MATED TO THE COLD ALPHA

Chapter 11

Sera's POV

"What discovery?" My voice was louder than a whisper.

He stood on the other side of the desk, his fingers hanging loose at his sides, and that black fire still simmered behind his pupils... He stared down at me, weighing down on my small frame with heavy tension.

"Two days ago, I sent my men to verify your story." He said it flatly. "Your cursed brother at Ashbone pack."

The knot in my stomach tightened.

"You investigated my pack?" I said.

"I investigate anyone who dares to trespass on my land." His jaw ticked once. "Your story checks out. The curse on your brother is real." He paused. "That part of your story was true."

Relief moved through me, sharp and fast. A single breath I hadn't realised I was holding in. Then it curdled the second I realised the way he'd said ‘that part.’

"What else aren't you telling me?" I said.

He reached into his pocket and set his phone on the desk beside me... Then turned it on so the screen faced me.

A message thread. Blank contact. Five words at the top that I had to read twice before my brain could process them.

‘We know she is there.’

"That came in an hour ago." He said. " An unknown number, untraceable so far." His voice hadn't changed, but something underneath it had gone very still and cold. "Forty minutes after that, my tracker at the Ashbone border reported movement of suspicious men. Three of them. Moving through the perimeter of a healer's residence."

The spoon I'd forgotten I was holding hit the tray.

"Grethe." I was already standing. "William–"

"Your brother is still in the pack dorm, according to my source. The healer is the one being watched."

"Then help me get her out of there!" The words ripped from my throat. Raw and jagged. I didn’t care that I was barking orders at the most dangerous predator in this pack. "She's an old woman! She can't fight off three wolves. You have to–"

"I don't have to do anything." His voice dropped into an above whisper. It wasn’t a shout, but the sheer, crushing weight of his Alpha aura slammed into the room, suffocating the air and locking the joints in my spine. "She is not my member. Neither is she my responsibility. She is a stranger from a different territory I do not rule.”

"She's the only person keeping my brother alive." I pressed my hands flat against the table to stop them from shaking... But it didn't settle the tension in my chest. "Please."

Something moved across his face. Fast. There and gone before I could name it.

"Sit down." He said.

"I'm not going to sit down while–"

"Sit. Down." The command didn't explode; it scraped low across the room. Instantly, a heavy weight slammed down on my shoulders. Short-circuiting my brain. My knees buckled... Dropping my dead weight back to the chair as I bowed to a force it was hardwired to obey.

The bitter taste of submission burned through me. I hated it. He tracked my movement, those golden eyes narrowing. The brutal tension around his mouth didn't soften. But his focus sharpened, dangerous like a silver blade pivoting toward a fresh throat.

"The message." He said. "Who knows you're here?"

"No one." My voice cracked. "I didn't tell anyone where I was going except Grethe. I texted her once before I arrived at your pack, before you took—" I stopped. I looked at the phone still sitting between us. "You gave it back to me right before this. You already knew about the message when you walked in."

He didn't deny it.

"You wanted to see what I'd do then, huh?" I said. The words landed heavier than they should have. Given everything else he had already done to me. "You watched me panic before you decided to tell me anything."

"I needed to know if your fear was real or fake." He said it without a flicker of apology. "I needed to know whether you were serious or just pretending."

"Why?" I asked. "Why would that matter to you?"

He didn't answer that. His jaw twitched for a second. Something raw cracked through the golden brown of those eyes before he shut them down and turned toward the door.

"Cael is already moving a team toward the Ashbone border." He said, back to his flat and commanding tone. "They'll observe the healer's residence. If the men there make any dangerous moves, my men will intervene."

"Why would you do this?" I said. "You just told me that she isn't your responsibility."

He stopped with his hand on the door handle. But didn't turn around.

"Because whoever sent that message knows you're already inside my territory, meaning this person might be a danger to my pack." He said. "And that makes it my problem whether I want it to be or not."

The door opened. He stepped through it.

"Wait–" I was on my feet again before I'd decided to move. "You said there were at least three men there. Did your men see their faces clearly?"

He paused in the doorway. Looked back at me over his shoulder... And for the first time since he'd walked in, something almost like curiosity moved behind those eyes.

"One." He said. "Dark hair. Has a scar through his left brow. Looked like he was in his 30s" His eyes narrowed slightly, reading my face before I could hide it. "Do you know him? From what I just described?"

I let my mind wander. I didn't know him.

I ran the description through my mind anyway. Dark hair, scar through the left brow. Searching for something, anything, that matched any face from that night on the battlefield. Nothing came. I had already told the Alpha I could identify them if I ever saw them again.

I hadn't been lying.

But I also wasn't certain... And the gap between those things suddenly felt enormous.

"I don't know him," I said. My voice was barely above a whisper. "I don't… I don't think I know that man."

"Sera." The Alpha's voice had gone low. Dangerous. "Are you sure… Think carefully."

"I'm pretty sure." My hands fisted against my knees. "But this still doesn't make any sense. Why would the men be circling Grethe's home?"

The phone on the table buzzed. Sharp and sudden in the silence between us... The screen lit up with the name I hadn't seen in days.

Grethe.

I lunged for the phone. The message that filled the screen stole every word I was about to say.

‘Sera. Where are you? Are you alright?’

She sounded worried over the text.