The Triplet Alphas' Secret Mate

Chapter 100: Pulled Away

Scarlett’s POV

​He looked away, a muscle jumping in his jaw. The silence stretched between us, thick with the smell of his expensive cigar.

​"I don’t know," he admitted, his voice barely audible. "I should, shouldn’t I? She’s my mate. The goddess chose her for me. I’m supposed to feel an eternal pull, a love that defies logic." He finally met my eyes, and the sheer exhaustion in them broke my heart. "I want to fulfill my destiny, Scarlett. I want the peace that comes with finding your other half."

​He stepped even closer, his shadow falling over me. The heat radiating off him was intoxicating, making my head swim. My body, still sensitive and humming from the "fever" of the night before, leaned toward him instinctively.

​"But then I look at you," he rasped, his hand rising to hover just inches from my cheek. "I see how you look at me, and it makes everything so much harder."

​"Ethan..."

​"You’re making it hard for me to focus on her," he confessed, his thumb finally making contact with my skin, tracing my jawline. "Every time I try to chase her, I find myself wondering where you are. I find myself wanting to come back to this room. To you."

​The vulnerability in his voice was my undoing. I saw a tear glimmer in the corner of his eye, a crack in the Alpha’s armor that he was only showing to me. Without thinking, I moved my hand from his arm to the back of his neck, my fingers tangling in the short hairs there.

his forehead resting against mine. "Why couldn’t it have been you, Scarlett? Why is it so easy

mine as he kissed me deeply. As his tongue swiped against mine, my body ignited. The dull ache between my thighs flared into a sharp, demanding throb,

heaving, and

cracking as he looked at me. "I can’t do this to

for him, but he stepped back,

ice water in my veins. "I’m hurting and rejected by my mate, and I’m reaching for you because you’re here. Because you’re kind. It’s selfish, and you

argued, my voice trembling.

who is obsessed with someone else," he said, his face hardening into that cold Alpha mask. "Go back to your

hit me harder than a physical blow. I didn’t say another word; I couldn’t. If I opened my mouth, I would have sobbed. I turned and practically ran out of his suite, my vision blurring with hot, angry tears. I felt like a fool. I had offered him my

eyes with the back of my hand, when I rounded the corner

as I saw Leon. His brown eyes

concern to something terrifyingly dark. He leaned in, his nose brushing against my hair, then my neck. He was

him," Leon hissed, his voice a low, angry vibration that made my skin crawl. "You were in his room. You were in his

to pull away, but his grip only