Chapter 47 47
Aurélie POV
“Come back inside at least,” Damien said quietly. “Let me contact some people see if there’s any intel you might have missed.”
There was something fragile in his voice. Not weakness. A plea.
“Damien?” Geneviève let out a small, disbelieving laugh.
“The Darkvale pack are welcome here at the Bloodnight pack,” Damien commanded, his voice carrying across the courtyard. “They are to be treated with respect.”
Then he extended his hand toward the house, inviting no, asking me to follow.
I studied him for a heartbeat. Could I trust him? Trust him with Dominique’s fate?
“Damien,” Geneviève growled under her breath.
“Enough, Geneviève!” he roared back, sharp enough to catch even her off guard.
That was enough.
I turned and walked back inside, returning to his office. Damien watched in silence as I resumed my seat on the opposite side of his desk, as if we were back where we’d started four years and a lifetime ago.
“Lucas,” Damien said, already shifting into command, “contact the alliance. Inform them the son of the Darkvale Alpha has been kidnapped.” He turned to me. “What did the note say?”
“Shut down the alliance or the boy dies,” Théo answered for me.
Damien exhaled heavily as he moved toward his seat. “Ah. I see now why you might assume it was me.”
Geneviève entered immediately, heels clicking sharply against the wooden floor, inserting herself into the space as though it belonged to her.
Why did she have to be here?
“With all due respect,” I said coolly, “I would prefer this meeting be Alpha to Alpha.”
“I am the acting Luna,” Geneviève cut in smoothly. “Isn’t that right, Damien?” She reached out and touched his shoulder, her voice turning syrupy.
Bile rose in my throat at the sight.
Husband, my heart whispered traitorous and unwanted.
No. Stop that. She was welcome to him. I had known that when I left.
Once he contacted his allies, we would move on. Continue the search without Bloodnight interference.
Still… I couldn’t afford to dismiss this alliance. One pack just one might have information that could lead me to Dominique.
“Geneviève has worked hard these past four years securing the pack’s safety,” Damien said flatly. “She stays.”
There was no room for debate.
Fine. But I wouldn’t trust her near my children. Not after what she’d tried to do.
“Start from the beginning,” Damien said. “From the moment you realised Dominique was missing.”
So I told him everything.
From Théo and I pulling into the traffic jam… to finding the vehicle overturned… to discovering my men executed and the note left behind. Fabrice filled in the details when necessary how he stayed behind in wolf form, how he discovered murdered police officers stripped of their uniforms, how he suspected a stolen patrol vehicle had been used to stop our escort. He spoke of rogue clothing fragments found near the scene.
“What I don’t understand,” Damien said once we finished, “is how you didn’t know sooner.”
Geneviève lingered nearby, watching but silent.
“Now is not the time to judge my security, Damien,” I growled.
“That’s not what I meant,” he replied calmly. “Why didn’t you feel it? Their deaths the severing of the pack link. Alphas always feel that.”
He raised an eyebrow, that infuriating expression returning the one that reminded me exactly how insufferable he could be.
“I can’t explain it,” I said slowly. “I didn’t feel their deaths.”
“Aurélie…” He scoffed.
Did he find this amusing?
“Damien,” I snapped, my voice rising despite my control, “I didn’t feel their deaths. I wasn’t unconscious. I wasn’t distracted. I’m a bloody good Alpha and I didn’t feel them.”
“Aurélie…”
Calm, Fabrice’s voice whispered through the mind-link.
I forced myself to breathe. I never raised my voice in front of Delphine. I shielded her from this side of me the Alpha, the aggression, the violence. Dominique adored it. Encouraged it. He thrived in it.
Goddess, I miss him.
Every passing hour without him tore at my chest.
“Okay,” Damien said at last. “Let’s see if Lucas has heard anything.”
He stood and left the office, Geneviève following close behind.
Her short denim skirt barely covered her arse.
I turned to Fabrice. Something was wrong. He was rigid, quiet nothing like the steady beta I relied on.
“What’s wrong?” I asked through the link.
Delphine sat curled against him, watching toy review videos on his phone, oblivious.
“She’s here…” Fabrice replied.
“Who’s here?”
There was a pause before his voice returned strained, shaken.
“My mate.”