6. The Mind of a Monster

Rosalie’s POV

The sheer proximity of his burning body made me incredibly uncomfortable. I hated the way he was looking at me—like a predator that had finally found its true mate.

“Is it you?” I demanded, my voice shaking as I glared directly into his golden eyes, refusing to look submissive. “Or is it your wolf?”

Dominic didn’t answer. He just continued to stare, his jaw tight, his thumb resting over the wild, erratic pulse point at my neck.

“If you’re not going to rip me in half, then let me go,” I snapped, placing my hands against his corded, bare shoulders and pushing against him.

The sharp demand snapped him out of his trance. His brow furrowed, a low, defensive growl rolling through his chest as he finally released his grip, stepping back just enough to let my bare feet touch the cold stone floor. He scanned my disheveled appearance, his eyes darkening.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” Dominic growled, his voice a gravelly, furious baritone. “Everyone is supposed to be locked up. The wing is locked down.”

I let out a sharp, bitter laugh, rubbing my bruised neck as I bit right back. “I know! Because you are a complete madman at this hour! Your own men threw me out here as a piece of meat to save themselves!” I stepped toward him, my anger entirely overriding my fear as I gestured fiercely at the locked iron gates behind me. “What kind of tribute gets treated like this, Alpha? I played your ridiculous games, I sat through your miserable dinner, and the moment you throw a tantrum, your commanders choose me as the sacrificial lamb!”

He stepped closer again, his towering frame completely eclipsing the red moonlight as his eyes darkened to a deep, dangerous shade of gold.

A fresh wave of panic hit my chest, and I took a frantic step back until the cold iron bars of the gate bit into my spine. “Did your wolf take back control?”

“Not yet,” Dominic murmured, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that sent a shiver straight down my arms. “But it seems the real you just took control.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, my voice tight as I stared at him, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

“I barely recognize you without your neon armor,” Dominic said, a slow, mocking trace of amusement cutting through the rough edge of his baritone. He leaned down slightly, his gaze scanning my plain, unadorned nightgown and tangled hair. “Where is the breathless gossip about your jewelry allowance? What happened to the fragile princess who couldn’t bear the sight of plain armor because it ruined the aesthetic of her carriage rides?”

My throat went completely dry. He remembered every single vapid word.

“I thought I misread you,” he continued, his eyes narrowing into a sharp, lethal focus that made me feel entirely naked. “At the feast, you turned out to be just like the rest of them. Shallow. Predictable. A tedious waste of my time. But you’re not, are you?”

The sheer speed of his intellect was terrifying. I couldn’t let him push any deeper. “Let me go,” I deflected sharply, shoving hard against his chest, desperate to put distance between us.

Dominic didn’t move an inch. Instead, his gaze slowly drifted past my shoulder, tracking the rhythmic, heavy tick of the grandfather clock standing further down the empty corridor.

“No,” he said softly, his eyes locking back onto mine. “I’m afraid I can’t.”

True panic flared in my chest, colder and sharper than before. For the first time tonight, I felt completely terrified. It wasn’t a fear of his feral bloodlust; it was the suffocating dread of a brilliant king looking straight through my mask and trapping me in his sight. I squeezed my jaw shut, my lips pressing into a hard, rigid line. I didn’t say a single word.

Dominic watched my sudden stillness, his head tilting slightly as he noticed my silence. A dark, knowing expression crossed his face. “You’ve gone quiet. It seems whenever you open your mouth—whether you mean to or not—you drown a little more."

I took a slow, agonizing breath, forcing my racing mind to stabilize. Getting angry was a mistake. Deflecting was a mistake. I had to change tactics completely.

“Alpha king,” I spoke, my tone dropping into a polite, perfectly measured cadence. I stood up perfectly straight against the iron gate, but I emptied my voice of all warmth, leaving it completely flat, hollow, and devoid of any emotion. “It might not occur to you, but I am completely traumatized by this near-death experience. So please, instruct your men to unlock that gate and let me go back to my room.”

“You don’t look traumatized to me,” Dominic said, his golden eyes narrowing.

I narrowed my eyes right back at him. He actually seemed to be enjoying the fact that he had almost taken my life. But then again, he was called the Monster Alpha for a reason; a disposable tribute like me probably meant absolutely nothing to someone like him.

“It takes one to know one,” I bit out, the fear completely evaporating into pure, reckless irritation. “An Alpha King like you knows nothing about trauma. You just know how to cause it.”

The words left my mouth before I could stop them. What the hell was I doing? Since whatever I said seemed to make him more interested anyway, I might as well speak my mind.

“But you do?” Dominic asked, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous register as he took a step closer, his shadow completely enveloping me. “What does a spoiled Alpha’s daughter know about trauma?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, refusing to let him dig into a past that didn’t belong to ‘Cynthia.’ “Will you just order your men to let me back in?”

“You seem to love doing that a lot,” he commented, his jaw tightening.

“Doing what?”

“Deflecting,” Dominic murmured, a dark, knowing smile hovering at the edge of his lips. “But no worries. We will have plenty of time to know each other. You’re coming with me.”

He bent down to grab me, but out of pure instinct, I threw my hands up and shoved hard against his corded shoulders. To my absolute shock, he actually paused, stopping to listen as I glared up at him.

“What? Hell no!” I yelled, my voice echoing down the empty hall. “You almost tore me to pieces! I am not going anywhere with you during the full moon!”

“If you don’t come with me, that is when you’ll be in real danger,” Dominic countered, his tone chillingly level. “My wolf will tear the walls apart to find you, and he will kill anyone who stands in his way. You keep me in control of him. Therefore, you aren’t going anywhere until the full moon is over.”

I opened my mouth to shoot back another argument, but this time, he didn’t stop to listen. In one swift, effortlessly powerful motion, Dominic lunged forward, pulled me straight over his massive, burning shoulder, and started walking.

“Put me down!” I shrieked, the world spinning upside down as my stomach slammed against his iron-hard back. I slammed my fists violently against his spine. “I am not your medicine!”

“Actually, tonight you are,” Dominic growled from below me, his massive hand locking like a vice over the back of my thighs to secure my weight. “Stop pounding. It's no use.”

I didn’t listen to him. I kept pounding with everything I had, desperately hoping to hurt any part of his unyielding body.

“You keep it up, and you will get a hard spank, tribute,” he warned darkly, his voice vibrating directly against my ribs.

I choked on a breath, my face burning with a mix of fury and embarrassment. “You think a spank will scare me into stopping? Just put me down! I can walk on my own!”

Dominic let out a low, gravelly chuckle that sent a dangerous shiver straight down my spine, but he didn’t slow his pace for a single second.

He marched into the center of the dark, suffocatingly quiet room, the massive doors slamming shut behind us and locking the rest of the castle out. Before I could launch another fist against his spine, Dominic gripped my waist and swung me down.

My bare feet hit the cold floor with a soft slap, but before I could even think about taking a step backward, his hand shot out. His fingers locked securely around my neck, pinning me flat against the heavy wood of the closed door.

He didn't squeeze to choke me, but his grip was unyielding, the heat of his palm branding my skin. He leaned in, trapping me completely beneath his towering frame, closing the distance until our faces were so close I could feel the scorching heat of his breath against my lips. His golden eyes flared in the pitch black, boring straight into mine.

“As I said, we are going to have plenty of time to know each other, Cynthia,” Dominic murmured, his voice dropping to a terrifyingly intimate whisper. “Enough time for me to find out exactly what you are hiding.”

His thumb brushed deliberately over the racing pulse point at my throat, his face hovering mere inches from mine.

“And by the time dawn comes,” he whispered, a dark, promises-of-ruin edge bleeding into his baritone, “you’ll know exactly why they call me the Monster Alpha. And I assure you… it has absolutely nothing to do with my wolf.”