Alpha Erased (Alpha Girl 9)

“You’re not buying that, are you?” Chris looked so horrified that I couldn’t help it. I laughed harder. “This is bullshit. Put that back.”

He stormed off, but Cosette placed the print in the cart.

“I can’t buy that. It’s so stupid.” Because it was really cheesy. It wasn’t as bad as the nearly naked chicks we took down from the walls, but I was trying to impress Tessa with my good taste. If she saw this hanging on my wall, what would she think?

“But it makes you smile. It can’t be all that bad.” She had a point. “See? I’m so right about this.”

We were grabbing some other odds and ends for the apartment when Chris came back. He stared at the shopping cart for a full minute before dumping the art supplies in his hands into the cart.

“Jesus. Get rid of it already. I can’t even look at that. I’ll be back with canvas. You’re not allowed to buy that piece of crap.”

Before he reached the end of the aisle, we were laughing again.

It’d been a really long time since I’d had fun. Since I’d laughed. Since I didn’t have this feeling of absolute dread weighing on me.

Not knowing where she was or how she was doing had been too much to breathe through at times. But now I knew where she was. I knew she was okay. And I knew that before long, I’d have my Tessa back.

So now, for the first time in an impossibly long time, I was allowed to laugh.

I was allowed to truly live.

When we got back to the apartment, Chris took his art stuff to the unit’s balcony while the rest of us unloaded and set up. He was still working after we left again and came back with groceries. And when he was finished, he walked into the dining room and put a nail in the wall.

Without saying a word to us, he went back to the balcony, grabbed the canvas, and hung it.

We all stopped what we were doing and went to look at it.

He’d painted a girl and her wolf sitting on the dock of a pond. There was movement in the wolf’s fur, and her hair was flowing in the wind. I couldn’t see the girl’s face, but I knew that it was Tessa. And the wolf was me. The dock was on my land. We’d built it a few months ago.

He was right about that shit art from the store. This was better. It was so much better.

“Oh, wow,” Axel said. “That’s Tessa.”

“Yeah, but don’t touch it. The paint is still drying.” Chris glanced at his hands. “I’m going to clean up.”

After he was done, there wasn’t much for anyone to do. It was nearly dawn, and we all needed sleep. So, I sent them to a hotel.

And I was alone again.

As soon as the door closed, I leaned back against it and stared at the apartment. The kitchen was to my left, blocked off from the living room to my right by a half bar. Next to the kitchen was the dining room. From the door, I could see Chris’ painting. It was breathtaking.

The living space was really one big room that had all three—dining, kitchen, and living room—but area rugs and the kitchen’s bar served to separate the spaces. Beyond the living and dining room was a hallway. On one side was the master bedroom with en suite bath. Across the hall were a smaller bedroom and a half bath.

I strolled through the apartment, taking in everything that we’d gotten. The navy couch and love seat were smaller versions of what I’d bought for our house. The coffee table was really just an oversized pouf with a tray on top. It was brightly colored, and not something I would’ve picked without seeing it in Tessa’s binder. But it brought a lot of color into the room. It made it feel homey.

There were some linked Bluetooth speakers throughout the apartment. Tessa and I always listened to music. It was the thing that brought us together. The thing that might bring us together again.

I’d gotten a few young adult books and some romance, too. Some cooking and non

fiction. And then some science fiction and fantasy that I usually enjoyed.

One unicorn made it back to the apartment, but it was really just a nightlight. There were some superhero figurines and a Lego set. Some board games and a calendar featuring pictures of the French countryside.

The mix of things from the fancy stores and Target made it look comfortable. The bed set I’d gotten was a little too matchy-matchy, but Cosette swore that’s what normal guys tended to buy if they didn’t shop with a fey princess and someone with an artist’s eye to design the layout.

I was pretty sure that Tessa would approve of everything in the apartment, which meant if she ever decided to come over, she’d feel comfortable. At ease. At home.

And that’s what I wanted more than anything. For her to walk through that door and see this place as her home. Because if she did that, then maybe she’d see that I was her home.