Chapter 159 Chapter 159

Chapter 159 Chapter 159
Amber

Only Damian could walk in like he owned the world and ask me that.

I couldn’t even answer because my body was trying too hard to not collapse in relief upon seeing him.

“I’ll take that as a yes” He whispered in a low voice audible just to me before he turned to finally look at the four pairs of ancient eyes that had locked onto him at once. 

I stood frozen beside him, not wanting to look at the four alphas.

But Damian stood his ground, smiling at the screens like he had done this multiple times before.

How was he not shaking?

On the side of the stage the four younger heirs watched the scene ahead but none of them looked bored like Damian.

Ryker’s jaw had tightened the moment Damian appeared, Soren’s usual lazy half-smile had thinned. He tilted his head slightly, golden-skinned features catching the light, as though Damian’s calm was an unexpected form of entertainment.

He cast a glance at me then to Damian before it slid back to me as if trying to check if I had told Damian about our little conversation and the bone horn he had given me.

The look on my face told Soren I hadn’t and he gave me a slight nod of understanding.

Kade’s heavy brows were drawn low, but one boot tapped once against the stage floor while Caspian remained the stillest of the four. 

Alpha Voss spoke first and his voice was nothing inviting.

“Damian Blackwood. You finally decided to make an appearance.”

Damian inclined his head a fraction. 

“Alpha Voss. My apologies for the delay. I was unavoidably detained.”

I blinked.

The crowd still held its collective breath. No one dared even shift their weight. I could feel the silence pressing against my eardrums.

Alpha Kane’s gravel voice followed. “While the rest of the heirs presented their hunters and answered for their choices, you were nowhere to be found. That absence itself requires explanation.”

“I am here now,” Damian replied evenly. “That should suffice for the moment.”

A few students near the front exchanged wide-eyed glances, after hearing Damian but no one spoke. The tension was so thick it felt like the air itself had solidified.

Damian really had some nerve adding that last line as an afterthought.

Alpha Vael spoke next, choosing to ignore his so-called insolence.

“Your choice of a single hunter has already been noted. We will not rehash numbers. Instead, tell us what contingency exists if she falls in the first hour of the Hunt? Do you intend to continue alone, or have you simply accepted the statistical likelihood of early failure?”

My stomach dropped. 

They had fired questions at me but these were sharper, and aimed directly at the practical weakness of his decision. 

I felt my fingers dig harder into the fabric of my dress. 

They were going to tear him apart because of me. They were going to make him look reckless in front of everyone.

However, Damian answered without hesitation.

“If she falls, I will continue alone. I have always been prepared to operate without support. The decision to bring one hunter was never dependent on her survival guaranteeing mine. It was dependent on the value she adds while she stands. I do not build strategies that collapse with a single loss.”

The logic was clean and unemotional. 

It left little room for accusation without looking as though they were arguing against basic contingency planning. 

But the way Damian came up with that answer which gave them absolutely nothing to dissect it further made me stare at him from the side.

I stared at his side profile, and the confidence oozing out of him and felt something close to awe cut through the fear still trembling in my limbs. 

He’s not even blinking harder. How is he doing this?

Alpha Thorne tilted his head, that lazy half-smile still in place though his eyes had sharpened.

“And what of her loyalty? A lone hunter has no faction ties, no shared blood oaths, no structure binding her to you beyond whatever personal arrangement you have made. What prevents her from simply walking away when the Hunt turns difficult?”

My mouth went dry and I inched closer to Damian, willing my body to absorb some of his confidence, his stillness.

Damian’s tone remained unchanged. 

“Loyalty is demonstrated through action, not oaths. She has already chosen to stand alone with me when walking away would have been safer and quieter.”

The alphas seemed to exchange a glance.

“Besides, I am not sure if you know that every single heir tried to recruit her in their faction but she stubbornly chose to stay independent.”

Damian looked at me. “And that is the quality I admire in her”

I sucked in a breath. Something about that honesty, about the way he said those words made it feel as if he was not talking about me as a hunter but something more, something deeper.

When the alphas said nothing, he cast a glance sideways at the heirs standing in a corner.

“You can ask them if I am lying”

The heirs looked just a little uneasy as he continued.

“Your son, alpha Vale, reportedly even broke up with his girlfriend when this weak girl revealed her true face to him. Now would he do that if my hunter wasn’t trustworthy or reliable enough?”

Alpha Vale’s gaze flicked to Caspian who shrugged. 

“I had heard from multiple people that she isn’t worthy to date an alpha heir like me”

Damian smiled at the alphas.

“Including Amber, I must add. So this is proof enough that I trust verified behavior over formal declarations. And in the unfortunate case that this trust proves misplaced, the consequences will be mine to manage.”

965

I told my heart to beat steadily because I was reading the hidden words behind his line- that he was really risking it all for me and if I failed him, he would be responsible, not me.

My heart squeezed painfully at that realization.

He was looking ahead, but the words caressed against my skin and heat rose in my face despite the cold wind. 

He was defending me without sounding like it at all, making it look like it was pure strategy.

Alpha Kane leaned forward slightly on his screen.

“Your bloodline carries a well-documented problem with control. The Hunt is designed to provoke exactly the kind of violence that has historically overwhelmed those of your father’s line. How do you intend to keep that inheritance in check when the killing starts in earnest?”

The question was a blade aimed straight at the heart of what everyone whispered about him. The crowd seemed to lean in without moving and even the four younger heirs went stiller.

I felt my breath catch and grow increasingly certain that this was the one that could break his confidence. 

Damian never spoke about his family or past but I knew that comparing him to his father always hit a sore spot.

That one fact always managed to get under his skin. I wondered what comforting words should I whisper to him but Damian then smiled.