MATED TO THE COLD ALPHA

Chapter 14

Zerk POV

I stepped into my study room.

The first thing I noticed when I entered was even before the stack of reports I hadn't finished reading two nights ago. Her scent was on me, like it had decided to settle in my clothes without permission.

It made something warm pull underneath my chest that I refused to name.

I sat down behind the desk and pressed two fingers to the bridge of my nose.

She's driving me crazy. She always has. That time, something in me had snapped before I decided to stop myself.

I had pinned her to the wall.

I had put my hands on her.

And then I stood there with her heartbeat hammering against my palm. Her scent flooded every rational thought I had left. At that time, it felt like something other than the temptation from the bond.

I ignored all of it.

Three sharp knocks hit the study door.

"Enter," I said, already knowing who it was.

Kira walked in as if she owned the room, which was how she walked everywhere, and dropped herself into the chair across from my desk with the same lack of respect that she always felt entitled to. She crossed her legs. Looked at me. Said nothing for a moment.

I gave her nothing.

"She seems beautiful?" Kira said finally.

“Don't.”

"I'm just stating the obvious.”

"Then I prefer you to say a different one.”

She tilted her head, studying me with those sharp, perceptive eyes that had always seen more than I wanted them to. Growing up with her, it had always been annoying.

"You know what's interesting?" She said, like I'd invited her to continue. "I've been coming to this house since you were nineteen. I had seen you deal with enemies, with pack disputes, with Elder summons. But I have never seen you look the way you did when you were with her.”

"You must be imagining things.” I stated.

“Who is she actually, Zerk”

"I already told you. She is just a guest.”

"She told me she's from the Ashbone pack," Kira said.

The paper stilled in my hands.

"She mentioned it herself." Kira's voice was calm now, watching me with her perceptive gaze. "I didn't push her. She just said it.”

"Kira." I set the paper down. "Why are you here?”

She blinked. Then a slow smile softened her lips. Sinking back into the chair. Straightened herself with a lazy, confident stretch.

"I had a meeting in the city. A pack council negotiation. Don't ask, it was boring as hell, and it went badly. I needed to stay somewhere that wasn't a hotel." She shrugged one elegant shoulder. “I wanted to see you anyway. It's been like what, four months? You don't normally call.”

“I don't!”

"I know. It's one of your less charming qualities." She reached across the desk and pushed the report from my hands. Just the cleared space of the desk surface and her eyes on my face. "Talk to me. You don't have to tell me everything. But something's up, isn't that right? Why is she here at Ironveil pack?”

The room was quiet for a moment. Then I let out a heavy breath that I'd been holding in for a while.

"She's nobody," I said. "She trespassed into my territory. I'm holding her captive while I'm investigating a certain matter.”

Kira looked at me for a long moment. "Alright, Is that it?" She stood up, smoothing down her coat. "I'll be staying in the guest room tonight. We can have breakfast tomorrow, and you can tell me more about her. I'm already dead tired from that meeting." She crossed to the door and paused with her hand on the frame. "For what it's worth, I think that woman means something to you.”

She left before I could respond.

The study settled into silence around me.

I pressed the heel of my palm against the desk surface and held it there, the wood freezing against my skin. Something to hold onto. The weight of it pressed into the desk surface alongside my palm.

The mind link opened.

Cael's voice came through, holding the tone of someone assigned to carry out an important task.

‘Alpha. Update from the Ashbone border team.’

‘Talk.’

‘The men from the healer's residence. They're already gone. They pulled back and retreated. But before they left–’ A pause, Cael’s voice dropped down a few octaves. ‘They left something outside the healer's door. One of our men got eyes on it before it was taken inside.’

‘What was it?’ I questioned. Already, my patience is wearing thin.

‘A photograph, Alpha.’ Another pause. ‘Of that woman, Sera. It was taken from inside the pack house. Someone has been watching her from the inside. Long enough to photograph her without our notice.’

‘WHAT?’ The wood under my palm cracked.

I looked down at my hand. My grip had tightened at the edge of the desk. The temperature in my body heated up in anger.

‘When was it taken?’

‘Based on the angle and what she's wearing in the image?’ Cael's voice was carefully flat. ‘The day before yesterday, where she last ate in the dining hall.’

‘You mean we have a spy in our pack?’ My voice vibrated with rage.

‘It would seem so, my Alpha.’ Cael responded.

Someone had taken a picture of her inside my territory.

And they had left that photograph at the healer's door like it was a message. Why would someone do that?

‘Tomorrow, I want you to gather all the warriors, guards, maids and healers outside the training ground before 4pm. I will snoop out whomever the perpetrator is in my pack.’ A growl built deep in my throat, carrying something darker than anger underneath it.

‘Yes, Alpha, I'll get right on it.’ He responded. And the link was cut off.

I stood up from the desk slowly. The cracked wood caught the lamplight in a thin, pale line across the surface.

“It seems we have a perpetrator within our midst.” My voice rose above a whisper. Anger bubbling in my blood. “I'll find whomever this person is and make them regret the day they were ever born.”

After that, I stood up from my chair and stepped out of the room. The door banged with a sickening thud.