Ruthless Alpha, and his Curvy Saint-Chapter 51

Terrell’s POV

I watched emotions flicker across Angel’s face like clouds passing over the sun - shock, confusion, all swirling together.

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

No words came out.

The silence stretched between us, heavy with possibility and terror.

"Don’t pressure yourself," I said finally, when it became clear she was struggling. "You don’t need to answer right now. Take your time. Think about it." I gestured vaguely. "Besides, you’d still have to sever the bond with the Alpha first. That’s not a small thing."

She nodded, still looking dazed.

"I just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding between us," I continued. "Wanted you to know that I am attracted to you. Very much so. Not Lyra, not Sera, not anyone else. Just you."

I turned toward the door, needing to leave before I said too much, before I confessed everything and ruined what little progress I’d made.

But I paused with my hand on the handle.

"One more thing," I said, not looking back. "About my brother. Don’t... don’t dwell too much on whatever feelings might be developing there. Focus on us. On what we could have." The words sounded selfish. "Please."

I reached for the door again.

"Wait."

Angel’s voice stopped me.

I turned to find her standing there, her hands clasped in front of her, her blue eyes bright with something I was afraid to name.

"I don’t have to think about anything," she said quietly.

My heart stopped.

"I like you too."

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t do anything except stare at her like she’d just told me I could fly.

"You’re serious?" The words came out hoarse.

She nodded, a small smile playing at her lips. "I’ve liked you from the first day. From that first night when you found me trying to escape and you were kind instead of cruel. When you looked at me like I mattered instead of like I was a burden."

She stepped closer.

"But I was too scared to dwell on it," she continued. "Too scared to let myself hope that someone like you could want someone like me. Because men like you - strong, handsome, confident - they always go for the most beautiful girls. The ones who look like Lyra and Sera. Not girls like me."

Not girls like me.

She had no idea. No conception of how wrong she was. How backwards her entire understanding of her own worth had become.

"Angel," I started, my voice rougher than I intended.

"So I convinced myself it was friendship," she rushed on. "Told myself you were just being kind because that’s who you are. That your attention didn’t mean anything more than basic human decency." She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "I never imagined you’d actually want me. Not really."

I crossed the distance between us in three strides.

"Listen to me very carefully," I said, taking her face in both hands, forcing her to meet my eyes. "You are not less than anyone. Not Lyra, not Sera, not any woman on this earth. Do you understand? The problem isn’t with you - it’s with every person who’s ever made you feel like you weren’t enough."

Tears gathered in her eyes.

"I don’t deserve someone like you," she whispered.

The words shattered something inside me.

"It’s the other way around," I said roughly. "My darkened soul from the abyss of hell doesn’t deserve someone as pure as you. Someone as kind, as forgiving, as genuinely good as you are."

And you have no idea just how true that is.

Because she didn’t know. Didn’t know that the man holding her face so gently was the same monster who’d butchered her family to ashes. Didn’t know that Uriel and Alpha Terrell were one and the same.

Didn’t know that I’d been lying to her from the very beginning.

The guilt threatened to choke me.

But beneath it, stronger than it, was something else.

Joy.

Overwhelming joy that she wanted me. That she’d chosen me despite all her fears and insecurities.

Even if the "me" she’d chosen was only half real.

"I’ll break the bond with the Alpha," Angel said firmly, bringing me back to the present. "As soon as we reach Black Wolf territory and Sheena can perform the ritual, I’ll do it. And then we can be together."

Oh God. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"But for now," she continued, her expression turning serious, "we have to be careful. I’m still betrothed to him. Still technically his mate, even if neither of us wants it. I can’t do anything that would make him change his mind about letting me go."

The irony was almost painful.

She was worried about the Alpha changing his mind.

When the Alpha was me.

When I’d already changed my mind so completely that the idea of letting her go made me physically ill.

"We’ll be discreet," I promised. "No one needs to know until after the bond is broken."

She nodded, relief crossing her face.

Then her expression shifted, uncertainty creeping back in.

"Can I ask you something?" she said hesitantly.

"Anything."

"What happens when you eventually find your mate?" The question came out small, almost afraid. "You’re a werewolf. You’re bound to have one out there somewhere. And when you find her..." She trailed off, but the implication was clear.

When you find her, you’ll leave me.

The question stunned me.

I hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t even considered that she’d worry about such a thing.

Because to her, I was just Uriel. A warrior without a mate bond. Someone free to choose.

Not Alpha Terrell, who’d already been chosen by the Moon Goddess.

Not her actual, literal mate standing right in front of her.

"I can’t have a mate," I said quickly.

Lying was becoming dangerously easy.

Angel’s eyes widened. "What? That’s... that’s possible?"

I nodded. "The Moon Goddess declared it long ago. I’m mateless. It’s rare, but it happens. Some wolves are simply meant to walk alone."

Forgive me. Forgive me for lying to you again.

But what else could I say? The truth would destroy everything.

"So you have nothing to worry about," I continued, hating myself more with every word. "There’s no mate waiting in the wings to steal me away. There’s just... this. Us. If you want it."

Relief filled her face, so pure and genuine it made my chest ache.

"I want it," she said softly.

I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve her.

But I was too selfish to let her go.

Too selfish and too desperate and too completely, irrevocably in love with a woman who would hate me if she knew the truth.

So I smiled instead of confessing.

Pulled her into my arms, and held her there, inhaling her intoxicating scent.