Sentenced to The Ruthless Alpha

Chapter 23: The Fire She Left Behind

Roman POV

After his short but sensual kiss with Thora, Roman felt more than a tingle at his fingertips. He felt the ghost of her mouth for hours afterward. Though the kiss had been brief, it lasted a few seconds longer than the one at their wedding, and even the memory of it made his heart flutter.

For Axel's sake, he'd stepped out of character to initiate contact with the human. His body had savored every second of it: the moment his arms strapped her to his chest, the way she wriggled against him, the way their lips met and their tongues twined.

Her walls had cracked for a moment. Her eyes had wanted him as much as her body did. Even when her palms pressed weakly against his chest as a token of defense, they hadn't stopped her from leaning closer, until Devlin interrupted.

Afterwards, Axel had clawed at him from the inside, restless with energy. He wanted to howl across long distances and watch his breath frost the night air. He wanted to leap over rugged terrain and test his claws against bark and steel.

Roman felt it too, a fire building in his chest, a strength neither of them could usually summon without the scent of danger or dread driving them. Like Axel, he wanted to burn off the current Thora had sent crackling through their core.

"Alpha, are you listening?" Dax's voice cut through the haze.

Roman blinked and lurched to his feet. Sweat had gathered along his hairline and slid down his neck. They were in his study to finalize the Culling budget, and somewhere in the middle of it, he'd zoned out.

Dax, Regan, and two gammas sat around the table, cross-referencing old records of past Culling ceremonies and murmuring notes to each other. Staring, Roman remembered he'd called the meeting on a whim, just to kill time after giving up his room to Thora.

"Roman?" Regan's voice dropped low. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." He replied, working a finger under his collar and forcing a smile.

"You blanked out on us, alpha."

Roman slid a look toward Neyo, one of the sharpest gammas in the pack. "I'm just…" His eyes caught the moon through the window. "A little out of sorts, I guess. It’ll be a full moon tomorrow, and I haven't been allowed to shift as often as I should." He wiped his forehead. "My wolf's restless."

The wary looks around the table melted into something softer.

"We're sorry to hear that, alpha," Curtis said, leaning forward, a glint sharpening his eyes. "Though I'd wager things improve for you soon, especially after tonight. The pack responded well to the blame you laid on the elders for your sentence. Next time something goes wrong with the human at the center of it, they may be baying for your divorce themselves."

Roman gave a brisk nod. It struck something in him that his words had landed hard enough to draw sympathy even from gammas: men who usually wore their faces like a brick wall. But mostly, he just wanted the meeting to end.

"Apologies for pulling you all from your rooms for something that could've waited. Let's call it a night."

They rose in unison, relief written plainly across their faces, and filed out with murmured goodnights, all except Regan. Once the door shut, Regan studied his brother in silence.

"Her scent's all over you," he said softly, watching Roman hesitate —for the first time ever — to deny it.

Roman squared his shoulders. "Of course it is. She's in my room. No one else would take her in after tonight." He busied his hands with the papers on his desk. "I'll sort out other arrangements for her by dawn."

"It's not just her scent, Roman. Your heart's been hammering since I walked in." Regan rose to his feet. "Tell me, is your wolf's restlessness because of her?" His eyes held steady. "The rumor…"

"Stop indulging your imagination, Regan. It's not that deep." Roman exhaled and straightened, forcing calm into his voice. "It’s the full moon. You know how my wolf gets. Add that to everything piling on me lately. My emotions have been heightened for some time. I nearly lost my temper with the human too." The lie came smoothly.

Regan pressed his lips into a thin line, his eyes lingering.

“I can’t be more frustrated at the high council than I already am. So, the human gets the brunt of it. I might have said and done things I shouldn’t have.”

He was counting on Regan reading nothing deeper into it than an alpha being cruel to his human Luna. Even Matilda would struggle to believe he was capable of tenderness toward a human.

Regan didn't disappoint. He set a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm sorry you're carrying all this. Must be exhausting, doing it alone."

"That's the job description, I suppose."

"I was going to back Thora's defense tonight, but I figured you'd want me to stay out of it. I’m glad you shut down Rhea’s lies before I had to."

Roman accepted the hug his brother offered, though something twisted low in his gut. He couldn’t shake off the suspicion that his brother was gladder still that Thora was defended.

He watched Regan leave, then let his eyes drift back to the moon glowing beyond the glass, wondering if he could really blame the moon for the jealousy curdling in his stomach over another man's sympathy for his human Luna.

***

The Valcourt pack luckily didn’t skimp on land mass. Their territory stretched on for miles. It was the largest in the region, and a major reason why the other neighboring packs respected them.

He started with an easy sprint, then let his stride lengthen as energy surged up through his legs. He'd never moved this fast on two feet. Every sound in the forest reached him sharp and close; the pulse of rodents burrowing underfoot, the whistle of wind through pine needles. Roman cleared boulders in single strides, sailed over a shallow gorge without breaking pace, and within minutes, he proudly stood atop a cliff overlooking the Valcourt mansion, his chest heaving.

Excitement sparked through his bones. “Axel, we did that in under twenty minutes. Imagine the ground we'd cover if we shifted.” He pressed a hand to his stomach and laughed, breathless and half in disbelief.

“I don't even feel winded.” Axel replied gleefully. “It’s like we haven't started.”

“That's incredible.”

Roman let himself admit it now. If a few stolen minutes with the human could do this to him and his wolf, then she had to be more than just a sentence handed down by the council.

He thought of the pack doctor's warning though. Yet, it didn't leave the usual cold residue in his gut. All he could think was that whatever ran through her blood might be exactly the cure he'd been waiting for.

Just then, a wrong scent hit him; foreign and very close. Roman’s head snapped toward a shadowed thicket. He was standing near a border known for having rogue wolves. His vision bled red at the edges as he counted four heat signatures, maybe more, fanned out in a loose crescent. It was clearly an ambush.

There was no time to shift, no time to howl a warning to his betas patrolling the main line. His hand closed around his wedding ring and wrenched it free a half-second before a jet-black wolf exploded from the brush, jaws snapping for his throat.

He twisted hard, felt claws rake past his collarbone close enough to draw blood. Quickly, he broke into a dead run as his shift tore through him mid-stride: bones cracking and resetting in the space of a breath. Axel surged forward and let loose a howl that split the night open.

A paw the size of a dinner plate caught the nearest wolf broadside and sent it crashing through a bush in a spray of splintered branches; it staggered up, yelped, and bolted. Roman pinned the last attacker beneath him, claws sinking just past the skin of its throat, holding the wolf trembling and pinned until his patrol arrived at a dead sprint.

Fully shifted back to skin, Roman looked down at the wolf beneath his boot. It was exactly as he'd suspected; a rogue, almost certainly a pawn sent by his greatest rival, Alpha Kade. He gave a short grunt, and his men hauled the prisoner away.

"Alpha, are you hurt?" one of the patrol betas asked, eyes scanning him for damage.

Roman ran his fingers over the shallow gashes on his arm. "No, I’m fine. It was nothing serious."

The beta's gaze swept the trampled clearing. "I know your reputation precedes you, but taking down four rogue wolves alone with barely a scratch? That's something else, alpha."

Pride swelled hot in Roman’s chest at the compliment. Axel leapt in delight too.

"Word will travel fast.” The beta continued. “It should give the other alphas something to chew on, especially with the Culling happening soon." The beta patted him on the shoulder before leaving to join his men to secure the rogue infested border.

Alone, Roman exhaled slowly. Surviving the night was a blessing wrapped around a curse. Sure, the story would go a long way toward burying the half-blood rumors circling his pack. But the thought of rival alphas watching him even more closely, and weighing him as a formidable competition for the strongest-alpha-king title during the Culling ceremony, sent a cold ripple down his spine.

Axel assured him they could win. With Thora's help, they'd survive whatever came. Roman believed it now more than he had in weeks prior. What worried him wasn't the Culling anymore. It was how he was going to mark her, and how far he had to go to maximize whatever ran through her veins to save himself.

***

He barely got a wink of sleep in the forest and didn't return to the mansion until well past noon. Dax and a handful of warriors met him at the tree line, pride evident in the way they straightened at the sight of him. Roman mirrored their smiles, feeling — for once — like a man his people were proud to call alpha. Dax fell into step beside him, delivering his report as they crossed toward the back gate.

"We confirmed the prisoner's one of alpha Kade's pawns. He's being questioned right now about the ambush."

They passed the omega wing, heads bowing in greeting to the alpha. Roman noticed something had shifted in the way people looked at him. For the first time in a long while, he felt the full weight of his pack's pride, and it fit him like armor.

"The high council received a petition this morning," Dax added.

Roman halted abruptly. "What petition?"

Dax's mouth curved in a grin. "The pack wants your divorce from the human. They're rejecting your sentence, and demanding a retraction within twenty-four hours, or they're threatening open rebellion against the council."

The shocking news hit Roman like a physical wall.

Dax gave his shoulder a hearty pat. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted? The human will be gone soon. Our pack will be whole again, and we will win the Culling without the stench of her scent polluting our ground."

Roman said nothing. He couldn't. Every worry he'd carried through the forest all night collapsed under the weight of a single, unbearable truth: the moment their divorce was finalized, Thora wouldn't survive the pack's rage.

He thought of them circling her like the wolves that had circled him hours ago, jostling for a chance to rip her to shreds, But her death would mean the death of his fated mate. He shuddered thinking what that would do to his wolf.

How was he going to protect her and himself?