Sold To The Demon Alpha
Chapter 38

Roma’s POV

“Good of you to join us at last.” Raphael said with a grin as he walked up to me when I came out of the house, abandoning the sea of women that had been surrounding him and I raised my eyebrow.

“You didn’t seem like you missed me.” I answered, gesturing towards the women, some of whom has started dancing around the bonfire as the music increased and he grinned.

“Well, what can I say? Single and ready to mingle. Unlike some people, ladies replace my smile very attractive.”

I rolled my eyes

“Haha. Very funny.”

“Your smile is nonexistent. Not sure if you have smiled since you killed your first deer when we were ten. I hear smiling is good to prevent wrinkles. Oh, look, at a wrinkle.” He pointed to my face and I smiled wide, my smile filled with all my fangs.

He chuckled just as one of the servants brought a glass of wine to me and I nodded in thanks, my eyes scanning the crowd for Aria.

I wondered how she had been since the last time I saw her and by seeing her, I meant her knowing that I had seen her because I had seen her plenty times.

She loved to sit in the garden in her free time, humming to herself and drawing in her sketch pad and when she wasn’t, she was always with her blonde friend, her face bright with a smile.

A possessive part of me hated that I was not the one who made her smile, but I was grateful that she was looking like she belonged here finally. She looked like she was adjusting even better and I had heard from Scian, that she was excellent with her assisting duties at the infirmary.

I wasn’t surprised. For someone that looked like an angel and didn’t understand that the world could be a big bad evil place and still managed to smile and crack jokes through all of it, I wondered if Scian was right.

If Aria was the kind of person I needed.

Refraining from asking Raphael where she was, I agreed when he informed me that I was going to give a speech to celebrate the goddess. Personally, I was sure the goddess knew I had no love for her after her punishment but I was Alpha and as such, I knew that I had responsibilities that I could not shy from.

After giving the speech, I headed back to my office, taking a detour to see Scian.

“Look who finally came to see me after all this time.” She said with a grin when I entered her office and I shook my head.

“The last time I saw you was three days ago, Scian.”

“Potato Potahto. You sneak in and out of my office now, like you’re hiding from something. Or someone.” She raised her eyebrows and wriggled them and I frowned.

“I am not.”

“Of course. The Big Bad Alpha is not avoiding the brunette that he so desperately desires but shall not be named.”

“I do not want Aria like that, Scian.”

“Ah, but Aria is not the only one in the infirmary with shiny brown hair. I mean, I had brown hair once before it turned gray.” She said with a grin and I chuckled.

“There, so you do remember how to smile, don’t you?” She said with a fond smile and squeezed my hand.

“Tell me, son, do you really not want her? Then you should let her go.”

My eyes widened in surprise.

“But her father…” I trailed off and she smiled.

“Her father’s debt might have been the reason you went to her house, but I am certain it was not the reason you took her and brought her here. It was because of the mating bond, was it not?”

I paled and cleared my throat. I hated that Scian could always see through me.

I had inhaled her scent and seen how her father treated her and knew that she could not stay there for one more night. It had not mattered whether or not I wanted her. I knew that if I did not replace an excuse to remove her, she would continue to be maltreated and might not wake up from her father’s maltreatment and even if she was not my mate, I never looked away from helping women and children in need.

But Scian was right. If she wasn’t my mate, I would have told one of my men to send her somewhere far away from her father and not brought her here.

And yes, I could not deny that the mating bond had factored into my decision for the mere reason that it was almost impossible to conceive.

Some wolves went their entire lives without replaceing their mates and now I had found a second mate?

But it had gone beyond the bond now anyways. I just liked seeing Aria around, knowing she was close, knowing that she was eating well, sleeping well and smiling brightly.

“You are right, I brought her because of the mating bond but she is doing well here, is she not?”

“She is indeed, but is she truly happy? Does she have dreams, perhaps? And are you just holding on to her when you know that you have no plans to make anything permanent between the two of you?”

I frowned at her.

“She is human. At best, she might feel some attraction to me and not know what it is. But you don’t know that she actually likes me, Scian. I’m certain she will not after she knows that I am a Demon Alpha. And she is human, you seem to forget that too.”

She nodded, smiling in that way that made me feel like she knew something that I did not know and I didn’t know whether to feel disturbed by it or not.

I had never considered the idea that Aria would not like me and now that I did and came up with no reason why she actually should, I didn’t understand why I was upset instead of being happy that things would be a lot easier when she had to leave because Scian was right, I could not keep her with me forever when I had no plans to act on my primal instinct to mate her and neither was I interested in keeping her hostage after she paid that debt in full.

It was selfish of me to not just let her go and annul the debt but I was not ready to. It was too soon.

There was a knock on the door and when Raphael came in, his face was grim in a way that said there was bad news.

Rising to my feet, I called him in and he bowed in greeting to Scian who nodded.

“What is it, Rafa?”

“There has been an attack. In the woods. A couple decided to have some alone time away from the rest of us and they were attacked. The male is badly injured but the female isn’t. Our men are chasing them.”

My face hardened and I turned to head out for a hunt.

“Make sure that everyone is inside their homes and accounted for. And let the sentinels inform me of their whereabouts and if there was something the man left behind.”

Raphael’s face turned even grimmer and when I raised my eyebrows, he cleared his throat.

“Some of the servants went into town for a party. And Aria went with them.”

My face paled in horror.