Alexander & E


    Alexander


    It was early on a Tuesday afternoon. I had a meeting to attend in less than an hour and so much to do. I should have been reviewing the budget reports spread across my desk before the meeting, but I couldn’t


    focus.


    My mind kept drifting to other things. Better things.


    Like the way E looked when she was spread out beneath me like a buffet that was just for me. The taste of E’s lips, sweet with rainwater from the storm. The sound of E’s voice when she cried out my name, nearly lost beneath the sound of the thunder.


    E. E, E.


    She consumed my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her. Every time I inhaled, I smelled her. I couldn’t even sleep properly anymore because I just wanted to fucking stare at her.


    Fuck. I was in deep, wasn’t I?


    I was certainly in this far, far deeper than I’d ever intended to be with anyone, let alone with the woman. I’d married for political reasons five years ago. For all I knew, she might still be a spy and I really was the


    fool Gabriel said I was.


    But there was no denying it anymore–I was falling for E. Hard and fast and irreversibly. There was no going back from here. Not anymore.


    Maybe I’d been falling for her longer than I cared to admit. Maybe it had started back when she was sick and I’d found myself looking forward to our chess games in the hospital.


    Or maybe it was more recent, tied to the pregnancy and the way she stood up to Gabriel and the way everything had changed after I’d marked her.


    Either way, it didn’t matter when it had started. What mattered was what I was going to do about it now.


    Deep down, I really wanted to make this official. I wanted to tell her how I felt, wanted to stop pretending that there wasn’t something between us. I wanted to show her that she wasn’t just sex or convenience to me, but someone who truly mattered.


    I wanted to be a real husband to her, not just the Alpha King who happened to share a bed with her.


    The ultrasound appointment was this afternoon. Tonight, when she got home with news about our child, maybe that would be the right time to-


    Suddenly, a knock on my office door interrupted my thoughts.


    “Come in,” I called out without looking up from the papers I was supposed to be reading.


    “Alpha King.”


    I knew that voice. My head snapped up to see Thomas ck standing in my doorway, cap in his hands and that same nervous expression he’d worn every time I’d seen him over the past few months.


    Thomas ck. The groundskeeper from Stormhollow who’d confessed to cutting the brake lines on my parents‘ car. The man who I had threatened into continuing the investigation.


    “Thomas.” I set down my pen. “I wasn’t expecting you.”


    “I know, sir. I’m sorry to bother you without an appointment, but I had toe.” He stepped further into the room and closed the door behind him. “I have something you need to see.”


    I sat up a little straighter. “What is it?”


    Thomas reached into his jacket and pulled out a man envelope. “I found this when I was snooping through some old files at the Stormhollow estate. It was hidden in the Alpha’s study, behind some books.”


    He handed me the envelope, and I could feel how thick it was. Whatever was inside, there was a lot of it.


    I opened it and pulled out the contents. It was all legal documents. Contracts. And at the very top of the


    stack…


    My blood went cold.


    It was a contract dated less than a year ago. Six and a half months, in fact. The header read “Agreement Between Alpha Richard Eden of Stormhollow and E Sce, Luna of Ashw, Regarding Strategic Maniption of Alpha Alexander Sce of Ashw.<i>” </i>


    And at the bottom of the page, clear as day, was E’s signature.


    E


    Lilith had really outdone herself with the gender reveal cake.


    It was just a simple white cake with buttercream frosting, but she had gone all out with the decorations. Little flowers, each onepletely unique, were piped along the perimeter of the topyer. “Boy or Girl? Which Will It Be?” was written across the front in pink and blue icing.


    And inside, hidden beneath the vani sponge, was either pink or blue filling that would reveal whether Alexander and I were having a son or daughter.


    The anticipation was killing me.


    I’d set the cake on the dining room table with two tes and forks, and now I was pacing around the


    room dressed in a simple lc dress, checking the clock every few minutes. Alexander’s emergency meeting had run long, but he’d texted that he would be home soon.


    This was it. Tonight was the night we would find out our child’s gender, but it was also the night I was going to tell him that I loved him.


    The words had been burning in my throat for weeks now, ever since that night in the treehouse when we’d made love and I’d fallen asleep in his arms. I couldn’t keep them inside anymore.


    Whether he felt the same way or not, I couldn’t let myself <i>go </i>on any longer without telling him how I truly felt. I had to just get the words out before I wentpletely insane.


    And if he did feel the same way… well, finding out the gender of the baby we were having together seemed like the perfect backdrop for that conversation. It would be a happy night, one filled with the joy and love and trust that I’d been dreaming of for so long.


    Finally, I heard the front door open and close, followed by familiar footsteps in the hallway. My heart started racing.


    “Alexander?” I called out, hastily smoothing down my dress. “I’m in the dining room!”


    But when he appeared in the doorway, he didn’t have the smile I expected to see–the smile I had grown used to seeingtely. Instead, his face was a mask of cold fury.


    “We need to talk.”


    “What’s wrong?” I took a step toward him, but he held up a hand to stop me.


    “Don’t.” The word came out like a growl, and I froze, spine stiffening. He never spoke to me like that anymore<i>. </i>Never.


    My mouth opened and closed wordlessly. Alexander simply reached into his jacket and pulled out an envelope. From it, he extracted what looked like legal documents and threw them down on the table next to our perfect cake.


    “Exin this,” he said.


    I looked down at the papers, confused. The top document was some kind of contract from the looks of it. I picked it up to get a better look, and my blood turned to ice.


    It was a contract between me and my father. An agreement stating that I would seduce Alexander, get pregnant with his child, and use that pregnancy to manipte him into signing Ashw’s inheritance over <i>to </i>Stormhollow.


    And at the bottom of the page was my signature.