​ “A glass of wine, if you would.” ​ Ava jumped at the sudden voice, only to realize it was Liam Smith, Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, making the request. Ava tried to settle back into her skin but found it difficult to stem her trembling now that it had begun.​ “You’re shaking,” he said, probably wondering why some girl had wandered into his suite only to stand quaking by the door like a deer in headlights.​ Ava did her best to snap out of it, jerking toward a nearby bar cart. “My apologies, Mr. Smith.”​ His eyebrows rose, “Have we met? How could you tell I’m Mr. Smith in a room this full?” His tone was playful enough, but Ava was beginning to sweat. “Lucky guess?” She forced a small laugh that sounded strained even to her ears. There were probably a million excuses Ava could have made for guessing who her high-paying client was, but her thoughts were too frenetic to fall neatly into place.Ava felt like she was doing a terrible job of not bringing attention to he

“Mail call!” Ava opened at her door to find Bella holding out a nondescript envelope with her name scrawled across it in neat script.​ A took the envelope and stepped aside, letting the madame into her room. She’d been in the middle of her daily workout. It had only been a week or two since she’d started her new routine, but Ava was already starting to see progress.Every couple of days, she found that she had the stamina to push herself a little farther, and the curvature of her bones were gradually being replaced by a lightly defined padding of muscle. A steady stream of calorie dense foods – curtesy of Bella – had done the trick of leveling her up from ‘gaunt’ to ‘thin’. The hallow frailty left by years of neglect were slowly but surely being wiped away, leaving Ava feeling amazing.She’d told herself not to think about it, but another reason Ava attributed to her good mood was the fact that she hadn’t seen Xavier in a while. Ever since she’d left him standing alone with his t

Jealousy. That’s what this all boiled down to. Money, status, power…you didn’t have to be making world-altering decisions to covet those things. Everyone from national leaders to catty cocktail waitresses wanted the same things, in their own ways. If you were privileged enough to not have bigger things to worry about, that is.​ She almost couldn’t blame the girl for her envy. Ava got it; she really did. There had been plenty of times in high school where she’d been on the receiving end of bitter girls who coveted her relationship with Xavier. Just like there had been just as many times when she’d quietly seethed whenever Xavier’s eye turned on a female that wasn’t her.​ This song and dance were as old as time, and maybe it made Ava as self-centered as Madison clearly thought, but Ava felt so wholly removed from such trivial pettiness, it was all she could do to keep from laughing in the irate girl’s face.​ This was kiddy bullshit, to be frank. Madison clearly had no idea w

Ava nodded warily at the strange Alpha who already seemed to know her. She was certain she would recall if she had ever met him, even if it were only in passing. The raw magnitude of his aura was the sort that you didn’t easily miss, much less forget.​ The male stood and strode to meet her. Ava wouldn’t call herself an expert in men’s fashion by any means, but the clothes he wore looked expensive. Like, custom fit by a tiny family-owned tailor in Milan, expensive. The cut of the suit fit him perfectly, and the fabric seemed to mold to the curvature of his muscles without any of the stiff bunching that a regular suit might cause.​ Ava had gotten to know plenty of males with money recently and compared to the rest of flashy high-rollers she’d seen, this male’s money didn’t roar – it whispered. She wasn’t quite sure what that meant to her, but like everything else about this mysterious male, it put her off-center. Equal parts anxious and excited.​ “It’s a pleasure to meet yo

“He gave you fifty thousand dollars to pretend to be his girlfriend?” Bella asked slowly.​ Ava shook her head, “He gave me fifty thousand dollars as a *deposit*,” She clarified. “I’ll be earning ten thousand a day after that.”​ The frown plastered across Bella’s face deepened, “For how long?”​ Ava bit her lip, “Unspecified.”​ “Ava,” Bella snapped.​ “I forgot to ask!” Ava threw up her hands, “I was…distracted. Should I not have accepted?”​ Bella shook her head and sat down heavily in her large, white wingback desk chair, “I should have been notified. I don’t like that I wasn’t.” She muttered, taking out a large black leather binder from one of her desk drawers. “What was his name?”​ “Noah Thomas.” Ava replied.​ Bella began flipping through the binder, scanning each page before closing it shut with a huff, “The name doesn’t ring a bell and he’s not listed in any of my records. I can’t find anyone named Thomas. Not among the families who could swing a ten