"I love you, Alex."

Alex blinked as the words hung in the air around them. Gabriel's eyes widened as if he too was surprised at what he'd said. Then, without waiting for a response, he looked around the toilet and sighed. "We should get out of here before someone comes knocking."

"Yes please, I can't handle any more embarrassment today," she agreed, grateful that he wasn't pushing her for a response. Did he really love her or was that just a slip of the tongue? Deciding she needed to get out of the bathroom before she thought any more on it, Alex leaned down to pick up her fallen bag.

Gabriel's expression when she stood back up was worrying, "What is it?"

He rubbed his neck, "Well... it's only fair to tell you that some of the werewolves at the party have really good hearing."

"Oh, God!" Covering her face with her hands, Alex tried not to imagine what they might have heard.

"It's alright, baby," Gabriel laughed taking her hands into his own. "The werewolf community is not as prudish as the human. Plus, I'm Alpha here and you are my woman. No one will dare to say anything."

She looked at him aghast, "But they will think it!"

Gabriel pulled her into his arms, his voice laced with amusement, "I know you're not pleased, but hell, Alex, I'm just so bloody satisfied right now it's hard to dredge up any regret."

She hit him half heartedly then buried her face into his chest and drew in his scent. The entire situation was horribly embarrassing, but she couldn't help but feel pleased at how happy he sounded. "You might not care, but I'm not going back in there."

"If I didn't have to go back, I wouldn't." She could hear the frown in Gabriel's voice as he leaned his chin on her head. "Alright, I won't push."

He sounded so dejected, she could feel herself cave. "Ah fine, I'll come, but you go in first." Alex stepped back, reaching up to straighten his tie. "Everyone stares when you walk into a room."

"And you think they won't look when you come in on your own?" Gabriel's brows rose, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. "You really have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?"

Damn it, there was that embarrassment again. Was she not going to be able to stop blushing this evening? "Just go, will you?" She pushed him towards the door.

"Alright, alright," Gabriel was laughing at her again, then he opened the door, looked out, and kissed her one last time. "Don't be too long!"

Left alone in the bathroom, Alex turned back to the sink and looked into the mirror. Her lips were pink and slightly swollen, her hair was a mess and there was a look in her eyes that was at once gentle and excited. Was this the way a woman in love looked?

Shit. shit. shit. This feeling in her chest, the one that made her insides feel like they were being squeezed one moment and were ready to explode the next... this feeling of needing to see Gabriel to feel at ease... was this was love?

"Stay calm," she told herself then felt utterly ridiculous. She was embarassed and happy and , for the first time in a long time, she felt hopeful.

Fixing her hair and tugging her clothes back into place , she opened the bathroom door and stepped outside.

"It's about time." Marianne stood a few feet away, one thin eyebrow arched in amusement. "I was beginning to think you were going to hide in there forever."

After what happened the last time they saw each other, Gabriel's ex-fiancee had disappeared leading Alex to believe that she had been driven away. And yet it seemed Marianne had been invited to the cocktail.

Alex kept her expression neutral, remembering what Gabriel had told her. Anyone who was involved with the night Marianne attacked her had to believe the forgetting serum worked on Alex. "Do I know you?"

"Aww, no, you wouldn't know me, not anymore," Marianne's laughter was irritatingly shrill, "But I know you, and since you're one of Gabriel's playthings, I figured I'd ask you for a favour."

Plaything? Alex clenched her fists and tried not to let her annoyance show. "Could you move aside, I need to get back to the party."

"Hah!" Marianne laughed as if that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "Listen love, you seem to think you're something special, but I'll help enlighten you. Gabriel Moncrief is my fiancee. True he's fucking you, he's fucking that dumb bitch Katya too, so what? None of it means anything to him, because he's having a baby with me."

Katya. Baby? Alex tried to catch up with what nonsense the woman was spewing, but nothing made sense. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, wake up. Gabriel and I are having a baby and you're an eyesore," Marianne sneered.

It was like a case of deja-vous. Lauren had convinced her to leave her brother's life for a baby and now Marianne... "I don't believe you." Alex stepped to the side, intent on walking on, but the model grabbed her hand and put it on her stomach. The pain was instantaneous. Her feet, her head, her stomach everything hurt all of a sudden and then that strange sensation: like her blood was being drawn from her veins, like her stomach muscles were slowly coming apart and her breasts were heavy and sore. The feelings kept flowing into her, strange sensations that entered around a heaviness in her uterus, sensations that could only mean one thing.

Marianne was pregnant.

"Gabriel's baby is in here," Marianne leaned close, whispering in her ear. Then she stepped back, her face taking on a smile of pure innocence as she pulled something out of her bag. "Anyway, you can do me a favour right? Gabriel left these on my bedside table, they're his favourites so I brought them with me. You can give them to him right? I need to leave a little early."

Alex couldn't move as Marianne placed a pair of cufflinks in her listless hand, then smiled prettily. "I'll see you later, kitchen lady."

As the model walked away, Alex looked down into her palm, recognising the diamond wolf head cufflinks as the ones Gabriel had been wearing that day in his office.

The hope that had sparked inside of her only minutes ago was put out. I love you. She knew some people said those words without any thought, without meaning, but Alex had believed them regardless. She had believed them, because she had wanted to believe them.

Fool.

She was a damned fool.

Letting the wolves fall from her hands, Alex walked past the security guards and out into the night. The cold hit her bare shoulders and legs, but she did not feel it. The pain from contact with Marianne was still fading, but even that seemed a long distance away. She walked aimlessly, she didn't know for how long, when a shadow appeared from behind her and something sharp hit her head, painting the world black.