My Rival Alpha Mates

Chapter Five : What I Feel Should Be Impossible

Chapter Five

Lyra - POV

Heavy footsteps reach my ears. Dante's face tightens as he senses who just walked in, and my head snaps toward Alpha Caden, who steps through the door with those icy amber eyes. "Am I interrupting something?" Caden asks.

Dante shoots me a look that tells me to keep my mouth shut. I get the message loud and clear. He leaves without another word.

My heart is still pounding. I feel Alpha Caden's gaze settle on me as he crosses the room. "I'm not going to bite," he says in a calm tone.

I don't trust it. Because calm, with him, can flip into a threat to keep quiet before you even see it coming.

"You came back for?" I try to shift the subject.

"My jacket." He points toward it lying on the couch.

"I'll get going," I say. His eyes stay on mine a beat too long, the same way Dante's did before he left. He says nothing.

"I'll walk you to your room." His deep voice startles me.

"I can—" I go quiet when I meet his gaze. It says don't argue. So I don't.

Once we reach my room, he pulls the door shut behind us, and I jump at the sound.

"What did Dante ask you?" He folds his arms. Great, just walked out of one interrogation and straight into another.

"Your secret is safe with me," I say. "In return–"

I stop when I catch him raising an eyebrow. "You want something in return." He takes a step closer. I don't back down.

"Yes," I say. "And you know as well as I do that Alpha Dante isn't going to let this go. I need something in return."

The corner of his mouth twitches a flicker of amusement before the stoic mask slides back into place.

"You're really coming out of your shell." Hearing him say that makes me think of Emma, the one who told me to stand up for myself and take the opportunities that come my way.

"So what do you need?" he asks.

"I need to practice as a doctor. I can't sit here in this mansion and try to play wife." He watches me.

"You're not a wolf. That makes you ineligible to serve as a pack doctor." He says it like it's simply a fact.

The voice in my head does the rest. You're useless. You can't be a pack doctor.

"I can still work as an assistant doctor," I say. "I can handle minor procedures without wolf abilities."

His dark blond hair falls across his forehead as he stares off in thought. Then his eyes come back to me. I hold still when his cold amber gaze meets mine.

"You can work as an assistant doctor in my pack." The Shadowfang Pack is one of the richest. And strongest. And they won't let a wolfless she-wolf without a record behind her name to become an assistant pack doctor.

"Where are we exactly? This mansion isn't in any of the pack territories, is it?" I ask.

"We're in the Red Crescent Pack," he says.

"Then I'll apply here as an assistant doctor." He nods.

He pauses at the doorframe, turning back over his shoulder. There's a dark look in his eyes, a warning that scares the hell out of me.

"I hope you know how to keep your mouth shut." His voice is low and rough.

I nod.

"Laura will be here in the morning." He holds my gaze one beat longer, then he's gone.

I finally breathe a sigh of relief. Getting comfortable in my jammies. I lie back staring at the ceiling, thinking about my brother, wondering how he's holding up after losing his mate and his child. I'm still angry at him for tricking me into this marriage, selling it as something he did for the pack. I really believed he had changed after Emma came into his life. I thought he was finally on my side.

He never was.

I don't have my phone. I want to call Kyle, the only friend I have left after Emma. I shut my eyes and try to sleep, but all I see is Emma's lifeless face. I sit upright with a gasp, heart slamming, reaching for water.

Catching my reflection in the mirror, my green eyes have gone pale white, the way they do when anxiety takes over. I check the antique wardrobe; contact lenses are not there as well.

Something shatters in a room down the hall. My gut tells me it's Alpha Dante's room.

"No! Don't do that!" His voice carries through the wall, muffled but sharp.

I'm moving before I think it through. Who in this mansion would Alpha Dante be screaming at? I followed the sound of his door and

knock.

"Alpha Dante," I call through the door. Silence answers me. Then low groaning, broken sounds that don't stop. My stomach drops. Could he be under attack? If a feral rogue's teeth have already broken skin, the venom works fast.

My hands shake. I can't fight a rogue. I'm not built for that.

"No—" His voice came again, ragged.

My fingers rest on the doorknob.

He is not a good man. The other voice rises in my head, the one that keeps score. Did you forget he pushed you? Threw your food on the floor? You used to be so scared to walk into the canteen just to eat. You forgot how he made you feel like you weren't even human while everyone laughed. You were the court jester and Dante was the king of it. He cut you down with words and gave you a nickname; they all sang back at you. Let him feel the pain. Don't risk your life for him.

The war in my head spins. I'm a doctor. I step inside, guard up, grabbing an antique figurine off the side table to use as a weapon if I have to. What stops me cold.

Dante is half-naked, his lean, muscled torso sheened with sweat, hair plastered to his face, wearing only joggers. He's thrashing in his sleep. I spot the claw wound on his upper arm, raw and angry, shifting as he turns.

I can't wake him. Panic could make it worse. Or he could come up swinging. Suddenly he sits up. I gasped at his sudden movement.

His eyes open, disoriented for a half second, and then they find me. The danger floods in fast. His eyes go luminous, glowing at the edges, his wolf surfacing at once.

I back away from taking small steps. Not slow enough. My back hits the wall. His hand wraps around my throat before I can get out a sound, and he squeezes. I claw at his grip, kick hard against his legs. He doesn't move.

" Alpha---Dante—" My voice comes out broken. "Let me go—you're hurting me—"

Something shifts inside at the same time a warmth moves through my body, sudden and sourceless, and his grip loosens just enough for me to drag in the air. I look up and meet his onyx eyes, cut through with that faint glow, his wolf staring back at me. His face drops to my neck. His breath is hot against my skin, tracing the length of my throat, and the warmth in my body only deepens.

"Lyra." His voice drops to a rasp. "You smell like lilac."

The warmth in my body deepens and I don't understand it. How did he shake off that nightmare so fast? One second he was drowning in it and now his lips brush the length of my neck. So light. So deliberate. My whole body shudders at the contact and I hate that it does. He trails his mouth along my skin and the warmth turns into something else, a tingling that spreads everywhere, all at once. It feels good. It feels too good. I feel the wet heat building between my legs and shame floods me right behind it, because this is not how I planned to let him anywhere near me.

He pulls back to meet my gaze. Alpha Dante’s eyes are still glowing.

"I can smell your arousal." His voice is low and thick, his wolf talking to me. "How are you running a mate heat? I sense no she-wolf power in you?"

"Let go of me," I whisper.

"No can do. You're in mate heat." His gaze drops to my throat. "I want to taste you."

"No. "I hold his stare. "Snap out of it, Alpha Dante."

The heat evaporates. Just like that. Dante steps back. His eyes bleed back to dark onyx, and the expression on his face is a collision of confusion, anger, and something close to disgust.

"What are you doing in my room?" he snaps.

"You nearly killed me," I hiss back.

He frowns, eyes dropping to my neck, then back to my face.

"You shouldn't have come in here if you didn't want to get hurt," he says.

"I'm a doctor. I can't walk away from a patient groaning on the other side of a wall. I thought you were being attacked by-"

He scoffs. "No one can kill me that easily."

I don't answer. I'm already scanning the room for a medical kit.

"What are you looking for?" He catches my wrist, stopping me mid-search. His grip is firm.

"A medical kit," I say.

He frowns. "I'll heal on my own."

"Those are claw wounds, Alpha. Claw wounds don't close clean; they drain energy from the healing process and—”

"I don't need you explaining wolf biology to me. Get out. Stop playing doctor." He steers me toward the door. "And while you're at

it, tend to that bruise on your own neck. I have a wolf to heal with. You don't have that luxury."

"Why do you have to be so cruel, Alpha Dante?" The words come out before I can pull them back and I don't want to. I spent an entire college year swallowing this down, too scared of what would happen if I didn't.

He fixes me with that fierce glare.

"Are you Caden's mate? Yes or no?" His voice goes cold. "You never answer that question. You go quiet every time."

"I'm not his mate," I say. "If I were, do you really think I'd be standing here married to you and Landon too?"

His eyes narrow.

"Then what exactly are you and Caden planning?" He steps closer, his frame swallowing the space between us. "You're helping him pull Landon and me into this forced marriage. Aren't you?"

"Caden is up to something, and you're in on it." He doesn't back off. "Aren't you."

"Even if I tell you no, you won't believe me," I say quietly.

I feel the tension move through his shoulders. That glare sharpens into something that makes my skin prick, and this is the man who just had his hand around my throat.

"You want to know why I keep asking if you're his mate?" His voice drops, something raw underneath the anger. "You want to know why I care?"