Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Damien
Marie trembled as she knelt, her forehead grazing the marbled ground, tiny pathetic sobs escaping her.
“Alpha, please have mercy.”
The woman who’d drugged me in an attempt to get me into her bed so she could publicize the issue and secure a position as my Luna didn’t seem to realize how lucky she was to be able to keep her life.
“Alpha, I made a mistake—” she pleaded, but I didn’t let her finish.
“If you are still in Shadow Thorn territory in the next hour, you will be executed.”
Exile from one’s pack was no longer the death sentence it had once been in the past. Rather, Marie would be shunned, homeless, and penniless, with all her valuables confiscated by the pack.
Marie raised her head, pale with fear at my words.
“Alpha, please—” she stuttered, but my guards were already picking her up, forcibly escorting her out of my study. It’d taken too long to catch Marie.
If the Elders had caught wind of this, they’d have more grounds to push me on, naming an official heir to deter power-grabbing plots like these.
But that wasn’t what bothered me.
My wolf stirred anxiously within me, unsated, ravenous, and more agitated than he had been in years.
I was tormented by my fractured memories of her—the mystery woman from the elevator that night.
Marie’s drug might have rendered me incapable of recalling her face, but everything else was excruciatingly engraved in my mind.
Her potent, intoxicating scent of jasmine and vanilla, lush, dark brown hair tangled in my sheets, breathy, desperate sighs in my ear, her nails raking down my neck and back, and the empty promises she whispered against my skin that still haunted my dreams. The inexplicable feeling of betrayal and loss I felt when I woke up to realize she was gone.
“Alpha?” Sinclair, my Beta, stood in front of me, his gaze slightly puzzled as though it wasn’t the first time he’d tried getting my attention.
A blaze of annoyance surged through me. How could I have been so thoroughly distracted by thoughts of her that I hadn’t even noticed Sinclair entering my study?
“Report,” I growled, my voice tight with irritation.
Why couldn’t I get her out of my damn mind? If Sinclair noticed I was being odd, he didn’t mention it. Rather, he launched into his report, dropping a file and a sheath of papers onto my desk.
“These are the sentry reports for the past month that you requested. It seems the Sky Pack is still sniffing around our borders,” he paused.
“We have begun tracking down Elias as per your request. Information on his whereabouts should be available soon, and this file contains the results of the audit.”
I frowned, my fingers rapping against the closed file.
The recent development with the Sky Pack was concerning, considering our murky history, but it was Elias who held my attention.
Something felt off. And it wasn’t just because I hadn’t approved of my nephew’s choice of mates or because Elias had insisted on having me excluded from his mating ceremony, only to postpone the entire thing indefinitely and fall off the grid.
Whatever it was, with my older sister Natasha gone, it was my duty to look out for him. I swallowed the pang of guilt I felt at the thought.
“And the woman…” I hesitated, but the words left me anyway. “Is there any update on her? I didn’t need to clarify what woman I was referring to before Sinclair shook his head, his expression contrite and apologetic.
“Nothing yet, Alpha.”
Weeks of searching had done nothing to unearth the identity of the woman from the elevator. None of the hotel surveillance had been recording, and my disjointed description of her hadn’t matched anyone the staff remembered.
It frustrated and infuriated me in equal measures. I’d sworn off relationships over a decade ago, and I’d stuck by it…until her. I didn’t understand my desperate need to find her or why my wolf was so aggravated by her disappearing act.
If I hadn’t already met my fated mate, I might have assumed—No. My fists clenched until my knuckles cracked, every muscle coiled tight as anger, disgust, and rage warred within me.
No.
I refused to think of Rielle’s treachery. Not today.
Sinclair’s phone buzzed, and seconds later, his voice cut through the haze of my thoughts.
“We’ve found Elias.”
My nephew was seated in the dimly lit VIP room of his newly acquired nightclub, making out with a topless stripper on his lap, the acrid stench of alcohol, vapes, and Goddess knew what, in the air.
Sensing my approach, the stripper hurriedly climbed off him, bowing and baring her neck in submission.
“Alpha.”
I didn’t spare her a glance.
“Get out.”
Clutching her hands to her chest, the stripper scurried out of the room, and Elias levelled a glare at me, unashamedly adjusting his pants.
“You can’t just barge onto my property whenever you feel like it.”
With his dark hair, pale blue eyes, and high cheekbones, he looked so much like Natasha by the day that it was almost painful to see. Especially now.
“Is this what you abandoned the company and our pack for weeks for?” I could barely rein in my disgust and anger at Elias’s actions. “Have you forgotten you have a mate?”
A mate, I’d allowed him to choose for himself, ignoring the opposing opinions from the pack elders. Regardless of how my past mating had ended, the truth remained that the relationship with one’s life partner was one so sacred it couldn’t simply be “arranged.”
Elias didn’t seem to share the same thoughts on the sanctity of the relationship with one’s mate. He didn’t even look up as he casually poured himself a glass of alcohol.
“Ivy isn’t my mate yet, and our relationship is frankly none of your business. Besides, I needed some time off from my company.” His jaw clenched and unclenched. “Or do I need to ask for your permission for that as well, Alpha?”
I tossed the file Sinclair had given me at him, and Elias glanced up at me, equally offended and mystified, before picking up the file, only to pale as he took in the contents.
“You…you audited my company?” Elias stuttered.
“Were you ever planning on telling me that you ran yet another of our subsidiaries to the ground with your reckless spending and dipped into the pack treasury to buy a damn club?” I growled. I hadn’t wanted to believe it.
I knew Elias’s less-than-stellar track record, but I always wanted to believe the best of him. Maybe it was easier and less painful than realising the sort of man my once kind, sensitive, and responsible nephew had grown into.
Elias’s initial disbelief and panic fell away, anger morphing the features that looked so much like my sister into an expression so ugly I could barely recognize him.
“You had no right,” Elias snarled, springing to his feet and flashing his canines at me. “It’s my business and my money. I can do whatever I choose with it!”
My hold on my temper fractured, my anger condensing into a cold, biting fury.
“That’s the thing. It’s not your business or your money. It’s mine,” I responded, my wolf’s dominance bleeding into my words and bearing down hard on Elias.
“And the treasury isn’t your personal spending account! It is meant to support the Shadow Thorn Pack and take care of the members of the pack you are meant to lead one day.”
Elias fought to stay standing as the full weight of my alpha dominance slammed into him. But in the end, he failed, bowing and baring his neck to me, acquiescing to my authority, a whimper of pain escaping him.
Hearing that sound brought me back from the edge, and I immediately leashed my aggravated wolf, remorse hitting me hard. Elias was flawed, but he was family, my sister’s son, and the only family I had left.
“Elias, I’m sorry—” I reached for him, but he shrugged off my touch, taking a step back, his expression dark.
“You drew dominance on me?” he chuckled, his gaze bitter and enraged. “For a few measly millions when our net worth is in the billions? Isn’t that too unreasonable, Alpha?”
I stared at Elias. The boy I’d been too lost in my grief to properly raise. How he’d turned out was solely my fault.
“You are right. That was too unreasonable,” I agreed. “Henceforth, you will no longer work at any of my subsidiaries and have voluntarily stepped down from your managerial role in the primary company. Your company cards and access to the treasury have also been cancelled.”
Elias’s mouth fell open in surprised outrage.
“You can’t—”
But I wasn’t done yet.
“If you refuse to clean up your act…I will not name an heir with questionable morals who doesn’t care for the reputation and well-being of the Shadow Thorn Pack.”
Yes, I’d failed Elias, but I wouldn’t fail my Pack by foisting off an irresponsible alpha heir onto them.
I’d coddled Elias, giving him whatever he wanted to make up for the times I had to be absent. But I wasn’t going to do it anymore. Elias needed to understand that his actions had real-life consequences.
Elias’s expression grew stormier, and a thin, reedy laugh escaped him.
“What about your questionable morals? You fucked and mated with a woman who betrayed our pack to enemies,” he taunted bitterly, cocking his head to the side almost curiously. “Is that your idea of caring for the ‘well-being of the Shadow Thorn Pack?’”
My vision went hazy with rage at the mention of Rielle, and I wasn’t fully aware of when I grabbed Elias by the lapels of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. Elias didn’t care.
“You killed my mother. Giving me this pack is the fucking least you can do,” he spat venomously, a sardonic smile on his lips. “Besides, it’s not like you have any other option.”
With those ugly, untrue, yet true, accusations hanging in the air between us, Elias shoved me away and stalked out of the room, and I let him go, that old guilt settling in my chest.
The meeting at Cityscape was impromptu. Part of my usual routine was to assess and personally oversee my new acquisitions anywhere from a month to six months before handing them over to my management team.
But today was different.
Elias’s words tore at me, and I spiralled, starting the meeting on autopilot, with my mind firmly entrenched in the past, until the moment I caught sight of those intense forest green eyes across the boardroom.
Those eyes anchored me to the present.
Her pale skin, thick, dark brown hair pulled back in a loose bun, tendrils framing shockingly delicate features, and full red lips parted ever so slightly, ignited a riot of emotions in my chest.
Seeing her felt like a punch to the gut, a slice of familiarity cutting through me, sharp and undeniable. I couldn’t perceive her scent from where I sat, but an unshakable feeling settled in my chest.
It was her. The woman from the elevator.
“You.”
No sooner had the word left me than she bolted, heels clacking against the polished floor.
Going after her was pure instinct. It didn’t matter that I was in the middle of a meeting. I caught her arm just as she rounded the corner to the restroom, tugging her into what seemed to be an empty meeting room.
She stared up at me in surprise, her thick, luscious hair spilling loose from her bun and her wide green eyes bleeding black.
“You,” I rasped. It had to be her. “Do I know you?”
She took a step away at my words, her back hitting the wall, and her arms going around her middle, her gaze blank and empty without recognition.
“No.”
My wolf snarled within me, refusing to accept her words.
“Don’t lie to me.” The words left me in an unintended growl, and the look of bafflement on her face grew.
“I don’t understand, Mr Blackwell,” she responded, seeming genuinely confused. “You assumed control of the company for the first time today. I…Staff one-on-one introductions haven’t been made yet.”
A seed of doubt sprouted in my mind.
Was it really not her? Had I been so rattled by Elias’s words and so desperate to find the woman from that night that I had made a mistake?
“Then why did you leave the meeting room?” I sounded like I was grasping at straws.
“I needed to use the restroom, sir.” Her cheeks reddened, and she looked away as though embarrassed. “I apologize for leaving abruptly.”
I didn’t believe her. I grasped her hair, sweeping it off her shoulder, and she let out a soft gasp that almost had my pants tightening, her fingers latching onto my shirt.
I pressed my nose to the crook of her neck, and she went completely still as I took in her scent. Underneath her soft floral perfume, her base scent was slight yet scintillating, but it wasn’t the scent that haunted my dreams.
It wasn’t her.
I stepped away from her, and the woman tossed a vicious glare at me before hurrying out of the room. What on earth had I just done, harassing an employee? It wasn’t like me to make sloppy mistakes like this. It wasn’t like me to be so hung up on a woman I barely knew.
Maybe it was a good thing I’d been unable to find her. It was time to call off the search and focus on reality and—
My phone buzzed. I took the call after a moment of hesitation.
“It’s not a good time, Sinclair.”
“Alpha, the human investigation bureau called.” Sinclair’s voice was tense and foreboding. “There’s a wolf serial killer on the loose. Our pack’s scent is on the new human victim.”
Wonderful. Because today simply couldn’t get any better.
“I’m on my way.”