I'm the Alpha's Crush (18+)|✔️

Chapter 65

"We need to talk."

I shrank back against the door frame, pulse spiking as my eyes searched for a way out.

Her voice lowered to a hiss, "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Suddenly, I was two feet tall again, standing in the kitchen, listening with tears streaming down my cheeks as she berated me for some unknown infraction.

Swallowing, I met her eyes, noting the cold, cruel satisfaction in their depths.

"Good," she shot me a viper's smile. "Now, why don't you step back inside so we can have some privacy."

A thousand memories flooded in of tiny feet hurrying through public places, her viselike grip on my arm as she dragged me to the nearest bathroom to spank or scream at me.

"...no."

The word left my lips barely louder than a whisper, but its effect was immediate.

Brow furrowing, she spoke as though I had uttered an alien syllable. "No?"

Tilting my chin up, I hid my trembling as I repeated, "No. I don't have anything to say to you, and I don't care if you have anything to say to me."

She chuckled, but there was no warmth in the sound, "My, my, my. Living out east certainly has made you bold."

I shook my head, channeling my resentment, "It's living away from you. It's realizing how I deserve to be treated. It's having people who actually care about me!"

Mom observed me, cool and distant. Glancing back toward the party, she asked, "Like him?

Uncertainty grabbed me by the throat, but my answer was vehement, "Yes-"

"You think he actually cares about you?"

I froze, rage clouding my vision with a scarlet haze.

"Do you think he cares about you? That any of your little friends do?" She scoffed, stepping closer, "They don't know you - not the real you." Stabbing her at her chest with her manicured finger, she snarled, "I know you-"

"You never knew me," I spat.

"I know what I molded you into!" Her stare burned as she drew nearer, her face overtaking my field of vision, "I know that boy wouldn't have given you the time of day if it weren't for my planning, and I know that you are not going to reap the benefits of my hard work and leave me in the dust!"

I blinked, "What?"

"I'm talking about the return on my investment. Did you actually think I'd let you go off and live in luxury as an Alpha's mate without collecting what I am owed?" She glanced aside, muttering to herself, "Now we just have to do something about that 'apprenticeship' nonsense – I didn't work this hard to land you a temporary Alpha..."

Owed?

Owed?

Disbelief overtook my thoughts, "I owe you shit!"

She leaned closer until we were practically nose-to-nose, "I watched you grow up, I knew you from your first breath, and I recognized early that I was going to have toil and sweat and bleed to get you anywhere."

My teeth ground together, holding back the torrent I yearned to unleash, "Bullshit."

She erupted in jeering, taunting laughter, "What? You think you're smart? You think you're talented? You think that anybody likes you? They like the façade that I built for you!"