Teasing Her Alpha Guard

CHAPTER 19

Dahlia

I met my father in his study, and for the first time in weeks I walked in already knowing exactly what action I needed to give.

He looked up from his desk, tired lines still carved deep around his eyes from everything that had happened with Cassian. I let my shoulders sag a little more than they needed to. Let my voice come out smaller.

"Father." I stood in the doorway, twisting my hands together like I couldn't steady them. "I've been thinking about what you said, about the Vale territory."

He set his pen down slowly. "And?"

"You're right." I made myself look at the floor for a second before meeting his eyes again. "I've been fighting you on this because I was scared. Because I didn't want to admit how unsafe I actually feel here right now. But after what happened to Cassian, I can't keep pretending everything is fine."

Something in his face shifted, relief and guilt tangled together, and I hated how easy it was to produce that reaction just by handing him the words he'd been waiting to hear.

"I'll go to Vale territory," I said. "I'll let Adrian protect me."

He stood up and crossed the room, pulling me into a hug that felt heavier than it should have. "This is the right choice, Dahlia. I know it doesn't feel like it. But it's the right one."

I let him hold me for a moment, my chin resting against his shoulder, my face carefully arranged into something soft and defeated.

Underneath it, I felt nothing but ice.

I hadn't known I could lie this well. Not to him. Not with this much ease. It scared me a little, standing there in his arms, how naturally the performance came once I decided I needed it.

That night we gathered in Roman's room, door locked, curtains drawn. Morgan sat at the edge of the bed looking like he hadn't slept properly in days, which he probably hadn't. Roman stood near the window, arms crossed, already halfway into the version of himself I recognized from that first night in the safe room. Focused. Lethal. Mine, even if none of us were saying that word out loud yet.

"Walk me through it again," I said. "All of it."

"You go to Vale territory as planned," Roman said. "Compliant. Convincing. You gather anything you can from inside, documents, conversations, anything that ties Gideon directly to the attacks here."

"And you?"

"I set up near the border. Close enough to move fast if something goes wrong. Far enough that nobody connects me to you if Gideon's watching."

"I'll keep feeding Gideon information," Morgan added quietly. "Small things, enough to keep him trusting me. In exchange he keeps talking, and I keep listening."

"And Lena?"

"Relaying messages between all of us," Roman said. "She's the only one who can move between locations without raising suspicion."

I looked around the room at all of them, at the fragile, dangerous plan we'd built out of desperation and a torn piece of ledger paper. "If anything goes wrong."

"Nothing's going wrong," Roman said, too fast, like saying it firmly enough might make it true.

Morgan left first, slipping out through the side door the way we'd all gotten used to doing lately. I stayed behind after that, and for a long moment neither Roman nor I said anything at all.

"Tomorrow," I finally said.

"Tomorrow," he repeated.

Neither of us moved. Neither of us wanted to be the one to say what tomorrow actually meant, that I was walking straight into the enemy's territory, that he'd be watching from a distance instead of standing beside me the way he had every single day since this whole nightmare started.

He crossed the room slowly and cupped my face in both hands, and I let my eyes close, leaning into his palm.

"Stay with me tonight," I whispered.

He didn't answer with words. He kissed me instead, slow, unhurried, nothing like the desperate, frantic way we usually came together. This felt different. Careful. Like he was trying to memorize every second of it in case it needed to last him a while.

He undressed me slowly, his mouth trailing along my collarbone, my shoulder, the curve of my waist, like he had all the time in the world even though we both knew we didn't. I ran my hands over the muscles of his back, feeling him shiver slightly under my touch, something raw passing between us that had nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with fear neither of us wanted to admit.

When he finally settled between my thighs, he moved into me slowly, deep, holding my gaze the entire time instead of losing himself the way he usually did. I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him closer, wanting to feel every inch of this moment because some quiet, terrified part of me knew it might be the last one we got for a while.

"Roman." His name came out broken, half moan, half something closer to a plea.

"I've got you," he murmured against my ear, his rhythm slow and deliberate, drawing every sound out of me instead of chasing his own release first.

I came apart slowly beneath him, shaking, gripping his shoulders like he was the only solid thing left in a world that kept trying to fall apart around me. He followed soon after, groaning low against my neck, his whole body pressing into mine like he was trying to become part of me before I left.

Afterward we lay tangled together in the dark, my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat slow back to normal.

"Say something," I whispered.

"I don't know what to say that wouldn't sound like goodbye."

I didn't answer that because he was right. There wasn't anything to say that wouldn't sound exactly like that.

My phone rang around midnight, breaking the fragile quietness between us. Adrian's name flashed across the screen. I sat up, pulling the sheet around myself, and answered.

"Dahlia." His voice came through warm, easy, the same charming tone he always used. "I just wanted to confirm everything for tomorrow. My people will be at the estate gates by ten."

"That works." I kept my voice light, playing my part even now.

"I'm looking forward to having you here," he said. "You'll be safe with me. I promise you that."

The way he said it made the hair on my arms stand up. My wolf stirred low in my chest, uneasy, recoiling slightly at something underneath his words that I couldn't figure out yet. It wasn't what he said. It was how sure he sounded. Too sure. Like a man who already knew exactly how this story ended.

"Thank you, Adrian," I said instead, forcing warmth into my voice I didn't feel.

"Sleep well, Dahlia. Big day tomorrow."

The line went dead, and I sat there for a moment, the phone still in my hand, that same crawling unease sitting heavy in my stomach.

"What's wrong?" Roman asked, sitting up behind me.

"Nothing," I said, though I didn't fully believe it myself. "Just Adrian being Adrian."

He studied me for a long moment like he wanted to push further, but neither of us had the energy left tonight for one more hard conversation.

The next morning came too fast.

I stood at the estate gates with a single bag packed, Adrian's car waiting, my father watching with something that looked like pride and grief tangled together on his face. I hugged him goodbye, held my mother a little longer than necessary, and climbed into the car without letting myself look back toward where I knew Roman was watching from a distance, hidden, silent, exactly as we'd planned.

The gates rolled open and the car pulled through.

My phone buzzed the second we hit the main road.

Morgan.

Gideon knows you're coming. He's already planning something worse than courtship.