MATED TO THE COLD ALPHA

Chapter 17

Alpha Zerk POV

I heard the engine die down from the parking space.

A sound I recognised without having to think about it: the particular weight of that vehicle, the specific note of that engine dropping into idle. Something in my chest that had been pulled tight for three days released by exactly one degree.

My beta, Roan, was back.

I didn't move. Didn't flinch. The assembled pack was still gathered in front of me, still waiting, still carrying the weight of what I'd told them not long ago: that one of them had fed information about Sera to an outside source. That they had exactly one opportunity to come forward before this matter became more personal.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

They know better than to do anything rash that would anger me at this moment. They certainly won't like the consequences.

The gate closed behind the crowd. I watched the reaction move through them before I heard his footsteps, that particular shift in collective energy, as the people's shoulders shifted, feet adjusting their weight; people who had been focused entirely forward on me were now suddenly aware of the man approaching from behind them. The crowd parted without being asked to.

He crossed the training ground toward me.

Even from a distance, the damage was visible. The bruise running along his jaw. The careful way he was managing his right side, controlled enough that most people wouldn't catch it, but I'd known this man for years now, and I caught everything. He was carrying the package in his left hand, dark cloth. Cord wrapped tight around it. The exact shape and weight of what I'd sent him to retrieve.

He stopped in front of me.

I looked at him. At the right side of his jaw he was protecting. At the dried cut above his left eyebrow that had bled significantly at some point and hadn't been properly cleaned.

"Did a silver blade cause that?" I said.

"Yeah." His voice was rough with fatigue but even. "It happened in the clash when a man caught me off guard. But it is nothing serious, just a small cut."

"How many were there?"

"Seven. But one managed to get away." A pause. "For now at least."

I held his gaze for a moment. Seven. He had engaged seven rogue wolves. He came back with the relic but with a bruised jaw and a silver wound. I took the package from him and felt the weight of it settle into my hand.

"You should have called me when you arrived."

"The signal was really bad on my way here. You know how the northern territories get." He rolled his right shoulder once, like he was releasing pent-up stress. "But the situation has been handled. That's what matters."

"What about the guy who got away?"

"He won't be running for much longer." His eyes were flat, but had a certain look behind them. "I left two men to be on his trail. I'm sure they'll have him within forty-eight hours."

I nodded once. This was how things worked between us, no elaboration beyond what was necessary, no performance of either concern or stoicism. Just the facts, laid out clean, and the understanding that moved between us without needing to be constructed.

He looked at the assembled pack. Read the tension in them, the way he read everything without being told what he was looking at.

"What's happening here, what did I miss?" It wasn't really a question.

"Someone in this pack has been leaking information to an outside source." I kept my voice level. "A photograph of an intruder. Delivered to a healer's residence in Ashbone territory."

Something sharpened in his expression. "What! Really, when?"

“I just found out yesterday.”

"And you gathered all the pack members out here–." he gestured almost imperceptibly at the assembled crowd. "Because you don't know who it is?"

"Because I wanted to give them the chance to step forward before this becomes personal for me," I said in a menacingly harsh tone. Gesturing to the people in front of me.

He was quiet for a moment. Scanning faces with that methodical precision that had made him the best Beta I'd ever seen operate. Patient. Thorough. Missing nothing.

"How are you sure that one of our pack members is responsible?" He said above a whisper. Just to me. "Don't you think that's impossible, considering how loyal every member I know is?"

I know where he is coming from. "I know. But this is why I'm thinking one of them is the perpetrator; no outsider could have any access into this estate without my notice."

"So you mean you're going to interrogate them?"

"Next time", I said. “I was just giving them a first-hand warning anyway. Me and Cael are already looking into the matter.”

Roan’s mouth twitched; that didn't quite look like agreement, just the particular noise he made when he thought my approach was stepping too much out of line. We had been doing this long enough that I could read the expressions he always made and what each one meant.

The pack was still assembled. Still waiting. I looked at them for a long moment, at the careful and controlled fear on their faces. I raised my hand and weaved it sideways.

"You are all dismissed," I commanded.

The words moved through the crowd like a current and the assembled people began to dissolve. Slowly at first, then faster, everyone went back toward their duties with the particular efficiency of people released from something uncomfortable.

Roan fell into step beside me as I turned toward the estate. Natural. Unhurried. The way it always was.

"So, how is your wound?" I said.

"I've had worse."

"That's not what I asking."

He was quiet for two steps before he spoke again. "It'll need proper treatment tonight. Nothing the pack healers can't handle."

"Will you see the healers before you sleep tonight?"

"Yeah, I will." He said, in a tone that communicated he was agreeing with me to avoid the conversation further, in a tone that had nothing to do with being convinced."

We crossed the gravel toward the estate doors. The air was cold and clean and smelled like damp earth, and the particular sharpness that came after a hard frost. Around us the pack moved back to their businesses, the sounds of the estate reforming its rhythm, conversation resuming. The training ground emptied itself behind us.

We were almost at the doors.

I spotted Kira standing outside the entrance doors, which meant she had watched the whole thing that happened in the training ground. Her expression when she saw Roan was just that of recognition and nothing more. They had met enough times over the years. She gave me a single nod as we were walking in their direction. We stopped where she and Sera were.

“Hey there, Roan, I see you're back from your vacation out of Ironveil pack.” She said, while giving him a sly smirk.

“Ha ha ha, very funny Kira.” Roan said sarcastically. “I don't see you fighting off rogues on your own.”

“They aren't just worth my time.” She said. Then something softened behind her eyes. “But I'm glad to see you're ok.”

“Who do you think you're talking to? I am the strongest beta in the most feared pack in the entire werewolf world.” Roan responded.

Roan and I continued walking. Beside her stood Sera.

Roan's stride didn't break. But something changed in the quality of it, a new attention, the kind that only happened when something had registered as requiring assessment.

We reached the doors.

I pulled one open.

And Roan stopped.

His eyes moved from Sera to me. Not fast. Deliberately slow in the way he did things when he was making sure he was reading something correctly before he responded to it.

"Alpha." His voice had dropped. The familiarity in it was still there, but something had come in underneath it, something careful and sharp that I recognised as a question. "Who is that woman beside Kira?”