Chapter 47

“Of course!” Kelly answers right away, her voice bright. I swallow hard, and I look away. “I’d love to, Alpha!” She’s practically glowing, which is exactly how I imagine I’d feel if he had asked me to attend one of those important events.
I look down, pretending to adjust my shirt to make my hand busy and let my hair fall forward so they can’t catch the glimmer of tears in my eyes. Then I walk away, the distant murmur of her enthusiastic voice following me as I wipe off the tears.

🐺 🐺 🐺
**\[05:35 Logan:** Hi Allie, can you please stop texting me? I’m engaged now!**\]**
Is he for real?
The last text I sent him was about Az. Ugh. I nearly throw the phone into the sink.
“What do you want for dinner, buddy?” I shift my gaze to my son, sitting on one of the stools at the counter.
“Mom, I’d like cookies and pancakes with extra syrup for dinner!”
Ha! That’s a good one. “Omelet with salad and vegetables and a cookie for dessert coming right up.” 
My son sighs. “Mom, we have to do something about your hearing.” 
I open a smile at him before starting to prepare his dinner.
“Are you okay, Mom?” Az asks me, almost hesitant.
I stop cutting the tomato and look at him. “Yeah. Why are you asking?” He looks around my face, looking like he doesn’t believe me. “Why are you looking at me like that lately?” I frown.
“Uh, nothing. I,” he says, looking away.
“Az, are you lying to me?” I ask, tilting my head.
My son shakes his head, eyes wide. “I wouldn’t, Mom. I’m a good boy.” 
“Of course, you’re a good boy,” I assure him, and Az’s shoulders slump. “But sometimes even good little boys do naughty things!”
“I just want to know if you’re okay, Mom,” he says. I realize that he saw through my lies, just as I saw through his now.
“I don’t want to weigh you down, buddy. I’ll be fine,” I say honestly. Even though I can’t stop thinking about Kelly and Ethan going out tonight.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve got big arms and shoulders, Mom! I can take it.” Az flexes his biceps in a bodybuilder-like pose, and I giggle.
However, truth be told, he’s been growing a lot lately. Maybe he’s had a growth spurt. Initially, when we got here, he was shorter than Lily. Maybe it isn't that much since he’s younger than her and Lily’s taller than most girls I’ve seen her age, but now Az has outgrown Lily in height.
“I know. I can see them!” I laugh, shaking my head, and I start slicing the tomato again.
Az is not only taller, but he has also been putting on much-needed weight, just like I have. And yet, he still has that innocent roundness to his face that I love so much.

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After dinner, where Az ended up eating extra cookies because he was still hungry, he goes to play with Lily while I come to work in the living room. I have to grade my students’ tests.
My phone buzzes under a mess of papers, and when I grab it, it’s another message from Logan.

**\[07:02 Logan:** You won’t answer me?**\]**

Oh, my good lord! How would I answer that? I have nothing else to say to him, not to mention that he literally told me to stop texting him in his last message. He must be drunk. This can be real!
I go back to work, but my mind just can’t forget Ethan asking Kelly to go to the event in front of me. Gosh, I feel so pathetic. I shouldn’t be there. But why did Ethan have to ask her right in front of me? Was his purpose to hurt me?
No, I must be thinking too much about it. He probably doesn’t even remember that I exist.
Any man would ask Kelly to go with them to an event. She’s all put together, literally a model.
There’s no chance in hell he’d trade beauty like her for someone a little plainer and sillier like me. Also, Kelly seems to love him and has been deeply devoted to him for, well, only God knows how long.
Even after I’ve gained some weight and my outfits have been upgraded thanks to the clothes Vi gave me, I barely recognize myself in the mirror—and, judging by the stares, neither does anyone else—it doesn’t even come close to Kelly’s beauty, she looks like a magical being. She’s stunning.
I spread a smile across my face, daydreaming about what it would be like to go to a fancy event like that with Ethan. We would probably be next to each other the whole time, and as much as Vi said these events were boring, I doubt that a place with free and delicious food could be boring. And then, after the luxurious event ends, we could go to Ethan’s apartment above the nightclub again. We would take off our clothes, and I would hungrily throw myself into his arms and let him have his wicked way with me. With a cock like that, he could—
“What are—” 
“AH!” I scream.
“... You thinking about?” Ethan finishes speaking.
“Oh my God! You scared me! I didn’t see you coming!” I say with my hand on my racing heart, then I cup my face with both my hands to try to calm the blush on my cheeks.
Ethan looks down at the papers in front of me as I look up at him. He’s wearing a black suit that makes him look so damn sexy. Forget what I said earlier, he’s now, hands down, next-level amazing. 
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Ethan says, shifting his black gaze toward me.
I bite my bottom lip. I’m not supposed to feel this way, but I still feel hurt that he asked Kelly out right in front of me. He could at least wait until I leave. “What do you want, Ethan?” I snap.
He seems caught off guard by my tone for less than a second before his face returns to its normal demeanor. Placing his hands in the pockets of his pants, he asks, “What are you doing?”  
“Working.”
“Working?”
“Yes. Working.”
“Working.”
Good lord, he is killing me. How has he survived this long without someone suffocating him with a pillow over his face in his sleep? Kelly has to be a saint. From what Kelly implied, they seem to have an open relationship only on his part. Although I doubt Kelly’d ever be mistake for anything even close to a saint at all, not even on her best days.
“On what?”
Ugh. This man infuriates me. Or maybe I’m just mad at him.
“Little Dove, look—”
It hurts even more to hear him call me that. I start to tidy up the papers, putting them in a single pile. “I’ll finish this elsewhere,” I interrupt him, almost sniffing.
Ethan bends down and touches my hand, making me stop. “You don’t have to.”
“I’m ready!” Kelly says excitedly, walking into the living room.
I quickly snatch my hand from Ethan’s and pull out the papers forcefully, but it doesn’t make much difference as he stands up at the same time and says sharply to her, “Let’s go.”
Ethan briskly walks towards the mansion’s exit, and Kelly quickly runs after him. 
Why do they have to look so perfect together? 
As she approaches him, Kelly looks back at me with a smirk, seeming to know exactly what I was daydreaming about earlier and what would happen after the event they’re headed to—and, yes, that smirk all but says she agrees with me. They’re going to fuck.

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alpha Ethan***

As I’m about to start my car after Kelly and I get in, I get this feeling like I’m doing the wrong thing.
‘Go after her,’ my wolf says, and he doesn’t even have to say it twice for me to obey him or ask him who he’s referring to.