KESTER.
I went for a run. Something I hadn’t done outside the confines of my home gym in a long time. But today, it felt like the whole house was closing in on me, and I needed a breath of fresh air.
I ran until my lungs burned, until the early morning air felt like razor against my skin, until the world blurred into nothing.
Two days.
Forty–eight fucking hours.
And Kasmine hadn’t stepped foot outside her room, neither had she opened the door for me or anyone else aside from her favorite maid who takes her meals to her and comes out with them untouched.
I was losing my mind.
It was just five more days until I was shackled to an engagement I didn’t even want, and I wasn’t even prepared for it.
When Kasmine barged into my room and found me and June in that awkward position, I heard her saying something about picking a date. She must have come across the whole engagement thing on social media, all thanks to June.
If only she’d let me explain myself, she’d see that it’s all just a big misunderstanding.
I pushed the door open and stopped in my tracks when I heard familiar voices coming from the dining area.
The fuck?
They were actually laughing?
Just when I thought my morning couldn’t get any worse after finding out that an important document containing our acquisition proposal for my investors for the
acquisition of the Elvric systems – One of the best multi–million Dollar artificial
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intelligence that would boost my technologies and gadgets for a better user experience –
has been leaked to Kex.
How did it happen when I already had the one person I suspected in my basement?
I didn’t want to believe I had more moles in my company than one. It would hurt my
intelligence and pride.
I had to deal with that later today.
As I stepped into the living room, I turned in the direction of the voices, and to my greatest disappointment, I saw Karina having breakfast in my fucking house.
A laugh almost slipped out.
Not because anything about this was funny. No.
But because there was something so perfectly absurd about walking into my own house and finding her sitting at my dining table, sipping coffee like it was her birthright.
It almost felt like she hadn’t spent the better part of her miserable existence scheming
against me.
And beside her?
The man who was supposed to be my father… Eating. Laughing. Sharing whatever sick
joke they found so damn amusing.
My spine went rigid.
I crossed the room in a few long strides and stopped before them.
Karina was the first to notice. She turned her head, a smirk already curling at her lips
before she even met my gaze.
“Well, good morning to you too, sunshine.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
I didn’t acknowledge her.
Not even a glance.
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She wasn’t worth it.
Instead, I fixed my eyes on the man across from her.
“Explain.”
One word, Flat. Cold.
My father set his coffee down carefully, “Karina has some issues with her mate,” he said, calm as ever. “She’ll be staying here for a little while.”
I scoffed loudly.
I leaned against the back of a chair, crossing my arms over my chest. “Of course,” I drawled. “Because nothing screams good decision–making like inviting a woman who has been fighting for my Alpha position into the pack. Into this house.” My eyes locked onto him. “Tell me, did you personally send her an invitation, or was she already scratching at the door when you let her in?”
His jaw tightened. A flicker of irritation crossed his face, but it was gone before it could settle. “She is still family, Kester.”
“Family,” I repeated, testing the word on my tongue, and sincerely, it tasted foreign. ‘You mean like the kind of family who stab us in the back?”
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