MATED TO THE COLD ALPHA

Chapter 4

Sera P.O.V

The room they locked me in wasn't what I had expected.

When the Alpha said chamber room. I thought I'd go somewhere located underground. That of an iron cell with stone walls and no light. The sort of place meant to make a person feel worthless and mistreated.

Instead. It was a plain room on the ground floor. A single bed placed against the wall with a grey cover thrown over it. A window, high above the ceiling too small and narrow to fit through. Latched shut from the outside. A wooden chair in the corner. A small attached bathroom. A solitary ceiling light emitting a gentle hum was turned on by one of the stone-faced men.

Subsequently, he left and closed the door behind him while I heard an audible click from the opposite side of the door. Meaning I can't escape.

And then. There was silence.

I stood up from the bed for a moment. Breathing in and out. Letting the weight of the last few hours settle within my chest now that there was nothing I could do.

I was locked inside the room known as my cell.

My bag was gone. My phone was gone. Both are now sitting somewhere in this building in the possession of a man whose name I still don't know. I had walked into Ironveil territory with one important thing that mattered. Instead, I had nothing.

I sat back down on the bed. Pressing my hands flat against my knees.

The adrenaline finally bled out of me and a wave of raw sickening agony took its place. My left shoulder still throbbing from where the wolf had hit me during the chase. My palms scraped from the ground fall. My knees wobbly. My hair was knotted with little twigs and dried mud. I probably looked exactly like what they thought I was. A crazy trespasser who had no business being here.

I exhaled slowly.

“Think Think Think.” I mumbled.

The bag was the immediate problem. Without the Moonveil Roots. Everything I had done tonight would be for nothing. The everyday planning. The long bus ride through cities and towns. Passing through the hidden passageways. All of that would be worthless if I couldn't get those roots back from him.

And I'm sure Grethe doesn't know what is happening to me right now. Nobody does.

I was completely alone in here.

I got up and moved to the door. Pressed my right ear flat against it. On the other side. I could hear faint movements. Somewhere deeper in the building. Footsteps. A door closing. The low murmur of voices carried through walls too thick to let words through.

I stepped back.

I went for the window next. Too high. Too narrow. I'd already known that from first glance but I still had to check anyway. Because checking was better than sitting still and letting my thoughts spiral.

The bathroom vent was small and bolted. Nothing I could work with.

I went and sat back down on the bed.

“Tala.” I entered my mind the same way I always did when I needed her. The same place in the back of my mind where she lived. Warm and present and usually impossible to silence.

Nothing.

“Tala.” I called out again. Louder this time.

Still nothing. Not even the faint hum of her presence that I could normally feel even when she chose not to speak. It was like entering a room and finding it completely empty. Dark and quiet in a way that felt deeply unusual.

She hardly ever got this silent before. She's definitely not responding to me.

I pulled back and settled down for a moment. The silence from her side felt heavier than the locked door. Because Tala was the closest wolf I had always been able to talk to. Even when everything else seemed to be falling apart.

Right now. Not a sound from her side.

I lay back down on the bed. Leaving my jacket on and was staring at the ceiling.

The light hummed above me.

Thoughts of William came to my mind. About the way his face looked whenever the curse pulled him under. Tight and pale and so far away from the boy who used to challenge men within the pack to arm wrestling matches and secure victories.

The Moonveil Roots are still sitting somewhere in this building in the hands of the Alpha within every minute I spend locked in here.

I thought about Grethe back at my pack. Not knowing the situation I'm in.

My thoughts drifted towards the Alpha. The way he had moved through the entrance hall was like the entire space belonged to him. The way he had looked at me. Not with cruelty. But with a controlling and dangerous expression that was somehow threatening. Like I was an item he was calculating rather than a person he was speaking to.

He had taken everything from me without raising his voice once.

But he had also told his men before we came to this pack not to touch the bag, until he could know what was in it. Had given me a room with a bed instead of an actual cell. Maybe things like this are meaningless to him.

Because when that door opens again, and it will. He said that he'd deal with me personally. I needed to be ready. Not desperate. Not aggressive. Just clear and honest and composed enough to make him understand that I was not a threat to his pack.

“I came for herbs. My brother is dying. That is the only reason I was in those woods.”

I kept rehearsing this statement quietly in my head. The words. The tone. The way I would hold his gaze without flinching. Because flinching in front of the alpha would be like waving a white flag.

The ceiling light hummed.

Time didn't move in a locked room. It pooled and stagnated. Stretched thin by the empty grey walls.

I had lost track of time when the silence finally cracked. Footsteps echoing and sharp. Coming from the other side of the door. They lacked the measured rhythm of the stone-faced man outside.

Unhurried. Deliberate. A cold sweat broke across my face before my brain could process what was happening. My instincts knew who it was first. Forcing me to straighten up my back before I could consciously tell my body to sit upright.

The footsteps stopped outside the door. A suffocating beat of silence. An audible click sounded from the other side of the door.

The door swung open. The Alpha himself arrived and stepped into the room. He kept his hand against the handle and closed it shut behind him. The thud vibrates throughout the entire room.

He didn't speak. He just stood there. Letting his golden-brown eyes slowly track across the whole room before fixing them entirely on me. Anchoring me to the edge of the bed.

My eyes went straight to the bag he was holding. And I had to physically stop myself from standing up.

Then he held the bag up. "You said that these were herbs." He asked.

"T—They are." I replied.

"Moonveil Roots." He said it bluntly. Like he was correcting me. "That's what's inside here. Still going to tell me again that these are just herbs?"

I said nothing.

He took one step closer. Slow and deliberate. The kind of step that wasn't about closing distance. It was about showing authority.

"So, let's try this again." His voice carried domineering violence that made the hairs on my skin stand. His eyes flashing red, were gazing down at me. "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?"

The words landed like a stone in still water.

He knew. He already knew exactly what the Moonveil Roots he was holding were used for. There was no point pretending otherwise.