Chapter 70

Chapter 70
Evelyn’s POV
We both entered his office, where he had led the way to. I could see he was trying to ignore the question but that only made me even more suspicious.
He sat slowly on his seat, facing his table and pretended he was buried in work and had either forgotten what I had just asked, or that he didn’t hear it. Well, none of them were true, and I was going to prove it.
I rolled my eyes and stepped in. “Seriously, Damon, I have been thinking about this for a while. You don’t just leave like they normal alphas, you live like a king. And I know the Alpha duties pay, but not like this.”
He didn’t look up right away, just shuffling papers like he didn’t hear me.
“Damon, stop pretending, I know you heard what I asked.”
Finally, he looks up, one eyebrow raised. “Where are you going with this?”
I took a seat across from him, trying to keep my voice even. “I’m just asking. What else do you do? What kind of business are you into?”
There was a bit silence, not long, but enough to notice. He looked down at his papers, and than slowly back up at me. His experience was unreasonable.
“I invest,” he said simply.
I didn’t let it go. “You invest, this good. In what?” I pushed gently, tilting my head. “You don’t seem like the type to sit through board meeting.”
He let out a slow breath. “Evie…”
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s not a yes either,” he said with a crooked smile.
I studied him, sensing the shift.
“Damon... I’m not trying to interrogate you. I’m just trying to know more about you.”
He got up and walked over, crouching in front of me. His hands reached for mine.
“I just want to know the real you.” I said quietly.
“I know,” he murmured. His voice was softer now. Honest. “But there are things I can’t explain yet. Not because I don’t trust you. I do. More than I’ve ever trusted anyone. That’s the problem.”
My chest tightened. “Then what is it?”
He let out a breath that felt like it had been sitting in his lungs for years. “It’s… complicated.”
“Are you in danger?” I asked, the words leaving my lips before I could stop them.
His smile flickered—brief, bitter. “No. Not me.”
He glanced down for a moment, then looked back up. “But people who ask too many questions? Who push into places they shouldn’t? Sometimes, they get caught in the fallout. And I—” His hands gripped mine tighter. “I couldn’t live with myself if that ever happened to you.”
My heart stumbled in my chest.
What kind of business was he in that even asking about it was dangerous?
He rose slowly, brushing his thumb along my cheek with a tenderness that didn’t match the storm behind his eyes. “You’ll know everything in time. I promise. But for now… please. Just trust me.”
I swallowed hard. The part of me that wanted answers still burned. But the part that loved him—God, it wanted to believe him more.
I nodded. “Okay.”
He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. “Good girl.”
It should’ve soothed me. It almost did.
But as he turned away and walked back to his desk, something in my chest wouldn’t stop twisting.
What was he hiding?
Why did he look so haunted when I asked?
And who were the people he was helping—really helping?
Whatever it was, I didn’t think it was legal.
And deep down, I knew something I wasn’t ready to admit aloud.
Whatever Damon had buried in the shadows of his world...
Eventually, it was going to come for both of us.

Damon’s POV
She was quiet now.
Too quiet.
And that silence… it wasn’t relief—it was loaded. Weighted with suspicion. With worry. The kind I’d seen far too many times in the eyes of people who got too close.
I sat back down at my desk, but my hands stayed still on top of the papers. Numbers, deals, transfers—they were all just distractions now. I could feel Evelyn’s gaze on me, still sitting on the couch like the ground beneath her had cracked open and she wasn’t sure if she could move without falling in.
God, I hated lying to her.
But this wasn’t just about me.
This life… the one I’d inherited, the one I clawed my way through to protect my pack… it wasn’t black and white. Hell, it wasn’t even gray. It was blood red. And not all of it mine.
She thought I “invested.”
Technically, I did.
I invested in secrets. In silence. In cleaning up the messes that the wealthy and powerful didn’t want the world to see. Not because I was greedy—but because refusing them once had nearly gotten everyone I loved wiped out.
I leaned back, letting my head tip against the chair, my eyes closing for a beat longer than a blink.
They called it favor trading. Problem solving. Discreet protection.
But what it really was… was removal.
Of evidence.
Of threats.
Of people.
I didn’t pull the trigger. I never had to. But I knew the right hands to pay, the right strings to tug, and the right silences to maintain.
And Evelyn?
She didn’t belong in this world.
She deserved better than blood money and midnight phone calls that ended with “it’s done.”
But she wanted the truth.
And I wanted her more than I wanted to keep pretending I wasn’t a monster under all this clean-cut Alpha armor.
I glanced up and caught her staring. Those soft, smart eyes of hers didn’t miss anything—and it scared the hell out of me.
Because one day, she’d look too deep.
And she’d see it all.
The man who smiled at her wasn’t just a protector, a provider… he was a weapon.
Built and sharpened by necessity. Forged in choices no decent man would ever make.
You’ll know everything in time, I’d told her.
But if she ever truly knew…
She’d run.
And I wouldn’t blame her.
Because beneath this calm, beneath the charming mask and the loving touches—I was buried under sins I couldn’t confess. Not without destroying the only good thing I had left.
My Evelyn.
So I looked away first.
And in the silence that followed, I told myself the same lie I always did when the guilt became too loud:
You’re doing this to protect her.
But God help me…
I didn’t know how much longer I could keep her in the light
—
While my soul belonged to the dark.