The Alpha's Substitute Bride

Chapter 6

~HUNTER~

I was pissed and not for the reason I thought I would be. Sheila had some nerve coming up in here and speaking like that in front of Isabella. I wasn't the one to invite her to this dinner party, which alone was highly suspicious. Did she hear about it and come here to stir up trouble on her own? Whatever reason, I didn't appreciate her harsh words and her indirect insult to my wife. I hated the way her face fell the moment Sheila had mentioned Maggie and our past. She made it sound like Isabella had no chance; she made it sound like Isabella wasn't just as beautiful as Maggie was . . .

That thought worried me. I'd never referred to another woman as beautiful as Maggie before. No one ever compared to her beauty and I didn't think anyone ever would in this lifetime. But as faith would have it, things changed when you least expected it to. Isabella came into my life like a storm, one that I wasn't prepared for, a storm that I was still trying to control.

But just like nature, one couldn't possibly control a storm. Just like Isabella was proving that I couldn't control her.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to stay calm. Sheila was still Maggie's aunt, someone she loved and cared about. I didn't want to disrespect her in my house. But I also couldn't just allow her to disrespect Isabella either.

I saw her getting ready to leave and took two strides towards her. "We need to talk."

Her eyes stayed calm as she wrapped her coat around her body. "What do you want to talk about?"

Stay calm. I needed that reminder every time I thought about the look on Isabella's face the moment she'd mentioned Maggie.

"You can't say the things that you said in front of Isabella ever again. I don't want you disrespecting her in her own home."

Sheila looked offended by my words but more than that, she seemed genuinely surprised by my outburst.

"The last I checked, Maggie has always been your main concern . . . even after her death. I was just praising my dead niece. How was I in the wrong?" She demanded from me.

"You can praise her without being disrespectful to Isabella." I growled. My patience was on a thin line and I was trying not to cause a scene in front of the other guests but that was becoming extremely difficult to do.

“I’m sorry but if I want to praise my dead niece, that’s for me to do. No one will stop me from doing that. Not even you Hunter.”

My jaw clenched. “Do as you please as long as you never step foot in my house again.”

Her eyes widened and she clutched her chest. “What did you just say to me?”

“Come on man.” Bruce said, interrupting us. “How about we take a walk, you look like you need some rest.”

I pushed away his hold on my shoulder, still extremely pissed. “See her out Bruce, I’m heading back to my room. You may not see me for the rest of the night.”

I loosened my tie and rushed up the stairs, I had to get away from Sheila before I lost my damn mind. I had too much to think about right now. I couldn't understand how the fact that Sheila had spoken about Maggie wasn't what had bothered me, instead it was her disrespect to Isabella that completely got to me.

Sheila was right, I've always centered my life around Maggie. 

What had changed now?

. . . . . . . . . 

~ISABELLA~

I was exhausted. As it turns out, Hunter's friends were the kinds that stayed up late and partied all night. For some reason, Hunter felt the need to introduce me to every single person. He didn't leave anyone out.

After Maggie's aunt had made a big scene, the rest of the night was completely awkward for me. But certain things didn't sit right with me. There was something that everyone was keeping from me about Hunter's first wife. At first I thought that they were afraid to speak about her when Hunter was around but that didn't seem like the case.

When I did find someone willing to talk about her, someone that went by the name of Ariel, the woman said things that I didn't expect her to say. She explained that on the day of Maggie's death, she'd been acting very weird for the entire day. It was like she knew that she would die. The woman claimed that Maggie was looking forward to it, she looked happy that day; in fact a lot more than she usually did when she was with Hunter.

I didn't know whether or not I could trust her however. But if any of that was true, then why on earth would she be happy about dying? If that was me, I wouldn't want to leave Hunter's side. If I knew that I would die and leave him behind, I would completely lose it. I wouldn't be happy about something like that.

I remembered the way her aunt had looked at me before she left. I'd never had someone look at me with so much hatred before, not even from Hunter's so called mistress.

Despite all of these things, there was something in me that itched me to find out more. I felt like I was in the dark from a lot of things and desperately wanted to find out what they were. But at the same time, the more I found out about Hunter's past, the more I wished that he would give me the same chance he gave to Maggie.

I felt my thoughts leave my body the moment Hunter entered the room. He wasn't looking at me but I couldn't look away from him. I didn't know why he'd stopped Maggie's aunt from talking today. I found it hard to believe that it was because of me, it made more sense that he didn't want to hear about Maggie with fear of remembering their times together.

He looked a lot more tensed now than he'd done earlier today and that was saying something. I'd done a good job at frustrating him before but this one wasn't my doing.

Without warning he started unbuttoning his shirt, acting like I wasn't in the room with him. I wanted to say something but my gaze got stuck and so did my ability to speak. I felt a sharp need strike my body and I had to press my legs together to fight it. To my surprise, Hunter's shoulders tensed more than before. It was almost as though he could sense my need for him from all the way over there.

But to my surprise he continued ripping his shirt of his body and dropping it onto the floor. I held my breath as he grabbed a towel from the rack and stepped into the bathroom. I tried to calm my racing heart as well as my raging hormones while I heard the shower start. Images of the water falling onto his short black hair and running down his steamy chest popped into my head.

I buried my face against the pillow and bit my lips frustratingly. I couldn't remember ever being this way but for some reason Hunter had the ability to make my body switch from calm to full on heated in a split second. 

I lifted my head as I heard the door open and held my breath when he stepped out with a towel wrapped around his waist, dripping wet from head to toe.

He finally lifted his gaze and looked straight ahead. I gulped as our gazes locked. His eyes scanned my body from head to toe and the look of confusion and pain called out to me. It felt like he was touching me without actually putting his hand on my body. I gripped the sheets under me and held on for my dear life.

There was this tic in his sharp jaw and it did nothing to calm my nerves.

And then he started to move, making his way towards me. My heart sped up with each step that he took closer to me.

Oh God, what was he planning to do?