Sold To The Demon Alpha
Chapter 25

Roma’s POV

“So this is where you are. The servants said you did not want dinner.” I heard Raphael say as he entered my office and I raised my head from the drawing I was staring at to look at him.

I didn’t know how to describe how it had felt to see the terror in Aria Ajello’s eyes as I held the heart of that werewolf hunter in my hand.

She had looked at me with fear before. First, when I had taken her from her father to pay her debt and after I had nearly killed her in the West wing. But this time, it had been different. This time, she had looked at me like she could not recognize who stood before her.

She had looked at me and finally understood and seen that I was truly a monster.

And she had done what anyone else in her position would have.

She had run.

I had killed that man because of the unforgivable crime of murdering Carmen and her twin boys.

And I had never felt so satisfied as I ripped his heart out of his rib cage.

But the truth remained. That something in me had felt hollow watching Aria witness just how much brutality I was capable of.

Just how depraved and bloodthirsty Roma Ruggiero was.

I had no regrets about killing that man. But something had changed the minute Aria walked into that room. The light in her eyes had vanished completely. And it felt like something had been done that I could never fix again.

“The body?” I answered Raphael absentmindedly, staring at a drawing that was so meticulously made, it should be framed and hung on a wall for everyone to see.

So this is what made Aria Ajello carry her sketch pad around like a child that was not yet weaned.

I looked at the drawing of myself and imagined if that was how she truly saw me.

It was a brilliant sketch and the strokes made the picture look more realistic and touching.

“Burned. The room has also been cleaned. All that is left is for us to prepare for the burial of our people.”

Nodding, I folded the drawing and kept it in my drawer, opening the map of the town on my table and briefly staring at my hands that were now so spotless when hours ago, they were covered in b***d.

Nodding at Raphael, I beckoned on him to come closer and picked up a pencil, marking different areas on the map where our territory stretched.

“According to that hunter, his men are not resting and we should not. We need to tighten security around these areas. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

After several minutes of discussing how to tighten up security, I was opening a can of beer when Raphael cleared his throat.

It usually indicated that he had a question to ask.

“What is it, Rafa?”

“The girl. You’re not going to ask about her?”

I stopped mid sip and stared at him.

We both knew who he was talking about and I knew he was asking what we would do to Aria for stumbling in on such a dire situation.

Usually, if it were one of the maids, they would be punished and ordered to keep their lips sealed on whatever they had seen.

But Aria Ajello was not just any servant. She was human. And technically, my hostage until she paid back her father’s debts. Which, in Raphael’s eyes made her dangerous.

And he was right for thinking that way. The only problem was that Aria Ajello was also my mate.

The one that the goddess had decided to pair me with. Whether it was a blessing or a curse was yet to be seen but from the recent events, I would wager on it being the latter.

“How is she?”

“She had a panic attack after fleeing the room. I left her in her room and a maid has been charged with reporting back to me on how she is faring. According to Sophia, the maid, she is asleep right now. I “

The poor thing. I’d wondered how she still managed to retain that innocence after everything she had been through with her father.

She would be so scared now and alone.

I fisted my hands and closed my eyes, taking deep breaths as I counted backwards from ten to stop myself from running to her room to see if she was alright.

Not that it would do any good since I was the person she had run from.

She would probably faint after screaming in horror if I were to go to her right now.

“Thank you. Let me know if anything changes. Have people take food to her and force it into her body if need be. The last thing I need is for her to fall sick with everything else going on.”

Raphael raised his eyebrows, looking puzzled.

“Not once, but twice, she has entered the West wing without permission and in all you have said, there is nothing about making sure that it doesn’t happen again. I am fond of the girl, I will not deny that but…”

The growl that came from my mouth was involuntarily, shocking both me and Raphael and I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated.

“You just said she had a panic attack, didn’t you? How about we wait for her to come out of shock before discussing her punishment?”

“I would have believed that if you hadn’t just growled at me for saying I was fond of the young woman. Tell me, brother. Is there something going on that I should know about? Perhaps between you two?”

Looking at Raphael who had folded his hands as he waited for an answer, I knew that I would not be able to get out of this one without saying the truth.

I opened my mouth to reply when his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket and he raised a hand and brought it out to read the message.

His face suddenly paled and my brows raised immediately in question.

“What is it?”

Looking at the message again, he shook his head and sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration, and it made me upset to be worried without a reason.

“Speak, Raphael.”

“The maid I put in charge of Aria just texted. She went to get dinner for her and entered her room to see that she was gone.”

My face paled and I closed the distance between us as my brain began to think of all the horrible things that could happen to her out there alone at night.

f*****g hell. Definitely a curse. This was no blessing.

“We have to replace her,” I said calmly and Raphael nodded.

We needed to save Aria at all costs.

“Yes, we do. But what if it’s too late? What if she ends up going too deep into the mountains and ends up in the forbidden forest?”

I didn’t dare think about that possibility because if it turned out to be true, then Aria was as good as dead.

Because that was where the ferals lived.