Chapter 15 - Ava's POV
The room was colder than it had been a moment ago. The laughter between Isabella and me died instantly as I saw what was happening in front of me. My stomach twisted, and my feet felt frozen to the floor.
Liam and Elaine were having sex, right there in the bar Grayson probably used more than anyone else.
I couldn’t look away, though I desperately wanted to. They scrambled, rushing to pull their clothes on. My eyes flicked to the floor, my heart racing as the room filled with awkward tension. I could feel my cheeks burning as I stood there, watching them fumble with their clothes like two teenagers caught sneaking around. The embarrassment wasn’t mine to feel, but it clawed at me nonetheless.
Isabella, however, didn’t seem fazed at all. A slow, amused smile crept onto her face as she stepped forward, her eyes dancing with mischief.
“Well, isn’t this interesting?” she squealed, her voice light and teasing.
Liam, still buttoning his shirt, cleared his throat. He was trying to regain some semblance of control, but the moment was long gone. The way he straightened his back, attempting to seem unaffected, only made the scene more ridiculous. Elaine, on the other hand, wasn’t trying to hide her irritation. She glared at me as if I were the problem, the intruder. Which, technically, I was, but that wasn’t the point.
Her eyes narrowed, her lips pulling into a tight, angry line. She didn’t like me before, and now this? Now, I was sure she hated me.
The silence hung in the air, thick and suffocating, like the weight of what we’d just witnessed was sinking into the very floorboards.
Isabella broke the tension first, her voice slicing through the awkwardness. “Well, is anyone going to say something to ease the tension in here?”
That was enough to set Elaine off. Her lips curled into a sneer as she took a step toward us, her words dripping with venom. “Who the hell are you?”
She didn’t wait for an answer. Her gaze flicked to me, her eyes filled with disgust. “This is what happens when we let strays in. They bring in their kind.”
I blinked, caught off guard by the blatant insult. My heart thudded harder, not from fear but from the irritation that had been bubbling beneath the surface since the moment I stepped into this place. I hardly knew Liam, and I certainly didn’t care about Elaine or what her problem with me was. But this was a new low.
“Now, wait a minute,” Isabella started, but before she could finish, Liam finally spoke.
He cleared his throat, still avoiding my eyes. “I apologize that you had to see that, but Grayson must not find out about this.”
Isabella burst into laughter behind me. “Why would the Alpha king care if you’re banging some woman with serious attitude problems?”
Chapter 15 (continued)
Elaine didn’t even flinch at the insult. Her eyes gleamed as she tossed her hair over her shoulder, her voice dripping with superiority: “Because I’m his cousin, you disrespectful little twat.”
Isabella didn’t miss a beat. “So you agree you have attitude issues? Might I add an irritating voice to the mix?”
Elaine’s face flushed with rage. Before she could spit out whatever insult was perched on her tongue, I stepped forward, raising a hand between them. I had to put a stop to this before things got worse. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with the mess this could turn into.
“Okay, enough,” I said, looking directly at Liam. “We won’t say anything, I promise.”
Not that I cared in the first place. Everyone’s business was their own. I had bigger issues to worry about.
For a second, I thought that might be enough. That maybe we could just leave and pretend this never happened, but then Elaine stepped forward, her eyes burning with a fresh wave of anger.
“Who gave you permission to think you have the right to act all high and mighty?” she snapped. “You think you’re so important that your promise to keep your mouth shut actually matters? You’re nothing here. You’re insignificant. You’ll keep quiet because you’re nobody.”
That was it. I had been holding it in all day, swallowing down the irritation, the snide remarks, the stares. But now? Now, I was done. I couldn’t hold back anymore.
I turned to face her, my pulse pounding in my ears. “What the hell is your problem with me, Elaine?” I asked, my voice sharp and cutting. “I’ve been here for what, a day? And ever since I arrived, you’ve made it your personal mission to make me feel like crap. I don’t know you, and you sure as hell don’t know me. So whatever your issue is with me, you can shove it.”
Elaine’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting me to snap back. “Excuse me?”
“No, you don’t get to play the victim now,” I said, stepping closer; my voice steady despite the adrenaline rushing through me. “You’ve been treating me like trash since the moment we met. And for what? Because you think you’re better than me? Because you think I don’t belong here? Newsflash: I don’t care what you think. But what I won’t tolerate is you talking down to me like I’m beneath you.”
Elaine’s lips twitched, anger flashing in her eyes, but I wasn’t finished.
“So here’s what’s going to happen,” I continued, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re going to stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours. You can keep your attitude, your snarky comments, all of it. But if you ever talk to me like that again, I won’t hold back.”
Isabella let out a low whistle behind me, clearly impressed. Elaine’s eyes blazed with fury as she stepped forward, closing the space between us. Her nostrils flared, and for a moment, I thought she might actually try to hit me. But she stopped just short, her face so close I could feel her breath. Her voice was a low hiss. “You think you’re tough? You think you can waltz in here and speak to me like that?”
I stood my ground, refusing to flinch under her glare. I wasn’t going to let her intimidate me. Not now. Not ever.
“I’m not here to be tough,” I replied, my voice cold and steady. “I’m here to survive. But if you want to push me, Elaine, I’m not afraid to push back.”
Her lips curled into a sneer, and she opened her mouth to spit something else out, but Liam, who had been silent up to this point, finally intervened.
“Enough,” he said, his voice firm but not loud. He placed a hand on Elaine’s arm, pulling her back a step. “This isn’t helping anyone. Ava, we’re done here. You and your friend should leave.”
Elaine ripped her arm out of his grasp, still glaring at me as if she wanted to burn a hole through my head. “She’s nothing. She shouldn’t even be here,” she muttered, but Liam shot her a sharp look.
Chapter 13 (Snippet - seemingly out of order)
“That’s enough,” his voice dropped lower, a tone of finality in it.
“I was done talking to her anyway,” Elaine crossed her arms with a mocking tone. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, and I could feel my hands starting to shake, not from fear, but from the adrenaline still coursing through my veins. I wasn’t going to let her get the last word.
“You don’t get to decide who belongs here, and just because you have some title or connection doesn’t mean you can treat people like they’re beneath you. You’re not better than anyone. Least of all me.”
Elaine’s mouth twisted in anger, but before she could respond, Isabella clapped her hands together, breaking the suffocating silence that had filled the room.
“Well, this has been fun,” Isabella said brightly, clearly amused by the entire situation. “But we are going to grab a couple of bottles from Grayson’s bar and then leave.”
Liam’s jaw tightened at the way she mentioned his name, and Elaine’s eyes flicked to him, a trace of panic crossing her face. I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell their deal was. Why was she so afraid of him finding out about this? Was it really just because they were cousins? Or was there something deeper, something they were hiding?
“Let’s go,” I said to Isabella, turning toward the door.
Isabella winked at Elaine, throwing her a smug grin. “Try not to let your voice get any more irritating, yeah?” She turned to me, the pride in her eyes unmistakable. “Now, where’s that alcohol we were after?”
Just as the words left her mouth, the atmosphere shifted. A chill ran down my spine, the air around us growing unnervingly still. I didn’t know how or why, but somehow, I felt him before I even heard his voice.
“What is going on here?”
The cold, commanding voice sliced through the tension like a knife. I turned to face the doorway, my breath catching in my throat. Grayson stood there, his figure dominating the space, every inch of him radiating power. His icy gaze was locked on me, the intensity of it freezing me in place.
Before I could even think of how, Isabella spoke up—completely unbothered by his presence. Her next words shattered the fragile silence and sent the room into absolute chaos.
“Oh, nothing much. Liam and I just walked in on them… fucking.”
This cleaned-up version corrects grammatical errors, improves punctuation, and enhances the flow of the narrative. Note that there are still some stylistic choices that could be further refined depending on the desired tone and voice of the story. The apparent chapter number inconsistency also remains.