Marked By The Alpha I Once Betrayed

A Fated Kiss

Chapter 5 – A Fated Kiss

Alexander’s POV

Theodore Blackwood’s arrogance this morning was still making me upset. He had walked arrogantly into my boardroom earlier with charts, figures, and a smile so smug it begged to be broken.

Every director at that table had turned toward me, silently asking whether I would bless Theodore’s one-of-a-kind “partnership.” He had even slid the contract toward me as if he was my boss. That humans pisses me off. I had let him speak, let the room lean forward, let his confidence swell to the breaking point.

And then I pushed the papers back across the desk, calm as a hunter watching prey stumble into a snare.

“No,” I said,and I made sure to make him look like the fool he thought i was.

The silence that followed had been exquisite, directors exchanging stunned glances, Theodore blinking like a man slapped by an unseen hand. He had expected an eager handshake, he left with his jaw clenched and pride in tatters.

But behind my composure was another thought, more persistent than his failure. Aurelia.

She had warned me about Theodore that morning, easily dismissed by anyone who hadn’t known her betrayal. Yet she had looked at me with unguarded eyes, as if inviting me to see sincerity instead of scheming. That inconsistency itched like a thorn under skin.

Which was why, instead of retreating to my study, I found myself in the garden at twilight, following the faint scent of crushed roses until the silhouette of Aurelia Smith materialised near the fountain.

She stood with a rose flower between her fingers, the evening breeze tugging at a loose strand of her chestnut hair. For a heartbeat, memory tangled with the present, the woman who had once mocked my devotion now looked almost… tender.

I approached, my boots light on the floor. “Enjoying the evening air?”

She startled slightly, then turned. The moon light caught her face, showing her red cheeks, lips parted just enough to betray surprise.

“It’s beautiful,” she said softly. “Mrs. Aleena keeps the roses alive as if they were children.”

The honesty in her tone made my chest tighten. “She told me you helped today. That surpurising.” I said.

A faint smile ghosted over her mouth. “I wanted to give something back. I owe this house… I owe you better than what I’ve been.”

The words hit harder than I expected, stirring the wolf within me, restless, prowling. She means it, something inside whispered. But I had tasted betrayal before; sweetness could be poisoned.

“Theodore left my office humiliated,” I said, testing. “Odd, given his certainty this morning.”

Her fingers flexed around the stem. “Did he?” The weariness beneath her calm was barely there, yet I felt it.

I stepped closer, voice dropping. “You warned me of him. Curious, given our history.”

“I didn’t want you blindsided,” she murmured.

Desire and distrust warred in my blood. I leaned just enough for her perfume to mingle with the garden’s smell. My wolf pressed closer to the surface, hunger thrumming at the base of my spine.

“Aurelia,” I whispered, the syllables roughened by want.

Her hazel eyes locked on mine, wide and searching, pupils flaring. In that breath, she saw me not merely the man she’d hated, but the breadth of my restraint, the power I kept leashed.

She tilted her chin, closing the distance by a fraction. My gaze slid to her soft mouth, trembling, the faintest invitation.

If I kiss her, I might not stop. My wolf’s heat surged, sharp teeth ghosting my imagination. She didn’t know what I was; she didn’t know how close my control sometimes frayed.

I let myself drift nearer until my breath skimmed her cheek. The air thickened, charged, as if the entire estate held its breath. One more inch and I’d taste her. One more inch and the beast might claim what the man could never explain.

Not tonight.

I forced the air from my lungs and straightened, reclaiming the inches between us. “Careful,” I said, voice low, steadier than I felt. “Regret can mimic truth.”

Something flickered in her gaze, maybe hurt, but she replied to me in a truthful manner. “I’m not pretending, Alexander.”

“Time will prove that,” I answered, already turning before the wolf could lunge against the fragile cage of my will.

Aurelia’s POV

The moment he stepped back, my breath caught in my chest like a snuffed candle. Heat still tingled across my lips, the ghost of a kiss that never came, and I hated the shake in my fingers as I lowered the rose.

I hadn’t meant to lean in that far. I hadn’t meant to want. Yet standing so close, with such a handsome looking face, alongside with a fit and broad looking shoulders. Shoulders that looked big enough to hold my weight. The line of his jaw, the gold flecks in his dark irises, the quiet look in the way he looked at me, how had I ever scorned that?

My heart was still hammering, wild and traitorous. For one fleeting heartbeat I had imagined his mouth on mine, imagined surrendering every wall I had built. Instead, he turned away, voice cool, leaving me rooted to the gravel path like a chastised child.

I swallowed hard, fighting the sting behind my eyes. “Yeah,” I muttered into the quiet night, voice rough with something halfway between longing and shame.

“No one would kiss a bad-tempered lady like me. I would have labeled him mad myself, if I were to be in his shoes.” The words came out in a bitter whisper, half-laugh, half-lament. I pressed the rose to my chest, feeling the thorn bite my palm, a tiny punishment for the foolish hunger I had let slip.

Rain began to fall, and I turned to leave the garden because I remembered that Theodore would pull another move. Although, in the past, after Alex signed the papers, I, being a fool, thought that was all. Only for me to wake up days later with my naked pictures on the internet.