Desired By Three Alphas; Fated To One Chapter 8: Just A Bet?

Hailee’s POV

He leaned in, hands braced on either side of my head. "You really hate him that much?" he asked, voice low.

I stared him down. "I hate what he does."

His eyes burned into mine. "And what if he regrets it? What if everything he’s done since has been to try to forget her—and nothing worked?"

I swallowed hard. "Then maybe he should’ve said that to her instead of acting like he hated her."

Now I wasn’t sure if we were talking about the book anymore.

I swallowed hard. "Can you let go of ... I need..."

That muscle in his jaw ticked.

And then he kissed .

Fierce. Demanding. Every insult we’d thrown at each other still lingered between our lips, making the kiss feel like war and desire all at once. His hands gripped my waist like he didn’t trust to stay, and mine fisted his shirt like I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

When he finally pulled back, our breaths were tangled.

"You talk too much," he muttered against my lips.

"You don’t have to kiss to shut up," I shot back.

His mouth curled into a wicked smirk.

"But I think it works."

With that, he let go of and turned around, walking toward the door. My heart raced in my chest and I had to lean against the wall.

Just when he got to the door, he paused and turned toward . "You are a terrible kisser, Hailee... you need more practice." With that, he opened the door, walked out, and shut it.

I stood there long after the door shut, my heart thudding against my ribs like it was trying to break free. His words echoed in my ears—

"You are a terrible kisser, Hailee... you need more practice."

Was he joking? Teasing? Or was that his way of brushing it off, pretending it didn’t an anything?

I bit down on my lip, hard. No. I wasn’t going to read into this. I wasn’t going to stand here like so lovesick fool replaying a kiss that probably ant nothing to him.

It was just a kiss.

A stupid, heated, confusing kiss that I didn’t ask for.

I shoved away from the wall and continued arranging the books on the shelf.

That’s when Clara walked in.

Of course. Perfect timing.

She took one look at and burst out laughing. "Oh my God. Tell you didn’t fall for him."

I blinked. "What?"

Clara stepped in, eyes wide with fake sympathy and a wicked grin on her lips. "Nathan. You did fall for him. Didn’t you? Oh, Hailee..." she dragged out my na like it was a punchline.

"I didn’t fall for anyone," I snapped. "What are you talking about?"

Clara snorted. "I believe Nathan is proud of himself. Especially since he won the bet."

My heart stopped. "What bet?"

She leaned in like she was giving a secret. "He told Rory he could get you to kiss him twice. Said you were just too easy to ss with. That you’d pretend to hate him, but deep down, you wanted him."

I stared at her, numb. "You’re lying."

"Am I?" she shrugged. "Believe what you want. But he’s already won. And judging by your face..." she smirked, "he didn’t even have to try that hard."

My frown deepened and my heart raced. So this was a silly bet... I thought when we kissed it was magical... that was my first kiss... he was the first man to kiss , and it was a fucking bet!! A fucking bet for Nathan!

Clara moved closer to ... a victorious smirk on her face. "I always knew that just like the other ogas, you were drooling over my brother... you were just pretending, and now you’ve been exposed." She chuckled loudly, turned around, and walked away.

Where I stood, I felt like the ground would open up and swallow up. Tears stung in my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. I was a fool... a fool to fall for Nathan’s trap. What was I even thinking? That Nathan liked ? How could I be so foolish to think that!

Inhaling deeply, I decided to push down my emotions. I have gone through sothing worse than this... this was just the tip of an iceberg.

I let out a shaky breath and forced myself to keep moving. I started fixing the books again, one by one, even though my hands were trembling.

The rest of the day, I stayed in the library. I didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t want to speak to anyone.

I just wanted to disappear into the shelves.

Ti passed, slowly. I didn’t even know how many hours went by. I just kept pretending to work until my phone buzzed on the desk beside .

I glanced at the screen.

Callum.

I frowned. Seriously? What did he want now?

With a sigh, I picked up the call. "Yes?"

"Hey," his voice ca through, sounding authoritative. "I need you to co with ."

I blinked. "Why?"

"Goddess shopping," he said like it was obvious. "You are my guide, right?"

I groaned. "Callum, you can go on your own—"

"I know you are in the pack house... I’ll pick you up in twenty minutes."

"Wait, no—"

He hung up.

I stared at my phone in disbelief.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw the phone across the room. But instead, I just let it fall back onto the table and dropped my head into my hands.

"Two more months... two months and all this will be over," I mumbled to myself.

For the past few minutes, I remained in the library as I waited for Callum. Exactly twenty minutes later, like he said, his ssage popped up on my phone.

"Outside the gate, co out."

I frowned... even his texts seed like an order!! God, are all Alpha heirs so rude?

Grabbing my bag, I left the library.