Chapter 43 43
Damien POV
She stood at the forefront, flanked by Théo, her head warrior, while roughly twenty-five warriors fanned out behind her in silent formation. A low growl clawed its way up my chest, barely contained, as I noticed Fabrice on her opposite side their daughter clutched tightly in his arms as though he expected me to tear her away.
An unsettling turmoil twisted through me. I didn’t understand it. Words refused to arrange themselves, my thoughts tangled and useless. And then her scent finally reached me. The moment it did, something primal and overwhelming surged through my veins a raw, uncontrollable need to touch her.
I took a step closer, drawn to those green eyes already locked onto mine.
Fabrice growled.
I scoffed, sharp and derisive. As if he could take me. I returned his growl, irritation flaring hot. They had entered my pack territory and advanced on me aggressively an unforgivable insult.
Carefully, deliberately, Fabrice handed over his most precious possession, placing their daughter into the protective arms of an older she-wolf standing behind him. Only then did he step toward me.
He didn’t make it far.
Aurélie shot her arm out, striking him solidly in the stomach and halting his advance without even glancing his way. A flicker of grim amusement twisted through me. Oh yes they remembered exactly what had happened the last time Fabrice had challenged me.
The rapid click of high heels echoed from the direction of the house, growing louder by the second. I grimaced. Geneviève. She’d been in the gardens doing some sort of yoga nonsense why anyone would do yoga in heels was beyond me. I hadn’t told her. Not about Aurélie being alive. Not about her hiding with the Darkvale pack all this time.
I groaned inwardly. I was definitely going to hear about that omission.
Geneviève reached the courtyard and moved to my right. It took her a few seconds to truly see who stood before her.
The Luna of the Bloodnight pack.
“Aurélie…” she gasped, the name barely more than a breath before a growl ripped from her chest.
Aurélie didn’t flinch. If anything, she rose taller, her spine straightening, shoulders pulling back with calm, lethal confidence. She wasn’t the woman I had married. This Aurélie was forged into something stronger. Harder. And yet… I could feel the ache buried deep within her heart.
“The Alpha of the Darkvale Pack demands a meeting with the Bloodnight Alpha,” Théo declared boldly.
At once, every warrior shifted moving as one, weapons ready, stances precise. Well-trained. Disciplined. Dangerous.
Before I could respond, Geneviève stepped in.
“Who are you to demand anything from the Bloodnight Alpha?” she snapped, taking a step forward. “Where is your Alpha anyway? I am the Luna here”
I grabbed her elbow and yanked her back sharply.
She was not the Luna. I’d made that crystal clear. And now she’d just named herself as such in front of the real one.
Aurélie’s smirk was subtle but devastating. Geneviève stiffened, her wolf clawing violently at the surface, desperate for control.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Aurélie said, her voice low and seething, never once breaking her stare from the female beside me who hovered on the edge of shifting. “But as I am very much alive, I believe I am still the Luna of the Bloodnight pack.”
Gasps and hushed whispers rippled through the watching pack members. Shock etched itself across every face as the truth settled in.
I was done. Done with the spectacle. Done with the posturing.
“I will speak with your Alpha,” I announced, my voice hard, commanding, impossible to ignore. “But clearly, he has failed to show.”
“The Alpha is very much here,” Fabrice shot back, matching my tone.
Geneviève burst into laughter high-pitched, cruel, unhinged.
“Then where is he?” she sneered, looping her arm possessively through mine.
Aurélie stepped forward.
“Not he,” she corrected softly.
Her eyes flashed the unmistakable gleam of her wolf surging to the surface as her gaze flicked pointedly to Geneviève’s arm entwined with mine.
“She,” Aurélie said, her voice ringing with authority.
“I am the Alpha of the Darkvale Pack.”