Ruin Me, Alpha-Chapter 47: Blood on the Table, Fire on the Bridge

DEVON

I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in my quarters, adjusting the collar of my black dress shirt. My movements were fluid, practiced over a thousand lifetimes. I looked younger, sure. The heavy scars of the Great War hadn’t etched themselves into my skin yet, and the silver at my temples was gone. But the eyes—the eyes were the same. Cold. Ancient. Hungry.

"You’re staring again, sir," Zane said from the doorway. He was hovering, as always.

"I’m admiring the view, Zane," I replied, my voice like grinding stones. "It’s rare to see a dead man looking so fit."

Zane laughed nervously, thinking I was making a joke about the Northern Front. He had no idea I was talking about the version of me I’d seen disemboweled in a timeline he would never remember. To him, I was the hero Beta who had just secured our borders. To me, I was a ghost that would die more than a dozen times, murdered by the love of his life.

"The Alpha is waiting downstairs. Dinner is served," Zane informed me. "Your cousins are here. Marcus and Silas. They’re... celebrating the victory."

"Celebrating," I whispered, the word tasting like poison. "How festive."

I walked past him, my shoulder brushing his. He stumbled back as if I’d hit him with a physical force. He couldn’t help it. My aura was leaking. I wasn’t just a Beta anymore; I was a singularity of power trapped in a cycle of divine punishment. And tonight, I didn’t feel like playing the loyal soldier.

The dining hall smelled of roasted lamb and expensive wine. My father, Raymond, sat at the head of the table in his wheelchair, looking like a man who had seen his own execution and was just waiting for the blade to fall. Across from him sat Marcus and Silas—my aunt’s boys. Two arrogant, mid-tier wolves who thought their bloodline made them untouchable.

"There he is! The butcher of the North!" Marcus shouted, raising a glass as I took my seat. "I heard you took Baron’s head yourself, Devon. Efficient. Though, I hear his sister is even more of a prize."

Silas chuckled, leaning back. "Irene, right? I saw her at the funeral today while we were scouting the perimeter. A bit pale for my taste, but that red hair... imagine the sport we could have with the last of the Ironfang line."

I picked up my steak knife, testing the weight. It was balanced. Perfect.

"You were at the funeral?" I asked, my voice dangerously calm.

"From a distance," Silas said, oblivious to the frost spreading across the room. "She looked pathetic. Crying in the mud. I was telling Marcus, once we officially absorb their territory, we should take her as a ’servant’ for the barracks. Keep the men motivated."

I sliced a piece of meat, chewed it slowly, and swallowed. "A servant. For the barracks."

"Exactly," Marcus grinned. "Why waste a good breeder? Even if her brother was a traitor, she shouldn’t go to waste."

Raymond cleared his throat, sensing the shift in the air. "Enough, boys. We are here to discuss—"

"I’ve lived this dinner before," I interrupted, setting the knife down with a soft clink.

The table went silent. Marcus blinked. "What are you talking about, Dev?"

"In the first version of this life, I ignored you," I said, looking Marcus dead in the eye. "I let you talk. I let you live. Probably because I didn’t give a fuck about who she was yet. You ended up betraying the pack two years later, selling secrets to the South. I had to skin you alive in front of your mother. It was messy. Time-consuming."

Marcus’s face drained of color. "Are you drunk? What the hell is—"

"And you, Silas," I turned my gaze to the other. "In the first version of this night, I tried to be a mentor. I thought I could fix your stupidity. You died within three months because you couldn’t keep your hands off a Luna from the Crescent Pack. You started a war we weren’t ready for."

"Raymond, control your son!" Silas snapped, half-rising from his chair.

"Sit down," I commanded softly.

The power in my voice hit them like a physical blow. Silas’s knees buckled, and he slammed back into his seat. Even my father gasped, his hands trembling on the armrests of his chair.

"The thing about being trapped in a loop," I said, leaning forward, "is that you stop caring about the ’proper’ way to do things. You start looking for shortcuts."

I moved faster than their wolf eyes could track.

I grabbed the steak knife and drove it through Marcus’s hand, pinning it to the heavy oak table. His scream was cut short as I reached across with my other hand, grabbed his jaw, and twisted. A sharp crack echoed in the silent hall. His body went limp, his neck hanging at an impossible angle. His eyes became lifeless instantly.

"Marcus!" Silas roared, reaching for his transformation.

I didn’t give him the chance. I vaulted over the table, my boots scattering plates of food. I caught Silas by the throat before he could even growl. I lifted him off the ground with one hand, my fingers digging into his windpipe.

"You spoke about her as if she were a piece of meat," I hissed into his ear. "She is the only reason this world is still spinning, Silas. She is the only reason I haven’t burned this entire pack to the ground just to see the flames in her eyes." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Devon, stop!" Raymond screamed from the head of the table.

I ignored him. I tightened my grip. Silas’s eyes bulged, his face turning a deep, bruised purple. He tried to claw at my arm, but his strength was nothing compared to the Alpha Prime I had become in the darkness of the loop.

"I’m bored of you," I whispered.

I flexed my fingers, crushing his larynx and snapping his spine in one fluid motion. I dropped his corpse on top of Marcus’s.

I turned back to the table, picking up a linen napkin to wipe the blood from my knuckles. My father was hyperventilating, his eyes darting between the two bodies and me.

"Zane," I called out.

The Gamma appeared in the doorway, his face ashen. He looked at the carnage, then at me. "Sir?"

"Clean this up," I said, tossing the soiled napkin onto Silas’s chest. "And tell the guards that my cousins had an unfortunate disagreement. They killed each other. Tragic, really."

"Yes... yes, Beta," Zane stammered, bowing low.

"I’m going out," I said, walking toward the exit. "Don’t follow me. If anyone tries to stop me, kill them."

The rain had turned into a thick, clinging mist by the time I reached the Ironfang borders. I didn’t need a map. I knew exactly where she would be. In the real version of this night, she went to the old stone bridge over the Blackwater River. Zane had reported to me the next day as I had demanded that he reported on her every move.It was where she and Baron used to play as children. It was the only place she felt safe.

I saw her silhouette against the moonlight. She was leaning against the railing, her ginger hair damp and matted, her shoulders shaking. She looked so small. So breakable.

My heart—the cold, dead thing in my chest—thudded painfully.

I walked toward her, my boots silent on the stone. I didn’t hide my scent. I wanted her to know I was coming. I wanted to see that fire.

Irene spun around, her amber eyes wide with shock and immediate, visceral hatred. She didn’t have a weapon, but her claws were out, her teeth bared in a snarl that would have terrified any other man.

"You," she spat. The word was a curse.

"Me," I said, stopping just inches from her.

She didn’t back away. She stood her ground, even though I towered over her, even though she knew I was the man who had ripped her brother’s life away. The scent of her—rain, pine, and pure, unadulterated rage—filled my lungs. It was better than any drug.

"I’ll kill you," she whispered, her voice trembling with the weight of her grief. "I will find a way to tear your heart out and feed it to the crows, Devon Warner."

That threat sounds familiar now, doesn’t it?

I smiled. It wasn’t a kind smile. It was the smile of a man who had finally found his North Star in the middle of a storm.

"I know you will," I said softly. "You’ve done it before. You’ll do it again. And I’ll let you."

She blinked, confused by the words, but her hatred didn’t waver. She looked at me as if I were a monster which I was. But I was her monster.

I reached out. She flinched, but I was faster. I cupped her jaw, my thumb brushing against the soft skin of her cheek. She was cold, so cold. I felt the urge to wrap her in my coat, to carry her away to a place where the loop couldn’t touch us. But I knew the rules.

I moved my thumb lower, caressing her lower lip gently. Her breath hitched, a mixture of fear and fury. To her, this was the first time I had ever touched her. To me, it was the billionth.

"You are so gorgeous, my love," I murmured, my voice thick with an obsession that spanned lifetimes.

SLAP!

The sound echoed off the water. My head snapped to the side. The sting was sharp, wonderful. It was the only thing in this world that felt real.

I turned my face back to her. She was glaring at me, her chest heaving, her eyes glowing with a feral light. She hadn’t attacked me with her wolf, not yet. She was savoring the insult.

"Don’t you ever touch me," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "Don’t you ever speak to me like you know me. You are nothing but a murderer. A beast."

I felt the mark she had left on my cheek, the heat of it. I wanted her to hit me again. I wanted her to scream until her throat was raw. I wanted her to realize that no matter how many times the clock reset, no matter how many people I killed or how many empires I built, I would always end up right here. On this bridge. At her feet.

"The game has started, Irene," I said, my voice dropping to a predatory whisper. "And I promise you... by the time it ends, you won’t just know me. You’ll be the only thing left of me."

She stared at me, her hatred so pure it was beautiful. She didn’t say another word. She turned and vanished into the mist, leaving me alone on the bridge.

I stood there for a long time, the rain starting to fall again. I looked down at my hands, the hands that had killed my cousins an hour ago, the hands that had touched the woman I would destroy the world for.

"Twenty-seven days," I whispered to the dark water.

I had twenty-seven days to make her love me before the loop reset. Yes, that was the condition the witch gave me as the only way out of this loop.

And if I failed? I’d be stuck here forever. No going back this time. No second chance this time. Just me in a timeline where Irene detests me more than anything.

Twenty seven days...