y

e an obscenely expensive ballroom than

tables set with cutlery and china that probably cost more individually than everything in my apartment combine

as he wove between tables like he'd done this

s shoulder. "You're Alex's mate," He cleared

too distracted by the sheer amount of g

orrected, voice low, hop

e at a table near the front, entirely too pleased with him

ling curious eyes land on

eside mine without a shred of self-consciousness. "

ouldn't he jus

erately. "I'm seriously not going to be mak

told a different story entirely. Something in him clearly hated the ide

voice dropping. "I'm not su

mused and a little too loud. "Alpha Alex deci

, already on his fee

practice, though he wasn't laughing now. He was smirking at me instead, the

just saying what everyone else at this table is thinking." His gaze slid to

it should have, he said it like an ac

aces of his earlier ease gone. He gla

ard the guy seated beside him, murmuring something too low for me t

a football field, not a black-tie dinner. They all had broad shoulders, thick necks, hands that looked like they could crush a wine glass without try

Even the older men scattered throughout the hall looked like they'd stepped straight out of a gym

lay hockey," I muttered under

, unashamed, not in the way men usually stared, not the kind that made my skin crawl for the obvious reasons. This was dif

e more certain I became that this was no ordinary spectator.

ell was he

tleman across the hall was, I heard a c

eat next to mine like he hadn't just vanished for what felt like an eter

ow did your meeting

nt," h

at him. "That's

clipped, his shoulders still tens

saying his jaw was a little tighter than usual, his shoulders held

y hadn't been pleasant, and equally clearly, he

?" I aske

is face that I'd pushed at

and I don't exactly see

ns, I felt it again- that same

old man still watching, except now his gaze had shifted, sliding from me

etly. "Who is that