Page 94 of Alpha Ruined

Even if her normal life is based on telling other people’s stories and never enjoying her own.

She wanted to escape for a bit, to enjoy the fantasy that someone could care for her despite all her obvious flaws.

But it hurts.

It fuckinghurtswhen she realizes he’s not coming back for her.

After going over her interview questions, she decides to busy herself with packing.

Do not cry about this. He changed his mind. It happens.

She makes the bed and folds the excess blankets they used during her Heat. His black jacket falls to the floor, and her heart aches when she picks it up, his scent washing over her.

She’ll never forget that scent as long as she lives.

Maybe it’s not the best idea, but if he left his jacket, she’s going to take it with her back to Holden.

But something falls out of the pocket, and she stares at it with wide eyes.

It’s her favorite pair of panties, the ones she was wearing the night she touched herself thinking about him.

She couldn’t find them in the morning.

They were in Cole’s pocket.

There’s no logical reason for him to have them. She had tossed them to the floor, expecting to throw them in the laundry when she woke up.

Dread bubbles in her stomach.

It’s irrational, but she drops to her hands and knees and peers under the bed.

There’s enough room for her to fit under there easily, and Cole’s concentrated scent hits her once she crawls under the mattress.

“No,” she whispers.

He wasn’t there that night. He couldn’t have been.

That would be fucking crazy.

She hyperventilates under the bed, trying to find a rational explanation as to why his scent is so concentrated there and why he has her panties.

Scrambling out from under the bed, she grabs her phone to shoot a text to Darlene, but pauses when she receives a notification.

There’s an app she doesn’t recognize that needs an update.

Which would be fine if the app didn’t show a detailedmap of her location, or the number of times the phone moved within the last day.

It’s a tracking app.

Cole must have installed it when he grabbed her phone at the café.

“Oh, no,” she whispers.

She doesn’t know how to uninstall it. It requires a password, and tears spring to her eyes with every failed attempt to remove it from her phone. She even tries to reset the device, but the app stops her from doing it.

Her agony from Cole’s sudden departure morphs into fear and anger.

How fuckingdarehe?