Chapter 4
Clarisse returned to the hotel with more than a dozen shopping bags, only to find her luggage piled up in the lobby.
“What’s going on?” she asked coldly.
The clerk of the reception offered an awkward explanation. “Miss Clarisse, your card… it was declined. According to hotel policy…”
Just then, her phone buzzed.
A message from Alpha Vexley popped up. It read,
“Since you want to cut ties, stop using my money. All your accounts have been frozen.”
Clarisse stared at the screen for a long time, so long that her eyes began to sting.
In the end, she typed only two words,
“Fine then.”
Clarisse dragged her suitcase through the streets, alone.
Her flight to Silverden wasn’t until the end of the month, and now she had nowhere to go. Where would she sleep for the next two weeks?
What would she eat? How would she survive?
Her suitcase was packed with wedding gowns and jewelry, things that wouldn’t fetch a quick price. As for borrowing money, she would never bring herself to do that.
She’d rather sleep on the streets than beg in front of those waiting to watch her fall.
A nearby park bench would have to do. Clarisse had just set her suitcase down when a drunk, disheveled man stumbled toward her.
“Hey there, pretty girl. Are you all alone?”
“Get lost!”
“Aw, why are you so aggressive? Come on, keep me company…”
The moment his sleazy hand landed on her shoulder, Clarisse raised her arm to slap him.
“Ouch!! What the fuck are you doing?”
A scream rang out.
Before she could even process what happened, Leopold had appeared. One of the Betas he brought with him had twisted the man’s wrist
with a sickening snap.
Clarisse barely had time to react before she was dragged into the car, luggage and all.
“Let me go!”
Leopold gripped her flailing wrist tightly. “What’s the drama this time?”
His voice was low and steady: “You’d rather be homeless than come to me?”
The moment he said that, Clarisse felt a sting at the tip of her nose,
Back when she used to run away after arguing with her father, it was always Leopold who would scour the entire city to find her and carry her home on his back.
16
What’s the drama this time?” He would always say it the same way.
She remembered lying on his back, breathing in that cool cedar scent of his Alpha aura, and foolishly thinking maybe he liked her, even just a little.
Chapter 4
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But looking back now, no one was more two–faced than this Alpha.
He didn’t love her, but he still slept with her.
He could leave her sheets and go straight to his study to moon over Grace’s photos.
She didn’t understand. What did she lack compared to Grace?
In status, looks, body, what part of her had fallen short?
Of all the women in the world, why did he have to fall for Grace? Why did it have to be the daughter of the woman who ruined her
mother’s life?
“Let me go!” Clarisse’s eyes turned red as she bit down hard on Leopold’s hand.
He flinched, brows tightening, but said nothing. He simply started the car.
Leopold drove her straight back to the wolf castle, carrying her suitcase inside without a word.
“It’ll be the same as before,” he said as he unfastened his cufflinks. His tone allowed no argument. “You can stay until you want to go
home.”
Clarisse stood in the entryway, fingernails digging into her palm. “I’m only staying for two weeks. After that, I’ll be gone. I’ll pay rent. I won’t bother you again.”
“You said you won’t bother me again?” Leopold slowly looked up at her, eyes full of quiet disdain. “Do you think you can manage that?”
The words pierced her like a blade. Her heart twisted violently.
So he already knew.
He had seen through everything, from her rebellious defiance, all the way to her helpless, hopeless longing.
She had fallen hard for him.
And what about him? He still held a place in his heart for his first love, and just coldly watched her spiral deeper.
“Grace…” Clarisse suddenly said, “She’s my stepmother’s daughter. Did you know that?”
Leopold paused as he loosened his tie. “I found out today.”
There was a brief silence! Clarisse couldn’t hold back.
“What’s your relationship with her?”
“She’s my junior from school,” he replied, pouring himself a glass of water and taking a slow sip. “We went to the same school. And we saw each other a few times. She saved me in a car accident. After that, her health declined, so she’s been recovering in Moonrest
Hollow.”
He glanced at Clarisse, his eyes carrying a quiet warning.
“I understand you have issues with your stepmother. But Grace has nothing to do with that. Don’t take it out on her.”
All the words Clarisse had prepared stuck in her throat.
She’d wanted to ask, “Do you love her?”
But now, it just seemed laughable.
The way he protected her at every turn, what more was there to ask?
Chapter 4
