Claimed by My Bestie's Alpha Daddy novel Chapter 81

“I brought the Adam stuff to Nathan,” I said. “Told him to check the logs.”

Richard exhaled slowly. “Good.”

“You already knew?”

” had suspicions.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

His gaze flicked up. “I didn’t want to spook him until we had proof. You walking around with your righteous fury tends to light things on fire.”

I rolled my eyes. “Charming.”

He smiled faintly, the kind of smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. The silence fell again, but this time it was heavier, denser, like something had shifted in the air and neither of us wanted to be the one to say it.

“Do you think he knows?” I asked, voice quiet now.

“About us?”

I nodded.

“I think he suspects.”

I crossed my arms, mostly to keep them from shaking. “Then we’re screwed.”

He stood slowly, like he was afraid any sudden move would send me running.

“We’ve been careful,” he said. “But if this is turning into a liability…”

“It already is.”I turned toward the wall of windows, arms still crossed, trying not to think about the mess this would become if it all came out, trying net to think about the mess it already was.

He stepped up behind me. Close. Not touching. Just there.

“You want me to stop?”

I didn’t answer right away. Ljust stared out at the city, lights flickering like stars beneath glass.

“No,” I whispered. “I want it to matter.”

That was the only warning I gave him.

He spun me around before I could second-guess myself, and I kissed him like it was the last night we’d get to pretend it was just about need. Like it wasn’t about power and secrecy and desperation disguised as control. His hands cupped my jaw, then slid down to my waist, anchoring me to him as I pushed him back against the press table.

We knocked over a stack of draft folders and didn’t stop. He unbuttoned my shirt slowly, reverently, while | tugged at his belt with fingers that shook more than I wanted them to. My back hit the table as he kissed down my neck, slow and open-mouthed, making a sound Low in his throat that turned my knees to liquid.

“Lights,” I gasped.

“Leave them.”

I swallowed hard and kissed him again, sinking into it. We didn’t make it to the couch. We didn’t need to. He lifted me onto the table, and I wrapped my legs around his hips like I’d been waiting all day for this moment. Maybe I had.

The sound of the city was still outside, and the building creaked faintly as it settled for the night. It all disappeared under his hands, under his mouth, under the way he looked at me like I was the only thing anchoring him to this moment.

After, we stayed tangled longer than we should have, catching our breath while the overhead lights buzzed and the rest of the floor fell silent.

Later that day, Adam cornered me in the hallway outside the comms office. I was halfway through a cold coffee and mentally reciting everything I still had to get done when I spotted him leaning against the wall near the door. I slowed down, hoping he’d just pretend not to see me. No such luck.

“You’ve been working late a lot,” he said casually, straightening up.

“So?”

*Just wondering how an intern gets private meetings with the Alpha King every other night.”

I stopped, squared my shoulders, and looked him in the eye. “You keeping a calendar on me?”

He smiled, but it was tight, all teeth and no warmth. “Don’t get too comfortable, Amelia. Intern perks don’t last forever. Especially not when the spotlight turns ugly.”

I blinked slowly, willing my face to stay neutral. “You really think veiled threats are going to scare me?”

“Not trying to scare you. Just letting you know the tide turns fast in this place. You’ve made a lot of enemies without even noticing.”

“Well, you’ve been watching me pretty closely. Maybe you should worry more about who’s watching you.”

He laughed, a low, bitter sound that grated against my nerves. “You think you’re untouchable?”I didn’t answer. I just stepped around him and kept walking, every muscle in my body tight with the effort it took not to turn back and say something that would blow this whole thing wide open. If I stayed in that hallway another second, I was going to punch him, and something told me that was exactly what he wanted.

By Thursday, I started running backups of every draft I touched.

Council briefs, PR summaries, even the office grocery list, if my name was on it, I kept a copy. I stored them offsite, buried behind multiple passwords, because trust was getting harder to come by, and even the people I liked weren’t above suspicion. My circle felt like it was shrinking, pulled tighter by the hour.