My Convicted Wife is My Mate (Bella and Kane) novel Chapter 31

chapter 26-2
“Oh?” he cut in. “What can you do to me?”

The air around him seemed to thicken, and even I felt a shiver down my spine. His dominance wasn’t visible but it was there.

“Okay! Time to go,” I said.

I quickly grabbed his arm before he lost his patience.

We walked out of the store, leaving them behind. I didn’t look back.

Outside, the night air was cooler, quieter. I finally breathed.

“I wasn’t mean to them in high school or anything,” I said softly, glancing at him. “In case you’re wondering.”

“I didn’t think you were,” he replied simply.

“I could excuse it if I had been,” I said with a small, sad smile. “If I’d been a bully, or rude to them, maybe I’d deserve it now. But I wasn’t. I was just… shy. The only wolf in school. Always focused on my grades. My grandfather expected perfection, so I never really had friends. Maybe that made me look cold.”

He scoffed. “Don’t make excuses for people, Bella. People’s actions speak for themselves.”

I nodded slowly, letting his words sink in. “Okay.”

We cut through the parking lot. Kane walked beside me in silence. Despite everything that happened, I felt strangely… safe.

And though he didn’t say it aloud, the way his hand brushed mine - briefly, accidentally - was enough to remind me I wasn’t completely alone anymore.

NINA’S POV

Wow. Jane hadn’t been joking. That man had been some loser. Dating an ex-con and wearing a cheap set of clothes like that? Seriously?

I tilted my sunglasses down and sneered.

“Look at him,” I said, shifting my shopping bags to my left hand. “That bitch Bella really downgraded. From Alpha heir Damien to that?”

Jane chuckled softly. She was pretending not to enjoy it as much as I did. “You’re terrible, Nina.”

“Oh, come on,” I smirked, “someone had to say the truth.” I grabbed my phone from my purse. “Hey, there they are!” I whispered, spotting Bella and that tall guy leaving the phone store. They looked like a sad couple walking out together. “It’s about time Bella got what she deserved.”

I angled my camera and snapped a photo of them.

“Perfect,” I murmured, zooming in. “I cannot wait to post this online. Let everyone see what she’s been up to.”

I opened my social app, ready to upload, but before I could hit “post,” my phone buzzed with a new text message.

I looked at it and froze.

Bank alert: +$85,000 credited to your account.

“What the hell…” I muttered. That wasn’t possible. I hadn’t sold anything.

Before I could make sense of it, a tall man in a black suit approached me from nowhere. He was polite, too polite,

“Are you Miss Nina?” he asked.

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