Page 198 of Rogue Alpha Prince

“I’ll take it from here.”

Beta stands up to help me, and we do it in silence.

“Do you still plan to kill her?” he asks finally, with a tone of voice suggesting he doesn’t want to clean her in vain if I want to end her life anyway.

But I know better. Somehow, he started to care for her. For our Luna.

“No, I don’t.”

I throw out all the bloody gauze to the bin and lay down with Ash, embracing her in our favorite position.

“You know she won’t believe you, right, Alpha?” he asks, taking her limp hand in his again. “She’ll probably try to escape. Atlas is right, she might love her life more than you.”

“He didn’t say it like that.”

Beta lifts his eyebrows at me as if he knows better.

“Well, we won’t tell her that I know. I’ll use the alpha command on all of you, just in case.”

“You’ll keep it a secret forever?” he asks skeptically.

“She wanted to,” I point out. “But no. Just long enough to earn her trust and enough years to back that trust up.”

He sizes me up for a long time and then finally speaks.

“Yes, Alpha, as you wish.” He already treats it seriously. That’s why he’s my second in command.

I tell him to take a nap after he refuses to leave her side, and mind-link Gamma and Delta to make sure they are good with taking care of the rest of the pack, even though I know I can’t trust the second one.

But I can’t expose him yet, either.

As soon as Beta doses off and everything is taken care of, I just lie with Ash—pull her, hug her, kiss her mark, and caress her whole body, sometimes stopping at her flat stomach, trying to wrap my mind around that tiny being’s life that ended before I could even comprehend its existence.

Thinking maybe it just wasn’t meant to be is the cruelest and most painful thought I’ve ever had.

I know we barely know each other and it was all arranged, and I don’t feel the mate bond… yet… but… I already imagined spending the rest of my life with you—please don’t take that dream away from me.

I try to mind-link her but it’s like there’s no wolf left in her at all. But there must be, there must be…

I’m woken up by the most delicious smell of my favorite avocado, but my face falls when I see the same hot buttered toast again.

“What the fuck man? I mean, Alpha.” Atlas tries to hide his irritation and Beta snickers at him. “You know I can’t cook, and Greyson is out in the market right now. What snack did you expect?”

“Avocado,” I say with a sourface but snatch the plate anyway, lifting myself a little bit to a more sitting position, but still touching Ash’s body skin-to-skin as much as I can.

I start munching on the plain toast because I am hungry all the time, and he is right, I shouldn’t expect anything else from him, he’s not a foodie like Beta…

“Wait, why aren’t you eating… and staring at me?” I furrow my brows at both of them.

“Do yousmellavocado, Alpha?” Beta carefully asks, and I don’t get why.

“Do you smell it too? I thought I was going crazy…”

They exchange a look, “Do you think it might be… I don’t know… Asher, maybe?” Atlas asks.

Oh, fuck!

I push the plate back at Atlas and lean down, wrapping my arms around Asher. I bury my nose in her neck inhaling her scent. Green forest, fresh spring air, water with traces of blood, and there it is… that thing I couldn’t pinpoint earlier. The subtle and pleasant fragrance of slightly sweet and nutty, freshly cut avocado fruit. “Mmmm.”

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