Chapter 11 Karina #2
“Interesting.” Anselm takes a sip of his coffee, studying me over the rim. “And what pack did your parents belong to before they decided to play human?”
“I don't know.” Another admission that makes me feel naked under his scrutiny. “They never talked about it.”
Matthew leans forward, amber glint catching in the low light. “So, you’re pack-less and unmated?” Each word lands like a hammer strike. “Fascinating.”
“She’s mine to protect,” Damien growls, his hand finding my thigh beneath the table, heat searing through denim.
“Temporarily,” Leo smirks.
I feel Damien’s wolf clawing at the surface, demanding blood.
“It will be completed,” I hear myself say. The words spill before I can stop them, and silence crashes over the room—attention locks on me, heavy and suffocating.
“Why would he want you?” Saloma’s smile is pure venom. “You’re a pathetic excuse for a female.”
“The only value you have is your ability to breed. Damien will be Alpha to his pack. An Alpha needs a female of worth to be his Luna. Not a stray,” Leo adds, grinning like a fool who doesn’t know he’s already dead.
Before I can respond, Damien explodes into motion. His chair clatters to the floor as he lunges across the table, hand snapping around Matthew’s throat. Claws pierce skin in a flash of crimson.
“Say that again,” Damien snarls.
Chaos detonates. Leo surges upright, his wolf surfacing with a vicious snarl.
Elias grabs for his brother, struggling to restrain him as the scent of aggression thickens the room.
At the head of the table, Alpha Anselm remains perfectly still, watching it all with unnerving calm, his focus never wavering.
I feel Damien's rage like molten lava—pure, consuming fury at the insult to me. His wolf has taken control, and I can sense how close he is to shifting, to letting his beast tear Matthew apart for daring to call me damaged.
“Release my son, Reaper.” Alpha Anselm remains seated, his expression unreadable as he watches his son clutch his bleeding throat.
Damien's grip tightens for a heartbeat longer before he forces himself to let go. Matthew stumbles backward, hand flying to his bleeding throat as he glares at Damien with undisguised hatred. “You'll pay for that, you fucking dog.”
“Will I? Because from where I’m standing, you insulted the female under my protection. That’s grounds for challenge in any pack.”
“Your temporary bond,” Leo corrects. “Who just announced she intends to make it permanent. How...convenient.”
Shit. I’ve backed myself into a corner with that impulsive declaration. But in a room full of predators, it was the only move I had.
“I said sit down.” This time, there’s alpha command in Anselm’s voice, the kind of dominance that compels obedience from lesser wolves.
But Damien isn’t lesser. He’s the son of an alpha. For a heartbeat, I think he might challenge Anselm here and now over me.
I slide closer, my fingers curling around his arm. “Please.”
He looks down at me, and I see the exact moment his control reasserts itself. Damien takes his seat again, his movements stiff. His hand finds mine beneath the table, squeezing so hard it almost hurts.
Servants file in silently, breaking the tension as they place plates before each of us. The food looks incredible—eggs Benedict, fresh fruit, pastries arranged like artwork—but my stomach is too knotted to consider eating.
“Eat,” Anselm commands. “Food always helps cool hot tempers.”
Matthew glares at Damien from across the table, his hand still pressed to the puncture wounds on his neck. Leo watches us with interest while Elias looks like he'd rather be anywhere else.
I force myself to pick up my fork, spearing a piece of egg more to appease Anselm than from any desire to eat. Beside me, Damien doesn't touch his food.
“I spoke with your father this morning, Damien,” Anselm continues conversationally, as if his son wasn't just bleeding from claw marks. “Hudson sends his regards.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth.” Anselm cuts another piece of steak, chewing slowly as if savoring Damien's discomfort. “That his son has found his mate.
A slight smirk plays at Anselm's lips as he takes another bite, watching Damien's reaction closely. “Though he seems less than enthusiastic with the match, considering how hard he's been working to secure the DeLupo girl for you. But pack magic doesn't always make the logical choice, does it?”
I freeze, my fork suspended halfway to my mouth as the implications sink in. Damien was promised to someone else? Someone his father had chosen? A political match that I apparently disrupted.
“The DeLupo pack has significant territory in Oregon. Their only daughter is quite the prize. Pure bloodlines going back centuries. Trained from birth in pack politics. The perfect Luna for a future alpha.”
Each word is a knife sliding between my ribs. I set my fork down, suddenly unable to swallow past the lump in my throat. “I see.”
“Do you?” Anselm’s smile is thin, hollow of warmth. “I wonder if you truly understand what you’ve stepped into, my dear. Wolf politics aren’t for the faint of heart.” His attention drifts toward Elias, who has stayed silent through everything that’s unfolded this morning.
“For all we know, she'll run screaming when the full moon comes,” Matthew adds with a scowl.
“I meant what I said.”
“Is that so? And if it isn't completed—if you change your mind—I could certainly find a place for you here with my younger sons. Matthew seems quite taken with you already, despite his...colorful language.”
The room goes still. The temperature in the room drops ten degrees. Even Elias looks uncomfortable now.
“She's mine.”
Before Anselm can respond, the dining room doors burst open. A wolf I don't recognize rushes in, his face flushed with urgency. He whispers something in Anselm's ear that makes the Alpha's expression harden into granite.
“Excuse me,” Anselm says, rising from his seat with fluid grace that belies the tension in his shoulders. “It seems there's been an incident at the southern border. We'll continue this...discussion another time.”
He leaves without another word, the messenger trailing behind him. The moment the doors close, Damien's hand clamps around my wrist.
“We're leaving. Now.”
“But we haven't finished—” Matthew begins, half-rising from his chair.
“We're done here,” Damien snarls, positioning his body between me and the brothers. “Touch her, look at her, even think about her, and I'll finish what I started with your throat.”
I let him guide me toward the door, putting much needed distance between me and Elias’s brothers.
“If you fail to seal the deal, she'll be mine for the taking,” Matthew calls after us.
I feel Damien's grip tighten on my arm as he guides me through the ornate hallways. I struggle to keep pace with his long strides, practically jogging to avoid being dragged.
“Damien, slow down,” I hiss, trying to wrench my arm free. “You're hurting me.”
He stops so abruptly I nearly crash into his back. When he turns to face me, his face is almost unreadable.
“Did you mean it?” he demands.
I swallow hard. “I don't know. It just came out. They were looking at me like I was prey, and I—”
“Needed protection,” he finishes, disappointment bleeding through our connection. “So, it was self-preservation, not desire.”
Truthfully, I don’t know why I said it. I know nothing about this world—or about him. But faced with the choice between Damien or one of Anselm’s prick sons, I’d rather bind myself to the devil I half know than to the one who clearly wants me as a trophy to lord over Damien.
“Not entirely,” I admit. The words scrape out of me like broken glass. “I meant...I don’t know what I meant. But when they looked at me like that, every instinct I had screamed to choose you.”
“Choose me over what? Over being tied to a stranger?” His laugh is sharp, hollow. “That’s not the same as wanting me, kitten.”
“Isn’t it?” I step closer, pulled by the ache bleeding through our connection. “You think I don’t feel this pull between us? You think I don’t know exactly what you did to me this morning—what you made me feel?”
“Feeling good when I touch you isn’t the same thing,” he growls, though he doesn’t retreat. If anything, he closes the distance. “Pleasure is fleeting. The bond is forever.”
“You think I don’t know that.”
“I’m honestly not sure what you’re thinking, Karina. You’re hot. You’re cold.” He pauses with a deep breath. “Look. I know this is a lot to understand, but you’re in it now, whether you like it or not. What can I do to make this better for you?”
I fall silent, weighing my options as I stare at him. My wolf paces restlessly beneath my skin, pushing me toward him even as my human half tries to maintain distance.
“If you're it for me, then we need to get to know each other.”
A slow smile curves his mouth, transforming those severe, chiseled features into something devastatingly handsome. “After this morning, kitten, I'm pretty sure I know you pretty well already.” The rough growl in his words vibrates through me, making my insides clench. “Every inch of you.”
Need coils low in my belly. “No,” I insist. “I mean about you. I didn’t even know you were an alpha in the making, or that your father was arranging a mating for you.”
The smile fades, replaced by a guarded wariness. “We haven’t exactly had time to sit down and exchange histories,” he says. “Between people trying to kidnap you, my marking you, and Anselm’s little breakfast ambush, small talk hasn’t exactly been a priority.”
“Then that’s what I want,” I tell him.
“Fine. But not here.” Damien’s hand finds mine, his grip warm and firm, and he tugs me forward. His pace is relentless, pulling me along like a current I can’t resist until we’re outside, the crisp air cooling the flush in my cheeks.
He heads straight for his cabin. The moment we’re inside, he shuts the door with a decisive thud and gestures toward the couch.
“Sit,” he orders, the single word carrying that command-edge that makes my pulse jump. I obey, perching on the cushion while he plops into the chair across from me.
“All right, kitten. What do you want to know?”