Teasing Her Alpha Guard

CHAPTER 8

Dahlia

He was gone before I even counted to three. Slipped through the side exit like smoke, like he'd never been there at all.

I should let my father know.

I entered the pack house early the next morning with Roman a few steps behind me. My footsteps echoed against the polished floor, softer than usual, careful, like the whole house was still holding its breath from the night before. I didn't want to startle my father when I stepped into his study. I could already read the room before I even said a word.

His eyes were glassy, staring at nothing in particular. His lips were dry and cracked at the corners. He looked like he'd aged twelve years overnight. Papers were scattered across his desk, half of them burned at the edges, salvaged from somewhere in the wreckage.

"Father, I'm going to be straight with you." My voice came out steadier than I felt.

He lifted his eyes toward me slowly, like even that small movement cost him something.

"I think you should know there's someone betraying us. Right now, while we're standing here."

"Who's betraying us?" His voice was flat, tired, already braced for something he didn't want to hear.

"Marcus." I said his name and watched my father's face shift. "He's been acting strange for a while now. Last night, while everyone was fighting to defend the pack, he was nowhere to be found. He didn't help put out the fires. He didn't help carry the wounded. And when the attackers fled, I saw him with my own eyes, sneaking out of the estate in the exact same direction those rogues ran. He was masked."

My father sat up straighter behind his desk, the tiredness in his eyes replaced by something sharper.

"Dahlia, I don't understand what you're trying to say."

"I think that's clear enough."

"I've known Marcus since before you were a pup." His jaw tightened. "He is a lot of things, but he is not a traitor. That man has given his blood, sweat, and years to this pack. You should choose your words carefully."

I gritted my teeth so hard it hurt. "Then let's call him here and ask him why he was sneaking around in a mask while our home was burning. I know what I saw, Father. He's hiding something."

"Dahlia, do not speak anymore on this."

He didn't even look at me when he said that. He nodded toward the guard stationed near the entrance, and the man disappeared to fetch Marcus, like my accusation was something to be handled quietly and quickly, not investigated.

I stood there, arms crossed, my whole body coiled tight with frustration. Roman stayed near the doorway, silent, watching everything with that unreadable expression he always wore. I didn't look at him. I didn't trust myself to. If I looked at him right now I might lose the last thread of composure I was holding onto.

A few minutes later, Marcus walked in.

He was dressed elegantly, not a hair out of place, flanked by three others. Two older men with gray streaked through their hair, and a younger, leaner one trailing slightly behind. All three wore the calm, practiced expressions of people who had rehearsed exactly what they were about to say.

"Alpha Lucien." Marcus inclined his head with just the right amount of respect. "I brought witnesses. I heard the accusation Dahlia has painted me with, and I would like to clear your doubts."

Cassian walked in a moment later, taking his place near our father like he belonged there, like he already knew how this was going to go.

"Alpha Lucien," one of the older men spoke first, his voice smooth and rehearsed. "Marcus was with us the entire time, across the estate, during the fire. When the explosion hit, we were stunned. Trapped under some of the rubble, actually. It took hours to free ourselves."

"It's true, sir," the second man added. "Marcus saved my life pulling me out from under a fallen beam."

Marcus spread his hands as if the whole thing pained him deeply. "How would I ever do something so terrible? Betray my own pack? The people I've protected for over twenty years?"

My gaze stayed locked on him the whole time he spoke. I didn't need a wolf's nose to smell the lie coating every word. It was there in the too smooth delivery, the way his eyes never quite landed on mine for more than a second.

"You're lying." My voice cut through the room sharper than I meant it to. "Explain why you had a mask on while running in the exact direction the attackers fled. You were helping them escape. I saw you."

"Your vision must have been clouded by the smoke, Dahlia." Marcus's tone was calm, almost gentle, which somehow made it worse. "I was nowhere near where you claim to have seen me. I swear it on the moon goddess herself."

"Don't swear by her." My hands curled into fists at my sides. "You bring disgrace just saying her name."

"That's enough, Dahlia." My father's voice cracked like a whip. "You heard him clearly, and you heard his witnesses." He turned toward my brother. "Cassian. What do you think?"

I looked at Cassian, something desperate and hopeful rising in my chest. Surely he'd seen enough, heard enough, to at least consider it. He glanced at me first. For a second I thought he might actually side with me.

Then he looked away.

"Father is right," he said carefully. "We should treat this with caution. There's no solid evidence against him."

Of course. I looked away too, jaw tight, throat burning with everything I wanted to scream and couldn't. Of course he'd say that. Marcus was the heir's mentor in half the ways that mattered. Why would Cassian ever risk going against our father's wishes over my word alone.

"Alpha Lucien." Roman's voice broke through the tense silence, calm and even, though I caught the edge underneath it. "I'd like to speak. As someone who was with Dahlia when Marcus fled alongside the rogues. I did see him with my own eyes."

My father's head turned slowly, and the look he gave Roman could have frozen a fire.

"Your opinion was not called for, Roman." Each word landed like a stone. "This is pack business. Your only duty here is to protect my daughter, nothing more. Know your place."

The room went silent. Marcus's lips curved, just barely, just enough for me to catch it before he smoothed his expression back into practiced concern.

I could have jumped across that desk and gone for my father's throat in that moment. My whole body shook with the unfairness of it, with the sheer blindness of a man who'd rather protect his oldest friend than believe his own daughter.

But I stopped myself.

Because Roman was staring at me and the look in his eyes told me this wasn't a fight I was going to win by shouting.

It was one I was going to have to win by being smarter than all of them.