Owned By The Possessive Alpha, Bounded To My Mate novel Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

DANTE

I stopped that thought and started it again, more carefully.

45

+5 Free Coins

If she was carrying my child, everything changed. Not the mating with Elena but the arrangement with Denise, the question of what she was allowed to do and where she was allowed to go and whether the exit she seemed to be building toward was actually available to

her.

It wouldn’t be. If she was carrying my heir-even an omega’s child, even one the pack would complicate and question-I would make sure she stayed. I would provide whatever she needed. A house, security, the child raised with every advantage. She wouldn’t want for anything. And she wouldn’t be able to leave, because I wouldn’t allow it, and she would understand that.

The thought settled in me with a solidity that felt like certainty before I’d confirmed the facts.

I set my coffee down on the hall table and pulled out my phone.

Her name sat in my contacts with the particular familiarity of something looked at too many times. I typed a message-short, casual, the tone I used when I wanted something without advertising that I wanted it: *Call me when you get a chance.*

I sent it and waited.

The three dots that meant she was typing did not appear.

I waited another minute.

Nothing.

I called.

It rang four times and went to voicemail-her voice, businesslike, the recorded version of her professional register. I didn’t leave a message. I hung up and stood with my phone in my hand in the corridor of my family home and tried to remember the last time Denise hadn’t answered my call within two rings.

I couldn’t think of one.

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10:37 Wed, Sep 16

Chapter 14

45

+5 Free Coins

Elena found me in the study an hour later.

She knocked twice before entering, which was something she did that I had always appreciated –the small acknowledgment that space mattered, that entrance required permission. She settled into the chair across from my desk with the easy grace that was native to her, the posture of a woman who had grown up in rooms like this one and moved through them without self-consciousness.

“She’s remarkable,” Elena said, and I knew immediately who she meant.

“She’s efficient,” I said. “I’ve always valued that about her work.”

“It’s more than efficiency.” Elena tilted her head slightly. “She sees the whole picture. That thing she said about the ring and the earrings-none of us had thought about that. And the document she built-” She paused. “How long has she worked for you?”

I considered the question with the particular care of someone navigating a surface that might not be solid. “A few years. She came in as an intern and stayed.”

“You should keep her.” Elena said it with the certainty of someone making an obvious point. “After we’re mated, when I’m taking on more of the social responsibilities-events, alliances, the ceremony circuit-I’d want someone with her eye. Could she move to a different role? Something with more scope?”

The irony of it settled over me like a weight I hadn’t seen coming.

“I’ll consider it,” I said.

Elena smiled and moved on to something else-a question about the dinner reservation, whether she should wear the blue dress or the grey one, something about which she had apparently already decided and wanted me to confirm. I answered on autopilot, my phone face-down on the desk where I’d placed it after the third unanswered call.

After Elena left to get ready, I picked it up again.

Nothing.

I called once more. Voicemail, immediately this time, which meant she’d seen it and declined.

I put the phone in my jacket pocket and sat with that for a moment.

Denise had never declined my calls.

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10:37 Wed, Sep 16

Chapter 14

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