Divorced by the Alpha, Claimed by the Rogue

Aiden’s pov

A smirk pull at my lips. Across from me, Ragnar shifted. He looked tight, I could practically smell the guilt rolling off him—the bitter, sharp scent of a man who knew he was betraying Lucian just by breathing the air in this room.

"Why now, Aiden?" His voice was rougher than I remembered, lacking its old steady edge. "You scarred me,Why bring me here?"

I didn’t answer right away. I let the silence stretch, watching the way his pulse jumped in the hollow of his throat. It was pathetic how transparent he was. "You don’t have to pretend, Ragnar," I said, keeping my voice low, a perfectly tailored bait. "No one is watching us. You’re safe here."

He didn’t relax. If anything, the tension in his spine hardened.

Pushing myself up from the chair, I moved with deliberate, quiet steps. I paced behind him, a predator circling a creature that had already walked into the trap, before closing the distance entirely. I wrapped my arms around him from behind, pulling his back flush against my chest.

Internal revulsion flared hot in my gut, but I kept my posture relaxed, forcing my muscles not to stiffen.

Ragnar grunted, a low, reluctant sound escaping him. But he didn’t pull away. His fingers twitched, then came up to touch my hands where they were locked over his chest.

I leaned in close, my breath brushing the shell of his ear, swallowing down the sour taste of disgust. "Don’t forget, Ragnar... I was your first gay awakening. Have you forgotten how much you used to moan for me? How loudly?"

A shudder ran through him. "Yes," he slurred, the word thick, heavy with the pathetic longing he’d clearly carried for a decade. "I remember. I remember you inside me. And I remember you banishing me from the pack because you thought I wasn’t normal after making me this way."

Good. Let him remember the pain. Before I could tighten my grip, Ragnar yanked my hands off him and spun around to face me.

A frown hit my face—not from hurt, but from irritation that my puppet was trying to break character.

"This was stupid," Ragnar snapped, his eyes flashing with a mix of anger and old, unresolved pain. "Coming here was a mistake."

He turned on his heel, making for the door.

Not a chance. I need you.

I lunged forward, grabbing his wrist first to halt his momentum, then jamming my palm against his waist to yank him back into my space. He collided with my chest, and before he could get a word out, I smashed my mouth against his.

I forced myself into it, putting every ounce of aggressive, physical dominance behind it to sell the lie.

Ragnar fought me instantly. He grunted into my mouth, his hands coming up to push violently against my shoulders, trying to wrench his head back. I locked him in place, digging my fingers into his hip, bruising the flesh, and biting his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. I needed to overwhelm him. I needed to shock him into submission.

The iron tang of blood did the trick.

The resistance snapped. Ragnar’s hands stopped pushing and clawed into my shirt instead, bunching the fabric in his fists. He reeled me in, his mouth opening with a desperate, starved hunger. To him, it was an intense, raw explosion of ten years of his buried obsession. To me, it was a stomach-turning chore. His tongue tangled with mine, and I met the bruising force with a calculated violence, suffocating his doubts, drowning him in a heat I didn’t actually feel.

Ragnar let out a sharp, ragged moan against my lips, a sound of total surrender.

He was done.

I tore my mouth away instantly, breathing heavily, a triumphant smirk cutting across my face as I stared down at his swollen, wet lips. The sheer power of watching him crumble masked the disgust twisting in my gut. "You missed this, didn’t you?"

Ragnar staggered back a step, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes wild and completely unraveled. "Why are you doing this? It’s been over ten years, Aiden. Why now?"

"Ten years," I echoed, my voice smooth, entirely clinical while he was still gasping for air. "And yet, all it took was one message from me, and here you are. You still remember me. You never forgot."

"What do you want from me?" he demanded, his voice cracking.

"Simple," I said, the smirk fading into a cold, hard line. "Lucian’s head."

Ragnar recoiled as if I’d struck him. "No. I can’t betray Lucian. He’s the only one who was ever truly family to me."

I chuckled, a dark, humorless sound. "Family? Come on, Ragnar. I know you. I know how badly you want your real family to accept you. I know it was never your choice to leave them." I took a step closer, letting the trap close around him. "And I also know about the substances you’re selling. The illegal shit. Soon enough, the law is going to catch up, and you’ll spend the rest of your miserable life in a cage."

Ragnar went pale.

"But I’m willing to make an exception for you," I whispered, offering the poison apple. "A chance to leave the country. Start completely fresh. There’s a massive bounty on Lucian’s head. Deliver it to me, and I’ll pay you that amount—plus extra."

"I can’t..." he muttered, shaking his head, but the conviction was gone. He was drowning, and I was the one holding his head under water.

I pressed harder, stepping into his personal space, crowding him until he had nowhere to look but into my eyes. "Think about it. The freedom. The money. No more running."

Ragnar’s jaw clenched. His shoulders slumped as the final fight left him. He stared at the floor for a long moment before looking up, a bitter, resentful light in his eyes. "I do hate what Lucian has become," he admitted, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Ever since Alina showed up in our lives... he hasn’t been the same. It... it would be for the best to kill him."

The corner of my mouth tucked upward. Hook, line, and sinker.

Flushed with the thrill of his own treason and the lingering heat of the kiss, Ragnar leaned in, his eyes dark as he reached to kiss me again, looking for more.

An involuntary flash of revulsion hit me. I caught him firmly by the chest, holding him at arm’s length. There was no way in hell I was letting his mouth touch mine again now that I had what I wanted.

"Get the job done," I told him, my voice dripping with a cold, transactional promise, "and then I’ll fuck you."

Ragnar swallowed hard, looking at me with a mixture of desire and defeat. "It’s a done deal."