The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate (Jason and Laila) by Caroline Above Story novel Chapter 201

Chapter 299

Chapter 201

Laila’s POV

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Jason and I sprang apart, suddenly adding distance. I moved behind the desk, trying to stay cool. Jason stayed near the front. He combed his fingers through his hair, pretending like he hadn’t been reaching up to cup my creek.

Adelaide looked between us two, her initial surprise slipping into something more knowing.

Damn it. She had seen. I was sure of it.

“Pardon my intrusion,” Adelaide said. “I suppose I can see how important this short notice secret meeting actually is.”

“Can I help you with something, Aunt?” I asked, far too pointedly.

“No, I’ve seen enough,” she said. “I’m afraid I entirely forgot why I even came here.”

I doubted that. I was certain that her little snooping adventure served her purpose well. Only instead of eavesdropping on Jason’s business, she had walked in on us almost in a compromising position. Another ten seconds more and I might have been in Jason’s arms, with his lips pressed to mine.

I would have been in heaven, and Adelaide would have stolen it.

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Now, she could have her suspicions, and even if they were correct, she wouldn’t be able to prove it.

Not yet.

Jason and I needed to be more careful.

Or… no. We needed to do more than that.

Adelaide walked out of the room. Jason followed enough to close the door behind her. When he turned back to me, he was speechless, though his face was apologetic.

“She saw us,” I said.

“She didn’t see anything. Nothing happened.”

“But it almost did.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

“Vanessa.”

“No, Jason. We can’t keep doing this. This is precisely why he cannot see each other. We can’t even work together.” I was at wit’s end.

Jason and Ava were my greatest weaknesses. I tried to carve Jason out of my life, but it hadn’t worked. Then I tried to keep him at arm’s length, and that hadn’t worked either.

We were poison for each other. Maybe we always had been. He ruined me, I ruined him. It was a back and forth dance that neither of us could win.

We were drawn to each other, only to hurt one another.

“What are you saying?” Jason asked, his voice soft. “You can’t mean what I think you mean.” He took another step toward me, but I moved too, keeping the desk between us.

A flash of hurt crossed his face. “Vanessa.”

Chopper 201

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“We have to stay away from each other, Jason,” I said. “There’s just too much…” Tension. Drama. Desire. “Everything, between us. It has only ever made things more difficult for us. We have to go our own ways and never see each other again.”

“No.”

“Be reasonable.”

“You are the one being unreasonable,” he said. His eyes hardened, as passion and anger filled his voice in equal measure. “I don’t want to stay away from you.”

“You have to. For your own sake, as well as mine. For your pack. For my company.”

“No,” he said, even more assertive. “I’ve already lost so much. Since I was a boy, I was raised to take over the position of Alpha of the pack, and for a long time, too long, I had tried to be the perfect Alpha, The man my father wanted me to be. But I can’t do that anymore. In doing that, in putting the entire world above my own wants and needs, I’ve only hurt myself. And others that I care about.”

My breath caught, even as my own fears rose up inside of me.

“I am not going to lose you, Vanessa, like I lost Laila.”

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