Chapter 296 296
Damien POV
My hand tightens around his throat, my fingers curled with the absolute power to end his life.
“You don’t want this,” he rasps, the words barely audible just enough to reach me.
Oh, I want this.
This is years overdue.
“You aren’t strong enough” His eyes flare as I squeeze harder.
Pathetic.
Cheap words. Cheap tricks. Gaston was never an honorable Alpha. He would say anything do anything to survive.
I hold his gaze, unblinking, until I catch it.
A flicker.
A black shape darts across his pupil gone in less than a second.
I blink, certain I imagined it. Some trick of shadow, of light bouncing from my phone. Nothing more.
“Do it…” he growls low. “I don’t want it anymore.”
My wolf surges forward, a warning rumbling through me. End this. Now.
He’s stalling. He always does.
This is a man who has never allowed himself to appear weak never surrendered control. So why now? Why bare something that even resembles vulnerability?
Because it’s an act.
He can’t live. I know that with a certainty that settles deep in my bones.
I hate him but I am not a monster like him. I wouldn’t kill over ego or clashing wills.
No.
He has always been a monster. As long as I’ve known him.
I’m just grateful my mother’s blood runs through me too.
He’s a threat to the peace we’ve fought for, to my mate, to my children. There is no other ending.
With a swift, decisive thrust, my hand drives into his chest.
I grip his heart.
My eyes never leave his face. I need to see it to know it’s done. I won’t trust anything less.
Not when Aurélie and the children are at stake.
I take my time pulling his heart free. Let him feel it. Every last second.
Vindictive? Maybe.
But this man was never the father he could have been never the one I will be.
Once the heart is torn free, I drop it to the cave floor.
His body crumples beside it.
How fitting to kill two Alphas in one night, the same way.
Both cowards.
Both heartless.
Now, literally so.
Aurélie steps forward, lifting the Bloodnight silver sword the one he tried to kill her with.
She drives it clean through his heart.
Closure surges through the bond, sharp and undeniable. She has suffered too much at the hands of Gaston and Geneviève both.
I was already Alpha of Bloodnight. Already King of the alliance. His exile from the pack happened years ago there is no title to pass on with his death.
And yet…
Something clicks inside me.
Deep.
Ancient.
Unexplainable.
“Damien… are you ready?” Aurélie’s hand settles on my shoulder, her squeeze gentle, grounding.
“Yes, sweetheart,” I exhale. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
The threat is gone.
She’ll sleep easier knowing the man who would have forced a mating to seize both alliances is dead. The man who should have protected his bloodline instead tried to exploit it.
He would have killed me. Taken my mate. Turned my son into a weapon.
We leave the cave together, my hand never leaving the small of her back.
He’s dead but the cave still unsettles me.
As if we were never truly alone.
“Lucas,” I say quietly. “His body’s in the cave. I didn’t want Aurélie touching him.”
“Of course, Alpha. I’ll retrieve him.”
Lucas turns toward the darkness, but something twists in my gut.
“Take men with you,” I order. “Don’t go in alone. No funeral. Burn him.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Even knowing Lucas isn’t alone doesn’t ease the feeling crawling under my skin.
If Aurélie weren’t with me, I’d stay.
But she comes first.
Always.
I guide her away back to her pack, back to safety leaving the cave and its ghosts behind.
For now.