Chapter 170 170
Aurélie’s POV
I didn’t know the exact time, only that dawn was close.
As I walked back toward the Alpha house, the birds were already preparing their morning chorus. The moon was fading, its strength slowly yielding to the rising sun the same daily battle it would reclaim again come nightfall.
I had spent the hours visiting the families of those who had lost loved ones in the rogue attack.
As Alpha, it was my duty to pay my respects and to offer help arranging funerals, providing support in whatever form was needed. Some families were simply unable to cope with the loss, their grief too raw, too heavy to carry alone.
It was hard. Painful.
But nothing compared to what they were enduring.
So I stayed strong. I had to.
Fabrice and Florence had remained at the hospital, doing everything they could for the injured. I planned to visit in a few hours to check on them myself, but for now I was still wearing only the T-shirt Damien had been wearing during the attack. After he carried Delphine out, after I’d licked his palms and offered my alpha saliva, he hadn’t said a word. He’d simply pulled off his shirt and slipped it over my head.
The faint, leathery scent clinging to the fabric was as comforting as his arms around me.
I was still streaked with blood, and my arm hadn’t healed. It couldn’t not until the skin was properly closed. And with Fabrice busy and the hospital overwhelmed, I refused to add myself to the list while lives were still being saved. I would wait until things calmed.
The early morning held an eerie peace, a fragile balance after the chaos that had torn through the pack only hours before.
When I reached the Alpha house, I saw that the shutters had already been repaired, retracted neatly back into their resting positions as if they’d never existed at all.
I felt a surge of gratitude toward the Bloodnight warriors. Not only had they come to our aid, but they’d stayed to help clean up. The fires were out. Families had been temporarily rehoused until repairs could begin. The borders would be watched through the night, just in case. They’d even insisted that Darkvale’s warriors rest spend time with their mates and children.
I moved quietly through the courtyard and into the house, closing the door softly behind me.
Everyone would be asleep. I didn’t want to wake anyone.
There would be no early morning calls today. The children could wake when they were ready. Théo had taken Roland home to sleep. Émilie had been checked out early to free up a bed, and because they simply wanted to be together. They deserved that.
I started up the stairs, exhaustion tugging at me, my bed calling me by name when flickers of light caught my eye from the living room.
I turned toward it and found Damien stretched out on the sofa, watching the early morning news.
“Damien?”
I knew he was awake. I could hear his heartbeat steady and calm until it shifted the moment I spoke his name. My lips curved into a small smile at the effect I still had on him.
“I wanted to make sure you came back safely,” he said, turning his head to look at me over the back of the sofa.
Fatigue showed in the faint shadows beneath his eyes, but a few hours of sleep would erase them. Even exhausted, he was still the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.
His words warmed something deep in my chest something that had been frozen solid during the attack. I wanted him close. Wanted him with me.
And my body needed rest.
So I chose both.
I crossed the room and lay down on the sofa, stretching out and resting my head in his lap. He stiffened in surprise at first, then relaxed, accepting the closeness without question.
His fingers slipped into my hair, stroking gently, grounding me. The tension began to melt away.
“Thank you for coming,” I murmured, my thoughts already blurring from exhaustion.
“I had to get to you.”
“How did you know?”
“Maurice,” he replied. “He called me. Told me you’d let the rogue onto pack grounds.”
So it had been Maurice.
I’d suspected it but now I knew. He’d acted out of worry, out of loyalty, and I was grateful to him and his men. They’d stood with us through everything, never once abandoning Darkvale to face the night alone.