Filed to story: The Billionaire Alpha’s Contract Lover by Caesar Erickson
He looked Griffon up and down. Seeing the Alpha’s expression, which wasn’t as grim as before, Preston mustered up the courage to speak.
“Did Ms. Palmer offend you somehow before tonight?”
The Alpha’s actions tonight were completely out of character for him.
“It’s none of your business.”
Preston remained unfazed and probed further. “Is she the woman you keep?”
He knew that his cousin had a secret lover, but he had never seen her before. Something about the way Griffon had treated this woman made Preston think there was something more at play between them.
Griffon raised his head and clenched his jaw. “What are you implying?”
Preston planned to probe a bit more, but when he saw the hairs on the back of Griffon’s hand get longer, he decided not to beat around the bush. He didn’t have long before the wolf took over and Griffon became all sharp edges and teeth.
“Griffon, have you fallen in love with Ms. Palmer?”
In Nightshade, when he saw how Griffon had targeted Taya, he’d already guessed that she was the woman who had been his secret lover for five years.
When he first saw that Taya looked like Tara, he thought Griffon had just regarded her as a substitute while he was unable to have Tara.
But then Griffon had lost control of the tight reins he held on his emotions.
Strong emotion from an Alpha never led to anything good, and Griffon had always been able to maintain his rigid composure, never let anyone see what he was truly feeling.
Until tonight.
Until an emotion Preston didn’t even think Griffon was capable of showed its face.
Jealousy.
Griffon slowly, deliberately set down the gla*s he was holding.
His claws were starting to come out now, and his fingers were clutching the gla*s so tightly, Preston was afraid it would just disintegrate into a thousand pieces under the pressure.
Griffon looked at Preston. “What do you think?”
Preston decided to push forward. “I think you like her a little, don’t you? Otherwise, why would you be so angry when you heard she had slept with Roman?”
Griffon snarled, “It’s in poor taste to flaunt one’s promiscuity. With a Beta no less. So I decided to put her in her place. Is that love?”
Ah, so there it was.
Taya had moved from a man as rich and powerful as THE Alpha Knight, to the “lowly” Beta Starke. That made sense to Preston. Griffon didn’t want people thinking that he and Roman ran in the same circles, close enough to have access to the same women. He didn’t want to be a*sociated with someone like Roman.
Moreover, as soon as Tara returned to the country, Griffon broke things off with Taya, which was enough to show that Taya was not important and didn’t take up any room in Griffon’s
Preston didn’t say anything more. He raised his head and drank up the rest of the bourbon in his gla*s. Then he got up and said goodbye to his cousin.
Griffon didn’t reply. He just nodded indifferently.
Preston was used to his cousin’s indifference. It had been Griffon’s primary emotion and attitude since he was a child, so Preston didn’t take it to heart. He simply picked up his coat and turned to leave.
It was raining heavily outside. His driver was waiting for him, and when he saw Preston, he rushed over with an umbrella. Once in the car, Preston directed him toward downtown.
While stopped at a traffic light, he saw Taya, who was only wearing a dress, hailing a taxi in the heavy rain.
Her petite body was thin. The dress, soaked by the rain, tightly clung to her body, making her seem even more fragile.
Her curly hair was plastered to her head and stuck to her face.
Somehow, despite how broken she looked standing there forlornly in the rain, it didn’t affect her beauty one bit.
Preston saw taxi after taxi zooming past Taya, but none of them stopped.
After hesitating for a moment, he ordered his driver over to her.
I covered my eyes with a hand and vaguely saw a man walking toward me with an umbrella.
When the umbrella covered my head, I was stunned for a moment, slowly raising my eyes to look at him…
It was like looking at Griffon from five years ago…
It was raining that day, too. I’d knelt at the nightclub door and begged pa*sers-by to buy me for a night.
Many men came in and out, touching, teasing, and laughing at me, but not a single one was willing to pay for me.
And then a mountain of a man, who I could immediately tell was a wolf shifter by the gleam in his eyes slowly approached. When he covered the top of my head with the umbrella in his hand to shield me from the storm, it was like I was looking at a god.
In the dim glow of the streetlights, I’d crawled to his feet, grabbed the hem of his pants, and begged him to buy me for a night.
The man looked down at me with no contempt or ridicule in his eyes. He just asked coldly, “Are you clean?”
I’d blushed and nodded, and then the man stretched out his large, strong hand to me.
When I placed my hand in his broad palm, I’d sealed my fate. I would be tied to him for the rest of my life, and I hadn’t a clue.
“Get in the car. I’ll take you home.”
Preston opened the car’s back door, and his warm voice washed over me, mixed with the rain.
Only then did I come to my senses.
It wasn’t that night five years ago, and it wasn’t Alpha Knight standing in front of me. It was Preston, Griffon’s cousin.
But Griffon and I were over. And even when we had been… whatever…I’d never been around his family. He would probably be enraged if I were a*sociated with his family in any way, spent any time with Preston.
The catch? My phone was dead, so I couldn’t request an Uber. And taxis in this town were the worst. They never stopped, or they already had a pa*senger. Any of the nearby stores or businesses were well past being closed, so I was left with walking home in the pouring rain, continue failing to get a taxi…or let Preston drive me.
Goddess, I wished I had a wolf so I would have a fourth option to shift and run home.
I hesitated for a moment and got in his car.
Water dripped everywhere off me, and the seat was soaked in seconds, water pooling on the floormat beneath my feet.
All I had in my purse were a couple of tissues, and I grabbed them and tried to wipe up the seat. It was no use, though. They only made more of a mess, leaving wh ite bits behind as they disintegrated under my vigorous wiping.
Embarra*sment flooded me, and my face burned. “I’m so sorry. I got everything all wet and di rty.”
Preston quickly turned to face the back seat and stopped me, his voice low and gentle. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just water. It’ll dry.”
For a moment, I almost forgot that the person sitting in the pa*senger seat in front of me, who had rescued me from the rain was related to Griffon, was part of the powerful Knight family and pack. A pack known more for its ruthlessness and power than its kindness.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?