The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 61: Chapter 61

MADELINE
When I stirred awake and felt the light hit my face, I patted the side of the bed, thinking I’d feel a hard chest or a bicep, but instead I fisted the sheet and touched the scrunched pillow.
I looked to the side of the bed where Noah had fallen asleep and patted my hand over the warm sheet. He couldn’t have left too long ago, but why would he leave at all?
Maybe he didn’t want anyone to see him, or maybe there was business he had to take care of. Whatever the reason was, I felt shitty. I wish he had stayed. And then, just like that, as if it was the first thing I wanted to think about, I remembered Olivia, and I sank into the mattress when the weight of my actions crushed down on me.
I just fucked another girl’s man.
The parade of bad decisions wasn’t over, it seems.
The clock rang at precisely six thirty and I groaned when I turned over to make the damn thing shut up. My mother bought it for me, and she couldn’t have found a more complicated piece of machinery. To turn it off, you had to manually remove a lid and push under a hatch on the back of the clock. She said it was to make sure I got up on time and didn’t lie in bed all day. One thing she didn’t want was Jack thinking that her daughter was lazy.
If you’re wondering why I hadn’t crushed it yet, the answer is that I already did, but that same night when I went to bed I saw a new one in the same place and a warning from my mother: If you break this one, I will have an Omega wake you up in the morning instead, and I’d like to see you try and crush her.
Oh, the Omega wasn’t the one I wanted to crush, but instead of putting up a fight, I decided to swallow the annoyance and just go with it.
By the time I turned it off, the time showed 6:01, but what caught my eye was the date in the top left corner.
“It’s my birthday!” I squealed and jumped out of bed. For the first time in my life, I skipped, I embarrassingly and unapologetically skipped around the room like a little girl with pure joy filling my body and erupting in cheers that I couldn’t control. The only thing I was missing was two pigtails that could propel me into the ceiling.
Holy shit, it’s my birthday! Which means that I finally get to meet my wolf.
Oh my god… It’s happening today.
I threw on a long-sleeved dress for the occasion, it was yellow and flowy, and I hated it with a passion so it felt like a good ‘first shift’ option since it’ll be ripped to shreds within a few hours.
Once I was dressed and had thrown my hair in a ponytail, I threw the door open to run downstairs, but instead I saw Noah, startled and saving the tray in his hands from tipping the glasses and the food.
“Hey there, speedster,” he said once he stood firm again and the candle on the cake was still lit.
What was this? Had he done all of this?
There was coffee and juice, paninis and a piece of cake with a singular candle that flickered tamely.
“What—” he pushed past me with a soft smile, and his cheeks were a beautiful red. Was he nervous?
So many questions that did no good staying in my head, but I couldn’t for the life of me will them to come out in words that he could hear.
Instead, I just stood there and stared at him. His hair was ruffled from sleep, and his eyes still groggy, but there was a cheeky smile on his face I hadn’t seen before. It tugged little by little when he made the bed and put the tray down. Noah raked his fingers through his hair, and I drooled when he stretched his arms to rearrange the glasses and the plates. His biceps moved as he leaned down, the cups looked like playthings in his hands, and his ring clinked against the ceramic plates when he put them in the right order.
What the fuck was happening?
Once he was done, and felt satisfied with the result, he turned around and massaged the back of his neck. My eyes fell to his V disappearing under his sweatpants and the part of his abs that I saw pulled me back to last night when his body moved against mine. Every muscle rippled and pearls of sweat formed on his chiseled chest. Like hills on a mountain, he was carved by a perfectionist who refused to make a single mistake.
Noah walked over to me when he noticed that I didn’t move. I felt his fingers under my chin, closing my gaping mouth, and the blood rushed to my face when his soft gaze wandered down my dress.
“It looks like a unicorn vomited on you.”
The laugh he provoked was the only sound I’d made since he stepped inside.
“Mmh, you’re not wrong.” Why was I suddenly nervous? Something weird was happening in my stomach, it felt like something was moving around in there when I looked at him so I looked away and ignored his presence.
“Uhm, what is this?” I asked and gestured to the bed.
“This is your birthday breakfast,” he said without turning around. I felt it, his gaze warming my skin, his eyes on my face, and he never moved them.
“A birthday breakfast?” I said and looked in awe at the spread. Our shoulders brushed together when I moved around him and walked to the bed.
Don’t cry, Maddie, don’t you fucking cry.
“You did all of this?” I asked under my breath.
Noah came up behind me, his hands remained at his sides, but I felt his heat radiating against me, igniting my skin and sending my nerves into a frenzy.
“I did, though the paninis might taste like shit. Logan’s usually the one who whips that up, but I thought I’d give it a try.”
The paninis smelled divine. Not at all like shit.
I’m sure the taste was just as good.
Fuck, I could feel the tears pushing up against my eyes, wanting to be released, so I bit down on my tongue until the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
“You don’t like it?” The chilly breeze that crept up my back when he took a step back made me choke on the sob and force it down faster than I could, and my words slipped out in whispers.
“I love it, Noah.” I wish I could turn around and hug him… but I couldn’t. Not without breaking down completely.
“If that's the case, then what’s wrong?”