Chapter 4: Angry Alpha

 

"Elias, please... calm down."

Beta Gavin took a slow, deliberate step backward across the wet courtyard cobblestones, his hands held open at waist height.

"Calm down?"

Elias's voice was a low, vibrating growl that made the iron sconces on the ramparts rattle. He stepped forward, his boots squelching in the mud, carrying Jace's limp, shivering frame tightly against his broad chest.

"You know I despise it when anyone uses, touches, or endangers what belongs to me," Elias snarled, his jaw locked in pure, lethal fury. "You sent a fragile Null beyond the border perimeter without an escort. You sent him straight into enemy territory."

The fifty assembled warriors and house maids stood in dead, petrified silence.

Whispers fluttered like nervous sparrows along the courtyard walls.

"He's just a Null servant..." one sentry muttered under his breath. "Why is the Alpha going feral over a boy who can't even shift?"

"Look how he holds him," a maid whispered back, her eyes wide. "He carried him two miles through the rain like he was made of glass."

Elias closed the distance between himself and his second-in-command, stopping inches from Gavin's face.

"I expected this from my father's spies," Elias hissed, his breath hot and ragged in the freezing air. "I did not expect it from you."

Gavin's jaw tightened with regret.

"I didn't think the Eastern patrol would dare cross the creek..."

"You didn't think?!" Elias roared, shifting his grip as his Alpha aura flared into an apocalyptic storm. "Then allow me to make sure you never forget!"

Elias leaned forward to strike, the terrifying weight of his power ready to hit his Beta.

"Ahhn... don't..."

A tiny, choked whimper broke from Jace's lips.

The frail boy shifted weakly against Elias's chest, his blood-stained cheek nuzzling into the Alpha's warm neck, his small fingers weakly grasping the lapel of Elias's coat.

"Please... don't hurt him..." Jace whispered, his voice cracking before his eyes fluttered shut once more.

Elias froze mid-breath.

The monstrous, uncontrollable rage that had fueled his sprint through the forest evaporated in a single heartbeat, replaced by an overwhelming, protective tenderness that made his throat tight.

He looked down toward Jace's pale face, his unseeing grey eyes softening into pure devotion.

Elias turned slowly toward the gathered crowd, his voice dropping into a flat, deadly decree that echoed off every granite stone of the fortress.

"Hear me clearly," Elias commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument. "This boy is under my personal protection. No one assigns him duties. No one sends him beyond these gates. And if any person in this pack ever lays a cruel hand on him again... you will answer to my claws."

He didn't wait for a response.

Turning on his heel, Alpha Elias carried Jace straight past the bowing sentries, up the grand staircase, and kicked open the double doors of his own master bedchamber.

He laid Jace down gently in the center of his grand mahogany bed, settling the boy's head upon the soft silk pillows.

"Mrs. Gable! Doctor Thorne!" Elias bellowed toward the hall. "In here. Now."

Within moments, the elderly pack doctor and the head maid hurried into the suite, carrying clean water, antiseptic tinctures, and white linen bandages.

Doctor Thorne worked quickly, cleaning the cut on Jace's cheek, binding the scrapes along his wrists, and smoothing a soothing herbal salve over his bruised shoulder.

"He is suffering from exhaustion and minor contusions, Alpha," Doctor Thorne reported quietly, wiping his hands on a clean towel. "His fever has spiked slightly from the damp chill, but his bones are whole. He needs rest."

"Leave the salve," Elias ordered softly, not turning from the bedside. "And leave us."

Mrs. Gable bowed deeply, shepherding the doctor out and closing the heavy oak doors with a soft, final click.

The bedchamber fell into a deep, heavy quiet, save for the crackle of the fireplace and the soft, shallow breaths escaping Jace's parted lips.

Elias sat on the wooden chair beside the mattress.

His broad, calloused hands rested on his knees and for the first time in years, they were trembling.

Elias stared down at his shaking fingers in the dark.

The last time his hands had shaken like this, he had been twelve years old. He remembered the cold stone floor of his father's estate, the bitter smell of stale wine, and the fading, fragile hand of his dying mother clasped inside his own. His father had mocked her, beating her for giving birth to a defective, blind Alpha who brought shame to the Blackwood lineage.

On the night she died, Elias had sat in the dark, unable to see her face, unable to wipe her tears, only able to listen as her heartbeat slowed to a halt.

Badum... badum... badum...

Silence.

Elias had wept until he lost consciousness that night, blaming his own blindness for her death.

And now, sitting beside this bed, all Elias could hear was Jace's heartbeat.

Badum. Badum. Badum.

It was faint, but it was steady. It was warm. It was alive.

Deep inside his chest, behind the cage of his ribs, his dormant wolf stirred from its sleep, resting its chin against his soul and whispering a single, undeniable word:

Ours.

Elias didn't fight the thought. He didn't deny it. For nineteen years, he had been an empty shell of a warrior, living only for duty and survival. But this fragile, silver-haired Null who smelled like wild violets had unlocked a part of him that felt miraculously human.

"Don't hurt me... please..." Jace murmured in his sleep, his brow furrowing as he twisted restlessly beneath the heavy velvet quilts.

Elias leaned forward, his heart clenching at the distress in the boy's voice.

"Shh, Little Wolf," Elias whispered, his tone softer than silk. "No one will ever lay a hand on you again. I promise."

Slowly, carefully, Elias lifted his large hand.

His fingers hovered an inch above Jace's face, feeling the delicate heat radiating from his skin. With feather-light slowness, Elias allowed his fingertips to brush against the uninjured side of Jace's cheek, tracing the soft, smooth curve of his jaw.

He slid his knuckles downward, feeling the fragile line of Jace's collarbone beneath the linen shirt, lingering over the steady, comforting thrum of his pulse.

The sweet, intoxicating aroma of cinnamon and fresh violets rose from Jace's fever-warm skin, filling the air until Elias felt dizzy with longing.

His wolf paced impatiently inside him.

Touch him. Taste him. Protect him.

Elias leaned in closer.

He lowered his head until his warm breath fanned across Jace's parted lips. He could feel the soft, rhythmic puffs of air against his own mouth. He wanted nothing more than to press his lips against Jace's, to seal their souls together in the quiet of the dark.

"Just once," Elias whispered, his voice trembling with an agonizing, desperate hunger. "Let me have just this one moment..."

He leaned down the final fraction of an inch, his lips brushing the soft curve of Jace's mouth.

Instantly...

Jace's eyes flew wide open!

Jace gasped, his breath hitching violently as he found the towering, dark silhouette of Alpha Elias hovering mere millimeters above his face!

Elias froze, his sightless grey eyes wide, caught completely off-guard by the sudden intake of breath.

Before Elias could speak, Jace shrieked in shock, kicking his legs beneath the blankets and scrambling backward against the headboard!

"Alpha?!" Jace cried out, his voice cracking like thin ice.

Elias jerked back so fast his chair scraped loudly against the floorboards, his hands flying up into the air as if he had touched white-hot iron.

"I... I wasn't..." Elias stammered, his cheeks flushing with unprecedented, mortified embarrassment.

Jace clutched the heavy velvet quilt all the way to his chin, trembling so violently that the entire four-poster bed shook beneath him. His wide grey eyes darted between the door and the blind Alpha standing before him.

"Please... please don't hurt me, sir!" Jace pleaded, his voice small and terrified.

Elias exhaled a harsh, ragged breath, running a hand through his dark hair as he tried to regain his composure.

"Don't call me sir right now," Elias said, his voice dropping into a gentle, soothing cadence.

"I-I'm sorry, sir! I mean...Alpha!" Jace stammered, flinching back against the pillows.

Elias lowered himself slowly into the wooden armchair, crossing his legs and resting his hands calmly on his knees so as not to appear threatening.

"I was not going to hurt you, Jace," Elias said softly, his sightless eyes fixed toward the sound of Jace's frantic breathing. "I just... I couldn't stop looking at you."

Jace stared at him, bewildered.

"Looking at me? But... you can't see, sir."

Elias tilted his head slightly, a faint, melancholic smile touching his lips.

"I see you better than anyone in this world, Little Wolf. I see you with my hands, my ears, and my soul."

Jace's throat bobbed as he swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I thought... I thought you were angry with me, sir."

"Stop saying 'sir'!" Elias barked, though there was more frustration than fury in his voice. "Why must you end every single sentence with 'sir'?"

Jace shrank back slightly.

"Because you are the Alpha of this territory... and I am only a lowly servant."

"My name is Elias," the Alpha said, his tone firm, intimate, and leaving no room for argument. "Call me Elias."

Jace shook his head frantically.

"I can't do that, sir. It defies the rules."

Elias's jaw clenched tightly. He rose slowly from the armchair, stepping toward the edge of the mattress until his broad shadow fell across Jace's trembling frame.

He leaned down, bracing one hand on the carved bedpost, his face mere inches from Jace's ear.

A dark, dangerous, intoxicating smirk curved Elias's lips.

"Hear me clearly, Little Wolf," Elias whispered, his voice vibrating straight through Jace's chest. "If you call me 'sir' one more time... I will finish the kiss you just interrupted."