MATED TO THE COLD ALPHA

Chapter 6

Alpha P.O.V

I knew what it was.

No confusion. No second-guessing. The moment that current tore through my hand and hit my chest, I knew exactly what had happened. I had spent too many years preventing anything that could threaten this pack's stability and authority.

A mate bond.

I stepped a few feet back away from her. Ran one of my hands through my hair. I looked at the woman sitting on the edge of the bed with her wide ocean blue eyes and her chest rising and falling rapidly, and I decided before the next breath left my lungs.

This did not change anything.

I set the bag down on the chair near the door.

"Your name." My voice came out exactly as I needed it to. Flat. Unbothered. Like the last thirty seconds hadn't bothered me at all.

She stared at me. Something was working behind her eyes. Calculating. Deciding. Then she straightened herself up. That same stubborn expression she had been wearing since the woods, like armour she refused to take off.

"Sera."

She stated that. No pack name was mentioned with it. Just that one name dropped into the room like she was rationing information by the syllable.

I waited.

She didn't add anything else.

"Your pack’s name." I said.

"Ashbone."

The name landed and it left her lips. Something stirred at the back of my mind, distant and vague, the way information stirred when it had never been important enough to store anywhere prominent. Ashbone. A small and weak territory located somewhere in the outer regions. The kind of pack that existed on the margins of the werewolf world and produced nothing worth mentioning.

Their Alpha's name sat just out of reach. I heard his name before but I can't quite remember it yet.

I moved further into the room.

She tracked my movement without turning her head, just her eyes shifting, following in a way a prey is being careful and cautious with a predator to avoid being hunted down.

"How the f**k did you find out about the Moonveil Roots in my pack?" I stopped a few feet from her. Close enough that she had to look up to hold my gaze.

"From old pack texts that I've read." She said, "I had researched it."

"When did you find out about it?"

"Two weeks ago."

"And you decided crossing into my territory alone at night was the logical conclusion you decided on."

Something tightened at the corner of her mouth. Not quite a flinch. She swallowed it before it became one.

"I didn't have any other option than to do this." She said.

"So instead you chose this one. Which means either you're really desperate or you're just reckless and foolish. Neither reflects well on whoever sent you."

"Nobody sent me, I came here of my own accord." The words came out sharper than the ones before them. A c***k in the composure, small, fast, immediately sealed back up. "I already told you that."

I studied her face for a moment. The exhaustion sitting underneath her steadiness was real, visible in the slight tension around her eyes, the careful architecture of someone holding themselves together through will alone. But exhaustion confirmed nothing except the distance she had travelled to come here.

"So your brother then," I said. "How long has he had this curse?"

The c***k came again. Faster this time and deeper, a flash of something raw moving across her face before she locked it back down.

"It's been almost a year now." She said quietly.

"Who placed the curse on him?"

"Someone from a rival pack. They attacked mine during a clash battle a year ago."

"Who, and from which pack?"

Her jaw tightened. "I don't know their pack or his name either, I only managed to see his face a little that day."

I looked at her without speaking. Letting the silence do the work that words didn't need to do. Watched her resist the urge to fill it, her fingers pressing slightly harder into the mattress beneath her, her breathing carefully controlled.

"You spent time researching ancient wolf curses," I said finally. "And you don't even know the name of the pack that placed it on your own brother."

"Almost all of their faces were covered. I know what a few of them looked like that day." Her voice was low but it didn't shake. "I just don't know everything about who they are yet."

Yet.

Interesting choice of words.

"Are you telling me the truth?" I said.

"Yes, I am."

"Look me in the eyes and say that again."

Her chin lifted slightly. Those blue eyes came up to mine and stayed there without flinching.

"I am telling you the truth Alpha." She said, This is the first time she addressed me as Alpha, Each word is placed deliberately. Like she was building something with them.

I held her gaze for a long moment. Running everything she had just said back through my mind, looking for the inconsistency, the hesitation in the wrong place, the detail that didn't sit right with the ones beside it.

Nothing obvious surfaced.

I turned away from her and walked towards the window. Staring at it which was latched and sealed shut from outside.

Ashbone Pack.

I let my mind work through it properly this time. Low-ranked from an outer territory. Had never produced a wolf of any standing in any Elder record I had read. Their Alpha's name was still sitting just beyond reach, stubborn and unhelpful, filed somewhere under things that had never required my direct attention.

Then it surfaced.

Aldric.

Aldric of Ashbone. I had seen it once in a secondary Elder report on outer territory disputes. An unremarkable name on an unremarkable pack. The kind of Alpha who caused no significant ripple of any kind.

Which made my next thought more curious.

Why would a pack that insignificant be targeted with an ancient curse precise enough to strike a specific individual? Ancient curses of that complexity weren't accidental. They required knowledge. Resources. Deliberate intent. They were commissioned weapons, not the kind a weak outer pack accumulated through a standard battlefield skirmish.

Something about her story didn't sit right with the world it was supposed to fit in.

I turned back around.

"This pack that attacked yours," I said. "Were they stronger?"

It wasn't a question. Her expression confirmed it before she answered.

"Yes."

"And they ignored your Alpha. Your Beta. Your strongest warriors." I crossed back toward her slowly. "And went specifically for your own brother."

Her hands had gone still on the mattress. Too still.

"That would either be seen as a coincidence or that your brother was someone who had been placed as a target for a reason," I said.

Her jaw tightened hard. "I told you. I don't know everything yet. My brother may be a strong gamma wolf, but he isn't anything special that would make anyone want to attack him"

I stopped directly in front of her. Looked down at where she sat with her chin up and her jaw set and her eyes refusing to drop even though every instinct she had was probably screaming at her to look anywhere else.

"You're going to continue staying in this room," I said. "You won't leave this place and you won't be given your bag or phone back. You'll be imprisoned here." I paused. "And you'll continue to answer every question I ask you with the same honesty you claim to have been showing me tonight. Is that understood?"

Her throat moved. “WHAT.” Her voice is louder than a whisper. “You can't do that to me.” she debated. “Time is running out, I need to get these roots to him.”

“You are in no position to be making any demands here, you'll be locked in here until I say otherwise”

“And if I refuse.” She said

I held her gaze.

“Hehe”, A short sound left me. Not quite a laugh but close enough. “Oh man, I wouldn't if I were you," I said simply. But made it sound more threatening. She has no idea what I would do to her if she dares defy me.

I picked up the bag from the chair and walked towards the door without looking back at her.

"The roots—" Her voice came from behind me. Controlled. Barely.

I pulled the door open.

"Are mine," I stated.

I stepped out and shut the door behind me. The lock engaged.

I stood in the corridor and pulled out my phone. I typed a message to someone important.

‘Ashbone. I need you to investigate anything that involves any cursed wolves in that pack. Previous battlefield activity involved and any enemy pack involvement. Report back within 48 hours. Tell no one.’ I texted.

I sent it and pocketed the phone into my trousers.

The bond was still there. Sitting between my ribcages like something that had decided to make itself comfortable without asking for permission.

I ignored it and walked away from the room.