Alpha’s Hybrid Cinderella
Chapter 38

I had never watched a movie from beginning to end except for 'filler movies' in classes back in high school when we had substitute teachers. Being in a real movie theater, with popcorn and drinks and sitting side by side with the man I was in love with? It had to be For dinner, Evan let me choose where to go. He had a list of locations at the ready on his phone and described six or seven places to me in the car, when at last I told him the truth. I didn't want to go to another restaurant.

a dream. I could hardly pay attention to the movie at all when Evan's hand was on my thigh, fingers stroking me gently over my knee.

I didn't want to be watched and ogled by others while Evan and I tried to eat in peace. Even the place where we ate at for lunch had been stressful despite us having a private room to ourselves. The knowledge that the staff was hovering outside the door at all times had made me anxious and self-conscious.

"Where do you want to go, then?" he asked, putting away his phone. "I chose where to eat today once already, you have to choose for tonight."

"But I don't even know what kind of food you like."

"I like whatever you feel like trying. Anything."

I smiled and ducked my head, pretending to scroll up and down the search listings on my phone while fighting off the blush threatening to suffuse my face. Evan saw it nonetheless, and he leaned over to kiss the pink off of my cheeks.

He didn't stop there. He pressed himself over the middle console, leaning into me with his superior stature and pressing me to my headrest as he ravished my lips next. His tongue eased inside, stroking and pushing, and when I moaned into his mouth, his hand slipped down to the hem of my shirt where he played his fingers along my waist.

"Evan... Evan, we're in the parking lot... Ah!"

His fangs must have come out. They scraped gently against my jaw, sending thrilling shocks down my body just as his hand dove up under the cup of my bra. I arched into his palm as he rubbed it over my stiffened n****e, and he squeezed hard with a groan of his own. "I know we are. I just want to kiss you... And touch, and taste..."

"Evan... Evan!"

"Don't worry. We'll save this for later when no one is around."

His windows were tinted, so no one could see how he lifted my shirt and licked a hot stripe over my exposed breast before covering me up again. I gasped and looked around, but all the passersby in the parking lot took no notice and simply went about their business.

I clutched at my chest, arms crossed and face utterly red, but Evan only smiled as he pulled the car out of the spot and drove out onto the main road.

"Better choose where you want to go," he teased. "Or did I make you forget?"

It was going to be a long day. And probably a long night too, at this rate...

***

I chose somewhere peaceful. There was a semi-private park in the south end of the Scarlet territory, where one could only go with a permit pre-paid at the beginning of the year. I'd had no idea when I picked it out of the suggestions Evan gave me, but it turned out to be no trouble. Evan, despite having no permit, only had to slide down his window and glance at the keepers who manned the gates. They scrambled to let him in, saluting and greeting us with almost panicked frenzy.

He also had food at the ready. He had called it in despite my protests, and when we arrived at the specified location inside the park, there was a beautiful, cozy table set up complete with tablecloth and decorations. Evan must have chosen this spot for the lovely little lake and the elegant fountains constructed in the center of it. The handful of weeping willows drooping over the banks, the various flowers waving red and yellow and blue in the verdant grass, the birds cheeping in the branches...

The sight took my breath away. And for now, it was all ours. I took his hand and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him, too overwhelmed to thank him with mere words.

We took our time eating and talking, mostly about my classes, Rafael, Leon, even Flicka. I didn't tell him about the physical fight she and I had gotten into though, and I wondered if maybe he was waiting for me to mention it first. But he seemed unaware of it, only amused when I told him at length how she was always at her most creative when insulting people, even her own usually worshipful partners in class.

"She's that sort," was all he said, and I smiled at the unimpressed tone of his voice. We didn't talk about the day Flicka had walked into the Scarlet manor, and I didn't want to ask first what it was about, but if he didn't personally like her, then it must have just been for business. She was the daughter of the Glilies family, after all. Maybe it had to do with her parents more than her.

Later, with no one around, Evan and I stripped down and shifted into our wolf forms. At first, it was more of a teasing joke, but we went on a long, loping run together, taking in the natural world in a way we never could in our human bodies. And it was the most peaceful I'd felt in so long... It felt so right as we ran through the trees, running parallel to the trail that would guide us back. I might be a hybrid, I thought, but that still meant I was part wolf. This was my heritage. My birthright.

After our run, we napped together in the shade, enjoying the breeze as we dozed. We would have to return to our human forms and leave soon, but we would enjoy every last moment of this day first.

I wasn't ready to let him go. After tonight, Evan would probably have to disappear on another trip, go far, far away from me where we could only communicate over text. Why couldn't every day be like this?

I nestled into him with a sigh, and he held me tight in his powerful arms as he kissed me lazily over my hair.

***

EVAN

Claudia fell asleep early tonight, scarcely before nine. Evan held back his disappointment and tucked her into bed after carrying her inside the manor. He was always so starved for her even when he touched her, kissed her, held her. He couldn't get enough of her scent, creamy and soft and unimaginably addicting. But she needed rest, and tonight he could forego his touches this once.

Besides, tonight he had a meeting. Maybe it was for the better that Claudia wasn't awake for this; it might have ruined her mood to hear about Dark Moon. Either way, he retreated to his bedroom where Peelle and Osborn looped him into a three-way call from their current post in the other territory.

"What information did you two stumble on?" he asked. "Not usual for both of you to contact me like this at once."

"That's the thing. We aren't sure if this is important or just coincidental, which it might well be. Osborn is of the opinion that something is fishy, but I'm holding my suspicions until we know more. I haven't been able to dig anything substantial up on the weird strains in the greenhouses yet, but Osborn found something in the pack ledger that he dug up from the old Alpha's office. Osborn?"

"Well, it's not conclusive, and there's no proof anything was illegal. But I find it odd that we didn't know Dark Moon's former Alpha Kris used to do business back in the day with the Joseph family, and with the Glilies family too. It all stopped suddenly years ago, but that doesn't make sense either. Why cut off business lines for seemingly no reason? They weren't making a killing, but it was nothing to burn bridges over, and after that, there are no records that directly name the Josephs or the Glilies, and at least half a dozen other families in that circle, too."

"I wasn't informed of these connections either," Evan said coldly. His hand tightened over the phone. "Send me pictures of them, and get our liaisons with those families on the case. See what they can find." "Yes, sir. I'll make copies and mail them to one of our security deposit boxes in the area, too. Strange things are happening lately, disappearing paperwork among them. I'm not letting these out of my sight." "Good man. Peelle, help Osborn with that. The greenhouse investigation is important, but I want to find out what everyone's hiding from me."

"You got it"