Chapter 14: A Plot Between Predator And Beast

CHAPTER 14:

Damian's POV

The servant’s words brought a sudden hush to the room. Lucien D’amato in my company? Surely it was a brazen move, even for him.

I stood up with my chair scraping against the floor.

“If there is nothing more urgent than bickering amongst ourselves,” I said with my voice low and final, “then this meeting is over.”

I didn’t wait for their replies. I turned and walked out, and my mind was already miles away, plotting the many ways I could tear a vampire apart with my bare hands.

“Damian!” Councilor Malverick’s voice followed me down the hall. “Do not do anything stupid!”

I didn’t look back, and Jason fell into step beside me. We walked out to my car, and without a word, he took the driver’s seat while I slid into the passenger side gratefully.

The car pulled out onto the street, and I stared out the window, but I didn’t see the city; instead, I saw Ivy’s face, and I felt the ghost of her touch.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jason glance at me and then again and again.

I sighed tiredly, knowing fully well there was something he clearly wanted to say.

“What is it, Jason? Just say it.”

His hands suddenly gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“I guess you heard the council,” he started with his tone careful. “When you brought up… you know. Mating with humans.”

I stayed silent. What was there to say? They didn’t understand and they couldn’t feel it.

Jason drove on for a block before speaking again.

“Look, Damian. I’m your Beta and your friend. You have to listen to me. You need to stay away from this human girl.”

I turned my head to look out the window again. Stay away from her? It was like asking me to stop breathing, or still, it was like trying to hold back the moon, and it was impossible.

We finally arrived at the Blackthorn Enterprises building, and Jason parked, and we strode inside with fearful respect, parting the human employees in the lobby.

And there he was.

Lucien D’amato sat in the waiting lounge, looking utterly out of place. To a human, he would seem just a pale, handsome man in an expensive suit, but to my eyes, he was a monster. A cold, unnatural aura clung to him like a bad smell, and his skin was too perfect and too still, frozen. There was no warmth and no life in him, only a dark, empty hunger and that smirk… that smug, knowing smirk made my wolf snarl inside my head.

I walked right past him as if he were a stain on the carpet, and Jason followed me into my office. I sat behind my large desk, trying to leash my anger while Jason took his place standing beside me.

I hit the intercom button on my phone.

“Send him in,” I said with my voice flat.

The door opened moments later, and Lucien glided in, moving with a vampire’s eerie and fluid grace. He looked around my office as if he owned it with that stupid smirk still plastered on his face.

“Alpha Blackthorn,” he said smoothly. “So kind of you to see me without an appointment.”

“I have no time for games, vampire,” I snapped, and my patience was gone. “What do you want? Why are you here?”

Lucien pretended to look hurt.

“So direct. So… wolf-like.” He took a step closer. “I’ve come with a business proposal.”

I just stared at him, letting the silence pressure him.

“I propose,” he continued, “that Blackthorn Enterprises and D’amato Global Holdings… collaborate. Merge our interests and our resources.”

I couldn’t stop the scoff that escaped me, and Jason let out a short, emotionless chuckle beside me.

“A vampire and a werewolf working together?” Jason said. “That’s a joke. It’s never been done, and it will never happen.”

Lucien’s smirk widened.

“The world is changing, Beta. Old hatreds are a luxury we can no longer afford. If our kind is to survive, we must adapt. We must look for… new allies.”

His eyes locked on mine, and I saw the cunning in them. This was the real reason he was here.

“After all,” he said with his voice dropping to a whisper. “I hear we both have our eyes on the same… potential ally. A rather captivating human girl. Ivy, I believe her name is?”

Hearing her name on his lips was like a match to gasoline for me, and a red haze dropped over my vision.

A vicious growl ripped from my throat, and I was on my feet in an instant with my fists slamming onto the desk. The urge to leap over the desk and rip his head off was so strong that I was shaking with the effort to stop myself.

Starting a war here, now, would get countless people killed and my people, maybe even her.

I forced the air into my lungs, and I unclenched my jaw.

“Get out,” I said with the words coming out in a low and deadly rumble. “Get out of my office. Now.”

Lucien’s smirk never faded, and he seemed pleased he’d gotten such a reaction. He slowly straightened his suit jacket.

“As you wish,” he said smoothly. He walked to the door but paused with his hand on the knob, and then he looked back at me, and his eyes glinted with a cold and dark humor. “Think about my proposal, Alpha. But a word of advice? I know what you suspect about the little human. The… bond. It would be a shame if something were to happen to her because you were too stubborn to play nice.”

Then he was gone with the door clicking shut behind him.

The second he left, the strength drained from my legs, and I fell back into my chair with my heart pounding. Ivy. He knew... He knew everything… and he saw her as a pawn… a thing to be used against me!

I turned to Jason with my face full of a fear I didn’t try to hide.

“Jason,” I said. “Ivy… He’s going to go after her. I have to protect her...”