Chapter 14 14
Aurélie POV
My mind drifts back dangerously to the moment I walked away from the Bloodnight pack. To the way he launched himself at Fabrice, eyes feral, spewing accusations of an affair that never existed. To the moment I rejected not only the title of Luna, but Damien himself as my husband. To the night I returned from the lake house with the last pieces of my life barely holding together…
No. I can’t let myself relive that again.
I take a long swallow of wine, and before I realize it, the glass is empty. I reach for the bottle, trying to pour another, but my hands tremble too hard to keep the liquid steady. Four years four relentless years spent stitching together what he tore apart: my life, Fabrice’s, the pack’s… and most importantly, Dominique’s and Delphine’s.
And yet here I am, reduced to a shaking mess because of one email.
I’d turned myself into a machine a relentless, disciplined Alpha who kept every emotion locked behind an iron wall. I had to. I needed the strength to face him one day. To challenge him. In these last years, I rebuilt everything he destroyed. New security protocols. A new Alpha house. An on-site medical center. Even a small school for the youngest pups. If any of my pack saw me now alone in my bedroom, quivering like this they would never believe this was their Alpha, the woman who keeps them safe.
Gods, I hate him.
I hate him for murdering my parents. I hate him for razing my pack.
Sometimes, even now, I wake choking on the phantom scent of burning flesh, flames crackling in my dreams as if the fire still lives beneath my skin. Time—time has been the only thing I’ve had. Time to plan. Time to rise again. Time to build my revenge from the ashes he left behind.
So why?
Why, after four years, does my heart still stumble at the sound of his name?
Is it because he is the father of my children?
Or because, as Fabrice once hinted, I never truly got over him?
What kind of so-called legendary Alpha loses control at the mere thought of the man who ruined everything? I need to do better—for myself, for my children, for the pack that put their trust, their lives, in my hands.
My hands still shake as I abandon the glass altogether and drink straight from the bottle.
Alpha. What a joke. Who did he think stepped up when he slaughtered my father in such a brutal, unforgivable way? Did he imagine the Alpha title would simply rot in the rubble? Did he believe I died in the massacre in the flames of the Alpha house?
I remember how hysterically I’d reacted when they tried to move my parents’ bodies. How I’d set fire to the Alpha house my childhood home because I couldn’t bear to see them touched. Couldn’t bear for them to be removed. I commanded the warriors to leave it, to let it burn to ash.
He got what he wanted then: me dead, erased, and Geneviève by his side as his Luna the woman he’d been so devoted to.
“Maybe you shouldn’t drink anymore. You’ll be drunk soon.”
My wolf’s voice slips into my mind, laced with concern as I uncork the second bottle.
“Being drunk is good. It helps clear my head,” I shoot back bitterly.
“And what will you do when you see Damien again?” Her growl vibrates with irritation at how heavily the alcohol is settling through me.
“Isn’t this what we always wanted?” I mutter, even my thoughts beginning to slur. “To become his greatest rival. To see his face when he realizes we’re alive. That we’re not only alive, but the Alpha of Darkvale.”
“Do you really believe he thinks we’re dead?”
She tries to mask the tremor in her voice, but I feel it anyway.
“Maybe. He never accepted our rejection not as his Luna, not as his wife. But maybe he doesn’t need to if he assumes we died.” I shrug, exhausted, the gesture heavy.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
The wine loosens the knots in my body, softening the anger into a weary fog. Sleep begins to creep in at the edges of my vision.
I crawl into bed and fluff my pillows before settling back. The full moon hangs heavy outside my window cold, bright, steady offering a sliver of comfort.
“Geneviève was his true Luna,” I whisper to the night. “I was always disposable. Let them have each other. Two twisted hearts deserve one another…”
And with that, I let the darkness pull me under.