Page 24
Story: Bite Me Alpha Cole
I laugh, shaking my head at him. “You knew about that?”
He moves his eyes back to me. “I know about everything.” He pats my shoulder and leans forward to press a kiss to my cheek. “I’m glad to see you take a leadership position, Nadia,” he murmurs, “even if there was no democratic process involved. I hope you wear the responsibility well.”
“I will,” I say, nodding to my dad, my eyes shining a bit as he stands up and gives me a nod, reaching for the laptop.
“Thank you, sir,” Cole says, handing the laptop back and keeping his seat. “I’m glad to know this. I’ll marshal the guards and contact the closest military units in the rare case that we have to evacuate the volunteers.”
My brows raise. Could it seriously come to that?
But dad and Cole just nod to each other before dad strides away.
“This is getting…real,” I whisper, twisting my hands in my lap as I watch dad go.
“It’s been real,” Cole says, sighing. “For those in the Children of Solace, at least, it’s their everyday lives. We have been…remiss in letting it go this long without attention.”
“Yes,” I say, turning back to him. “You have.”
He holds my gaze seriously. “You realize that our nation has many crises to deal with every day, yes? And that we needed information – goodsolidinformation on this cult before we could move on it? We can’t just go running after every rumored threat to our people.”
I shake my head at him, not letting him get away with that flimsy excuse. “Your family has all the money in the world, Kincaid. It’s not enough to point to the bigger bear as the true threat and ignore the little cub massacring your people. You have the capacity to deal with many problems at once. If you have all of the privileges, youhaveto do better.”
Cole holds my gaze steadily and nods to me, just a tiny dip of his chin. My lips turn up a little despite my generally worried mood because I can tell that he doesn’t agree with me. But…I mean, he’s listening, isn’t he?
A real smile takes my lips and Cole grins too.
“I can’t believe I actually got a smile out of you,” he murmurs, his eyes shifting to my mouth.
“Yeah, well,” I say, laughing softly. “That’s what happens when you –“
“Hey!” a cheerful voice calls.
We both turn towards the blonde vision that strides towards us, a dark-haired therapy student by her side. My smile wipes instantly away.
“So, what was that about?” Rose asks, looking after my dad. “That was the General in command, right? Did he give you some news?”
“Hello, Rose,” Cole says, sounding glum.
Rose just turns her head back to him and beams, clearly picking up on his tone and ready to cheer him up. I narrow my eyes at her, thinking that she’s probably got some salacious ideas in mind for precisely how she’s going to do that.
The therapy student looks awkwardly between the three of us, not understanding the source of the very clear tension in our group.
Chapter 14 – Old Habits
Nadia
“Hey, Cole,” Rose says, laughing and twisting her hips as she says it. She wrinkles her nose at him and my hands clench in my lap. God, this girl thinks she’ssocute.
And I mean, she is. But…whatever. I hate her anyway.
“So?” Rose asks, lifting her chin again after my dad. “Updates?”
“Sorry,” Cole says, smoothly standing from his spot next to me on the log. “That’s classified information, Rose.”
Suddenly aware of being the only one sitting and peering up at the rest of the group like a toddler, I stand too.
Rose scoffs, I think genuinely surprised to be denied. Suddenly, she turns her head to glare at me. “Well, why doessheget to know?”
“Hi, I’m…Jeanie,” the therapy student says, giving an awkward wave and attempting a smile that doesn’t stick as she looks around at us. I glance at the girl, taking in her dark eyes and her cute chin-length bob. I mean, she seems perfectly nice, but I don’t have time to deal with her right now.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24 (Reading here)
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144