Chapter 19 19
Damien POV
I catch Denise muttering curses under her breath as she storms past my closed office door and thunders up the stairs. I shouldn’t find it amusing, but a smirk still tugs at my mouth when I hear her hiss “bitch” at Geneviève. From the kitchen, Geneviève’s low, irritated groan echoes back her wolf slipping far too close to the surface, as usual.
She has never had great control. Even when she was younger, her wolf was quick to react, snapping out whenever something rubbed her the wrong way. I’d offered to train her back then, tried to help her rein in that wild temper she carries like a second skin, but she had only laughed it off. “I’m fine,” she had insisted, brushing aside the danger like it was nothing.
I turn back to my computer and log into my email only for my stomach to drop.
Fuck. Not again.
Another message from one of the packs in my alliance. As soon as I open it, my jaw clenches. The alpha writes with regret, politely informing me that he’s withdrawing from the Bloodnight Greater Pack Alliance… to join a “new venture.”
A new venture. My ass.
He means Darkvale. The same damned pack that has been poaching my smaller allied packs one by one. What the hell are they playing at? What’s their endgame?
“Lucas!” I roar, knowing damn well he hasn’t gone far.
He appears in my doorway within seconds, flinching like he’s bracing for impact. “Alpha?”
“What the fuck is this?” I snap, turning my monitor so he can’t pretend he doesn’t see it.
He hesitates carefully, deliberately trying to shape his words in a way that won’t pour gasoline on the blaze already tearing through my chest.
Before he can manage it, a familiar voice cuts in.
“Damien… Damien, what’s going on now?” Geneviève re-enters the room, and the tension in Lucas spikes immediately. His hands curl into fists at his sides, though he keeps his mouth shut.
“It looks like I’ve lost another pack to this shitty Darkvale Alpha,” I growl.
“Who is this alpha, Damien? Why can’t you find anything on him?” Geneviève steps closer, laying a hand on my shoulder in a feeble attempt to soothe the fury simmering just beneath my skin.
“He’s keeping himself hidden too damn well,” I bite out, turning the screen back toward me as if the email might offer a different answer the second time.
“You need to go there” she begins, but Lucas cuts her off sharply.
“Alpha.” He steps forward, trying to stop her before she winds herself up. I raise my hand, halting him mid-sentence.
“What do you mean?” I ask Geneviève, despite myself. Her suggestion has hooked something in me.
“He won’t come to you,” she says, clearly pleased to have my full attention for once. “So you need to go to him. Go there. Scope him out.” She shifts, subtly pushing her chest forward, making her cleavage more prominent as if that will sway my judgment.
Lucas sighs heavily. “Alpha, I strongly advise against taking an aggressive approach. That could be interpreted as an act of war.”
“Not if he goes alone,” Geneviève snaps at him, irritation bleeding through her voice.
And damn it… she’s not entirely wrong.
If I went in wolf form, stayed along their borders, I could observe without announcing myself. I was untraceable like that one of the many things my father trained me for. I am an Alpha King for a reason. I doubt this unknown alpha could match my training or my instincts.
“Or…” Geneviève’s voice softens into a purr, “I could come with you.” She crosses her arms beneath her breasts, lifting them even more.
“No.” I shut that down immediately. “I’ll go alone. And I trust the pack will be properly managed in my absence.”
“Of course…” she says sweetly but her expression falters when she realizes I’m not speaking to her.
“I meant Lucas,” I clarify. “He is my beta.”
Lucas inclines his head. “Of course, Alpha. Whatever you decide.”
I catch the slight arch of his brow and the faint tightening of Geneviève’s jaw as she processes that she won’t be in charge.
“Sir… there is one more thing,” Lucas adds, his tone shifting into something grim.
“What now? Just spit it out.”
He swallows. “The Saint Wolf Pack. They’ve been approached by Darkvale as well. They responded saying they’re in discussions, but nothing has been finalized.”
My chest tightens. “That’s Élodie’s pack.”
“I know, Alpha,” he says quietly.
“We’ll see about that,” Geneviève snarls before storming out of my office and heading toward her private rooms, her temper igniting the air she leaves behind.