Teasing Her Alpha Guard

CHAPTER 7

Dahlia

We came out through the safe room door, and the smell hit me before anything else. Smoke, blood, burnt wood, all mixed together into something my nose would probably never forget. I put my hand over my mouth without even thinking about it.

A sick feeling crawled up my stomach as I looked at the bodies scattered across the hallway floor. Some of them were the attackers from earlier. Some of them weren't. I didn't want to know which ones weren't.

My eyes moved to Roman's face and stayed there, because looking at him felt safer than looking at anything else in that hallway.

"You'll have nightmares if you keep staring at it like that," he said, gently pulling me away by the arm.

"I have to check on my mother and brother." My eyes darted from one end of the ruined corridor to the other. My father was standing somewhere near the collapsed archway, surrounded by guards, barking orders like a man who refused to fall apart in front of his pack. His jaw was tight, his eyes hard and focused. I heard him tell someone to count the bodies. Twice.

He looked shaken, but he had seen worse than this before, hadn't he? He had to have. That was the only thought keeping me steady.

But where were my mother and Cassian?

We walked for what felt like forever, stepping over debris, past guards carrying the wounded, and I still hadn't found them. My chest got tighter with every empty space we passed.

Could something have happened to them? No. I pinched the inside of my wrist hard enough to sting. I had to think straight. Panicking would help no one.

Roman walked a step ahead of me the whole time, his shoulders set, his eyes constantly scanning the wreckage like he expected another attacker to jump out at any second. I noticed the small crease between his brows. He was worried. For me.

"Dahlia, thank the moon goddess you're alive."

I spun around at the sound of my mother's voice and my whole body sagged with relief.

"Mom." I rushed forward and grabbed her hands. "You're alive."

"I'm fine, sweetheart." She squeezed my fingers back just as tightly.

"Are you hurt?" I looked her over quickly, checking for blood, for burns, for anything.

She shook her head, but there was soot smudged along her cheek and part of the hem of her dress was torn away. "I was so worried about you," she said, her voice cracking just slightly at the edges.

Cassian appeared a second later, walking toward us with his shirt stained dark in places and a few shallow scratches lining his jaw. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I didn't need to ask if he was okay. My brother could survive worse than a fire and still find a way to be annoying about it.

"Did the explosion scrape your pride along with your face?" I asked once he got close enough.

"I'm fine, worry about yourself for once," he shot back, but there was no real bite in it. Just tired relief wrapped in sarcasm, the way our whole family talked when we didn't know how else to say we were glad someone survived.

I helped my mother up from the fallen beam she'd been resting on. Her legs looked a little unsteady, and part of her dress fluttered loose where the fabric had torn.

"I'm fine, Dahlia," she said again, softer this time, squeezing my shoulder. "Alright, enough sulking. Let's get you checked over too."

"I'll take her in and have the healers look at her," Cassian said, already guiding our mother by the elbow. "Stay with your bodyguard."

I watched them disappear down the hall, my mother leaning slightly on Cassian's arm, and only then did I remember I'd basically forgotten Roman was standing right beside me the entire time.

I turned to him. The adrenaline in my body was finally starting to fade, and in its place came something quieter and heavier. Gratitude, maybe. Or something close to it.

"Roman," I said slowly, my voice not as steady as I wanted it to be. "I wanted to say thank you. For getting me out alive."

His hand came up to rest against my back, and he squeezed once, firm and brief. I froze, because that was not something Roman did. Roman didn't touch me unless he had to. I stayed still and quiet, waiting to see if he'd pull away and pretend it never happened.

"That's my job," he said, low and even. "Protecting you means nothing beyond that. Anyone could have done what I did."

I raised an eyebrow at him, some of my usual nerve creeping back now that I knew my family was alive. "Funny. You squeezed my back like your life depended on it for a man who claims it means nothing." I tilted my head. "Tell me, Roman. Am I growing on you?"

He pulled his hand away fast, like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have.

"You can still joke even in the middle of all this," he muttered, and I caught the smallest flicker of something behind his eyes. Not quite amusement. Not quite annoyance. Something in between that made my stomach flip in a way I refused to think too hard about right now.

"Someone has to keep the mood light," I said. "Otherwise we'd all just be standing around staring at bodies."

He didn't answer that one. His jaw ticked instead, and for a second I thought he might actually tell me to shut up.

That was when I saw him.

Across the ruined hallway, half hidden behind a collapsed support beam, a figure moved quickly toward one of the side exits. He had something dark pulled over the lower half of his face, like a makeshift mask, but it slipped just enough when he turned his head.

Enough for me to see the smile underneath it.

Teeth bared, calm, satisfied. Like a man watching something he'd planned finally come together instead of a man fleeing for his life.

My whole body went cold.

"Roman," I whispered, grabbing his arm without thinking. "Isn't that Marcus?”