chapter Nine.

Moonlight kissed the stone walls of the Alpha's quarters, but the air inside was far from serene.

"You think your crown makes you clean?" she spat. “You touched what belongs to someone,Alpha. You’ve brought rot into this Pack.”

Alpha Raya stood motionless—her poise statuesque, her expression unreadable. The broken mirror behind her glittered in pieces across the floor like stars spilled from a violent sky.

"Speak carefully," Raya said, voice low, freezing. "You were never permitted into this room. And certainly not to insult your Queen."

The lady laughed bitterly. “You call yourself Queen? A true Alpha doesn’t get tainted by creatures from the woods,she doesn’t take what’s not hers.”

Raya's eyes narrowed, a storm behind them. “Your words mean little to a wolf who couldn’t even hold a rank.”

The Lady opened her mouth to retaliate—but froze, as if something unseen coiled around her. Her body trembled, flickered like a dying flame, and within seconds… she vanished. Not a step taken. Not a scent left behind. Just gone.

The door creaked open. In stepped Riven.

Broad-shouldered, quiet-footed, dressed in black with silver embroidery at the cuffs, he paused mid-step when he saw the mess—and the absence. The air still crackled with hostile energy. His sharp gaze snapped to Raya, who hadn’t moved a muscle.

“Alpha?” His voice was quieter now, deeper. Protective.

“She’s gone,” Raya answered flatly. “She got in. Spoke too much.”

Riven stepped forward, boots crunching softly against the scattered mirror shards. His jaw tightened. “How did she even—?”

“I don’t know,” Raya cut in, then exhaled, the sound delicate but heavy. “But she shouldn’t have been able to enter my chamber without a trace. That concerns me.”

He didn’t ask permission. He was past that with her.

He crossed the space to her, one hand brushing lightly over her arm, inspecting the smooth line of her bicep, her neck, her sides. “Are you hurt?” he asked. Not clinically. Not even dutifully. But as a man whose heartbeat depended on her wellness.

“No,” she murmured, catching the way his eyes lingered on the sharp dip of her collarbone. “Not physically.”

He held her gaze a moment longer before stepping back. He turned his head. “Maids,” he called, firm and cold.

Two maids entered—tall, young, with eyes empty as moonlight. Neither said a word. With swift hands and distant expressions, they began sweeping up the fragments. Raya watched them move, then returned her focus to Riven.

“She said I was tainted. Said I took what's not mine,” Raya muttered, walking slowly to the window, the hem of her black silk robe brushing across broken glass like whispers in the dark.

Riven followed. “You didn't take anything Alpha.”

“But the rogue is still in the dungeon,” Raya said softly, her fingers curling around the windowsill. “And you and I both know… he’s not normal.”

A silence stretched between them, thick with things left unsaid.

Riven approached her slowly, his voice quieter. “You want to talk about him?”

Raya turned, her gaze sharp now. “He hardly speaks.But he does…it pisses me off,he's not saying what I need to hear.”

Riven crossed his arms. “He’s in the Dungeon. Perhaps it's time to add a little violence.”

Raya’s lips twitched—almost a smile, almost sorrow. “You don't say?”

Ryan nodded.

“Rogues are stubborn and filthy,” he added. “They won't spill the beans without a little violence.”

“God Riven I need answers, I…”

Riven took one stride forward, closed the gap, and pressed two fingers to her lips, silencing her.

“Chill Raya,you will get answers,” he said, low and fierce.

Her eyes widened, heart visibly slamming against her ribs.

“This is not your first time handling someone stubborn,” he continued. “I trust my Alpha.”

The silence between them now throbbed.

Then, without warning, they both stilled—something moved in the hallway. A pulse of energy swept under the door like frost. Riven shifted, eyes narrowing.

The door creaked open, but no one stood there.

Only the rogue’s scent.

Raya’s fingers curled around the edge of her vanity.

He lifted her without effort—one arm under her knees, the other around her back—and carried her toward the massive canopy bed at the room’s center. The curtains were still drawn, the sheets pristine. She hadn’t planned to sleep. But now her body leaned into him, tension melting.

“You need rest,” he whispered.

“I need answers.”

“They’ll come.”

He set her gently down on the bed, brushing back her hair, watching her with something just shy of ache.

Raya lay beneath him, the silk sheets cool against her back, his weight braced above her—close, warm, commanding. Riven’s hand cradled the side of her face, thumb brushing her cheekbone with maddening care. His gaze burned into hers, his lips barely a breath away.

The world narrowed to that moment—his scent, the heat between them, the aching promise in his eyes.

Then…

A howl.

Low. Long. Raw.

It cut through the air like a blade dipped in hunger, reverberating through the castle walls, through her skin, and deep into her spine.

Her breath hitched. Her body tensed, turning instinctively toward the sound—toward him. The rogue.

Riven stilled above her. His eyes darkened, but his lips changed course.

He didn’t kiss her mouth.

Instead, he pressed a soft, lingering kiss to her cheek.

“I heard it too,” he murmured, voice heavy with meaning.

And just like that… the moment passed. But the tension didn’t.

It pulsed—unspoken, unfinished.

The howl didn't sound normal,it sounded like a warning!.