Chapter 225 225
Aurélie POV
He was wickedly devious, deliberately derailing my thoughts until I couldn’t remember what I’d been saying at all. His mouth drifted lower, lingering over my breasts before closing around one nipple, drawing a sharp breath from my lungs.
His hands slid firmly around my waist as he shifted us upright, his back settling against the black leather headboard. Sleek. Masculine. Far too bachelor for my liking.
And that—that sparked something.
“Woah, easy there, sweetheart,” he murmured, cupping my face, his eyes close enough to mine that I could feel his breath. He was trying to soothe me, to ground me but it was already too late.
My alpha bristled, a sudden, violent surge of possessiveness clawing its way forward at the thought of someone else in here. In this space. A low, guttural growl tore from my chest before I could stop it.
I was an alpha too.
Marked now, bonded, and my territorial instincts were only sharpening with each passing day.
“Maybe,” he said carefully, studying me, “with me marking you… maybe you’re going into heat.”
I rolled my eyes, irritation flaring. What had Fabrice been filling his head with? The two of them had been getting along far too well lately. More than once I’d walked in on hushed conversations that stopped the moment I entered the room.
“You sound like Fabrice,” I snapped.
“So you are?” he pressed.
“No. I don’t know.” I shrugged, uncertainty twisting in my chest. “We have children… I don’t really know what to expect.”
“Then let’s test the theory.”
Before I could protest, he rolled me beneath him, his movement swift and effortless his godlike body pinning me before I could even think to resist. He hovered over me, capturing my wrists in his hands.
“We need to eat,” I moaned weakly as his fingers brushed dangerously low.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he said, his voice dark, commanding. “You’ll earn that meal.”
His eyes flashed that deep, stormy blue, desire pouring off him in waves that left me breathless.
Maurice POV
Something had felt wrong ever since I’d seen that girl sprinting across the CCTV footage.
It wasn’t just instinct it was deeper than that. A gnawing unrest that refused to settle. My wolf had been restless, insistent, urging me to find her… to stay close to Damien, as though he might somehow be the key.
Lucas believed she resembled Damien that she could be the identity Gaston had been hiding all along. I didn’t see it. The girl was striking, breathtaking even, and Damien was… well. Damien.
My pack was stable. They checked in regularly, my beta more than capable of keeping everything running smoothly. Not being part of an alliance worked in our favor I answered to no one, and my warriors remained on standby solely to defend our territory.
It kept conflict to a minimum.
For two weeks, we’d reviewed footage over and over again. How does someone simply vanish?
About a week ago, my wolf had begun pushing harder warning me of something looming. Something dangerous. I couldn’t name it, but I trusted my instincts enough to call my beta and place the pack on high alert. My wolf was one of the strongest in existence no matter how much a certain King might wish to deny it. If my wolf sensed trouble, it was coming.
Staying at Damien’s was proving… problematic. Alpha hearing was a curse I didn’t need. I didn’t require details to know what they were doing.
Did they ever stop?
Sleep had become a rare luxury. My wolf refused to settle, and the sounds drifting from their room at night sounds I seemed to be the only one picking up didn’t help.
What made it worse was the setting.
I was sitting in Damien’s office with Lucas and several of Aurélie’s warriors. They’d volunteered to assist with the search. Seeing their Alpha brutalized in that shipping container had ignited something vicious in them.
It had done the same to me and she wasn’t even my leader.
It was just after six in the evening when my phone rang.
My beta.
At this hour?
“Alpha,” he said urgently. “We’ve got a lead. There’s footage of a girl entering a small supermarket. She paid cash. Facial scan matches but her hair is brown, not blonde.”
“Was this on human land or pack territory?” I asked. “And if it’s a pack whose?”
There was a pause. Too long.
“Our pack, Alpha,” he finally said. “If it’s her… she’s inside our borders.”