THE HEARTLESS ALPHA

Epi 11:BLOOD ON THE WINDOW

Yes, I did it. I tricked Alen's father into signing. I tried to ruin her. Forgive me."

Half the college had gathered by now.

The same boys who laughed at Alen yesterday were now cursing Reyan.

"Shame on you."

"You harassed a poor girl."

"You snake."

I called the police.

I looked down at Reyan, sitting on the ground, broken.

Five minutes later, police arrived. Handcuffs. They dragged Reyan away.

And me?

I stood there. Breathing hard. Hands shaking.

Only one name in my head. The girl who probably thinks I'm a bad person.

Alen.

No one will ever hurt you again. I promise.

───

A strange anxiety was eating me alive. Like something terrible was about to happen. I couldn't get Alen out of my head.

I messaged my friend immediately.

Find out how Alen is. What's her condition.

He replied laughing, Well well. The guy who runs from girls is now asking about one?

It's nothing. I just saw her crying on the road. Humanity, that's all, I replied.

Hmm. Since when does James Albert explain himself? You usually just give orders.

I was getting irritated.

Can you find out or not? Stop with the nonsense, I snapped.

Okay bro. My sister is her friend. I'll ask her. Maybe she knows something, came the reply.

Okay.

I paced my room, phone in hand, waiting desperately for his next message.

Then it came.

Bro... I heard it. A Mr. Robert is coming to Alen's house tomorrow at 7 PM. For dinner. To ask for her hand.

The phone slipped from my hand.

My breath stopped. My heart sank. Was she going to belong to someone else?

"Robert?!" I shouted.

Robert. The Mafia King.

The name made my blood boil. Alen was in danger. Serious danger.

I grabbed my jacket and called the driver.

"Bring the car. Now. To Alen's house."

Whatever happens, I'm not leaving her alone.

----------

The room was drowned in darkness. Cold moonlight cut through the window and drew a thin line across the floorboards.

I sat on the edge of the bed with my knees drawn to my chest. The pillow beneath me was soaked. Each breath tore out of me in pieces, like hands were squeezing my ribs.

"Mom." The word cracked in my throat and echoed back at me. "Mom, are you there?"

Your Alen is so alone today.

I wish I could disappear into your arms. I wish you would hold me until the shaking stops. I wish you could hear me.

My throat closed. I had a hundred wishes and not one way to make them real.

"Mom, I don't know what to do.

Reyan wants to hurt me. I know it. He doesn't want me, he wants to break me.

And Robert... I don't even know him. Zooi says he's thirty years older than me. I'm scared, Mom. I'm so scared my heart won't slow down."

Tears slid down my neck.

"I want to run. To somewhere with flowers and blue rivers and green mountains. With a swing tied to a tree.

I just want peace."

My voice dropped to nothing.

"I never wanted this marriage. My college is gone. Everything is gone. I failed.

Come back. I'm so tired. I've missed you since I was small, but tonight the missing is too heavy.

Tonight I won't hold the tears back."

I talked to her in my head until my eyes finally closed.

───

Two streets away, the night was silent enough to hurt.

My black Lamborghini idled without sound. Engine off. I could hear myself breathe.

The headlights threw a weak light onto the road. Even that light looked cold.

My hands were locked around the steering wheel. White knuckles. Jaw clenched until it ached.

I didn't go in.

I wanted to kick the door down and tell her she didn't have to cry. That I was right here.

But I couldn't move.

I heard her. Every word.

Since the hospital, something in me had changed.

I didn't just see. I saw through walls. Right now I could see the crack in her ceiling. The wet spot on her pillow. The way her shoulders shook.

At first I thought I was losing my mind.

Now I was used to it.

I didn't just hear. I heard with my bones.

Wind in the trees. A dog far off. And her crying.

The limits of me had broken.

I still told myself I wasn't an Alpha. Maybe I didn't want to know.

Whoever I was, the nightmares had stopped. The old man was gone.

Her tears cut me.

Every single one.

Then her voice again, small and broken.

"I wish I could disappear into your arms."

It hit me in the chest.

I am James Albert. The city calls me cold.

That sentence broke me anyway.

"A world of dreams," she whispered. "A swing. Peace."

She didn't want money. She didn't want status.

I pressed my palm to my chest.

One day, I promised silently. One day I will give her flowers, and rivers, and that swing. And peace.

I didn't understand why she mattered this much. Why she made me lose control.

Only that she did. And I would not let anyone touch her.

But tonight I was useless to her.

And that was eating me alive.

Richest man in the city. Name, money, power.

And I couldn't give the girl in that room five minutes of peace.

My hands shook as I reached for my phone. Put it down.

What would I say? "She needs peace and I can't give it."

My voice would have cracked.

Through the windshield I watched her window.

She was still awake. Still crying.

I could see her. I couldn't reach her.

I closed my eyes.

"Alen. I'm here. You're not alone.

Reyan won't touch you. Robert won't touch you.

Hold on."

The words left me and vanished into the cold air.

Inside her room, Alen stirred.

Like someone had spoken her name against her ear.

She sat up too fast. Stumbled to the window and pulled the curtain aside.

Confusion on her face.

In my head I asked, Can you hear me?

Then I laughed at myself. Of course she couldn't.

"Who's there?" Her voice was soft and shaking.

It stopped my heart.

How could she hear me? I hadn't spoken out loud.

Did she have this too?

───

In a large room, crystal clinked against glass. The smell of old whiskey hung in the air.

Expensive paintings. Golden chandeliers. Robert sat in the center of it all.

Fifty. White hair. Deep lines. Eyes red and cold. A man the city feared by name alone.

Across from him, Zooi's boyfriend sat sweating. A thick envelope in his hands.

Silence. Only the tap of Robert's fingers on the glass.

"Bring it," Robert said.

Trembling hands pushed the envelope forward. A photograph inside.

Robert studied it for two seconds. A slow, ugly smile.

"Good. Take the money. We're done."

The boyfriend swallowed. "Sir. Her family wants to meet. They want to do this properly. If you come tomorrow, it will be settled."

Robert laughed. Low and dangerous.

"Properly."

He set the photo down.

"I'll come. For you. But my terms. And the price changes."

"Yes, Sir."

Robert turned to the window. The city spread below him.

He did not know that across the city, a young man sat in a car and guarded a girl like his life depended on it.

───

The silence in the car was ice.

Green dashboard light slid over my face. I was still outside Alen's house. Her words were still in my head. Panic and restlessness clawing at me.

Then my phone vibrated.

DAD.

I answered too fast. "Hello?"

"James. Where are you?" My father's fear was sharp. "It's late. Come home. Now."

"Dad, I'm just outside a friend's place. I'll be there soon."

"No. No excuses. Come home." His voice shook.

This wasn't normal. "Dad, what happened?"

"Have you seen the news? People are vanishing. The ones they find are... not whole. The police don't know anything. I am not losing you. Come home."

A chill ran down my spine. "Dad, I'm fine, I—"

The words died.

Three houses down, something dropped from a wall.

In the moonlight it wasn't human. Too big. Too wrong. Claws and mouth smeared with fresh blood. Like it had just finished feeding.

My breath stopped. My heart slammed against my ribs.

Next to the car, another shape moved. Silent. Close.

My father's voice kept coming through the speaker.

"James? James! Answer me. Come home."

The creature was at my window now.