her gently, the corner of his full lip quirking up. He reaches to caress her cheek with the back of his knuckles, his other hand still slung over the bench. “You’re in the forefront of my mind now. Everything else is a dull buzzing in the back of my head. Working, eating, sleeping…nothing is as important as you now, I’m afraid.”

Run, a part of her whispers.This isn’t normal.

But she’s so tired of being alone.

Tired of coming home to an empty apartment, desperate to write about other people in hopes of forgetting her own life.

Tired of going to bed by herself and creating fluffy nests that no one else can appreciate.

His touch sends tingles down her spine, and she closes her eyes at the contact.

“You can tell me,” Cole breathes. “You don’t have to hide from me.”

Her mind is cloudy when she opens her eyes, and whether it’s from him using his Alpha Influence or her finally letting her guard down, she doesn’t care.

All she knows is that it’s just Cole and her, alone in a graveyard, with nothing but ghosts to witness them.

She extends her right hand out, and he takes it with his own, the cream sleeve falling back, exposing a sliver of mottled skin.

“If I show you…” she trembles, her hand shaking in his as he grasps it tightly, anchoring her to him. “I…”

The sleeve falls a little more, and her wrist is on full display now.

She watches realization dawn on his face as he slowly pushes up her sleeve.

She stops breathing as his jaw clenches.

CHAPTER 20

COLE

He can smellher shame and fear radiating from her, her sweetness soured by her volatile emotions.

What is she afraid of? Nothing she could show him would ever make him leave her.