Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Damien
Raven Caine was fast becoming the bane of my existence.
Dark lashes fluttered against her dewy, pale skin, her slender shoulders tense, eyebrows drawing together into an unreasonably attractive frown as she absent-mindedly twirled her pen between her fingers, her teeth catching her lower lip in a surprisingly sensual tug.
My personal assistant took the minutes of the meeting, seemingly unaware of the fact that she held the undivided attention of every red-blooded male in the room.
A possessive growl rumbled to life in the back of my throat as I caught Trenton Fauner, the real estate mogul client I should have been focused on, stealing an admiring glance at Raven.
“Miss Caine,” I snapped, and that emerald green gaze that had consumed my thoughts for far too long latched onto mine. I frowned, my anger growing exponentially.
“Your services are no longer needed here,” I informed her gruffly. “Get Wendy. She’s better suited for this task.”
The entire room fell silent, and Raven flushed, visibly embarrassed, the redness on her cheeks spreading below her neck, and I had a sudden stray thought, wondering how far down that flush would go. Raven straightened her shoulders, a stubborn glint in her eyes.
“Mr Blackwell, I—”
I didn’t let her finish.
“I won’t repeat myself, Miss Caine.”
Trenton Fauner shifted in his seat, a patronising smile on his thin lips.
“Just let the girl stay, Damien,” he volunteered, his gaze lingering suggestively on Raven. “She seems…competent enough.”
I saw red, my claws digging into the softness of my palm as I struggled to remain in control. Killing human clients was bad for business, especially now with a werewolf serial killer still on the loose and unaccounted for. I forced a smile I could barely feel.
“I assure you, Trent, competency is an attribute Miss Caine doesn’t possess.”
The lie tasted wrong on my tongue, but if Raven stayed here for one more minute, I’d have Trenton’s blood on my hands. No man was allowed to look at her like that, except me.
Attuned as I was to her, I felt Raven stiffen at my words, her full red lips trembled with barely restrained rage, but she simply stood in a single fluid motion and quietly excused herself, the fire in her gaze at odds with her quiet professional tone.
My frown deepened as I watched her leave, beyond annoyed and irritated at the way her every motion entranced me.
I didn’t like Raven, and from the routine glares she tossed my way, I knew the feeling was mutual. Yet I couldn’t stop watching her. I knew she wasn’t the woman from that night, yet I couldn’t stop myself…
In some ways, that made the situation far worse because it meant I was losing my edge, which was something I couldn’t afford. Not now. Especially with how the last council meeting had gone.
Shortly after the discovery of the body of yet another victim, I called for a council meeting. As the human bureau claimed, the body, like the ones before it, held the tickling, familiar scent of my pack, but no base scent I could use to identify the murderer.
“It’s a coincidence? You can’t possibly believe that,” Elder Malcolm’s nostrils flared with anger.
“One minute, Alpha Matt’s wolves are sniffing at our borders, the next, human bodies are turning up with our scents. Coincidence? I think not.”
Elder Malcolm was known for pushing for more extreme actions, but from the looks of the anxious murmurs that broke out across the room, most of the elders seemed to be in agreement with him today.
Anger sparked within me, my wolf surging to the forefront of my mind, and I let out a pulse of dominance that had all the elders falling silent. “The Sky Pack wouldn’t dare threaten the alliance with the humans,” I spoke through gritted teeth. “Neither of us is fully recovered from the last war.”
Twelve years. It had been twelve years since it all ended, but the losses, on both our sides, were still remembered. I’d lost my family, my mate, and any inclination to ever have another mate.
My wolf grappled within me at the recall of that time and that betrayal, and it took everything to swallow my pain and anguish enough to stare down at my council, who suddenly found it hard to meet my gaze.
In the silence that ensued, Sinclair was finally able to conclude his report, his expression surprisingly bleak.
“Alpha, it has also been confirmed that it was the Sky Pack who found the first body and notified the human authorities.”
Just like that, the entire room fell into chaos once again. As the Elders began to fling accusations about, I found myself missing the quiet of my office and even Raven’s cold glares.
I frowned, disquieted. Where did that last thought come from?
What was it about Raven that summoned her into my every thought when I could barely stand her? It was the first time in twelve years I was experiencing such an irresistible draw, and it wasn’t an entirely pleasant sensation.
The cutting tone of Elder Mia’s voice brought me back to myself. Elder Mia, Elder Malcolm’s ardent supporter, was adept at drawing and holding attention.
“They mean to use the humans as a means to subdue us. This can only mean one thing,” Elder Mia’s lips twisted into a grimace. “They are most likely preparing for another war.”
The energy of the entire room seemed to tilt on its axis as Elder Mia uttered those words. In the end, it was Elder Nolan’s levelheaded voice that cut through the tense silence.
“Perhaps we should try dialoging with Alpha Matt,” Elder Nolan cleared his throat. “He has always been reasonable, and he was the Alpha’s brother-in-law—”
Elder Malcolm slammed his fist on the table, his gaze dark with anger.
“Matt is just a bastard from a long line of treacherous alphas. Our alpha’s fated mate came from that cursed line, and see how it ended. With betrayal,” Elder Malcolm spat venomously. “We don’t need dialogue. We need to strike first—”
“Enough.” My tone might have been deceptively soft, but none of the Elders missed the edge of authority my voice held. They fell silent.
“There will be no war,” I declared. “We will resolve this by catching the culprit behind the murders and handing them over to the human authorities.”
Elder Malcolm’s bitter gaze didn’t abate.
“And if the culprit is the Sky Pack?”
My lips tightened grimly at the prospect.
I didn’t want the culprit to be the Sky Pack. I didn’t want to find out I’d been betrayed once more. But if they were behind those brutal murders I’d seen…
“Then you may get the war you seek, Elder Malcolm.”
“Alpha,” Elder Mia smiled sweetly in an obvious attempt to diffuse the tension. “With a war imminent, the pack could do with… a bit of stability.”
I straightened in my seat, already guessing where she was headed with this.
“Speak clearly, Elder Mia.”
Her smile widened, the crow’s feet at the edges of her mocha brown eyes creasing lightly with the motion. “It’s time for you to officially name your heir, Alpha. We all know it’s going to be Elias, but these formalities are still important—”
I didn’t let her finish. “Elias will not be my heir.”
For several moments, my council seemed paralyzed with shock.
“Alpha,” Elder Alec, the oldest Elder on the council, barely spoke and was more of the neutral faction, but even he couldn’t hold back his bafflement. “We don’t mean to question your decision, but after Rielle, you are still without a mate and the last of the Blackwell line. Elias is—”
“Unfit to rule,” I completed with a casual shrug, refusing to be swayed. “I will select an heir at an appropriate time. For now, we will focus on finding the culprit by all means necessary. War is and will always remain a last resort.”
The council didn’t seem thrilled, but I wasn’t going to change my mind regardless of how the situation went.
I was skimming through the potential leads I’d gotten on the human murders after my meeting with Trenton when Raven strode into my office. I stiffened as her faint, sweet scent hit me, and my wolf stirred to life within me.
“I don’t recall requesting your presence, Miss Caine.”
Raven ducked her head respectfully, tendrils of dark hair escaping her bun to frame her face, but the scent of her anger was sharp and strong.
“I apologise for my intrusion, Mr Blackwell. I simply wanted to ask where I fell short in the meeting so I can improve on that aspect next time.”
An image of Trenton’s leering gaze on Raven popped up uninvited in my head, and the pen I held in my grasp broke.
“There will be no next time,” I pronounced, a potent mix of anger and jealousy pulling me under. “Henceforth, Wendy will handle taking the minutes of my meetings. Just focus on reducing the amount of subpar work you produce.”
Raven sucked in a sharp breath, pain flashing in those vivid aquamarine depths, and a pang of guilt hit me in my gut.
Her work wasn’t anywhere near subpar. In fact, it was fucking impressive, and her pitches were literally the only ones that weren’t generic. But there was no other way to explain away my impulsive actions.
Raven turned to leave, but she seemed to change her mind at the last moment, turning to face me, an unexpectedly strong wave of dominance emanating from her.
“Do you have a problem with me specifically, or are you just an asshole?”
For a moment, I was certain I’d misheard her.
“What?”
Raven closed the distance between us so she stood right in front of my desk, the mask of politeness she’d worn like armor throughout all my time at the office falling away.
“You might be a billionaire and the alpha of the biggest freaking pack on this continent, but it gives you no right to treat anyone so terribly!”
Raven was incandescent with fury. “Yes, I want this job. As a matter of fact, I need this job, but I am not an outlet for your frustrations.”
I stood from my seat, easily dwarfing her.
“If your job repulses you so much, Miss Caine, I’d be glad to take it off your hands.”
Raven took a step back, shaking her head ruefully, a caustic laugh escaping her as she levelled a lethal glare at me.
“I am so sick of men like you who think they can do whatever they like because they have a bit of power and money,” Raven bit out.
I paused, my gaze tracking from her vivid emerald eyes down the line of her throat, lingering far longer than I should have on the curve of her hips.
“A lot,” I corrected thickly, my voice lower now.
Raven blinked, startled.
“What?”
I took a step toward her, my mind no longer entirely my own. Something about the way she stood her ground, trembling yet fierce, her scent, soft yet maddening, ignited something primal in me.
Raven’s gaze darkened, her pupils dilating as she instinctively took a step back.
I didn’t stop. I took another step, and she backed away again. And then another, until she hit the wall behind her. I caged her in with one arm beside her head, my breath brushing her temple.
“I have a lot of power and money, and I worked damn hard for every bit of it, Miss Caine,” I murmured, my voice dangerously quiet. “So yes, I can do whatever I want.”
“You fucking asshole,” she growled, her cheeks flushed, an intoxicating red blooming across her pale satin skin.
I hated the way I wanted to kiss my way across that flush and the way I wondered how far that blush would spread if I took her right now on top of my desk. Fuck.
“Martin went on about how you are a prodigy,” I met Raven’s angry gaze. “But all I have seen so far is a willful overly confident, incompetent woman who thinks her pretty looks will get her everything she wants.”
Raven slapped me right across the face.
“You have no idea who I am or what I think,” she hissed, her breath coming hard.
Stunned, I stared at Raven, and she stiffened realizing what she had done. Who she had hit. And the consequences of that action.
I didn’t know who was more surprised between the two of us when I reached for her.
Raven drew in a startled breath as I leaned in to taste her lips.
She tasted as sweet as she looked, like vanilla, brownies, and something so distinctively familiar that I pulled away, ending the kiss, searching her eyes for something I couldn’t find.
Raven stared right back at me, wide-eyed.
“Mr Blackwell,” her breath hitched over those words, warping them into a thoroughly aroused moan. I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her again, giving in to the desire that had been burning within me from the moment I met Raven Caine, and this time, Raven reciprocated.
Her arms slid upward over my shoulders, to the back of my neck, and her lips parted eagerly to allow me in. A low growl grew deep in my throat, and Raven came alive in my arms, her tongue curling around mine, sucking me daintily into her mouth, going on her tiptoes to press her hips against mine.
I drove her backward against the wall, shoving her skirt up, my hands cupping her backside and lifting her so that my erection was nestled in the soft notch between her legs.
Raven stiffened in my arms, her head falling back against the wall, a rough moan leaving her as I rubbed back and forth against her drenched cotton panties.
I slanted my lips over hers, swallowing her moans, her gasps, and sighs of pleasure. Her nails dug into my shoulders, tugging me closer, her hips undulating against mine.
I grunted, kissing my way down her neck, tasting her skin. Her scent was maddeningly addictive, there was something about it… something that tickled the back of my mind.
“You smell…” I buried my nose in her nape, unable to help myself. “Your scent—”
Raven shoved me away. I stumbled a step back, mostly from surprise. Raven’s hair was a silken sheet free from her bun, her red lipstick smudged, her skirt askew, and her gaze horrified.
I started to speak, to apologize, to do something, but she didn’t even look at me as she straightened her skirt and headed right out of my office. I stared after her, my mind shot, my body twitching for another hit of Raven.
I could still taste her on my tongue. Warm. Fiery. So fucking perfect and so familiar. Too familiar. I frowned, a suspicion building in the back of my mind.
I picked up my phone, and my beta picked up on the first ring.
“Sinclair,” I instructed. “I need you to get me everything you can find on Raven Caine.”