Chapter 85 85
Aurélie POV
Fabrice offers to check the cut on my face and gently steers me away from the kitchen. He leads me into the privacy of Damien’s office, where I lean back against the edge of the desk.
I don’t want to stand. I don’t want to sit.
I’m torn between wanting to go straight to the cells and never wanting to see her face again for as long as I live.
Is this what our lives are meant to be now? One threat after another. One pack, then another, always circling always using my children as leverage to get to me.
Is this the legacy I’ve created for them?
To always watch forward, but never forget what’s coming from behind.
How could she crave the title of Luna so desperately that she’d put an innocent child in danger? Was the Bloodnight alliance truly worth that much to her?
And worse was it worth that much to him?
“Aurélie, you need to calm down,” Fabrice says firmly, lifting my chin to inspect my face.
Why? Why should I calm down?
Why am I not allowed to let my wolf be this furious?
Once again, we are victims of the Bloodnight pack’s cruelty. Geneviève’s actions are exactly why another alliance is necessary to keep monsters like them in check.
I’m not afraid of them. Not of her. Not of him.
And I won’t allow another pack to suffer what I’ve endured not if I have any power left to stop it.
“I… can’t,” I admit. My wolf is barely contained now one wrong move and I’ll shift right here in this office.
I don’t need medical treatment. I can already feel the wound knitting itself closed. But Fabrice was right to remove me from the kitchen, to give me space to cool down even if it isn’t working.
I smell him the moment the office door opens.
That sweet, leathery scent floods the room, pressing against my senses, trying to quiet the storm inside me. I force myself to breathe through my mouth but not before Fabrice lets out a quiet chuckle.
“Help yourself to my office, why don’t you,” Damien says coldly as he walks in and drops into his chair behind the desk. My back is to him.
“The bleeding’s stopped,” Fabrice murmurs.
“Is she okay?” Damien asks addressing Fabrice as though I’m not even here.
“She is fine,” I snap, arching a brow as I turn to face him.
His gaze drags over me slowly. Deliberately. There’s something different there something raw and animalistic that he’s never let slip before. He smirks.
“I’ll go check on Dominique and Delphine,” Fabrice says through the mind-link.
No don’t leave me alone with him…
You need to talk to him.
And say what, exactly?
I don’t know. Start with the truth. With how you feel.
He frowns, resting a hand on my shoulder.
“He’s a dick,” I mutter.
He is but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy being right.
“Oh, absolutely,” Fabrice agrees dryly. “But he’s still processing the fact that Geneviève kidnapped his son.”
“He didn’t even know he was their father,” I huff.
“No. But he does now.”
“Can I have my office back?” Damien growls, irritated by our silent exchange.
“I’ll check on the twins,” Fabrice says aloud before leaving the room.
The door clicks shut.
Silence descends thick and tense.
My back is still turned to Damien as I perch against his desk. My wolf dominates my every nerve, and if I move even slightly, she’ll take that final inch and seize control.
“Aren’t you going to follow your lover boy?” Damien asks coolly.
I close my eyes.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Don’t let him get to you, Aurélie.
He has a way of unraveling you like no one else ever has.
“If… I move,” I say slowly, carefully, “I’ll shift.”
“You bottle everything up,” he replies. “That’s why moments like this eventually explode.”
“Don’t tell me how to feel.”
“I’m not,” he sighs. “I’m saying it’s okay to be angry. To let your wolf take over. We can’t be composed and polite all the time.”
“I’m not prim and proper.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” he mutters.
I hear his chair scrape back. His footsteps move closer.
When I open my eyes, he’s leaning against the brown leather sofa, arms crossed, watching me.
“You never told me she pulled you down the stairs,” he says, frowning.
“Are you serious?” I snap, closing my eyes again.
Maybe he wouldn’t mind redecorating his office.
Maybe just like he says I should let my wolf loose and tear this room apart.
“What part of me being found unconscious at the bottom of the stairs didn’t scream red flag to you?”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Four years too late, Damien,” I bite back. “You should’ve asked me then.”
He should have demanded the truth back then. He should have believed me his wife.
I open my eyes but stare at the floor. What could I have done differently?
Nothing.
This wasn’t my failure. This was his for choosing her side.
“I’m listening now,” he says quietly, stepping closer.
Too close.
If he moves any nearer, I’ll be trapped between him and the desk.
I refuse to look at him until his thumb slides beneath my chin, lifting my face.
Forcing my eyes to meet his.
And in that moment, everything I’ve buried for four long years threatens to come undone.