Owned By The Possessive Alpha, Bounded To My Mate novel Chapter 5

DENISE

Dante came to pick me up himself the next morning, far earlier than I expected. I heard the knock at my door while I was still tying my shoes, and when I opened it and found him standing there in a plain gray sweater instead of his usual suit, something about the ordinariness of it caught me off guard.

"I'll drive you," he said, like it was nothing, like the offer erased anything that had happened between us.

I did not argue. I did not have the energy to. I grabbed my bag and got into the car beside him, and we drove the whole way to Blackwood Manor in silence, the radio low, neither of us reaching to turn it up or off. I watched the countryside slide by outside the window and thought about how strange it was, sitting so close to someone I had once loved and now felt almost nothing toward at all, just a flat, tired kind of resolve.

Blackwood Manor came into view eventually, a sprawling stone estate with manicured gardens and tall iron gates, exactly the kind of place Elena would choose for a wedding, grand enough to be photographed, cold enough to be impressive rather than warm. Elena was already waiting near the entrance when we pulled up, dressed in soft cream, her hair loose for once, arranging her face into a smile the moment she saw the car.

But I saw the flicker before the smile settled, the brief tightening around her eyes when she realized Dante had brought me himself, sitting in the passenger seat like it meant something. She recovered quickly. Elena always recovered quickly.

"Dante, I didn't expect you to come all this way," she said, crossing to his side of the car as he stepped out, her hand finding his arm with practiced ease. "You didn't have to trouble yourself."

"I wanted to make sure Denise got here alright," he said, and I watched something flash briefly across Elena's face again, gone as fast as it appeared, tucked back behind that same soft, gentle expression she wore like armor.

"Of course," she said. "That's very thoughtful of you." Then, turning to me, her voice warming with a sweetness that did not reach her eyes, "Denise, thank you so much for agreeing to this. I know things have been difficult. I really do appreciate you helping."

I said nothing, only nodded, because there was nothing I could say that would not come out sharper than I currently had the energy to manage.

Elena led me inside, through a wide marble foyer and down a long hallway hung with old paintings, until we reached a set of double doors she pushed open with a flourish. "This will be our war room," she said, laughing lightly at her own phrase. "Everything wedding related happens in here from now until the big day."

I stepped inside and stopped short.

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