The Alpha Behind The Mask

Oliver’s POV

​The silence in the medical suite was no longer empty; it was heavy with the weight of my confession. I had expected relief, perhaps even a smile, but as I looked down at Aurora, I saw a flicker of something that looked like true, agonizing pain.

​"An act?" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the rhythmic pulse of the heart monitor. She pulled back slightly, her eyes searching mine with raw intensity. "Oliver, you had no idea... you have no idea what I went through. The fear. The pain of losing you... it felt like a dagger was being twisted in my chest. I felt small. I felt like a disposable human whose only purpose was to be a secret in the dark."

​Guilt, cold and biting, flooded my system. I reached out, my thumb brushing away a fresh tear that escaped her lashes. "I’m sorry, Aurora. I am so damn sorry. I was a fool who didn’t know how to handle the depth of what I felt for you. I thought if I pushed you, you would finally break your silence and tell me you wanted me as much as I wanted you."

​She looked at me for a long moment, the tension in her small frame slowly bleeding out. Finally, she leaned forward and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to my cheek. "It’s fine," she murmured, though I knew the bruise on her heart would take longer to heal than the one on her face. "Just... don’t ever do that again. I don’t think I could survive it a second time."

​"Never," I vowed, pulling her back into the crook of my arm.

​She settled against me, her head resting on my shoulder. The scent of her hair—sweet and familiar—acted as a better sedative than anything the healers had pumped into my veins. For a while, we just stayed like that, two broken souls finding a temporary peace in the middle of a war zone. But as I relaxed, I realized I didn’t even know anything about her.

​"Aurora," I said softly, my fingers tracing lazy patterns on her arm. "I want to know everything about you. No more secrets. No more half-truths. I want to know the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with. Whenever you’re ready... I’m waiting."

​I felt her stiffen for a heartbeat before she let out a long, shaky sigh. "There isn’t much to tell that isn’t sad, Oliver. You already know the basics. My family... they were killed when I was young."

​I nodded, my chest tightening. The file she had given me when she started working for the pack house had been brief. "The robbery at your home, right?"

​"No," she said, her voice turning cold and flat. It was the voice of someone who had revisited a nightmare so many times it had become a part of her geography. "It wasn’t a robbery. It was an assassination."

​My brow furrowed, a sharp spark of interest cutting through my exhaustion. "Assassination? Aurora, are you sure?"

​"They didn’t take anything, Oliver," she interrupted, her eyes fixing on a distant point on the wall. "They didn’t want the jewelry. They didn’t want the safe. They came into our home with one goal: to make sure no one walked out alive. I only survived because I went to pick something from the kitchen. I watched through the holes in the door. I watched them... I watched them finish it."

​I swallowed hard, a dark chill settling in my marrow. Assassination implied a target. It implied a motive that went far beyond simple greed. "Aurora, do you know who did it? Or why they would target your family?"

​"I have no idea," she whispered, her hand trembling as she gripped the edge of my blanket. "I spent years wondering what a quiet family like mine could have done to deserve that kind of end. My father was a good man. He was private, yes, but he wasn’t a criminal."

​"Do you know what he did for a living?" I pushed gently. "Anything that might have put him in someone’s crosshairs?"

​She shook her head. "Not really. He traveled a lot. And he was always protective of his work."

​"What was his name?" I asked, already planning to have Knox scour every underground database we possessed. With a name, I could get to the heart of the matter. I could find the monster who had left my Aurora an orphan.

​"Sterling," she said softly. "Sterling Mountain."

​The world didn’t just stop; it fractured.

​The name hit me like a silver bullet to the brain, sending a physical jolt through my body that made the heart monitor behind me spike into a panicked, rhythmic beeping. My eyes widened, my breath hitching in a throat that had suddenly gone bone-dry.

​Sterling Mountain.

​It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be this cruel.

​For years, in the secret corners of my life as Raymond—and even in the quiet moments of my Kingship—I had been searching for the survivors of the Mountain family. Sterling met his end after witnessing against Alex for what he did; provoked by rage, Alex had led an assassination to wipe out his family. I never knew of it until months later. I heard he had a survivor, and ever since then, I have been searching for them.

​My family owed the mountains a debt of blood and protection.

​Aurora was his daughter. The "Hidden Girl" of the Mountain lineage. The person I had sworn to find and protect as a matter of honor was the very woman I had fallen in love with.

​And then, the second realization hit me, more devastating than the first.

​My wolf let out a low, mournful howl in the back of my mind, his hackles rising in a fit of predatory rage. My grip on Aurora’s hand became almost too tight, my body turning into a pillar of tension.

​"Oliver?" Aurora whispered, her voice filled with sudden alarm. She sat up, looking at my pale face and the sweat breaking out on my forehead. "Oliver, what is it? Is it the pain? Are you having a reaction to the medicine?"

​"I’m fine," I lied, my voice sounding like it was being dragged over broken glass. "It’s just... the medication. It hits in waves."

​I closed my eyes, trying to force my heart rate down, but my mind was a storm of fire and blood. I knew who had led that assassination.

​My cousin. The man who had just tried to force himself on her in her apartment was the same monster who had pulled the trigger on her parents. He hadn’t just attacked her today; he had ruined her entire life before it had even begun. He must have recognized her. Or worse, he had tracked her down to finish the job he started all those years ago.

​A growl started deep in my chest, a vibration of pure, unadulterated hatred. I wanted to get out of this bed, silver be damned, and rip Alex’s throat out with my bare teeth. I wanted to watch the light leave his eyes while I whispered Aurora’s true name to him.

​How was I going to tell her? How could I ever look her in the eye and say, "The man who killed your mother and father shares my blood"?

​I looked at her—my sweet, brave, wolfless Aurora. She had been through so much, and here I was, the head of the house that had birthed her greatest enemy. The irony was a poison more lethal than any silver bullet.

​I decided right then that I couldn’t tell her today. If I told her now, while I was trapped in this bed and Alex was still breathing, the weight of it would crush her. I had to be strong enough to protect her from the fallout of the truth.

​"Next week," I whispered to myself, more than to her. "On my birthday."

​I would tell her everything then. I would confess that I was Raymond, and I would confess the sins of my cousin. I would lay my crown at her feet and let her decide if she wanted to be with me.

​I pulled her back down to me, holding her with a ferocity that spoke of a man who would burn the world down before letting a single hair on her head be harmed again. I stared at the ceiling, my mind racing with plans of vengeance and the terrifying uncertainty of the future.

​Alex, I will kill you. I will so fucking kill you.

​But as I felt Aurora’s heartbeat steady against mine, a darker thought took hold. If she found out the truth before I was ready... if she realized the connection...

​God help Aurora, don’t let her run mad.

Suddenly, the door to the medical suite didn’t just open; it slammed against the wall with a loud bang that broke the peace we had just found.

​My father stood in the doorway. He looked like a dark cloud over the room. His eyes were cold and didn’t even look at me. Instead, they locked onto Aurora with a look so mean it made my blood run cold.

​"Get away from him," he ordered.

​Aurora jumped, her small body shaking as she tried to sit up. But I held her hand tighter, refusing to let her go. "Father, stop," I snapped. My voice was tight from the pain and the anger I was feeling.

​He ignored me and walked into the room. He stopped at the foot of the bed, his face etched with a big frown.

​"I said, get away from my son, you slut," he spat.