The Alpha Behind The Mask-Chapter 46: A Killer

Aurora’s POV

​"Help me... please," I sobbed, leaning my head against my front door. "I just killed someone... I didn’t mean to, but he was going to—"

​"Aurora." His voice stopped my crying. He didn’t ask how or why it happened. He didn’t even sound shocked. He sounded like a soldier taking charge. "Where are you right now?"

​"In my room," I choked out, looking at the dried blood under my fingernails. "I ran back... I’m home."

​"Where is the body?"

​"Three blocks away... in the alley by the bakery. Raymond, the cameras... the blood... I’m going to jail, aren’t I?" I was starting to panic again. I felt like the walls were closing in on me.

​"Calm down," he said firmly. His voice was deep and protective. "Listen to me. Go to the bathroom. Take off all your clothes and put them in a trash bag. Wash the blood off your skin until you are completely clean. Then wait for me. Do you understand?"

​"I don’t want to go to jail," I whispered, feeling dizzy with fear.

​"Aurora," he growled, and the power in his voice made me shiver. "You are not going to jail. That will never happen. I am going to make this night disappear. Now, do what I said."

​The call ended.

​I sat there for a moment in the silence. He hadn’t judged me at all. He just took the burden away from me. I stood up on shaky legs and went to the bathroom. I did exactly what he told me. I took off my ruined dress and stepped into a hot shower. I scrubbed my skin until it was red, trying to wash away the memory of the man’s hands and his blood.

​When I finished, I put on a thick sweater and leggings. I felt empty inside. I sat on my bed and stared at the door, waiting for what was next. For almost thirty minutes I waited, but nothing happened. Every little sound made me jump. A car driving by, a floorboard creaking, even the wind against the window—it all terrified me. I sat on the edge of my bed, shivering, waiting for the police to burst through the door.

​Then, I heard footsteps at my door. My heart stopped. I stayed perfectly still, holding my breath until a soft knock came.

​I jumped in fear. On shaky legs, I walked toward the door. I looked through the peephole and saw him. It was Dom Raymond. He was still wearing that dark leather mask. I swallowed hard and opened the door. He stepped inside immediately and closed the door behind him, locking it. The room suddenly felt very small with his large frame taking up the space.

​Tears filled my eyes again. "Where is the body?" I whispered, my voice trembling.

​He looked at me calmly and asked, "What body?"

​I was so confused. "The man... the alley... the blood..."

​He scoffed softly and walked over to me. He gently led me back to the bed and sat down beside me. I couldn’t stop staring at his masked face. Every time he moved, every time he breathed, I thought of Alpha Oliver. Why did they feel so similar?

​He spoke, his voice low and gravelly. "I have handed the corpse over to his family."

​My eyes widened. "His family? They’ll ask what happened!"

​"I simply told them I killed him because he crossed my path," he continued, as if he were talking about the weather.

​"You’ll go to jail!" I cried out. "His family will report you to the police!"

​He scoffed again, a dark sound behind the mask. "You mean the same family that was on their knees begging me not to take the matter further? They apologized for their relative being in my way."

​I stared at him, speechless. Who was this man? I had forgotten for a moment that he wasn’t just a regular person. He was an Alpha, a leader of assassins.

​"It’s gone, Aurora," he said, his green eyes locking onto mine. "The body, the weapon, the footage. It’s like that man never existed. You are safe."

​"How is that possible?" I whispered, my voice still shaking. "The cameras... the evidence... things like that don’t just go away."

​He reached out and took both of my hands in his. His leather gloves felt cool against my skin, but his grip was firm and comforting. "Listen to me, Aurora," he said, his voice dropping into a low, intense rumble. "There are many things you don’t know about me. There are many things I am capable of doing."

​I looked into those green eyes behind the mask. A bitter thought flashed through my mind. Joke’s on him. He thought he was being mysterious, but I already knew his dark secret. I knew he was an Alpha, a leader of assassins, and the man who led the raid that killed my parents.

​"What I just did is only the tip of the iceberg," he continued, his thumb brushing over my knuckles. "Trust me. It is over. No one is coming for you."

​Suddenly, his posture shifted. His eyes searched mine, and his brow furrowed behind the leather mask. "What happened?" he asked, his voice losing its cold edge and replacing it with a sharp, burning concern. "Tell me everything. Why were you out there? Why did he target you?"

​I swallowed hard, the memory of the alleyway flooding back—the smell of the man’s breath, the cold steel against my neck, and the way he had pinned me against the wall. With a trembling voice, I told him. I told him how the man followed me, how he dragged me into the dark, and the disgusting things he said he would do to me.

​As I spoke, I felt the air in the room grow heavy. Raymond’s green eyes began to flash with a terrifying color. His jaw was set so tight I thought his teeth might crack.

​"That bastard," he spat, his voice vibrating with a rage so pure it made the furniture in the room seem to tremble. "He should thank his god that you gave him such a peaceful death. Because if I had gotten my hands on him while he was still breathing..."

​He cut himself off, sucking in a deep breath as if trying to restrain a literal monster inside of him. He turned his head away for a second, his gloved hands clenching into fists.

​"I’m a killer," I whispered, looking down at my clean hands, though I could still feel the warmth of the blood on them. "There is blood on my hands, Raymond. I took a life."

​He snapped his gaze back to me, reaching out to cup my face with both hands. The leather was soft, but the strength behind his touch was undeniable.

​"No," he said firmly, his eyes boring into mine. "What you did was right, Aurora. Do not let guilt consume you for what you did. You didn’t just save yourself—you saved a lot of other girls who wouldn’t have been able to defend themselves the way you did. You stopped a predator."

​I looked into his eyes and For a moment, the mask didn’t matter. The fact that he was the man who destroyed my past didn’t matter. In this tiny, quiet room, none of that mattered. All that mattered was the way he was looking at me—like I was his most precious and valuable possession.

​His thumbs brushed lightly under my eyes, catching the tears before they could fall. His touch was careful, almost reverent, as if I were something fragile instead of the girl who had just driven a knife into a man’s chest.

​"You were defending yourself," he said softly. "That is not a crime."

​My breath trembled. "I stabbed him," I whispered. "I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop."

​His jaw tightened beneath the mask, but his voice stayed steady. "Good."

​The word startled me.

​"You don’t let a rapist live," he continued quietly. "If you do, some other girls will be victims."

​His words should have calmed me, but they didn’t. I shook my head, not able to control my emotions.

​"I could see his eyes, Raymond," I rambled, my voice rising in pitch. "The way they went blank... the way he just stopped. And the smell, oh God, the smell of the blood was everywhere. I’m not supposed to be this person. I was supposed to be a normal girl, with a normal life and—"

​"Aurora, stop," he murmured, his hands tightening slightly on my face to ground me. "Calm down."

​"No! I can’t calm down!" I shouted, pulling my face away from his touch. I started pacing the small space between the bed and the wall, my hands gesturing wildly. "You don’t understand. I’m now a killer... my hands are soaked with blood..."

​"Aurora, breathe—" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

​"I don’t want to breathe! I want to forget! I want to go back to yesterday when I was just a secretary and my biggest problem was Alpha Oliver being a jerk! I want to—"

​He stood up suddenly, his massive frame cutting off my path. I tried to push past him, my words turning into a blur of incoherent stammers and sobs. "I just... I can’t... I—"

​He didn’t let me finish. He didn’t use words to quiet me this time. Raymond reached out, grabbed my waist, and pulled me flush against his hard chest. Before another panicked word could leave my mouth, he tilted my head back and slammed his lips against mine.

​