Chapter 4 Voices in the Shadow
Voices in the Shadow
Damon
Few things in life were harder for an Alpha than the simple act of waiting. We were creatures of action, of decision, of immediate and overwhelming force. To wait went against the very core of our being.
Today, I didn’t have a choice. I waited, and I watched.
I stood before the bank of screens, each one offering a different angle of the Omega Suite. Cora hadn’t moved much since I’d left her. She was still on the floor, a portrait of despair. She hadn’t taken the news well, but then again, I hadn’t expected her to.
Perhaps some people would have rejoiced at the idea of discovering Olympian blood.
The power, the wealth, the privilege. It held an understandable allure.
But Cora wasn’t like them. The only power she wanted was control over her own life.
A tragic irony, given that was the one thing she’d never have.
On the screen, Cora finally lifted her face. Her skin was flushed, her eyes glazed with the first feverish haze of her oncoming heat. Still, she resisted. A part of me, the part I refused to name, was impressed. But how long would it take until she actually gave up?
Elara walked up beside me, her gaze fixed on Cora’s image. “She’s different. Very stubborn. Prouder than anyone I’ve met.”
“She’s more than that,” I heard myself say, the words more instinct than thought. “She’s powerful. Intelligent. That makes her important.”
“Is that the reason you want her for yourself?” Elara turned away from the screens and narrowed her eyes at me. “You’ve never been interested in claiming an Omega for yourself.”
It wasn’t an accusation, but it landed like one. The challenge grated on my already frayed nerves. “Things change,” I snapped at my cousin. “And she’s too valuable to be wasted on House Zeus.”
The truth was, I’d never felt the need for an Omega. Our old ways brought unavoidable complications, and I’d always preferred to avoid the political mess. But Cora… She was worth the risk.
In the suite, Cora moved, tugging at the collar of her nightgown. The heat was starting to hit her in earnest. A raw, primal wave of territorial possession surged through me as she ripped the silk from her body.
The screens darkened slightly, shadows gathering in the corners of the displays. My control had slipped, just for a moment. Just enough.
Elara couldn’t have missed my reaction, but she knew better than to question me further. “How long until full heat?” she asked instead.
“Hours,” I answered. The Alpha inside me could already read the timeline on Cora’s strained face. “Maybe less. Her suppressant formula was remarkably effective. It’s fighting a losing battle, but it’s fighting hard.”
Elara shot me another warning glance. “Just remember, Alexander won’t give up.”
She turned to the second bank of monitors, each displaying security footage from the conference center. Alexander’s figure dominated several screens, his perfect golden hair catching the light as he spoke with the staff. I grimaced, irritated but unsurprised. “Turn up the volume.”
“...deeply concerned for Dr. Ellis’s wellbeing,” Alexander’s smooth voice filled the room. “She’s a brilliant researcher whose work could benefit countless Omegas...”
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. The shadows grew, stretching across the ceiling like living things, leaving pockets of frigid air behind. “He’s good,” I growled. “Playing the concerned investor rather than the thwarted Alpha.”
“That’s not what worries me,” Elara mused, ignoring the creeping chill with practiced ease. “Historically, House Zeus is known to use all kinds of methods in their manipulations. Non-Olympian authorities. The police. The media. But that hasn’t happened right now.”
The implication settled in my gut like a stone. “He wants to keep this an Olympian matter.” The common justice system was irrelevant in our disputes. We handled our own affairs. For him to take this approach could only mean one thing. “He knows she’s House Demeter.”
“He may have already known, before you stumbled into them,” Elara said glumly. “He wants her. Badly.”
My Alpha snarled inside me, the simple reminder of the threat enough to trigger my temper.
I forced myself to calm down, but the room was getting darker and colder.
“He was dragging her away from the conference when I intervened. Another few minutes and she’d have been claimed by House Zeus.
He wants her formula and her bloodline.”
Elara nodded. “That’s certainly a possibility.
Demeter Omegas are valuable even when they’re not brilliant scientists.
” She pursed her lips, flecks of hesitant darkness flashing in her eyes.
“Damon, this is serious, and it’s only going to get worse.
You need to maintain control. I haven’t seen your power this reactive since. ..”
She didn’t finish. She didn’t have to. The unspoken name of my father hung in the air between us, a ghost more solid than the abyss he now inhabited.
“I’m fine,” I insisted anyway.
“You’re not.” She studied my face, her gaze uncomfortably perceptive. “The Council will notice, just like I did. Maybe not right away, but they will.”
She was right. My control rarely slipped, especially not over an unclaimed Omega.
But everything about her clawed at the edges of my restraint.
Even hours after our conversation, her scent still clung to me.
My body remembered the feel of her desperate struggles, the delicious heat of her skin, the frantic quickening of her pulse.
And I was a House Hades Alpha. Now that I’d sensed her, I’d never forget.
“The claiming isn’t complete,” I said, half for my own sake, half for Elara’s. “Once the bond forms, this will stabilize.”
“And if she fights it?” Elara asked, her jaw tight. “You’ve seen it yourself, Damon. Her Demeter blood is strong.”
“Then I’ll be stronger.” I wrestled my power back, pulling it back into myself. “House Hades has never failed to complete a claiming.”
Elara pursed her lips, unconvinced. “Yes, Damon. But you have to remember what we belong to. If you don’t…”
Against my heart, a yawning void pulsed, as if responding to her skepticism. “I’ll speak to him,” I promised, each word tasting like ash in my mouth. “And I’ll be careful.”
Elara only turned away from me, knowing better than to believe me. It was just as well. I didn’t believe my own words. Not after everything we’d lost. Not after everything we’d lived.
The Shadow Chamber’s silence swallowed me as I descended the hidden staircase beneath my estate.
There was no electricity here, only the natural obscurity that members of House Hades craved.
Every single inlaid brick rippled with echoes of lost secrets, the boundary between our world and the Shadow Realm thin enough to touch.
This was where I came when my control fractured. Where I practiced abilities other Houses feared. The walls absorbed every sound, trapping every breath and whisper of movement. It was a tomb, a home, and a training grounds, and I needed it as much as I hated it.
Already bracing myself for the unavoidable onslaught, I pressed my palm against the far wall. My hand passed partially through the dimensional boundary, disappearing up to my wrist. The void pulled at me, hungry and familiar. “Father,” I called out. “Can you hear me?”
Silence greeted me, at least at first. I waited for a few moments, then reached out again. “Father, I know you’re there. Answer me.”
The gloom before me shifted, coalescing into a half-visible figure. My father’s features blurred and wavered, like smoke underwater. Only his gaze appeared solid, dark pits that reflected nothing.
Victor Blackwood. The only man I’d ever really trusted or respected my whole life.
Twenty years had passed since he’d become a mere specter.
My father had pushed his abilities too far, and the backlash had torn him away from the physical world.
He hadn’t even left a body behind to bury.
Now, he existed only here, in this half-life between worlds, sustained by my visits and abilities.
“Damon,” he croaked out, his voice now so hollow compared to what it had once been. “You’ve finally found an Omega of your own. And she’s good stock, isn’t she?”
I swallowed around the knot in my throat and nodded. “She’s a latent Olympian. House Demeter bloodline.”
My father chuckled. “How traditional of you. And ambitious. We haven’t had a Demeter Omega in our house in centuries. Hades himself would be proud.”
For all that it never got easier to see him like this, his approval warmed my heart. Still, I hadn’t come here for empty validation. “There’s more. Alexander Stormwright already hunts her.”
“The Zeus boy follows his father’s pattern.” Victor’s body flickered, parts of him dissolving into the murk before reforming. “Unsurprising. But... His interest in her isn’t so simple, is it?”
I kept my hand steady in the boundary between worlds.
It felt like plunging my arm into freezing, static-charged water, a thousand numb needles prickling my skin.
One moment of lost concentration, and this realm would devour me.
Many members of House Hades had been lost that way, consumed by their own birthright, their consciousness dissolving into the nothing.
I needed this connection to my father, but we all knew the risk. “It’s her scientific background,” I told him, ignoring my discomfort. “She created some kind of new suppressant. House Zeus seems very interested in it.”
My father snorted. “I can’t say I’m surprised. The Stormwrights and their ilk have only ever cared about power. They exist because Zeus couldn’t fathom the idea of Hades having descendants among humans, while he did not.”