All Chapters of TAMING THE RUTHLESS ALPHA: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Crystal's POVThe air between us was razor-sharp and thick with tension. Neither of us was willing to speak aloud. Talia stood there like a queen carved from ice, her perfectly painted lips pressed into a line, her gaze drilling into mine.She kept standing across from me like she’d been born in that stance, her spine straight, her chin slightly lifted. Her shoulders were pulled back just enough to signal that she carried the weight of a crown without actually wearing it. She was beautiful, of course, but in the way ice can be beautiful before it drowns you under its surface. And her eyes, those cold calculating, cutting eyes, didn’t blink. Not once.I didn’t either.The guards shifted uncomfortably under the weight of it. One of them finally cleared his throat, almost whispering, “Queen Mother…” as if hoping she’d give the order to end this.But she didn’t. Not right away. She didn’t acknowledge him. Not even a flicker of her gaze.She was thinking. Calculating. I could see it in the

Crystal's POVI couldn't believe what just happened.I just… sat there.The door hadn’t even finished swinging shut behind him. The faint trace of his scent still lingered in the air, warm and cold all at once, wolfish royalty mixed with something darker, like fire on a winter night. It was the kind of scent that wrapped itself around you without permission. That stayed clinging to your skin even after its owner was gone.Gone. He just up and went like that?"Tch" I scoffed at nothing it particular. Everything replayed in my head.Adrian had woken up. Looked right at me. Spoken to me without the usual bite in his tone, without the guarded coldness that had always kept me at arm’s length.For the first time ever since we met and he claimed me he kissed my hand. And then he just... walked out.No hesitation. No opportunity to even talk or savour what happened. He just… left.I was offended. I sat beside this fucking snobbish asshole for hours and all he did was wake up and leave?After

Adrian's POVThe walk to the private pool was supposed to have been calming.But it wasn’t.Every step felt heavier, my boots grinding into the sandy ground on the path to the pool. The air was warm, the scent of fresh rain hanging over the forest. It was a little forest behind the mansion that led to the pool. On any other circumstances, I would have felt refreshed. But right now, none of it mattered.All I could see, over and over again, was the way Crystal had looked at me from that balcony.The brief flicker of her eyes as they fell on me.And then the clean, effortless dismissal, like I was just another face in the crowd.It shouldn’t have mattered.I told myself it didn’t matter. But for some reason, I felt irritated.But my chest still ached with that small, sharp sting, like she had reached in and twisted something inside me before walking away.My wolf paced restlessly under my skin, his claws itching. Kratos continued growling and grunting inside me, constantly reminding me

Crystal's POVThe library was quieter than the rest of the mansion. Even the faint sound of distant footsteps moving about outside seemed muted in here, swallowed by the towering shelves and the heavy scent of old paper.I didn't even know how I ended up in here. I had walked around the mansion, Lyra and a pair of guards following me. I looked outside at the different areas of the pack I could see. Finally, I found myself in front of a strange door and opened it. It turned out to be a library.I trailed my fingers across the covers of the books, some cracked with age, others polished and new. My eyes looked over the golden ink titles, histories of the Gravepine Pack, volumes of recorded battles, and the chronicles of Adrian’s father.That one caught my attention. For some reason, I wanted to know the man who gave birth to this unpredictable monster.The accounts painted him like a myth, like a warrior, strategist and king. He was the founder of the modern Gravepine. There was no page

Crystal's POVThe bathwater was warm, almost too warm, but it still wasn’t enough to melt the cold knot that had settled in my chest.Lyra had drawn it for me with meticulous care, several rose petals drifting lazily on the surface. The steam was rising in soft vapor toward the high ceiling. I should have been relaxed. I should have been able to let the tension seep out of my bones. Instead, every time I closed my eyes, she was there.Sylvia.That smug smirk. That effortless poise. The way she had walked past me without so much as a flicker of acknowledgment, as though I were nothing more than furniture in the hall. My mind kept replaying it, the image of her with wet hair, freshly wet, looking every inch the kind of woman men didn’t just look at. They chased.The kind of woman Adrian would chase.I sank lower into the bath, letting the water cover my shoulders, my collarbone and my neck.It didn’t help. My thoughts painted pictures I didn’t want to see. Adrian leaning toward her, his