Ruthless Alpha, and his Curvy Saint

Chapter 138: Chapter 138

Angel’s POV

Finally, we reached the top of the cliff.

One moment I was holding onto a rope for my dear life, my muscles burning with each step, and the next, hands - soldiers’ hands were reaching down, catching arms and wrists and hauling us up onto solid ground.

I stood on it and I breathed.

Around me, were the sounds of arrival - the gasps and excitement of people who had made it, the movement of soldiers managing the ropes. I could hear Raul’s people - the ones who had chosen to climb - and the sound they were making was a sound I had not heard from any of them since I had arrived in their territory.

Relief.

The pure relief of people who had been somewhere for a hundred years and had just left it, all at once, without time to prepare for how it would feel.

One woman simply sat down on the ground and put her face in her hands.

A man grabbed the person nearest to him and hugged tightly.

I understood this completely.

Terrell came up last - of course he came up last, he was the kind of man who came up last, who made sure everyone else was over before he stepped off - and he was barely over the edge before Gareth and Bellick and Kade were there, coming up behind him.

Raul was at the far edge, with two guards, looking at nothing in particular with the expression of a man who had no words in him.

A man came forward from the group of villagers - an older man. He came to Terrell and he stood before him and bowed deeply in gratitude.

"For a hundred years," he said.

Terrell looked at him.

"People fell down that cliff and never came back," the man said. His voice filled with emotion. "We built what we could. We survived." He looked at Terrell steadily. "You used your ropes to bring us out. You didn’t have to." A pause. "I will serve you all my life. That’s all I have to offer and I’m offering it."

Terrell was quiet for a moment.

Then he nodded, "we will talk more at the castle," he said. "But for now, everyone rests."

Then he turned and beckoned on a soldier with a horse. Immediately the horse came forward, he put me on it.

I was in the saddle before I had fully processed what was happening. Then he mounted his own horse, and I noticed how his hand quickly found my reins.

He didn’t take them, or pull them. Just held on to them, like his life depended on it.

I looked at his hand on my reins and I thought about all the things I had not said on the cliff ledge when he had offered to let me go and apologized for everything and looked at me with that expression.

Then I thought about the strength in my hands on the rope.

I thought about what he had done to produce it.

I was going to find out what he had done to produce it.

Later, he had said. I’ll explain everything at the top.

We were at the top now. We were riding. Later was approaching.

Black Wolf’s gates opened before we reached them.

Beta Kane came out quickly, like he’d been expecting us.

"Alpha." He stood before Terrell with a relieved expression. "I am very glad to see you."

"Kane."

"I am glad you are here."

Then he turned to me, and his expression softened.

"My Lady," he said. "I am very glad to see you alive and well."

"Thank you, Kane," I said kindly.

Terrell was already giving instructions to Kane. Apparently too impatient to stand and exchange pleasantries. Food to his room. Enough food. The villagers to be housed. The guards on Raul to stand full guard and watch him at all times. No disturbance for any reason. His generals to be relieved from immediate duty. Rest for everyone.

Then he turned to me.

And he led me inside.

I expected him to take me to my room.

We passed my door.

I slowed.

He kept walking.

"Terrell."

He stopped. Turned. Looked at me with the expression of a man who had anticipated this moment and had a response prepared.

"You’re not leaving my sight," he said. "Not tonight. Not until I know who’s behind this and that they can’t get to you again."

"I can be protected in my own..."

"Angel." He said my name calmly. "Someone stabbed you tonight. In a room I left you in. I am not leaving you in a room I’m not in." He held my gaze. "I won’t touch you. You have my word. I just need to know you’re - I need to know."

I looked at him. Thought about everything that could go wrong with us in close proximity.

I nodded.

He opened his door and we went in.

The room looked like it had been prepared for his arrival, even when there was no certainty of his return tonight.

The fire was lit, keeping the room warm and cozy. The bed was made - like fresh linen had been placed on it.

I looked at the bed. It was... large. Obviously. Proportional to the room, which was proportional to the person who lived in it.

"Go wash up," he said. He was already moving - toward the door, gesturing for a guard. "I’ll have your things brought up."

I nodded and moved toward the bath area - behind a large shelf that divided the space, with curtains that I drew close carefully like I was establishing an invisible boundary.

I undressed.

And immediately became aware that he was in the other room.

Not because of any sound he was making - he wasn’t making a sound, just the ordinary sounds of a person in a space. But I could hear them. Clearly.

Except I wasn’t paying close attention.

I was simply - hearing. Without effort. Without the slight strain of trying to make something out. The sounds were simply present in the way that nearby sounds were present, with a clarity that had not been available to me yesterday.

I stood in the bath and looked at the curtain.

That was new.

That was another new thing to add to the list that now included unusual strength and accelerated healing and a general sense of my own body being subtly different in ways I hadn’t finished cataloguing.

I washed quickly, because I was very tired, hungry and aware of the other room. And when I was done, I reached for the clothing that had been hung at the far end. A sleeping gown, simple and clean, comfortable for sleeping.

I drew the curtain open and stepped out.

He was there.

Standing near the fireplace, not quite at rest but not in motion either. He looked up when I came through the curtain.

His eyes moved over me - quick, not lingering, like he was checking that the person in front of him is actually alright. Then he looked at my face.

"You smell good," he said.

It was a simple observation. Just something that had come out because it was true.

But I had no ready response. There was none available. What came out instead was a small smile that felt awkward.

He looked at me for a moment.

Then there was a knock.

The maids came in with fresh water, and went behind the bath. They prepared a new bath behind the curtain, then they filed out.

"Be comfortable," he said. He was already moving toward the bath area. "I’ll be back."

The curtain closed behind him.

I sat on the edge of the chair nearest the fireplace and I tried to be comfortable.

But I was not comfortable at all.

Not because the room was uncomfortable - it was not, it was warm and quiet. Not because I was frightened. I was not frightened, or not in the way that word usually meant.

I was aware.

I was aware of the room, of the chair, of the fireplace, of the curtain with him on the other side of it, with the specific heightened quality that everything had taken on tonight - my advanced hearing.

I heard the water.

The sounds of someone washing, nearby, and terrible thoughts starting running through my head.

I looked at the fire and I made a decision to look at the fire and to continue looking at the fire and to think about something other than the man on the other side of the curtain.

This was more difficult than it should have been.

He was my husband, I told myself repeatedly. He was my husband and I shouldn’t be this unsettled.

So why?

I knew what it was.

I knew exactly what it was as I listened to him wash on the other side of the curtain and I thought about Agnes’s voice in my ear before she left: don’t let a handsome face and a muscular body trick you into forgetting what he actually is.

I thought about the stake in the clearing. How he had killed that man for of me.

I thought about my last words to Agnes; I won’t let my emotions stand in the way.

I think I was failing already.