Five

ROMAN.

“What the hell are you doing?”

August’s voice is the first thing that greets me as I walk through the doors. Don’t get me wrong, August is my friend and he’s usually a pleasant presence, but right now I just want him to leave me alone. Unfortunately for me, he follows me even to my chambers.

I exhale sharply. “Come on, Auggie. Don’t you think it’s a bit weird that you followed me all the way to my bedroom?”

“I only did that because you’ve been gone all day!” he hisses, closing the door behind him. “Do you know what hell I’ve gone through dealing with the Alphas asking where the hell the King is on his thirtieth birthday? I was tempted to put on your armor and pretend you want to joust or something!”

A grin etches on my lips. “That would have been fun to see.”

“This is serious, Roman.” August’s face turns dark. When he calls me by my name and not my title, I do know that it’s indeed serious. “Every Alpha was angry and they were demanding answers about the north.”

Immediately, my mood sours.

Of course those fuckers would demand that. Do they think I know what happened there? Do they think I know what’s still happening there?

It’s been ten years since my father died from a mission in the north of Terra Lycaon. The sun never shines there, just constant darkness and dropping temperatures. He brought a team of Alphas with him to investigate the attacks happening there, but only one made it out alive, his best friend Janus, another Alpha.

Ten years, and no one has attempted to go back there to know what went down. Janus himself doesn’t want to go, claiming that what happened there was a nightmare that he would rather forget.

The attacks on the northern packs have calmed down over the years, only for them to pick right up again for the past ten months or so.

So far, two packs have been attacked, with fifty people dead.

I sit on the bed and take off my shoes. “They want answers… and yet when I volunteer to go there myself, everyone wants me to sit it out. When I ask for volunteers, no one wants to go. What the fuck do they want me to do?”

August falls silent, and I know he shares my frustration. I’ve been backed up on a wall over here for months. It’s tiring.

It’s the exact same reason why I spent some time in the Human world. Just to escape for a while. I wanted to throw money at some stupid shit and end up in bed with a few Human girls, who have always been eager to get fucked. It’s perfect too, because as an Alpha, I could never get them pregnant.

I have done this for years. I have been in bed with countless Human women, not just the ones I like to watch for their shows. Even just women who throw themselves at me wherever I go. But tonight… it was different.

The woman I met was different.

I don’t know her real name. All I know is that her stage name was Red, maybe because of her flaming red hair. Big tits, perfect ass, that pretty face… Fuck. I knew when I laid eyes on her that I wanted her under me, scratching my back and moaning my name.

I really thought I was going to get that too. I was making her come and I knew she wanted me to fuck her, but she suddenly just jumped away from me and left me high and dry.

Fuck, I could’ve gone to another woman. I could’ve have picked up someone else. But I didn’t feel the need to, at that moment.

All I wanted is her.

And I still want her.

I take a deep breath. Her scent is still on me. For some reason it’s making me even more restless than I already am.

I wish I knew why she left.

“I’ll have a meeting for everyone tomorrow,” I tell August. “Send out the memo, and I will answer all their questions. I’ll go to the north this time too, if it means shutting them the fuck up.”

He doesn’t move. “My King, at least let me come with you when you do. But I do think that shouldn’t go. They’re right about that, we just have to think of another way.”

I shake my head. “There’s no other way. Those Alphas are just going to keep running their mouths until someone does it. Better me than a group of poor men who have no choice but to follow orders.”

August doesn’t say anything. He just lowers his head. I take off my jacket, ready to dismiss him and get to bed, but then he gasps when I throw my jacket to the floor.

“Why is there blood on your shirt?”

I look down in confusion, only to see that the entire left side of my shirt is drenched in blood. Not my blood, that’s for sure. It’s Human blood, courtesy of the idiot that tried to rob me on my way to the strip club.

Then it hits me at lightning speed.

“That’s why she left.”

“Who?” August crosses the room and stands in front of me. “Who left? Have you been messing with Humans again? Roman, this is insanity!”

“It’s fine,” I grit out, unbuttoning my shirt. “Don’t be such a fuss. I’ll burn it and no one would know.”

I discard my shirt as well, lumping it in with the jacket and tossing it into the fireplace. I thought August would walk away this time, but he stays there staring at me. For some reason, he looks more shocked than when he saw the blood. I cock an eyebrow, only for him to point at the tattoo on my chest.

Every male wolf gets branded with their house sigil on their thirteenth birthday. It’s not just a rite of passage. It can turn from red to black, when we first touch our fated partners. Female wolves get theirs on the wrist on their eighteenth birthday, to make sure they remain pure. My tattoo is a raven above crossed swords, the sigil of the Medeiros House.

And right now, it’s burning black, like a burst of smoke on my skin.

“Alpha Roman.” August’s eyes are with reverence. “You have been touched by your mate.”

Immediately, I know that I need to go back to the Human world and find that girl again.

This time, I will make her mine.