The Triplet Alphas' Regret

"What are you doing here?" I demanded hotly.

My body tensed as Magnus closed the distance between us. With every step that he took forward, I walked back, cautiously fixing my eyes on him as though if I looked away, he would attack.

And I had no doubt that he would.

"Now, don’t look at me like that," Magnus said. "I’m not going to hurt you."

"You don’t exactly have the best track record, in case your memory has been failing you," I said through gritted teeth. "What is it this time? An old customer has hired you to get rid of me?"

Right as I said that, there came a snarling sound from the right. A rogue wolf broke through the windows, its jaw aiming straight for my head. I yelped in surprise, dodging out of the way. However, I soon realized that there wasn’t a need to.

Magnus rushed forward, easily punching the rogue wolf with his bare fists, causing the large beast to veer off course and bang into a pillar instead. The impact knocked the animal out cold; it shook its head a few times, standing up on wobbly feet, before eventually toppling to the floor, unconscious.

"See?" Magnus said, flexing his wrists. His knuckles were red and slightly bloody, and it looked like his skin had torn from the impact. It was painful to even look at. "I told you I’m not here to hurt you."

I winced at the gory sight. The skin on his knuckles was slightly peeling, with blood oozing out already. The force of a human hand against a giant wolf’s body could be devastating. One wrong move and it could result in a bad sprain at best, or a broken hand at worst. Even for a werewolf who could heal through the injury, it would still be painful.

Magnus merely shook it off as though he slapped someone a bit too hard across their cheeks.

"You can’t blame me for doubting your intentions," I said, warily squinting my eyes at him. Him knocking out the rogue with one punch showed that he could do worse to me if he wanted to. I wasn’t going to let my guard down around him. "What are you doing here, then? What do you want?"

"What if this is just a mere coincidence?" Magnus asked with a shrug.

I eyed his swollen knuckles and scoffed. If him being here was a coincidence, pigs would fly. This man had been hired by Violet to lead me out of Shadowclaw before killing me. Then, he had been commissioned to steal me away from my mate and back into the hands of my biggest tormentors.

Those two occasions were more than enough for me to be sure that meeting him was never a coincidence.

I looked at him pointedly, raising an eyebrow in question. "Do you honestly think I would believe that?" I said flatly.

Magnus shrugged. "Fair point," he replied. "You’re right. It’s not a mere coincidence."

Every muscle in my body tensed up as I clenched my fists. He might be stronger, but if I aimed at the right spot quick enough...

"I’m actually here to protect you," Magnus finished before I could make a move.

"What?" I said, stumped.

"Your precious Alpha mates have commissioned me to look after you," Magnus said breezily, tucking his hands into his pockets as he shot me a wink. I grimaced. "So here I am, as your new bodyguard. Let’s start on a new leaf without all these hostilities, shall we?"

"That’s not possible; they would never do this for me," I said, shaking my head. "You should have come up with a better lie."

I turned back. A short distance away, the wolf that Rowan had fought was still lying there, unmoving. It was most likely dead. I finally recalled why I found that wolf so familiar. He was one of the rogue wolves who worked with Magnus to kidnap me out of Lucien’s camp.

If the Alphas commissioned Magnus to act as my bodyguard, then Rowan wouldn’t have a need to kill that rogue, especially since he was working for Magnus.

"Ah, him?" Magnus asked, noticing my line of sight. As though he had read my mind, he said, "He’s a one-time employee. We rogues don’t exactly work well as a long-term team, you know? That’s the whole point of going solo in the first place."

"Convenient," I said, furrowing my eyebrows. "But I still have no reason to trust you."

Rowan’s last instructions were to look for him or one of his brothers if I ran into any trouble. If he had truly hired Magnus to protect me, he would’ve told me. Not to mention, with such an attack being so out of the blue, I highly doubted Rowan would have had the foresight to hire Magnus in time for him to show up right at this moment.

Besides, the pack was currently being attacked by rogues in the first place― the whole situation was too ironic.

"You don’t have to trust me," Magnus said, raising his hands. "I’ll just trail after you to make sure you’re nice and safe. That should be fine, right?"

He pointed to the wolf that had attacked us earlier.

"After all," Magnus continued, "if you do get attacked again, at least you can offer me up as a sacrifice to buy time. That ought to make you happy."

I frowned. Even if I could offer up Magnus as a sacrifice as a form of revenge for his past actions, it wasn’t enough to make me want to stay in his presence. I really didn’t want Magnus around. Every fiber of my body was against this idea. The very sight of him made me uncomfortable. I could never trust someone whose loyalties shifted based on coin.

However, between us, there wasn’t a chance I would win a fight if the last two encounters were anything to be considered. I could win a short fight with the element of surprise, but if it dragged on, I would quickly be on the losing end.

"I am busy," I said curtly. "I don’t need you hanging around. If the Alphas hired you, shouldn’t you be looking after someone else more important? Like the Luna?"

"Ah," Magnus said, clicking his tongue. "You mean the woman who tried to kill you."

I scoffed. "So you do remember."

"I never said I forgot," Magnus replied, raising his hands in surrender. "Other than the fact that I wasn’t hired to look after her, she has a wolf. That little witchy bitch is perfectly capable of looking after herself."

I raised an eyebrow at that unfriendly nickname. As ashamed as I was to admit it, I did crack a small smile. It was nice to see that even someone I thought was evil and vile didn’t like Violet.

"Besides," Magnus continued, "she still hasn’t paid me in full. Considering the injuries I sustained on that little task, she should be thankful I am not hounding her for compensation." He huffed, folding his arms across his chest. "Protect her? As if."

That got a raised eyebrow out of me. "She didn’t finish paying you? That’s stingy of her."

I had no idea Violet was such a cheapskate that she would even cheat the mercenary she hired to finish me off on payment. As the pack’s future Luna, it wasn’t as though she lacked the funds.

"Exactly! You get me, right?" Magnus gave an affronted little huff. "Not to mention, my rates are perfectly reasonable! She agreed to them beforehand and only paid the deposit!"

"So are you here to press for payment? I hope you have a contract of sorts," I said, my mind whirling with possibilities now that a new opportunity to ruin Violet had fallen into my lap. Now with Rowan’s support, I highly doubted he would be enthused to find out Violet had attempted to have me assassinated.

Magnus gave a little sigh, glancing at me from the corner of his eyes. "I know what you’re thinking and planning to do, but sad to say, there was no physical record of sorts. What kind of mercenary would I be if I just left incriminating evidence of my past jobs lying around for people to find? That defeats the purpose of hiring me in secret!"

Magnus then looked around and quickly hissed in my ear. "Also, forget the money― if the alphas find out I was hired to kill you, I’d be thankful to not be decapitated by sunrise."

"Well, guess you’re not getting your money back then." I shrugged, feeling some faint disappointment that I couldn’t use this to get back at Violet. I wasn’t going to risk confronting her without clear, concrete proof. Not to mention, now Magnus had another reason to get me to keep my mouth shut.

I eyed him warily, and he let out another longer sigh.

"What does a rogue need to do to earn some trust around here?"

Before I could respond, a low growl interrupted our conversation, and I felt my arm being grabbed as I was pulled away from Magnus.

"Stay away from her!"

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