Chapter 139 139
Damien POV
“Whatever she was to you, I could be that,” she said smoothly. “I could be your Luna. I could satisfy you in ways no other woman ever could.”
She rose from her chair and rounded the desk, confidence dripping from every step. One finger skimmed along the polished surface, a lazy, deliberate stroke meant to entice seduction better suited to someone who might actually want it.
Her finger paused as she moved around the computer, then her hand landed on my thigh.
The touch alone another female, not Aurélie sent my blood into a violent boil.
“I suggest,” I growled, my patience finally snapping, “that if you want to keep your fingers, you remove them from me. Now.”
I’d had enough of these pushy females who wanted nothing but a title, a crown they hadn’t earned. I already had a Luna. Fuck she was an Alpha now.
“Damien, come on…” Clémence scoffed, clearly not expecting her charms to backfire so spectacularly.
“Clémence,” I roared, my wolf slamming against my ribs, desperate to take control, “I have a mate. And if you’re not out of this office in five seconds, I will come down on your father’s pack like a wolf possessed.”
I was barely holding myself back from throwing her out by the scruff of her neck.
(End of flashback)
Lucas found me at the training grounds, pacing and swearing down the phone to our IT department. I’d forwarded the email to myself and demanded they trace it. The sender’s address was unknown but my men were the best. It wouldn’t take long to find where it originated.
“Alpha?” Lucas veered off the path toward me as my voice rose another octave.
“Someone sent Aurélie a fake picture,” I snarled through clenched teeth, pulling the image up and shoving the screen toward him.
“Bloody hell, Damien…”
“It’s a fake,” I snapped. “I want to know who sent it and why.”
Lucas frowned. “Did she see it?”
“Of course the fuck she did. And now she’s refusing to have anything to do with me.”
“I’ll handle it,” he offered.
“No,” I shot back. “I said I would prove it was fake and I will.”
What cut deepest was that she hadn’t even paused to consider that possibility. Not for a second.
I thought I’d shown her what she meant to me. How much I wanted to make things right. Even earlier upstairs I’d been desperate to make her mine, to feel her under me again. But I’d held back. She needed time; I could see that.
That was why I’d needed the shower. Needed to take care of myself with nothing but the image of her burned into my mind. She drove me insane with want.
“Look,” Lucas said suddenly, leaning closer. “There the chair leg. See it?”
He pointed to the leg of the chair I was supposedly sitting on while Clémence was straddling me.
At first glance, it looked normal. But with a sharper eye, there it was a subtle wave, a slight unnatural curve.
Photoshop.
He was right.
“Bastards,” I muttered. Someone had taken my past with Aurélie and weaponized it, exploiting her trust issues with me.
Then everything shifted.
Up ahead, the usually calm, collected Fabrice broke into a run along the path, swearing loudly under his breath.
What the hell had happened for him to be sprinting toward the alpha house?
Had she really called on him to fight our battles?
My stomach dropped as I saw it her car reversing in the distance before shooting off toward the pack gates.
“What the hell?” I breathed. Was she really that angry with me?
“Aurélie shit!” Fabrice shouted after her, his voice useless against the roar of the engine.
“Fabrice!” I called, Lucas and I jogging toward him.
“She’s gone…” He pulled out his phone, already trying to call her. She must have blocked him.
“Gone?” My chest tightened. “What do you mean, gone?”
“She got a text from Théo,” he said grimly. “He has news about Geneviève. I told her to wait.”
Fuck.
Every instinct inside me screamed to chase her.
“Where did she go?” I demanded.
“She wouldn’t say,” he replied. “Only that she’d be back tonight and that I was to watch the children.”
That was all I needed.
“I’m going after her,” I barked, already turning toward the courtyard where my red sports car waited.
“I’ll come with you” Lucas started.
“No,” I cut him off. “Stay here. Watch the children with Fabrice. I need to know they’re safe.”
“Alpha”
“Just do it, Lucas,” I roared through the pack link, forcing my command into every corner of his mind. “Dominique is your future Alpha. You keep him safe.”
I didn’t wait for another word.
I was going after her alone.