Three: The Alpha’s Instinct

Ronald’s POV

The night wind crawled through the fortress like a ghost, carrying the scent of iron, damp stone, and something far more dangerous, her.

Even three floors above the dungeons, I could smell the rogue.

I poured another measure of whiskey, but the burn in my throat did nothing to quiet the heat under my skin.

The fire in the hearth threw restless shadows across the walls of my chamber, each one shaped like claws, like memory.

I had done what any sane Alpha should do, ordered her imprisonment and her execution at dawn.

So why did my wolf pace inside me like a caged beast, snapping at my restraint?

Because she’s ours, he growled.

“Silence,” I muttered, slamming the glass onto the desk. Whiskey sloshed over the rim, dark and bitter.

The Moon Goddess had mocked me before, but this… this was cruelty. To tie my fate to a rogue, one with murder in her eyes and my name on her kill list, was a joke fit for the gods’ amusement.

I should end it now, just end her.

Yet the image of her face when I’d wrapped my hand around her throat wouldn’t leave me.

Not fear. Not submission. Defiance, pure and unbroken.

No one had ever looked at me that way and lived.

A soft knock sounded at the door.

“Enter.”

Lucas stepped in, silent as always, the flicker of firelight catching the scar that split his left brow.

My Beta had the expression of a man delivering bad news he’d rather choke on.

“Alpha.” He bowed his head. “The council envoy left their message.”

I arched my brow. “At this hour?”

“They’re watching, Ronald.” His voice dropped to a warning growl. “Word spreads fast. A rogue in your dungeon, and you haven’t executed her. They’ll see that as weakness.”

I turned back toward the fire. “Let them watch.”

Lucas exhaled, the sound edged with frustration. “You know how they were before the Blood Moon. Any sign of softness.”

“Softness?” I cut him off with a low laugh. “You think that woman softens me?”

He didn’t answer, which was answer enough.

I stalked toward the window, pushing it open. The cold slapped my face, carrying the mixed scents of pine, rain, and blood.

Below, the courtyard shimmered with torchlight and movement. Wolves patrolled the walls, iron and discipline holding the night together.

Beyond the gates, darkness breathed. Somewhere under it, the rogue waited for her dawn.

“She killed three of my guards trying to cross the border,” I said quietly. “I could make an example of her. End the whispers before they start.”

“You should,” Lucas replied, stepping closer. “Before the Council forces your hand. Before they ask questions you don’t want to answer.”

My jaw tightened. “Questions like why she still lives?”

“Exactly.”

I faced him, eyes burning gold. “She’s alive because I said so. Because I want to know who sent her and why she crossed into Bloodfang lands during a Blood Moon cycle.”

Lucas hesitated. “And if she’s telling the truth? If no one sent her?”

“Then I’ll decide what to do when I’ve finished breaking her.”

He studied me a moment longer, then bowed slightly. “Very well. I’ll tell the guards to delay the execution.”

As he turned to leave, I caught the faintest smirk ghosting his lips. “You’re playing with fire, Alpha.”

“When have I ever been afraid to burn?”

The door shut behind him, leaving me alone with the echo of her scent still threading through the air.

I couldn’t resist it any longer.

I needed to see her.

The descent into the dungeons was a slow unraveling of control. Each step echoed with my wolf’s pulse, steady and relentless.

Guards straightened as I passed, lowering their heads in instinctive deference, but even their fear couldn’t drown out the whisper inside me: Mate.

When I reached the cell, the torches along the corridor flared, recognizing the power that leaked from my skin.

She sat exactly where I’d left her, chained, bruised, unbroken. Moonlight filtered through the narrow window, sketching silver across her face.

Even half-covered in dirt and blood, she looked like sin sculpted into form.

Her head lifted, eyes locking onto mine. Gray, cold storm-gray, and yet they burned hotter than flame.

“You’re back,” she said flatly.

I ignored the sting in her tone. “Why did you cross my borders?”

Silence.

I stepped closer. “Speak.”

Her lips curved. “And ruin the mystery? No.”

The sound of my growl filled the cell. “You think this is a game?”

“I think you don’t know what to do with me,” she shot back.

For a moment, everything in me stilled. She was right. I didn’t.

My wolf prowled, tail lashing, hungry and furious.

I could end her. One slash, one breath, and the problem would disappear.

But my claws refused to extend. My body, our body, betrayed me.

I turned away before she could see the tremor in my hands.

“Keep her alive,” I ordered the guards outside, voice rough. “No one touches her without my command.”

The door slammed shut between us, but her scent still clung to me, coiling like smoke in my lungs.

Back in my chamber, I tried to drown her presence in work, in whiskey, in silence. None of it helped.

When I closed my eyes, I saw her again, defiant, dangerous, doomed.

The bond throbbed like a wound, pulsing with every heartbeat until pain became heat and heat became hunger.

She is ours, my wolf whispered. If she dies, you die too.

I slammed my fist against the wall, stone splintering under my palm. “She’s a threat,” I hissed. “A liar. A curse.”

Then why do you crave her scent?

I had no answer.

Through the open window, dawn bled slowly across the horizon, staining the sky in red and gold.

The same colors as war. The same colors as her blood when I’d touched her.

I leaned against the desk, chest heaving, the echo of her heartbeat still inside me though she was far below.

My wolf pressed against the edge of my mind, demanding I go back, demanding I claim her before the sun rose.

I didn’t move.

Couldn’t.

Because I finally understood the danger.

The Council’s threats, the rumors, the weakness, they were nothing compared to this bond tightening around my throat.

I thought I was the predator.

But the moment I smelled her on the wind, I knew the truth.

I told myself keeping her close was in control.

But as her scent burned in my lungs, I realized, this bond might be the death of him.