Rejected While Carrying The Alpha's Twins

CHAPTER 6 : The Alpha's Guest

Bruno’s POV

The iron gates of my pack loomed ahead in the darkness, slick with the unrelenting, heavy rain.

My arms ached from the brutal fight, but I did not slow my pace. The fragile weight against my chest felt lighter than a child, yet the heavy burden of her presence pressed down on my soul. She was completely motionless. Her blood stained my hands, mixing with the cold mud, seeping deeply into my own skin.

Who was she?

I looked down at her pale, bruised face. A rejected wolf. I could smell the severed pack bond clinging to her skin like rotting wood, a scent that made my inner wolf bare his teeth in deep disgust. Not at her, but at whatever monster had done this to her. But she didn't smell like a feral rogue. Beneath the mud and the blood and the scent of rejection, she smelled like a high-born. She smelled of wild berries and rain.

"Open the gates!" my lead warrior shouted over the booming thunder.

The iron doors groaned open. The moment I stepped into the courtyard, the usual cheers of my victorious return died instantly in their throats. Every warrior, every patrolling guard, every servant stopped and stared.

Their Alpha was carrying a strange, half-naked, bleeding woman.

I ignored their sharp gasps. My chest tightened with a strange, unexplainable need to protect her. I refused to let her die in the dirt.

I pushed through the heavy oak doors of the main manor. The warmth of the grand hall washed over us, but she didn't stop shivering in my arms.

An Omega servant dropped the stack of fresh towels in her hands. The towels hit the floor with a soft thud. She gasped, her eyes wide as saucers as she stared at the woman against my chest. I had never brought a woman into this manor. Not ever. Not even Selene, my fiancée.

"Alpha..." the Omega stammered, terrified of the blood covering my clothes.

"Get Martha. Now!" I roared, my Alpha tone vibrating violently through the stone walls.

The Omega squeaked, turned on her heel, and bolted down the corridor. I didn't wait. I carried the unconscious stranger straight down the east wing, kicking the heavy door of the main guest chamber open with my boot.

I laid her gently onto the soft bed. Her muddy legs ruined the pristine white sheets, but I didn't care about the linens. She looked so incredibly small. So terribly vulnerable. Her breathing was dangerously shallow, her chest barely rising.

Why do I care? I asked myself, staring down at her bruised face. I should have left her at the border clinic. I have my own pack to run. I have a fragile political alliance to secure with the neighboring lands. Bringing a rogue female into the Alpha's manor was political suicide.

But I couldn't walk away. Not when she looked like the world had chewed her up and violently spit her out.

Martha, the head healer, rushed into the room with her leather medical bag, panting heavily. She took one look at the bloody mess on my bed and froze in her tracks.

"Alpha Bruno, who is this?" Martha asked, pulling out her silver tools with a shaking hand.

"Treat her first. Questions can wait," I growled, crossing my arms over my chest.

Martha nodded, immediately getting to work. She cleaned the jagged bite on the girl's arm, applying herbal paste. I stood by the door, completely rigid. I wasn't going to leave. I needed to know if she would open her eyes.

Martha paused, her hands glowing with a faint, green healing light. She frowned deeply, pressing her glowing palm directly against the girl's chest.

"Alpha," Martha whispered, her voice laced with heavy confusion. "Her physical injuries are severe, yes. But her wolf... her aura is completely unstable. It’s shattering from the inside. I’ve never felt anything like this in all my years of healing. It's like her inner wolf is hiding from something massive. Something dark."

I clenched my jaw, my knuckles turning white. What the hell happened to this girl before she found my borders?

The Hooded Man’s POV

Miles away, deep in the shadows of the borderlands, the rain continued to pour violently from the black sky.

The hooded man stood perfectly still under the canopy of a dead, rotting tree. A rogue wolf, one of the few who still possessed a tiny sliver of sanity, approached him with its head bowed in deep, terrifying submission.

"Speak," the hooded man commanded, his voice slicing sharply through the sound of the rain.

"The girl," the rogue whimpered, keeping his eyes fixed on the muddy ground. "We cornered her. But Alpha Bruno... the Ironwood Alpha... came out of nowhere. He slaughtered our brothers. He took her onto his land."

The hooded man stayed quiet for a while and a low, dark chuckle rumbled deep within his broad chest.

"Is that so?" he whispered, a twisted, evil smile forming beneath the dark shadow of his hood. "She survived. And now she sits safely in the den of the Ironwood Alpha."

He turned away, staring intensely into the dark, stormy woods.

"Let him keep her for now," he murmured into the wind. "The board is perfectly set. This changes absolutely nothing."

Selene’s POV

I paced the length of my luxurious quarters, furiously tapping my perfectly manicured nails against my arm.

The storm outside was ruining my mood, but not as much as the sheer disrespect I was currently enduring. Bruno was supposed to be back from border patrol an hour ago. We had an incredibly important dinner to attend with the pack elders tonight to finalize the strict details of our upcoming mating ceremony.

Our union wasn't about love. I wasn't a stupid, naïve girl dreaming of romance. It was a calculated political alliance designed to merge our two powerful bloodlines and secure the northern borders. But I was still going to be his Luna. I demanded absolute respect.

Suddenly, the heavy wooden door to my chambers burst open.

It was one of the lower Omegas, dripping wet and panting like a wild dog.

"Luna Selene!" she gasped, bowing frantically, her knees hitting the floor.

"I am not Luna yet," I snapped, glaring fiercely at her muddy shoes staining my expensive Persian carpet. "What is it? Has Bruno finally returned to the manor?"

The Omega swallowed hard, looking absolutely terrified. "Yes, my lady. But... he didn't return alone."

My pacing stopped instantly. The air in the room suddenly grew very cold, heavy with sudden tension. "Explain."

"He brought a woman back from the woods," the Omega whispered quickly, her eyes darting nervously to the floor. "She is injured. He carried her in his own arms, directly into the east guest chambers. He refuses to leave her side."

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the room.

He carried a woman? In his own arms? Into the manor?

My blood boiled instantly. The sheer, unapologetic disrespect! Everyone in the palace would be whispering about this within the hour. The lowly servants were probably already mocking me in the kitchens. My powerful Alpha prefers a filthy, stray dog from the woods over his high-born fiancée.

"Who is she?" I demanded, my voice dangerously low, practically vibrating with my inner wolf's fury.

"I don't know, my lady. She looked like a rogue. Half-naked, covered in mud and bleeding."

My internal wolf snarled loudly, pacing furiously inside my mind. I did not spend five years aggressively grooming myself for this high position just to be publicly humiliated by a filthy rogue female.

If Bruno thought he could dishonor our political alliance so easily, he was dead wrong.

"Get out of my way," I hissed, violently shoving past the trembling Omega.

I marched out of my quarters, my heels clicking aggressively against the marble floors. My fists were clenched so tight my knuckles turned completely white.

I didn't care if she was injured. I didn't care if she was actively dying in that bed. I was going to march in there, find out exactly who this little tramp was, and then I was going to throw her right back out into the violent storm where she belonged.

I turned the final corner, my burning eyes locking onto the heavy oak doors of the east guest chamber.

No one takes what is mine.