Chapter 5: The Wrong Kind of Restless

Roman POV

He made it as far as the first floor before he undid the first three buttons of his shirt. Burying a hand in his pocket, a deep breath escaped him as he felt the tincture Matilda had prepared for him.

Though it was meant for the wedding night, which wasn’t happening, Roman emptied it in his mouth and swallowed in one gulp.

Still, her scent muddied his brain; stubborn and pungent. He didn’t understand it. She was HUMAN! By default, they were not supposed to smell that...good.

Yet, she got his blood pumping and hot. In a rare moment of candor, he admitted that he would crave a taste of her if he was any other wolf.

But he was an alpha, spun from a long line of pure-blooded werewolves that shouldn’t be tainted with human genes. That was a code he lived by, and no sexual spark would ever be great enough to make him cross that line.

He made a beeline for his private office where he found his beta, Dax, rifling through papers. Dax straightened his back, a grim look on his face.

Wordlessly, he watched the alpha plunk down on his seat before he hit him with the bad news, while simultaneously passing Roman a stack of papers.

“The details of your sentence, my lord.”

Roman took it and went stiff while reading. Lunging to his feet, he threaded a hand through his hair. “I am to be excluded from chairing any regional alpha meetings? I am not allowed to lead my own pack hunts?”

He scoffed, then his smile died. “I am banned from shifting till my divorce is finalized? What the fuck is this, an attempt to kill me?”

“I’m sorry, my lord…but you are expected to have your wedding band on at all times. It has engravings that restrict you from shifting.”

“Who prepared this?” Roman slammed the papers furiously on the desk. His chest heaved. “This has got to be the joke of the century! How dare the council ban me from shifting FOR A WHOLE YEAR? What manner of cruelty and insanity is that? How am I supposed to survive? How is my wolf supposed to cope…that’s MADNESS!”

Dax’s shoulders sagged in agreement, but he didn’t deign to speak.

Roman shook his head in disbelief, pacing now, stifling the urge to upend the table, to punch the closest wall.

“This has elder Darryl written all over it. He’s got it out for me ever since he lost the alpha position to my father. He did everything to have my father impeached and now, he will stop at nothing to see me ruined.”

“Alpha Roman, that’s not entirely true. Elder Darryl is strict and always stands for our law. I agree that he comes off as contemptuous sometimes, but it’s nothing peculiar to you or your family. He’s just very loud and forward about our unified stance against corrupting our gene pool with…other species.”

Roman tightened his jaw as the subtext of Dax’s statement wasn’t lost on him. It all alluded back to his great-grandfather’s sin of marrying a human as his chosen mate.

“You’re not your great-grandfather, Roman,” Dax continued, eyes blazing with the support Roman always appreciated. “I know better than anyone how much it eats you alive to carry the weight of your ancestors wrong to our pack. I know how much you strive to compensate for that sin with every waking breath. You have nothing more to prove to me.”

He leaned forward. “I’m not just speaking as your beta now, but as your childhood best friend. I don’t care about the half-blood rumors about you and Regan. I just know that you’re MY alpha, and anyone with a brain will agree you have far surpassed our expectations since you assumed this position five years ago.”

Roman only nodded, and to Dax, that was as sufficient as a hug.

The emotion tinged in the atmosphere fizzled quickly between both men.

“Set up a meeting. I’m contesting these terms first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, alpha.”

Roman opened his drawer and frowned at the sight of his wedding ring.

“You’re riled up tonight and rightly so because of the day you’ve had. Maybe it’s best you put it on before your wolf claws for release.”

Inhaling deeply, Roman slipped the ring on with a grunt.

“Enough with the long face, let’s talk plans. How do we get the human out of our world?”

Roman shoveled hair out of his face and perked up finally. “I may have convinced her that she can walk away from this alive…even though she won’t. I had to sell her the lie she desperately wanted to hear; that she could go back home after this.”

“And I bet the dumb thing believed you.”

“She has no choice,” Roman flicked a somber glance at his beta. “I need the law that sicced her on me to be completely abolished. I need to show the council of elders what a bad decision it is to bring a human into our world.”

“I’ll have everything arranged.” Dax made it as far as the door before turning. “Roman? I’m proud of you for not fulfilling your marital duties to that human, even though it might have been in your best interest to move forward with this punishment and regain your reputation.”

Roman’s face hardened. “Why would that surprise you?”

“You’re right.” Dax agreed. “It should be fairly easy to resist a woman you feel nothing for, much less a human! Still, I appreciate the exemplary leader you are.”

Thora’s face flashed in Roman’s head the moment Dax left. His body heated as he recalled her scent. His wolf stirred restlessly till he shot to his feet and took off his shirt. If he couldn’t go for a night run in wolf form, he’d at least do some work out to sweat out the raging pheromones.

***

An hour of doing press-ups later, Dax’s words still made his heart ache, because he couldn’t understand how Thora could pull any kind of reaction from him besides hate.

He didn’t want to torture himself yet by wondering what his pack members (especially Dax) would think of him if they found out about the charge he felt every time he touched the human.

He breathed heavily. He’d figure out what it was and how to stop it. Till then, no one had to know.

When he finished his workout, Thora’s scent still lingered in his nostrils. Absentmindedly, he reached into his pocket and came up empty. Matilda’s tincture. He needed more.

He made a beeline for Matilda’s quarters. The closer he got, the muddier his brain felt with the human’s scent. He shot a hand on the wall and steadied himself as his wolf groaned. Why was he suddenly feeling pain?

“Matilda, I need…” He trailed off, the second he pushed open her door. His throat clogged. Matilda was standing next to the fireplace, mixing some herbs in a bowl. Thora writhed in pain on the bed.

“What’s going on?”

“Her wound is infected, and the pack doctor is indisposed.”

“You didn’t check with me first.” Roman stormed towards her. “I’m still your alpha, Matilda, even if you’re like a mother figure to me.” He hated that the bite in his tone didn’t hit as hard as he wanted. Matilda saw right through him.

She spoke through the pack link now. “She can’t die just yet. That will only complicate things for you, alpha. That’s the only reason I stepped in to help.”

Roman looked down at Thora who was sweating bullets as much as he was. Her skin looked ghostly pale.

As much as he hated to admit it, Matilda was right. Even if Thora died of the infection, the council wouldn’t easily absolve him of the punishment and, worse still, their marriage record would not be expunged from history. He needed to divorce her and abolish the law entirely. That was the only way to save his family’s reputation.

“Fine. Do what you must.” He turned to leave and stopped abruptly when Matilda called.

“It’s good you’re here. I will need you to hold her down as this mixture will feel like a burn on her thigh.”

Roman’s eyes bulged, not just out of shock that Matilda would dare ask him to touch Thora, but mostly because he couldn’t afford to let it slip that any form of contact with the human left him and his wolf…restless. So, he lashed out instead.

“Are you kidding me?”

Matilda appeared visibly stunned by his coldness now. “I apologize, alpha. I didn’t mean to cross the line.”

Eyes blazing, Roman headed for the door, ignoring the pain in his chest as his wolf clawed at him. He’d soak in the bath with herbs to soothe the pain he was feeling later, but for now, he had to get away from Thora and all the confusion she caused him.

Just as he yanked the door open, he narrowly escaped bumping heads with his twin brother, Regan. The brothers briefly locked eyes before Regan rushed past Roman.

“I got the herbs.”

“Oh, good. Just in time. Stuff a cloth in her mouth and help me pin her down while I apply this medicine to her wound.”

Roman’s fingers tightened on the door knob as he watched his brother follow orders. Thora thrashed on the bed, her muffled cries seeping through the gag. Her nightdress rode up her thighs till her white underwear flashed. Turning, Roman stalked away, slamming the door behind him.

He wasn’t furious simply because of how comfortable Matilda and Regan were with the human, which was definitely a subtle violation of pack law.

He hadn’t stayed back to watch because he sympathized with Thora either. He only did it because he had silently hoped that Regan would react to touching Thora, the same way he did.

He had hoped to find another explanation for what he was feeling, but it appeared no one else felt that zing. He needed answers, and fast.

His sharp sense of smell was already acting up. He hadn’t even been able to smell Regan’s scent behind the door, or to pick up that Thora was with Matilda. That was unlike him.

Was the moon goddess already punishing him for the marriage to a human? How much more of his senses and instincts would be dulled the longer Thora stayed by his side?

He gave his desk a bad-tempered kick the second he stepped into his study. His fingers closed around the polished edge when a voice stopped him.

Roman’s blood ran cold at the sight of his uninvited guest; the one person who knew exactly what the beginning of an alpha's downfall looked like was standing in his study.

"It's already in your eyes, alpha, just like his." The voice was heavy with grief. "It's already begun."