Chapter 153 Cuff In My Own House
Chapter 166
Ryder's POV
The front door of my quarters suddenly flew open.
Two of my security guards marched inside the room like a warrior that had conquered every of his foe on the battlefield.
But their eyes said something entirely, it was low, like a deliverer of bad news. It sat on their tongues like a bad pill and they refused to gulp it down their throat .
I sat at the edge of the bed as I changed my gaze to them. My mind clogged up with worry from the night before.
I studied his face carefully.
“So you couldn’t read them? You have no idea what they came for?”
"Boss," the taller one spoke first, clearing his throat like he was buying time. "The pack police are here."
I felt something tighten in my chest. Not fear. I do not fear. But something close to it. Something that feels like when you are standing at the edge of a cliff and a strong wind blows behind you.
I squeezed my brow together and stared at him hard.
"What do they want?" My voice came out flat and cold, like water from a winter stream.
The guard shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His hands fidgeted at his sides.
"I don't know, Boss. But the way things look outside…" He paused, glancing at the other guard beside him before continuing. "It does not look like a simple visit. They are not standing the way men stand when they just want to ask a few questions and leave. They are standing the way men stand when they have already made up their minds about something."
I looked at him carefully. Studying his face the way you study a road before you walk on it at night.
"So you cannot read their faces? You cannot tell me what they are likely here for?"
He gave a slow nod. The nod of a man who truly had no answer to give.
Something burned inside me. A quiet, simmering anger that I had been carrying since yesterday. Since everything fell apart.
"Get out," I said quietly at first. Then louder. "Just leave this place!"
They turned and walked out quickly, closing the door behind them.
The room went quiet again.
I sat there for a moment, alone with the silence and my thoughts. Then I stood up slowly. My body felt heavy, like I had been carrying rocks in my bones all night. Sleep had not been kind to me. It never really was anymore.
I looked over at the woman still sleeping in my bed.
She was curled up on her side, her breathing deep and steady. She slept like someone who had walked for days under a burning sun, found a cool river, drank from it, and simply lay down and let the world take them. There was no worry on her face. No weight. Just sleep.
It made my anger burn hotter.
I walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. Once. Twice. Then again, harder.
Nothing.
I tapped her vigorously, the sound of my palm hitting her arm filling the quiet room.
"You!" My voice cut through the air like a blade. "Get your body up from there and get out of my bed. Now!"
She stirred slowly. First her fingers moved. Then her arms stretched wide, and her legs spread out long, the way a person stretches when they have slept deeply and woken up without a care in the world. Like she was waking up in her own home. Like she belonged here.
I stared at her. The anger inside me climbed higher.
"I said get out of my bed. Right now!"
Her eyes finally opened. She blinked against the light. Her voice came out soft and lazy, wrapped in the remains of sleep.
"Oh… it is morning already. I am so sor…"
"Enough!" The word jumped out of me before she could finish. "Pick your things and get out of here. I do not want to hear anything."
She looked at me and thankfully my face passed the necessary message and whatever she saw in her face made me know that I was not messing around. .
She quickly jumped out of the bed, losing balance in between, trying to topple and fall as her feet touched the polished floor of my room.
She scrambled around the room, like a pup, who was still learning how to walk. She grabbed her clothes, shoes and underwear which had found their way to different parts of the room the night before. When I had fucked the hell out of her.
With contempt, I had watched her disappear through the door, but while moving out she was struggling to put her things on.
I heaved a deep sigh, as the room returned to normal, my privacy back.
I reached for my trousers, underneath the bed and stepped into them. My hands moved on their own, regardless my mind was somewhere else.
Pack Police?
The two words kept turning inside my head like stones rolling downhill. They would not stop.
My thoughts went straight to Rosa.
Could this be her doing? Was she really bold enough to go this far? To send the pack police to my door after everything that happened? After she walked into my house and killed someone in my own bed. After she stood there and made a mess of everything, right in front of my father. My father, who had always loved watching me fall. Who had seized that moment with both hands and used it to embarrass me. To cut me down in front of people. To whitewash my name like paint thrown on an old dirty wall.
And now this.
The nerve of it made something hot rise in my throat.
I breathed out slowly, in and then out.
Think clearly Ryder,” a voice echoed in my head.
I stepped out of the room. En route downstairs, my hand trailing the metallic railings. Fear didn't grip me but some uncertainty thoughts of what the pack police want in my house, enveloped my mind.
Each of my steps was working into something I couldn't run away from.
A moment later, I got into the living room and there they stood in the middle of my living room.
Two men dressed in typical pack uniforms. Their appearance sent a signal that they were here for business not frivolities.
They pretended that they didn't hear my footsteps approaching them. They rather stood looking at the high walls , beautiful paintings and expensive art pieces money had created in my living room.
They acted as if they were lost , just like how a stranger entered a room, just to be sure of the kind of person living there.
Pitifully, none of my body guards were present. I had sent all of them to the field. The house felt empty. Only security guards at the gate outside. Just me and those two men in the room.
I put on courage, straightened my back and walked forward.
"How may I be of help?"
They both turned at the same time. Quickly. Like they had been waiting for me.
"Your Honor," one of them said.
I looked at their faces carefully, searching for something. The same way you search a person's eyes when they come to you with news and you are trying to know before they speak whether it is good or bad. I was hoping to find something soft there. Some small crack that would tell me this was nothing serious. Maybe news that my enemy Jax had finally met his end. That the gods had decided to be kind to me today.
But their faces gave me nothing.
Hard. Still. Closed shut, like doors with no handles.
The one who had spoken continued, his voice measured and even.
"A murder took place in your house recently. The matter now connects to two men who were found trying to dispose of a body. The body of a young Omega woman." He stopped for just a moment, letting the words settle. "Those men did not cooperate when we came for them. They fought back. Two of them died in the process. The third one was badly wounded. He is in the hospital now." Another pause. "He confessed. He said you gave them the instruction. That you told them to go and get rid of the body."
Before I could realize, the second officer reached into his pocket, and pulled out a photograph. He held up in front of me.
I didn't need to look long before I realized the person in the picture.
Caramel.
"I do not know what you are talking about," I said. My voice came out steadier than I expected.
"You are advised to remain silent and come with us until the investigation is fully completed."
I almost laughed. Almost.
"Excuse me." I tried to control my voice but I couldn't. "I think you are making a very serious mistake. I genuinely do not know what you are referring to. I have no part in any of this."
My loud voice drew two of my maids into the room, they looked startled.
Master being questioned by the pack police?
These words that would be running riots in their brain.
I barely had time to react. One officer slipped behind me with startling speed. My arms were pulled back. Wrists forced together and steel cuffs locked into places.
The sound was faint. But it felt deafening.
"I hope," I said slowly, my jaw tight, my voice now carrying the full weight of everything I had built and everything I was, "that you are absolutely certain about what you are doing right now. Because if you are making a mistake here, I promise you both that you will regret it. I will contact the king personally. Every necessary measure will be taken."
They said nothing. They simply began guiding me forward, toward the front door, through my own living room.
"Do you know who I am?" My voice rose now, sharp and loud. "I am a Beta. A Beta of one of the most prominent packs that exists. I will not stand here quietly and allow you to drag my name through the mud. I will not let you bring what I have spent my entire life building down to the ground over something I know nothing about."
My voice bounced off the walls of the room.
Neither office spoke. Neither faltered. Not even a flickered of acknowledgement passed between them.
They kept moving, fingers
locked around my arms, escorting me to the entrance of my own house like I didn't belong there.
" Mark my words," the tone of my voice transformed into something lethal, “there will be consequences for each of you.”