The Alpha's Silent Bride: Seventh Time's The Charm novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38: 038: Second thought.

~RONAN ~

I’ve got plans, plans that include finishing this ceremony, getting through all the formalities, and then taking my Roselle back to her room. Kissing her until she’s dizzy. Holding her close and watching her sleep.

She makes me feel complete in a way I never thought possible. I can’t even put it into words.

It’s like I’ve been walking around with a missing piece of myself for years without realizing it. And now that she’s here, everything just feels... right. Fixed. Whole. That’s what she does to me.

Standing at the front of the ceremonial hall, my voice carries across the gathered crowd as I address the assembled Alphas and other pack members.

I force myself to look away from Roselle because she’s a fucking distraction.

A dangerous one.

Dressed in that silver gown, she looks like something out of a dream—ethereal, elegant, and beautiful enough to command the attention of every person in the hall.

Too many eyes are on her. Too many men are looking for a second longer than they should, and the possessive urge to march across the room, drag her into my arms, and remind everyone that she’s mine is nearly impossible to suppress.

I continue with the speech, finally finding my focus again—until I hear her heartbeat.

It’s racing, pounding frantically against her ribs in a rhythm that screams panic.

The sound pierces through my concentration in the middle of a sentence. Kael goes instantly alert, immediately recognizing that something is terribly wrong.

My gaze darts to where she was sitting beside Nikolai. She isn’t fucking there.

The chair is empty. Nikolai is looking around frantically, clearly searching for her, The moment our eyes meet across the hall, I see the panic in his expression mirror my own.

Where is she?

Kael is already moving inside me, pushing to shift, demanding I find her immediately. I suppress him with effort, but barely.

My gaze sweeps across the hall, assessing every Alpha and every possible threat. Then it lands on Alpha Quirin. The bastard who couldn’t keep his eyes off Roselle earlier.

He’s sitting near the back, wearing a smug smile that makes Kael snarl. There’s satisfaction in his expression, a look that says he knows something I don’t. And suddenly, every instinct in my body is screaming that he’s involved.

He took her. That rotten bastard somehow got her alone and took her.

I don’t remember leaving the podium or crossing the hall. One moment I’m giving a speech and the next I’m grabbing Quirin by the collar and slamming him face-first into the table hard enougthat h to crack the wooden surface. Plates of food scatter, drinks spill, and every single person in the hall goes silent.

"Where. The. Fuck. Is. My. Bride?" I snarl, my voice dropping into something that’s more animal than human.

Quirin chokes, blood dripping from his broken nose. "I—I don’t know nothing about it, Alpha. I swear—"

I drag him across the table by his throat, completely prepared to rip his head clean off his shoulders.

"You’re challenging me?" I growl. "Because that’s what it looks like when you lie to an Alpha about the location of his mate."

Attacking another Alpha in front of witnesses is essentially a declaration of war, a challenge to his authority, and Quirin knows it. His eyes go wide with terror because he realizes he’s about to die, that his denial doesn’t matter, that the only thing that matters is finding Roselle and making sure she’s safe.

Then her heartbeat grows louder. The steady rhythm is gone, replaced by frantic pounding that echoes through my mind. Each rapid beat screams panic, fear, and desperation.

I release Quirin without a second thought, letting him crash to the ground gasping for air, and I’m already moving. Nikolai is right behind me, having read the situation instantly, and my mother is calling out something that I don’t hear because all I can focus on is following Roselle’s scent.

It’s faint, mixed with fear-sweat and something else, something acrid and chemical that makes Kael snarl in recognition. Wolfsbane.

Whoever is doing this is using wolfsbane on her, and when I find them, they’re dead.

The rage that floods through me at that realization is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

I burst through the storage shed door without slowing down, sending it flying off its hinges.

The acrid smoke hits me instantly, burning my lungs, but I barely notice it. All I can see is her.

Roselle.

She’s tied to a chair, struggling for breath. Her skin is pale, blood staining her torn wrists where she’s clearly fought against the ropes. Her eyes are glassy, her body slumped and barely moving. For one horrifying second, my heart stops. I think I’m too late. I think I’ve lost her.

I think I’m about to find her lifeless body instead of hearing her breathe. But she’s alive. She’s breathing, barely, but she’s alive.

I grab the chair, and tear her away from that nightmare, moving into the fresh air so quickly the world blurs around me. I set her down gently and my hands are already working at the ropes, my movements precise even as rage courses through every cell in my body.

"I’ve got you," I say, my voice softer than it should be given the fury vibrating through me. "I’ve got you, Roselle. You’re safe."

The moment the ropes fall away, the moment she’s free, I turn around.

The two bastards responsible for this are already running. The former guards I fired earlier. The ones who failed so miserably at protecting Roselle that I stripped them of their positions without a second thought. And now they’ve made the biggest mistake of their lives.

Kael is screaming in my head, demanding carnage, and death, demanding I make them suffer the way they made her suffer.

I move faster than the eye can follow. One of them manages only a few steps before my hand closes around his throat. I lift him off the ground and drive him into the nearest tree hard enough to crack the bark. The trunk shudders from the force of the impact.

His body goes limp for a second, and I’m pretty sure his spine didn’t survive the collision intact.

He gasps, his hands immediately coming up to claw at my wrist, his eyes bulging as he realizes he has no escape, no mercy, no hope.

And then I squeeze.

I watch as his struggles weaken, watch as panic gives way to the absolute knowledge that he’s going to die. My eyes stay locked on his face, cataloging every moment of his suffering, making sure he understands exactly what it means to hurt what belongs to me. His tongue lolls out, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his eyes bulging further as his body goes limp.

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