Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Damien
As Raven tilted her head back, a sheet of dark hair mussed from my touch fell over her shoulders, and I could only watch the flush from her cheeks spread down her neck, a throaty whimper leaving her.
“Please.”
She begged so beautifully. Of course, she did. Everything about her was beautiful. Raven trembled, her lower lip caught between her teeth, her hips undulating against my fingers.
“Damien.”
The sound of my name on her lips was my undoing. What had begun as a power play for my wolf to assert dominance shifted into something brimming with insatiable hunger and desire.
“Say it,” I demanded, my control fraying at the edges.
Seeing her earlier with Elias shook me in a way I’d never admit. From the familiarity in the way he held her down, and the way her eyes glittered with tears as they spoke. And it had taken every bit of control I possessed not to attack my nephew for simply talking to her.
Every time I thought I understood my wolf’s obsession with Raven, I was proven wrong. Now more than ever. I didn’t just find Raven fascinating. I craved her. Her words. Her glare. Her touch. Her anger. Even her tears. They were all mine.
Mine.
Mine.
Fucking mine. And I wasn’t going to share.
“Say it,” I repeated, unable to resist the urge to lean in and drag my tongue over her kiss-swollen, honeyed lips.
Raven let out a desperate sound, her lips parting eagerly for me, and she bit me vindictively, a rebellious fire in her gaze, even though her voice remained thick with arousal.
“Fuck you, Damien.”
I tasted the copper of my blood and felt myself stiffen even more.
“Don’t worry, Raven, we’ll get there if you beg enough,” I promised, meeting her frustrated glare as I shoved another finger inside her. Raven’s walls spasmed around me, her wetness drenching my fingers, the scent of her arousal thick in the air.
The leash on my control rattled. Fuck. At this rate, I would be the one who caved first before she gave in to my demands. Raven’s body tensed against mine, her hips—
“Alpha.”
I felt the obtrusive sensation in my mind of Sinclair trying to initiate a mindlink, and my wolf let out a growl of irritation at the interruption.
Raven let out a soft gasp, her hands cupping her breasts through her dress, her perfectly manicured fingers on her nipples as her eyes rolled back, her hips still gyrating against my fingers.
A guttural sound of need left me, and I held her—
“Alpha, there’s an emergency. Another human has been murdered.”
Ice filled my veins, and I pulled back from Raven, my jaw clenched with frustration. The human authorities wouldn’t take this lightly.
As though coming out of a trance, Raven’s eyes blinked open slowly, a hint of betrayal in her gaze at my retraction, her legs shaky beneath her, her fair skin still tinged red from my kisses. Goddess. Even with everything going to hell, I wanted to kiss her. Needed—
“Eric will escort you home,” I said sharply with a clipped tone. “I have some affairs to attend to.”
Then I stalked past her and out of the room before I gave in to my baser desires and took her right there, human murders be damned.
My efforts to placate the humans didn’t go well. “We are doing everything we can to locate the killer—”
“That’s not enough, Damien,” General Devon didn’t mince words.
The grizzled human general, a war veteran, was one of the few humans I held in high regard. Despite the fact that he headed one of the largest human government-sponsored werewolf hunting squads, he preferred diplomacy over blunt force and unnecessary death.
Usually.
“It isn’t enough,” General Devon repeated. “Not with a fourth human murdered. That’s four humans too many!”
He was right, but I still had to de-escalate the situation until the murderer was found.
“A war would lead to more losses on both our sides,” I reminded him.
It would be a loss that would be mainly borne by the humans, who, despite their continuous technological innovations, remained ridiculously weak prey compared to wolves.
“Then so it’ll be,” General Devon’s tone was grim. “You’ll find our taxpayers have funded research and development of weapons that can easily level the playing field. So clean up your mess, Alpha Damien, or we’ll do it for you.”
The line went dead. I took a deep breath. A war was seemed more imminent with every damn passing minute. Sinclair walked into my study, a tense expression on his face, and I had an unshakable feeling the night was about to get worse.
“Alpha,” He bowed. “A council meeting is in session.”
My hands curled into a fist. A council meeting in session in my absence? Without an official heir, only I held the authority to call a council meeting.
“Is that so?” I mused darkly. If my council thought this was the best time for mutiny, they were sorely mistaken. Order our spies in the Sky Pack to extract any evidence of the Sky Pack being behind the killings.” I instructed Sinclair.
I’d scoured every inch of the murder site and my pack in my investigation of the murder. If I still hadn’t found the murderer after all that, it left very few options open.
“Yes, Alpha,” Sinclair nodded once in understanding, but I wasn’t done.
“Also send word to Alpha Matt. I’d like for us to have a meeting.” This time, Sinclair hesitated a moment before nodding. That meeting wouldn’t be an in-law interaction I was looking forward to, but I was done with these games.
I stood from my desk, my temper returning with a vengeance. It was time to see my duplicitous council.
“What’s going on here?”
My words were soft as I stepped into the council meeting, but all the elders went still in their seats, and only Elias could meet my gaze. My nephew sat at one end of the table, his light blue eyes filled with rancor.
Since that day at the Sapphire Hotel when I’d revealed my relationship with Raven, I’d gotten to see a very different side to him that I hadn’t been aware existed. Or maybe I’d always known deep down, but it had been easier to look the other way.
“Alpha,” Elder Malcolm’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “We are glad you could make it on such short notice. In light of recent events, we thought it prudent to review the protocol of inheritance.”
My tone didn’t shift.
“Recent events?”
Half of the council exchanged surreptitious glances, but Elder Malcolm didn’t waver.
“Elias has kindly informed us of the true nature of your fiancée,” he stated firmly. “Not only is she too weak to take on your bloodline, but she is also a wanted criminal, Alpha, hunted by her own pack. A woman with such a reputation cannot be our Luna.”
Earlier, when I’d left Raven at the party, it had been Elder Nolan who’d requested a meeting to share his concern about something like this coming up.
They were concerns I’d put to rest, certain Elias would never dare team up with Malcom and risk upsetting the balance in the pack in a time as volatile as this. I’d been wrong about Elias once again.
“You would dare question my choice?”
As the words left me, all the elders stood as one to bow low.
“We supplicate our alpha on behalf of the Shadow Thorn Pack,” they chorused. “She cannot be our Luna.”
Only Elias stayed seated, a pleased, arrogant smirk on his face. He had every reason to be confident. He had successfully convinced the entire council of Raven’s ineligibility.
Considering how Rielle’s betrayal had nearly undone the entire pack, even Elder Nolan’s rationality led half of the council wouldn’t take a risk with another unproven Luna.
And once there was a unanimous council vote, even as the alpha, I had to accede to it.
The only exception being if we were at war.
My words held none of the rage I felt. “What would please the council?”
The Elders straightened from their bow, and Elder Mia offered me a serene smile.
“Please choose another mate, a female from a distinguished bloodline that complements yours, Alpha.” Her smile widened as she gestured toward Elias. “We also move for you to reinstate Elias as your heir in light of the imminent war against the humans. He is ready to atone for his past errors.”
I felt a surge of disgust as I watched Elias stand eagerly, an appropriate mask of contrition on his face.
To think I’d delayed revealing Raven’s pregnancy because of him.
I’d been waiting for Elias to step up and show me that despite the mistakes he’d made, the Shadow Thorn Pack remained his priority.
Now my nephew had shown me exactly what his priorities were.
“I will not choose a new mate, and Elias will never be my heir.”
expression vanished at my words, and elders exchanged baffled looks.
“Alpha—” Elder Malcolm started, but I spoke over him.
“My future Luna, who is descended from the alpha bloodline of the Ivory Moon Pack, is already pregnant with my heir,” I met the gazes of the stunned Elders, one after the other.
“Any attempts to discredit, sabotage, or remove her from her rightful position will be seen as treason and punished thus by execution and exile.”
“I…impossible,” Elias stuttered, a horrified expression on his face. “Raven can’t be pregnant for you.”
I shrugged lightly.
“The pack doctors are of a different opinion.”
Elias paled even further.
“You can’t be seriously considering giving my position away, Uncle.”
“You mean giving my child their rightful inheritance?” I queried lightly before my tone hardened. “The next time you attempt to call a council meeting without the authority to do so, you will be stripped of everything you own and exiled.”
I decided I didn’t like it very much when Raven shunned me, or whatever it was, she was doing now while avoiding my gaze, giving me clipped one-word responses, and pointedly ignoring my presence in the training room while concentrating kicks and punches at the head and groin of a silicone training dummy.
I should have been grateful that she was giving me an out for my wolf’s behavior that night, but how could I when the memory of her in my arms was emblazoned in my mind? Goddess, it had been…none of the many dreams I had of her, of us, none of them compared.
So now, all I felt as I watched Raven trip over her pretty, delicate feet was an unending wave of frustration. Pretty, delicate feet? My wolf was messing with my head. Fuck this. I closed the distance between us.
“Your fighting stance is wrong,” I corrected her stiffly with a tap on her shoulder. “Feet apart—”
Raven sprang a step back as I made contact, almost falling over in the process.
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t touch me unnecessarily,” she bit out with a glare once she steadied. “You can direct me verbally.”
Seeing her react so strongly to me felt satisfying in a way I couldn’t fully articulate.
“Why?” I asked, deliberately obtuse.
Raven’s glare heated up, her cheeks flushing beautifully.
“Isn’t it obvious? I find your touch repulsive.”
Even though I could literally scent the lie in her words, a growl rumbled to life in my chest.
“That’s not what you were saying when I had my fingers in—”
“I see you are in rare form today, but I will not do this with you,” Raven interrupted, her blush intensifying as she stepped around me to pick up her gym bag. “I have some work to get to. I’ll leave first.”
My hands formed fists at my side.
“Training hours aren’t over, Raven.”
Naturally, she ignored me.
Aggravating me seemed to be Raven’s default setting. She was combative, loud, reckless, and impulsive. She was nothing like Rielle, not my type in any way, so why was my wolf obsessed with her?
It didn’t matter, I reminded myself. What mattered was my promise to help her win the duel. Something that would be virtually impossible if she kept missing precious training time because of our disagreements.
I reached Raven before she could pick up the gym bag and put her in the simple hold I’d taught her how to break in our first week of training together. But instead of hitting me and breaking free, Raven went still in my grasp.
My entire body went taut with tension as I caught the change in her breathing.
No. I wasn’t going to do this again. I wasn’t a slave to my wolf’s impulses.
I started to pull away, but that was the very moment Raven started to fight back, which ended with our bodies being pressed close, far too close to each other.
A small, almost strangled whimper escaped Raven’s lips, and for a moment, just one, my control lapsed, my hand going around Raven’s middle, keeping her back pressed to my front.
Raven went still for the second time, but this time it was just for a moment, then she placed her hand over mine, no doubt to pry my fingers off her—
Raven pushed my hand over the slight curve of her belly and lower. Much lower.