Chapter 50
“You!”
Adrian, slowed by the booze but sharp enough to note the elevator had stopped at 15-my floor-let out a snarl, rage surging in him like a wildfire.
He lurched out, grabbing Alpha Gideon’s collar, his knuckles white.
“What are you doing at my mate’s place?”
I wheeled out to see Alpha Gideon shove Adrian to the ground, brushing his hands afterward like he’d
touched something rotten.
His gaze turned cold when he spotted me, his tone dripping with mockery.
“If you’re letting him into your apartment, why bother with all the theatrics?”
I bristled, a spark of anger flaring.
This was my personal business.
Sure, he’d saved me, and yeah, he was my boss, but my bond with Adrian was none of his business to sneer
Still, confusion trumped irritation.
“I never gave him the code. How’d he get up here?”
From the gated entrance to the building’s security to the elevator-there were layers of barriers, each one designed to keep out unwanted wolves.
How had Adrian slipped through?
Alpha Gideon’s cold sarcasm shifted to puzzlement at my words, like he hadn’t expected that.
Adrian, meanwhile, staggered to his feet, lurching toward me, the stench of whiskey making my nose wrinkle. “How’d you get up here?”
“Did you sleep with him?” he roared, ignoring my question, gripping the armrests of my wheelchair so hard
his fingers turned white.
I slapped him hard across the face, the sound echoing.
“Are you out of your mind? Drunk and causing a scene? Get lost! Go find your Vanessa!”
Instead of raging back, Adrian dropped to his knees, grabbing the hand that struck him and pressing it to his chest-warm, wet with tears.
One second he was a bellowing beast, the next a whimpering pup.
“I was wrong. I know you wouldn’t. You still love me. You’d never betray me.”
I was beyond speechless.
< Chapter 50
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I glanced at Alpha Gideon, who was watching the drama unfold like it was a bad pack soap opera.
Then back at Adrian, sloshed and unhinged, his face red, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Couldn’t they give me a break?
It was the middle of the night!
I yanked my hand free.
“Can we deal with this tomorrow? Go sleep it off, and we’ll talk when you’re sober-”
Before I could finish, Adrian threw his arms around me, sobbing apologies, his body wracking with each gasp.
Tears streamed down my neck, soaking my collar, his scent mixing with the whiskey in a sickening way.
A grown wolf, a alpha, reduced to a blubbering mess.
I froze, caught between absurdity and a strange, hollow sadness.
This wasn’t the epic bond-breaking battle I’d pictured.
Adrian, always proud, temperamental, and controlling, shouldn’t be this-a weeping wreck at my feet.
“Let go of me. Calm down, okay?”
I said, softening my tone, my wolf nuzzling at the edges of my consciousness.
The harder I pushed, the tighter he clung.
“Say you still love me. Say you won’t leave me,”
Adrian bargained.
My head throbbed, a dull ache behind my eyes.
Alpha Gideon, who’d been spectating, now wore an icy expression as he pulled out his phone, making a call-
short, sharp, summoning someone upstairs.
Moments later, the night-shift property manager and a security guard arrived, their expressions tense.
Alpha Gideon pointed at Adrian, still clinging to me like a lifeline.
“He doesn’t belong in this complex. Get him out.”
The manager hesitated, glancing between Adrian-who, drunk or not, was still a Blackwood alpha-and Alpha Gideon, a Hartley with deep pockets and influence.
“Mr. Hartley, hold on. Let me check something.”
No outsider could slip into a resident’s home unnoticed in a building like this.
After a quick check on his tablet, he looked uneasy.
“Mr. Blackwood owns a unit on the 25th floor. The cameras show he was heading up but stopped at 15- likely because you or Vivian pressed the up button, causing the elevator to stop here. Just a mix-up.”
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What?! He bought a place on the 25th floor?
My head wasn’t just throbbing now-it was about to explode.
Was Adrian planning to haunt me forever?
Alpha Gideon went quiet, processing, his jaw tight.
After a moment, he told the manager,
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“Then kindly escort him back to the 25th floor.”
The manager nodded.
With a VIP like Alpha Gideon, a top-floor alpha with clout, there was no saying no.
He signaled the two guards to act.
Adrian was still kneeling, his arms wrapped around me, his tall frame hunched over mine, face buried in my neck. He’d gone from sobbing apologies to eerie silence, like he was trying to memorize my scent.
The guards tried to pull him off, but he wouldn’t budge, growling low in his throat.
I tugged too, to no avail.
It was like he’d fused himself to me, determined to stay bound forever, even if it killed him.
Alpha Gideon stepped in, prying Adrian’s arms off with unyielding force, his muscles bunching under his shirt
as he dragged him away from me, Adrian’s fingers scraping against my arm as he fought to hold on.
Adrian’s bloodshot eyes snapped open.
“Alpha Gideon! Hartley!” he snarled, scrambling up, swaying as he lunged to swing at him.
Too drunk to aim, his fist missed entirely, hitting the wall with a thud.
The manager urged the guards to grab him, their grips firm.
Adrian shoved them off.
“Back off!”
“Mr. Blackwood, please don’t make a scene. You’re on the wrong floor. Let us take you upstairs,” the manager said, a plump, mild-mannered wolf with a soothing tone that usually worked on irate residents.
“Wrong floor? She’s my mate!”
Adrian bellowed, his voice echoing down the hallway.
The manager blinked, stunned.
The guards froze, equally baffled.
A top-floor wolf at a 15th-floor she-wolf’s place in the middle of the night, a 25th-floor wolf stumbling in, claiming she’s his mate-what kind of tangled pack drama was this?
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Alpha Gideon’s voice cut through, cold as steel.
“He’s talking nonsense. If you don’t act, we’re calling the enforcers.”
The manager wavered, then nodded.
Enforcers meant paperwork, investigations, bad press for the building.
He signaled the two guards to move faster.
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Adrian was hauled into the elevator, his roars and thrashing muffled as the doors closed, the sound of his pounding fists fading as the car rose.
I exhaled, relieved, but my expression hardened.
If Adrian was lurking in the parking lot every time I came home, if he was living just floors above me, I’d never escape him.
9
Selling my place and moving wasn’t an option-not with my injury, not with the bond still hanging over me
“I’m a bit curious,” Alpha Gideon said, his voice breaking my thoughts, his gaze steady on mine.
“Do you actually want to break the bond, or not?”
I snapped back to reality, meeting his enigmatic gaze.
I wasn’t sure why he cared, but I answered honestly, my voice firm.
ま
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“If I didn’t want to, I could’ve ignored his cheating, turned a blind eye. But I chose to break the bond. There’s no going back.”
Alpha Gideon nodded, satisfied, like he’d needed to hear it.
“For now, stay at my place. Tell your friend to hold off visiting. Frank will handle your meals. Focus on healing that leg.”
I stared at him, shocked. “What? No, I-”
He cut me off, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“It’s not a request, Vivian. Not with him living floors up.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he was right.
With Adrian this close, this desperate, I wasn’t safe in my own apartment.
