Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother

She spat the words at me like a dagger, and for the first time in my life, María José had managed to shock me speechless.

I blinked slowly. Staring at her through the barely open door.

This was new. This was very, very new. She had never spoken to me like that before.

Hell, I didn’t even think she could speak to me like that before.

And Dios mío, she looked furious. Her eyes burned, her scar stretched slightly as her lips curled in anger, and there was a fire in her expression that made something tight coil inside me.

I exhaled, the surprise turning into something else... something almost like admiration. My pretty flower was finally learning.

A slow smirk tugged at my lips. "Well, look at you," I mused, tilting my head. "You finally learned to speak for yourself."

María José’s eyes narrowed. I half-expected her to slap me through the tiny gap in the door. "I had a good teacher," she shot back.

That caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected her to admit it. I thought she’d shut me down completely.

Damn. Damn.

Where the hell had this María José been hiding?