The Alpha CEO’s Unloved Wife

The Hyenas Gather 

Exhausted, she only woke when Baron leaned over and kissed her cheek. She was on her stomach in a tangle of sheets, as their last round of sex had left her. He was showered and had dressed, the fresh scent of his cologne still heavy on his skin after recent application. His cheeks were smooth, and his hair slicked back as he preferred it.

“I have to go into the office,” he told her, stroking his hand down her spine. “Sleep, Jane. It is still early, and we have a function tonight.”

She could not fall asleep again and so she rose and had a shower before stripping the over-used bedding off the bed and stuffing it into the hamper. She dressed in running gear, and cautiously made her way through the house hoping to avoid Angelique. As she reached the front door, movement on the landing caught her attention, and she looked up meeting Angelique’s eyes, before she dropped her gaze and hurriedly escaped into the morning.

She ran to the café and knocked on the kitchen door.

“Good morning,” James opened it. “We were beginning to worry,” he added as she stepped inside. “It has been a few days.” His eyes searched her for bruises. She had deliberately worn a long sleeve running top to hide the now yellowing bruise left by Baron’s teeth on her shoulder and so knew there was nothing for him to see.

She smiled brightly. “I just couldn’t get away, I am sorry. They would stop me if they knew, so sometimes it’s just harder than others.”

“They?” Patrick was in the kitchen unpacking boxes onto the shelves.

“It’s complicated,” she rolled up her sleeves.

is... Well, that is complicated too, but not in the way you think. I don’t think he will hurt me. Not on purpose. But my family… and Angelique… Well, they would be furious. Baron would

James exchanged a look with Patrick. “I don’t

“I often fantasize about becoming invisible, just… dissolving away, vanishing out

been cold and cruel, and deliberately trying to wound her, because of

just

her pack and the other packs in the city to contend with, and she would still be the runt, the weak, snivelling, pathetic omega of the pack. She would still humiliate and embarrass Baron at social functions because she would still be the subject of the pack’s vindictiveness. At some point, their opinions on her would penetrate, and Baron would look at her with distaste and wonder

as his true mate and come to resent

laughter and exclamations loud. One of them spotted her cross the lawn, and all turned in unison to stare at her,

wondered. Not the truth, of that, Jane was sure. Not without betraying the secrets Baron was paying the she-wolf to hide. How would Angelique explain her demotion from mistress and future wife to employee? Had she even said that much, or was Jane still the unwanted, unloved wife

the staff busily prepping for Angelique’s guests, arranging petit fours and canapes on high tea plates, mixing cocktails, and filling

to your room quickly now.

kitchen staff sniggered, and for once, it was not Jane being laughed at, but included in the joke, a part of the pack, rather than the subject of its vitriol. Here, it was Angelique who was reviled and hated,

felt like, she thought, to be included rather than

on her way to the back stairs. She wondered if he were in it, or whether he had gone to the glossy tower in the city. It was impossible to know. She crept up the servant’s stairs and along to her room. There was no one in it. She closed her door and pushed a couple of the armchairs against it to discourage attempts of entry, before showering