The Confused Alpha
1512 Words
Ariella’s POV
He didn’t let go of my chin. If anything, his grip only grew tighter, his thumb dragging slowly across my jaw like he was memorizing the bone structure he planned to claim.
“Tell me, princess…” his voice dropped, thunder wrapped in silk, “who hurt what’s mine, and I’ll tear their limbs off while they’re still screaming.”
Is he slow? Can’t he see his Barbie doll of a fiancee behind him?
The air thickened. The murmurs around us died. Even the wind went silent…as if the entire pack was suddenly afraid to breathe.
Then he bent lower… closer… eyes locked on my mouth like he was about to taste the answer right off my lips. Like the world had narrowed to his hunger and my ruined body.
Too close.
Too dangerous.
Too much.
My body moved before my mind could catch up.
CRACK.
My palm met his cheek so hard the sound echoed against the stone walls.
Gasps exploded around us…sharp, horrified, frozen.
His head turned with the force. Slowly. Deliberately. Like a predator adjusting, not staggered.
Sophia’s face drained of color first, then flushed into murderous red. She looked like she wanted to skin me alive right there.
And the Alpha?
He didn’t look shocked.
In fact, he looked amused… then something far worse masked his expression.
His eyes slid back to mine…dark, dangerous, alight with a kind of interest that felt like a death sentence.
For one heartbeat, no one breathed.
Then Sophia rushed forward, her voice shrill, panicked, desperate to save face.
“Oh my Goddess…Alpha, I am so sorry!” she cried, clutching at her chest like she’d been stabbed. “She’s vile, she doesn’t know her place…she needs to be taught a lesson, I swear she’ll be punished…”
People stared. Some in horror. Some in pity, probably thinking I would die before morning.
But the Alpha didn’t look any but furious.
He looked genuinely amused. Darkly. Like the slap had only made things more interesting.
Before Sophia could finish her performance, he moved.
He grabbed me…no warning, no hesitation…and hauled me up like I weighed nothing, slinging me over his shoulder. The world flipped. My ribs screamed. His arm locked around the back of my thighs like iron.
Sophia gasped. “Alpha Rion…wait…what are you doing?!”
He didn’t answer. He started walking.
She scrambled in front of him, blocking his path, still trying to salvage her perfect little scene.
“Rion, please! She’s filthy, she’s disrespectful…let me deal with her…!”
He didn’t even slow down.
He shoved her hard.
Sophia hit the ground, palms scratching against stone, her stunned expression twisting into something murderous as the crowd gasped around her.
No one dared move. No one dared speak.
Except him.
His voice was low, calm, almost bored.
“Move.”
And with that, he kept walking, carrying me deeper into the pack territory like I was already claimed. Already owned. Already his problem… or his possession.
My heart pounded. Rage mixed with pain and exhaustion. The entire pack watched like they were witnessing the beginning of a war they hadn’t prepared for.
Over his shoulder, I saw Sophia’s face…broken pride, rage like wildfire.
I swallowed hard.
Shit. What has this so-called Alpha done? Now, I'll have to receive that brat's punishment for a whole week!
I twisted against his shoulder, my fists pounding uselessly on his broad back as the world bobbed upside down with each of his long strides.
Pain shot through my ribs like fire, but I didn’t care…I needed him to put me down, needed away from this beast of a man who carried me like a sack of conquered territory.
My legs kicked wildly, heels digging into his chest, but it was like fighting a mountain. His arm only clamped tighter around my thighs, his fingers pressing into my skin with a heat that burned through my thin dress. Silent screams built in my throat, but nothing came out. Nothing ever did.
He didn’t say a word. Just kept walking, his boots echoing through the pack house corridors like thunder rolling in. Doors blurred past, servants scattering like leaves in a storm, their eyes wide but mouths sealed shut. No one would help. No one dared challenge their Alpha.
A heavy door creaked open, and we were inside…a room that screamed power. Dark wood walls, a massive bed draped in furs, the scent of pine and musk thick in the air. He kicked the door shut behind us, the lock clicking with finality that made my stomach drop. Alone. Trapped.
Before I could process, he swung me off his shoulder and tossed me onto the bed. I bounced once, gasping silently as pain flared through my bruises, the soft mattress swallowing me whole. I scrambled back, heart hammering, but he was already there…towering over me like a shadow. His eyes, those storm-gray depths, raked over me with an intensity that stole my breath.
One second, he was standing there, chest heaving slightly from the walk…or maybe from something else. The next, his hands were on me, fast as a predator’s strike.
Fabric tore with a sharp rip…my underwear shredded in his grip like it was nothing. Cool air hit my skin, leaving me bare, exposed under his gaze.
I froze for a heartbeat, then surged into action, hands flying up to cover myself, legs kicking out to push him away. Stop! I signed frantically, fingers slashing through the air in desperate pleas.
‘Please, stop!’
But he didn’t. His eyes devoured me, tracing every inch…from the curve of my hips to the swell of my breasts, lingering on the red welts and the bruises blooming purple across my ribs, my thighs, my arms. Like he was mapping a battlefield, memorizing every scar, every mark of violence etched into my flesh.
Heat flooded my cheeks, my body betraying me with a flush I couldn’t control. Why was he looking at me like that? Like I was something precious and broken all at once?
His hand reached out, slow now, almost reverent. Fingers that looked ruthless, but turned out to be impossibly gentle as they brushed my collarbone, tracing the edge of a bruise that wrapped around my side.
A shiver ripped down my spine, unwanted, electric, pooling low in my belly. I clenched my teeth, hating the way my skin prickled under his touch, how my breath hitched despite the fear. He was drawn to me…like a magnet, his other hand joining the first, skimming over my waist, feather-light over the worst of the marks.
His thumb circled a particularly dark purple bloom on my hip, pressing just enough to make me arch involuntarily, a silent gasp trapped in my throat.
“Who did this to you?” His voice cracked the silence, raw and broken, like the words were torn from somewhere deep inside him. It wasn’t the thunderous command from before…this was shattered, vulnerable, laced with a fury that made the air hum.
Why is he acting this way? Touching me like I’m his to heal, to claim? Hold on… did he think I was Sophia for some reason? The way he’d shoved her aside, the confusion in the courtyard…it didn’t make sense.
What if he’s just stupid? I mean…I don’t look like a beta’s daughter, so what is going on? What is he doing? Why am I naked in the bed of Sophia’s fiance, for moon’s sake?!
I shook my head violently, palms slamming into his chest as he leaned in closer, his breath hot against my neck. The scent of him…wild forest and raw power…enveloped me, making my head spin.
Does he think that I'm his mate or something?
‘Leave me alone!’ I signed again, hands trembling but insistent, shoving at him with all the strength I had left.
Only then did he pause. His gaze flicked from my gesturing hands to my face, then back again, piecing it together like a puzzle he hadn’t expected. The heat in his eyes cooled, replaced by dawning realization.
“You can’t speak,” he whispered, the words hanging heavy in the air.
‘No s**t, smart pants,’ I snarled in my head, glaring up at him through the haze of humiliation and confusion.
The shift was instant. One moment, his touch was fire…the next, it was ice. He jerked back as if I’d burned him, his expression twisting into something cold, disgusted.
He grabbed my arm…not gently this time…and hauled me off the bed like I was filth staining his sheets. My torn underwear hit my chest, followed by a rough blanket yanked from the foot of the bed. I barely caught them before he was dragging me toward the door, unlocking it with a savage twist.
“Out,” he growled, shoving me into the hallway.
The door slammed shut behind me, the lock clicking again. I stood there, clutching the scraps to my body, heart pounding in the sudden silence of the empty corridor and wondering…
What the heck just happened?
- Writer
