MATED TO THE COLD ALPHA

Chapter 5

Alpha P.O.V

I do not tolerate loose ends.

Every decision I make. Every order I give. Every consequence that follows. I had them calculated and controlled before they happened. That is how this pack has stayed standing. And will continue to stand.

Which is exactly why that woman currently locked in my chamber was a problem.

I sat behind my desk in my study room and observed the bag positioned on the table before me. The roots inside were still intact. I hadn't touched them beyond confirming what they were. I didn't need to check them further to know what they were. Moonveil Roots had one specific use in the entire werewolf world and one use only.

To break an ancient werewolf curse.

I sank back in my chair. Letting the silence wash over me. I never concluded anything until all the facts were present.

The situation had started simply enough.

I had been outside the pack gates two hours ago running through guarded stations with my head of security when Cael's voice called me through the mind link. Calm but alert. The way my men were trained to report.

"Alpha, there's a female intruder located at the eastern ridge near the black rocks region side in the woods. And she's alone."

I had finished giving the order to my head of security before responding. Then I told Cael to hold his position and not to approach the intruder. That I'll be the one to come and handle it. I shifted to my wolf at the gate. Three of the guards closest to me had also shifted without being asked to. Which was to be expected and we moved through the woods running towards the eastern ridge.

What I found wasn't what I expected.

I had expected a scout. Someone who was sent deliberately to map the territory or plant something bad. That was the standard playbook when a rival pack wanted information without confrontation.

Instead, there is a woman with her knees on the dirt. Cutting the roots with a knife. Alone. No backup found within the surrounding trees. No scent of anyone else within a reasonable distance. Just her. Looking at me with terror written all over her face.

She had run. What I had noted was that she ran with her hand covering the bag at her side. Even when she fell. Even when my wolf guard had pinned her down.

Which means the roots inside this bag mattered more to her than her own safety. That detail had been weighing down on my mind ever since.

I looked at the bag again on my desk.

Moonveil Roots. Used as part of a cure for breaking an ancient werewolf curse. Which meant someone close to her was suffering from one. Which meant she hadn't come here for intelligence gathering or sabotage or any of the dozen other reasons people risked their lives crossing into my territory for, uninvited.

She had come to my pack for a reason.

I stood up from the desk.

Desperation makes people predictable. It also made them honest in ways that secretive people never were. She had cried out in the entrance hall. "Please. That herb is for my sick brother. He's dying.” And that kind of desperation was not something people would perform. Not with tears like that.

I picked up the bag from the desk.

I still needed answers. Her pack. Her name. Whom the curse was placed on and by which enemy. Things like this didn't come to Ironveil territory by accident. And I needed to understand the full picture before I decided on what to do with her.

I left my study room.

Walking towards the place where I told my men to lock her up. Before, my initial intention was to lock her up in a bar cell found in a different room on the opposite side. But I mind linked one of the men to take her there instead. Immediately when I left her in the hall.

I had arrived at the room where she was being held and found the man guarding the door outside. “Greetings Alpha.” He greeted me with a bow.

“You are dismissed. I'll take it from here” I ordered. And he responded with a bow again and left the place.

The corridor leading to this room was quiet at this hour. The estate had already settled into its nighttime rhythm. Reduced staff. Security rotation. The particular silence of a building that was resting but never fully asleep.

I stopped outside the chamber door.

Though I could barely hear anything from the other side. No movement. No sound. Either she was asleep or she was sitting very still and waiting. Based on the anxious breathing I was hearing in the room. I suspected the latter.

I opened the lock of the door. Pulled it open and stepped inside.

She was sitting on the bed. Back straight. Hands flat on her knees. Her ocean blue eyes came up to my face immediately and just stayed there. No flinching. No looking away. Something about her face tells me she was forcing herself to look.

Most people wouldn't look me in the eye for more than a few seconds. But her gaze didn't falter. She's pretty brave. I'll give her that.

I held the bag up.

"You said these were herbs." I asked

"T—They are." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Moonveil Roots," I corrected. "That's what's inside here. Still going to tell me again that these are just herbs.”

She remained silent.

I took one calculated step forward. Slow and dangerous. She stammered a bit. Making her see that I demanded an answer from her.

“So let's try this again. Think very carefully before you waste my patience on another lie. Who sent you here for this? Which pack? And who is the one in need of it?"

She stared at me for a beat. Her whole face revealed her tension. I saw the sudden shift in her eyes as she thought of what I’d just told her. Then finally, she slowly exhaled.

"Nobody sent me." She said, "My brother is cursed. He has been for over a year now. I found out through old pack texts that Moonveil Roots was the only thing that could help him. And the only place where it grows is here at this pack." She held my gaze. "That's the whole truth. I swear."

I studied her face.

She wasn't lying. I had spent enough years reading many people to know the difference between a made-up story and a truthful one. Everything in her expression. The steadiness and exhaustion underneath her words. The way she mentioned her brother. Like the constant weight of her words was real. But real didn't mean complete.

"Your pack," I asked. "Which pack are you from?"

Something shifted in her expression. Just slightly.

I moved before she could decide whether to answer or not. Crossed the remaining distance between us and took her by the neck. Not violently. But firmly enough to make it clear that looking away was not an option. And tilted her face up toward mine.

"Which pack do you belong to?" I repeated.

And then I felt something happened.

The moment my fingers made contact with her skin. A chain reaction tore through my entire body without warning. Starting from my hand and spreading outward in a wave that hit my chest like a car crash. Hot and electric. Unlike anything I had encountered in the twenty-five years I've lived.

I didn't move.

She had gone completely still beneath my hold. Her eyes widened. Which tells me she felt it too. Whatever this was. We must have felt the same force and shock.

The rational part of my mind. The part that controlled everything. Began working immediately. Running through every possible explanation with rapid efficiency.

None of them fit.

I released my hand from her neck and stepped back. My expression revealed nothing even as something beneath it was doing what it had no intention of doing. I looked at my own hand, then at her face.

She was staring at me with those ocean blue eyes and for the first time since what had happened in the woods. She looked genuinely frightened. Not at me. But on what had just happened between us.

Which meant she understood it too.

And if she understood it. Then she already knew what it meant.

I looked away from her. My jaw tightening. Every deliberately constructed wall around me braced against the one thing in the werewolf world that no amount of control had ever been possible to stop.

A bond had been formed between us which can only mean one thing. She is my fated mate.

It didn't consider timing. Didn't consult existing arrangements. Didn't care about the situation this woman was in. The bond simply chose it for me.

I looked back at the woman sitting on the edge of the bed in this room. A trespasser from another pack whose name I still don't know. Who came to steal from my territory. With twigs and mud still lingering in her hair.

Of all the possible outcomes to have expected tonight.

This was not what I had in mind.