Becoming Alpha Roan’s

His Offer

Lena's POV

You could cut through the silence in the room with a knife or the Goddess-forsaken dagger still in my hand.

I was too busy grappling with the fact that he had a wolf to think of an explanation for why I just tried to stab him.

Finally, Roan broke the tension with a painful dig of his claws into my arm.

I cried out as blood bubbled from the pinpricks, and my fingers unfurled from the hilt of the knife.

It dropped with a soft thud on the sheets and he swiftly swept it off the bed with his leg, his skin shielded from the effects of the silver by his pants.

He turned back to me, a battle of gold and silver taking place in his irises as beast fought with man for control.

All I could do was stare, frightened out of my mind because not once in months of planning was Roan having a wolf part of the contingencies.

"I..." The words got stuck in my throat. In truth, I didn't know what to say.

“Gordon must be getting desperate to resort to this,” he said, his voice awfully calm for a man who just learned his bride had been sent to assassinate him.

I remained silent. There was nothing I could say to save myself, so I waited for my death, hopefully a quick and painless one, though I doubted I would be so lucky.

His hand wrapped around my neck and squeezed, hard enough to make me teary-eyed and lightheaded, but not enough to do the harm I now knew he was capable of.

A silent warning.

"Can you be good?"

I tried to nod but when that failed I managed to rasp, “yes.”

He nodded, pleased and then let go of my neck.

I gasped, chest heaving as I desperately sucked in precious air.

Roan got off me and then the bed, his fingers clawing at air as if wishing it were my flesh it was sinking into.

I sat up as quietly as I could to not bring his attention back to me and watched his shadowy figure easily navigate through the dark.

I should have noticed it from the very beginning, but after listening to Gordon rant about how weak Roan was so many times, it had made me cocky.

A click filled the silence, and I shielded my eyes as light flooded the room.

It took a couple of seconds to adjust to the sudden brightness and when I did, my treasonous eyes zeroed in on the muscles of his naked back that rippled beneath his skin as he rifled through a suitcase on the desk.

He turned, and my eyes snapped to the criminally soft sheet beneath me, hoping he did not notice how fast my heart was beating, or confused it for fear

My count of the sheets swirling design was interrupted by a yellow file being trust into my line of sight.

My eyes travelled up to the hand holding it, then the arm, neck and finally I landed on the face, where I found myself unable to look away.

Roan was devastatingly handsome, almost unreal in his perfection.

Long pale blonde hair tied back at the nape of his neck, just shy of touching his shoulders. Equally long lashes fluttering around icy eyes that had a touch of glacier blue I hadn’t noticed.

His lips were upturned at the corners. An eternal smile that I was sure would make him look so much more handsome and playful if he curved his lips the rest of the way.

But there was something ominous in his eyes, paired with his stony expression, that made him look dead inside.

"Take it," he commanded with a hint of impatience.

I obeyed and slowly flipped it open.

The hairs on my arm stood when I saw what it contained.

It was all me. Every minute detail of my life, down to the exact day and time I had been found on the steps of the orphanage. Pictures included.

Alpha Gordon had been planning this night for months and from the pictures I was looking at, Roan had known from day one.

"So you know everything," I concluded as I closed the file, with a heavy frown, unable to meet his eyes.

There was something unsettling about someone as capable and powerful as him having such an intimate knowledge of how low and pathetic my life was.

He took a seat on the edge of the bed. "Not everything. My spies are efficient but Gordon has a habit of killing off the people around him before they can learn anything useful."

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. This was their battle, not mine.

I only knew as much about it as Gordon was willing to tell me.

"Do you wish to die, Lena?" He asked suddenly, silver eyes boring into my skin, as if they could see right in to my soul.

"No." My response came without a second thought.

He hummed, and took my chin in a gentle cradle to study my face.

"What did Gordon offer you to kill me?"

I hesitated, wondering if it would be wise to go against Gordon who was notoriously ruthless to traitors. A slow but deliberate scrape of his sharp claw against my cheek made me reconsider my stance.

"You know about Tommy and the accident. He took care of the bills for his treatment and halved the money I owe him with a promise to take off a couple of thousand if I got information on something called the Black Wood files?"

Roan's eyes narrowed at the mention of that name, his eyes lighting up with the first emotion, other than rage, that evening.

The mask was back in place before I could remark on it. Not that I would. His claws were still on me.

"He also promised to let me, Winny, and Timmy go after I...."

Killed you went unsaid, because I was too ashamed to admit how low I was willing to go to save myself.

"Let you go?" Roan repeated with a raised brow.

"You can't leave Golden Peak if you owe the Alpha, and if you don't, there's a really high exit fee that most humans can't afford to pay."

I had been secretly saving up for Winny and Timmy to leave Golden Peak, but after four years, all I have to show for it was a little over half of a single ticket.

"If I spare your life and get you and your kin out of Gordon's grasp, what would you do in exchange?"

My lips parted in shock.

It was a cruel joke had to be after what I had done.

But what if it wasn't? What if I could get out of this without staining my conscience with blood and death?

"Anything."

Roan smiled for the first time since we met, but like most of him, it lacked any warmth in it.

"I have plans, Lena"

He said my name like it was a secret as he leaned in closer, casting a shadow over me and causing the light to surround him like a halo.

Like some fallen angel about to convince me to sign my soul away to him.

"Plans?" I asked in a small voice because the air felt too charged for anything louder.

He stroked my cheek and then his fingers travelled downwards, all while his eyes kept mine locked in place.

They came to a stop at the right side of my neck, just a little lower than my jaw.

Right where his mark would go.