Page 62 of The Alpha's Fake Mate

“I was hoping.”

When he finally faced me, his chin was up, his eyes open, but the deep blue of them had darkened. Like the sky around us. Voice steady and strong, he said, “You won’t let Bosk take me.”

I pressed my lips tight and shook my head.

He took a step forward. My hand pressed harder against his arm before I let it fall.

“Promise me,” he said.

“I promise with everything I am, everything I can give.”

Holland clasped his hands together, the sleeves of my coat which was too big for him falling back. He put his clasped hands to his chest, holding them there as if he were cold.

“Friends,” he said. He took a deep breath and started walking back toward the front of the house.

It was a positive step at least. Something we could work with.

I sighed and followed him inside.

Chapter Fifteen

Holland

The coat was bulky. I hated the weight of it on my skin. But it smelled like Orion, like coffee and cinnamon and summer sun.

The wind blew sprays of water in my face from the trees overhead.

We walked back to the front path and the porch, Orion, oddly, a step behind me.

A still-angry voice deep in my head said,Fuck, you have a pet Alpha now.

But I didn’t really think of Orion in that way. Harly would say I had issues. And he’d be right.

It had been only months that I’d known him. And two nights I’d spent living in his house. It was nothing in the huge span of time. But he’d already made more promises to me than anyone I’d ever known.

I might have brushed it off to simple, out of control attraction. But Orion was in control. Orion was not an erratic Alpha and if I told him to back off, he backed off.

He was really a nice guy, I had to admit. He deserved better than me.

When we got inside, Orion’s Alpha butler Alston took our coats away, probably to be washed and dried and buffed to perfection. My clothes had stayed dry, but my shoes were wet.

As I was about to take them off, thinking I might place them by the front door, another servant came in to the foyer.

“Shoes, sir?” He spoke directly to Orion.

Orion and I both bent to remove them.

Now in our stocking feet, we stood, both of us slightly shivering.

“Let’s go into the dining room for an early dinner. There’s a fire place in there. I’ll have Alston light it.”

“Can we have wine?” My question came out more sour than I intended.

“I was thinking of breaking out the harder stuff.”

“What’s that?”

“Whiskey. You’ll love it.”