SEQUEL: THIRTY-ONE

Roman stared intently at Alina for a few moments, cursing under his breath as he gave in. He bent down again to cut her ankles free and offer her a hand.
Alina stared at Roman’s hand with wide eyes, she had been fully expecting him to walk off. She smacked his hand away and pushed up to her feet by herself only to stumble and lose her balance when she did.
Roman caught her reflexively, steadying her by the arm and immediately letting her go before he could do the same. “My work here is done and we were supposed to discuss but you look like you need a visit to the hospital.” He said bluntly, “I’ll leave these men here and I’m sure you can handle the rest.” He concluded, making a move to leave.
Alina watched him leave, the world feeling like it was moving in slow motion. There was nothing wrong with what Roman had said, as a matter of fact, he had already done more than he was required to. What shook her up was that she had no one to call.
She couldn’t call her father because he never cared and her only friend was the reason why she was currently concussed and bruised in a warehouse in the middle of god knows where. So she was all alone. Painfully all alone.
“Wait!” She called out to Roman just as he was about to leave.
Roman turned around with a weary light in his eyes, wondering what Alina was going to say this time.
“I’m sorry, please help me.”
Roman did a double take, not quite sure he had heard Alina utter those words, it was the very last thing he expected her to say. He had already released her from her bonds as well so there was no reason for her to say it but the look in her eyes stopped him from questioning her.
He turned around and walked back to her, a snap at the men was enough to have them surround Madeline and take her into custody.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Madeline lashed out, glaring at them. “Do you know who I fucking am?”
“Take her to Alpha King Costin’s castle, I will relay a message.” Roman said shortly, ignoring Madeline just as much as the men holding her down.
“No! This isn’t right! It wasn’t supposed to end this way! I was supposed to be the princess! I want to be the princess…” Madeline’s voice faded away as she was taken away.
“We’re going to the hospital,” Roman said in a gentler voice to Alina who had fallen quiet after asking him for her.
Now that he looked at her closer, other than the obvious bruises she had, her eyes were sunken and filled with exhaustion and she seemed smaller than she used to be. A big change because Alina was usually larger than life from how much trouble she always stirred up.
Alina had spaced out at the sound of Madeline ranting so now she looked up at Roman, nodded, and took a step in his direction. She didn’t make the step however because the ground dipped in front of her and her vision went dark.
Roman caught her with ease, mentally scolding himself for feeling sympathy for Alina while knowing well who she was. But this was a side of Alina he had never seen before and it was a side he didn’t like very much.
He lifted her gently into his arms and strode out of the now-empty warehouse to his car. After placing her in the passenger seat so he could keep an eye on her and strapping her in with her seatbelt, he got in and headed for a hospital.
He rang up Lou on the way there, his trusty personal assistant, picking on the first ring.
“How’d it go boss?”
“I’ll give you the details later but right now I need you to make a report to Anton, on the grounds of Madeline committing high treason.” He said shortly.
Lou whistled, “Sure thing boss, will you be returning any time soon?”
Roman knew that his second in command would only keep asking until he gave an answer, he glanced at Alina beside him, “No.”
“Got it,” Lou replied without any further questions, “I’ll call again in a bit.”
When Lou did call again, Roman had gotten to the hospital and Alina was currently being looked over while he stayed in the waiting room.
“I got an immediate response surprisingly, from Alpha King Costin himself,” Lou immediately got down to business, “Says he’s going to handle everything. Now mind telling me what the fuck happened?”
“Madeline tried to murder Alina,” Roman bluntly replied, not bothering to cushion the news.
“Fucking hell!”
“Iyla didn’t come up but from the looks of things, she planned to frame her, or she wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of staging a kidnap.” Roman deduced, trying to piece everything he knew together
“That bitch,” Lou scowled, “Where’s Alina?”
“Unconscious, I took her to a hospital,” Roman said.
“And uh… you’re gonna stay there till she wakes up?” Lou awkwardly asked.
Roman hadn’t really thought about it because it felt like the only right thing to do, “I still need to talk to her, I’ll leave after that.” He made up an excuse although he knew well that bringing up the topic of nullifying the contract after Alina nearly got murdered by her best friend was something he wouldn’t do.
“Sure thing, boss.” Lou said again, without any of the jabs that Roman had been expecting, hanging up afterward.
Roman glanced at his phone, the doctor coming out at that moment.
“She awake now, Your Highness,” The doctor said respectfully, “Luckily she isn’t concussed and her bruises and cuts are healing up nicely, she’s fine to leave if she wants to. Would you like to see her?”
“I’m sure it’s more if she wants to see me.” He said without mincing words.
The doctor beamed at this, “Indeed, she requested to see you actually.”
Roman had a bad feeling about this, if she requested to see him, it could only mean that she wanted to berate him or start an argument. “Sure,” He agreed lackadaisically, at least this way he could tell her he was leaving, then leave.
The doctor gestured him into the room and made himself scarce, leaving Alpha King Roman alone with the patient.
Roman stepped in and closed the door behind him to find Alina propped up on the bed in the room. Her face was cleaned up, a bandage wrapped around her head, and bandaids on the other cuts on her face but none of that was as startling as the soft smile on her face.
“Hey, I thought you had gone,” She said softly.
Roman found himself squinting slightly to make sure that it was actually Alina he was talking to and that he hadn’t mistakenly been directed to the wrong hospital room. “Is the doctor sure you’re not concussed? Why are you so nice?”
Alina fiddled with the edge of the blanket, “Because you were nice first.”
Roman fell silent for a moment, he couldn’t counter this. Even though it was the last thing he wanted to do, he had unwittingly been rather nice to Alina. He walked even closer to her, “I didn’t know that someone like you thought that way.”
Alina shrugged, “People are always nice to me because of my standing, very few people are actually nice because they want to be.”
Roman felt whiplashed at this, he didn’t want to belittle Alina but he genuinely didn’t think that she could have such concise, sane thoughts. “I see. I came here for a discussion but that can wait, do you want to talk to your da-”
“No!” Alina cut him off sharply, “No. I don’t want to speak to him. I don’t even want him to know I was in the hospital.” She said, a hint of anger and a bit of her old self on her face and in her voice as she said it.
Roman quickly backed away, “Sure. The doctor said you can leave if you want to, do you want to call anyone to pick you up?” He asked considerately, not wanting to just abandon her in the hospital.
Alina stared straight up ahead at the ceiling, “There’s no one,” She answered, her voice barely above a whisper
Roman was tempted to reply with ‘what?’ but he didn’t want to make her repeat her words. It was as surprising as it was sad because Alina always seemed to be on the news for one reason or the other, he was confident that she had a bubbling social life.
Alina turned to Roman when she didn’t get a response, “Will you take me?”
The stunned Roman further, nothing had gone right ever since he stepped into Alina’s hospital room, it was like he was talking to an entirely different person. Without stopping to actually think about it, he agreed. “Sure.”
Alina big dark eyes sparked to life at this, she sat up straight in happy disbelief, “Wait, really?”
“Want me to change my mind?” He asked dryly.
“No, no, don’t,” Alina said in a flurry, hopping down from the bed.
Roman caught himself smiling faintly at this sight only for the expression to fall off when Alina straightened up and walked to his side, staring up at him with wide puppy dog eyes.
“Let’s go,” She beamed.
Roman found himself wondering just what he had gotten himself into, he knew for a fact that Lou and Iyla wouldn’t be pleased by their new housemate but if Alina stirred up any trouble, he wouldn’t hesitate to kick her out, and he let her know this.
“If you cause any trouble, you’re leaving.” He said bluntly as he opened the car door for her instinctively.
Alina however, picked up on the gesture easily, the light in her eyes getting brighter. “Deal!” She agreed happily, settling in.
She had no idea what she was doing or why she was insisting on sticking to Roman’s side but what she did know what that he was the only one holding her together.
When she had woken up in the hospital room, it felt like her ribs were crushing her heart, it felt like she was going to die. She hid her anxiety attack well but it had only alleviated after Roman showed up.
He was the last person in her life that paid any attention to her, and it was clear he did it because he wanted to. Not because of her status, or because he wanted to take her place.
When she wasn’t holding onto an ancient grudge that she wasn’t even sure of the cause, she could better see Roman. He had a calm but stoic energy that eased all the weight of her shoulders, the sharp line of his jaw and his cold blue eyes seemed less forbidding now.
“We’re heading to the airport, you can sleep if you want to, I’ll wake you up when we get there.” Roman’s voice filtered into her thoughts.
It was also the little things he did, like how he made sure to inform her of what they were about to do, and the little things like holding open the door for her and reminding her to get some rest. Although, she had only noticed these things, it was a big change for her from the Roman she used to know.
She had dated a handful of assholes over the years, most hooked up with her for the money, others for the fame, and a select few for the bragging rights of having dated the princess. None had ever treated her right, so she just kind of fell off, never believing she would ever settle with anyone or find love because she was sure that even if she found her Fated mate, there was a high chance he would only love her for the things she had and not who she was as a person.