C4

There was something dangerously unpredictable about my presence tonight. One moment, I was a submissive outcast; the next, I was striking at his throat with executioner precision. His inner wolf was thoroughly hooked by the contradictions. He found himself staring, trying to calculate exactly what kind of lethal creature was hiding behind the ash and how magnificent that silver bloodline truly was.

People treated the heir of the Adebayo Dominion like an unyielding monument of stone and terror. But beneath the mafia empire and the blood treaties, he was an apex male who respected raw power and a mate who could match his bite. By some twist of the ancestors, the rogue forced upon him might be the exact challenge he had been searching for.

Seth leaned back against the furs, a familiar smirk returning to his face. He noticed the way my scent spiked with irritation the second his eyes lingered too long on my frame. He reached out, tapping the empty space on the mattress beside his thigh. “Come here, mate. Take your place.”

I blinked, stunned by his sheer audacity. Was he actually expecting me to lie down beside a predator who had just pinned me to the floor? A cold, mocking smile touched my lips. “Do you honestly believe you will get any rest with a cursed murderer sharing your pillows? Aren't you worried I will cut your throat while you sleep?”

I kept my voice steady, avoiding a direct challenge that would force his alpha instincts to retaliate. Forcing a tight, diplomatic smile, I added, “How about we establish some ground rules through conversation instead?”

Seth tilted his head, his eyes darkening. “What is there to discuss? The systematic way you managed to turn the entire Mensah Clan into absolute fools today?”

I didn't back down. “Or perhaps how you mentally reconciled binding yourself to an outcast you despise long before you ever set foot inside the Mensah Moon Estate…”

Seth’s posture stiffened slightly, his eyes narrowing to slits as he analyzed my calm demeanor. He hadn't expected me to read the internal politics of his arrival so clearly.

A slow, knowing smile spread across my face. I had caught every single detail during the chaos in the Alpha Hall. I remembered the exact micro-expression of disgust on Seth’s face when Amara had tried to scent-mark his arm. Not once had his aura softened when my stepbrother started weeping—instead, his eyes had flashed with a cold, murderous indifference.

Furthermore, right before we boarded the military chopper, he had stripped off his outer leather coat—the one Amara had touched and thrown it directly into the burning waste barrel without looking back. That wasn't simple dislike. That was deep, deep revulsion for the alliance they were forcing on him.

Ever since that moment, a single thought had been spinning in my head. If the registry hadn't blocked the contract, would Seth have actually slaughtered the Mensah Clan to avoid that mating?

I took a step closer to the bed, offering a terms of agreement. “Let us strike a deal, Alpha. I will act as your shield against the political matches your elders try to force on you, and in return, you stay out of my business. The moment we uncover who tampered with the blood registry and free ourselves from this bond, I will vanish from your territory. Do we have an understanding?”

It was a perfectly logical arrangement that secured both our interests. I expected a grunt of approval. Instead, Seth simply rolled over onto his side, turning his back to me as if I had ceased to exist, and flicked the master light lever, plunging the room back into darkness without saying a word.

Biting down on a curse, I turned toward the heavy leather sofa across the room, violently barking my shin against the iron frame in the dark. I collapsed onto the cushions, too drained and furious to care about anything else.

Hours drifted by in dead silence. Eventually, the exhaustion of the day caught up to me, and I dropped into a deep sleep.

Sometime during the dead hours of the night, Seth’s eyes snapped open. He rose from the mattress without making a single sound, his movements completely fluid. Guided only by the silver moonlight, he crossed the stone floor and came to a halt right above my sleeping form, just watching.

The air around the sofa was filled with my pure scent not the artificial oils or the ash, but the clean, wild scent of silver pine and winter air. It filled his lungs, bringing a sudden, unbidden quiet to his restless inner beast.

His mind drifted back to the brief seconds he had held me against his chest on the floor. My frame had been remarkably agile, my waist fitting perfectly into his palm as if the ancestors had carved the spaces specifically for his grip.

His hand hovered just inches above my cheek, his fingers twitching with the urge to trace the sharp lines of my real face. But the moment his warmth neared my skin, my ears twitched and I shifted slightly in my sleep.

Instantly, the alpha backed away, slipping back across the shadows and returning to his bed. He closed his eyes and feigned a deep sleep before my eyelids could open. For the first time in his life, the ruthless heir of the dominion felt a jolt of nervous tension he didn't want to think about the consequences if I caught him watching me like a thief in the night.

The following morning, the bright light of the twin suns piercing the high windows woke me up. I felt surprisingly rejuvenated, my muscles loose and rested. I had fully expected to spend the night tossing and turning in the enemy's stronghold, but instead, my wolf had gone completely under, as if completely safe.

When I opened my eyes, the very first sight that met my vision was Seth. He was already fully dressed in his tactical gear, sitting lazily on the edge of the mattress, watching me like an unsolved riddle.

I blinked, my mind disoriented for a brief second. I knew for a fact I had fallen asleep on the hard leather sofa. So why was I currently waking up beneath the heavy fur blankets of his master bed? A cold spike of adrenaline hit my veins. I immediately checked my clothes. The black training suit was still completely intact, untampered with. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. But as the relief faded, a darker realization took its place Seth was silent enough to move an active fighter without triggering their instincts, and that made him more dangerous than any alpha I had ever encountered.

Reading the sudden hostility in my posture, Seth let out a heavy, exaggerated sigh, his voice dripping with absolute fake innocence. “Don't look at me like that, mate. You crawled into my blankets entirely on your own middle of the night.”

I narrowed my eyes into lethal slits, not believing a single syllable coming out of his mouth.

Seth’s amber eyes danced with mockery as he leaned forward, a slow grin spreading across his face. “In fact, you didn't stop at just taking the bed. You practically stripped my tunic off, pinned your arms around my neck, and kept whispering ‘darling’ into my chest like a lovesick pup…”

“Keep your mouth shut!” I growled, my control snapping as I bolted upright, my aura flaring before I could suppress it. I could handle his arrogance, but inventing lies to humiliate my pride crossed a line I wouldn't tolerate.

Still wearing that maddening grin, Seth reached into his tactical vest and tossed his encrypted data device onto the furs in front of me. “The security feeds don't lie, Okoye. If you think your wolf didn't choose my scent last night, go ahead and press play…”