25. No Matter What I Choose, I Lose

Roman

The door slams shut behind me, the sound echoing in the emptiness of my apartment, mirroring the noise inside my head. The place is dark, matching my mood, but I don’t bother to turn on the lights.

Instead, I kick off my shoes and throw my jacket onto a chair. It lands in a heap—disheveled, forgotten, much like my well-laid plans at the moment.

“Goddamn it,” I mutter to myself, my voice tinged with a bitterness that surprises even me.

Last night, I’d been a different man. As Jay, I’d allowed myself to lower my guard, to indulge in the intoxicating feeling of Aella’s arms wrapped around me. For a brief moment, I was just a man, not an Alpha with a plan, not Roman with a mission, but Jay, a man lost in the allure of a remarkable woman.

That’s what eats at me. It wasn’t Roman who held her last night; it was Jay, a figment of my imagination, a man free from the shackles of duty and deadly realities. And she had given herself to him—a man I can never be.

I pour myself a glass of whi