Damian’s POV
“Who sent you?” I tightened my grip on her throat, just enough to remind her I held her life in my hands.
“Save me,” she whispered, trembling. Tears filled her eyes, but raw fear didn't hide the sharp defiance underneath. “They’ll kill me.”
She tried to speak, but her airway was restricted. I watched her struggle. Something stirred deep inside me—my inner wolf reacting before my brain could catch up.
I shifted my hand from her throat to her chin, forcing her gaze to meet mine. She shook, but held eye contact.
Footsteps echoed behind us.
“She went this way! Spread out!”
My senses snapped to high alert. Every primal instinct screamed at me to act. I lowered my face to her neck and inhaled—slowly, deeply.
Her scent hit me like a freight train—familiar, and utterly maddening.
“Who are you?” I growled. My voice was thick with raw need. “And why does your scent make me want to… tear you apart?”
Before she could answer, a furious voice rang out down the stone passage.
“Search everywhere! Find her!”
Everything about this girl screamed trap.
The torn dress. The fresh blood on her sleeve. The hidden passage behind her.
But her sweet scent stopped me dead in my tracks.
For the first time in years, my beast did not recoil from a female.
It went totally still.
Then... it got hungry.
“Find that slut and drag her back here!”
My wolf surged forward so violently I almost lost control. This sudden rage had nothing to do with battle strategy. It was a primal need to rip out the throat of whoever dared call her that.
The trapped girl trembled in my grip as tears welled in her eyes.
Chase’s guards rounded the blind corner and froze. One recovered and bowed low. “Your Majesty, we didn’t realize you were here.”
I kept my voice flat. “Explain.”
“Claire lured a rogue into the VIP room during the ceremony, Your Majesty. When the plan backfired, she attacked him and ran before Lord Chase could question her.”
Heavy footsteps echoed, and Chase appeared, his face red with blind anger. The second he saw me, his expression shifted into a careful mask.
“Uncle Damian.” He bowed. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight.”
“Clearly.” I kept Claire tucked safely behind my back. “Your guards are hunting your fiancée through a royal passage like a common rogue.”
Chase’s jaw ticked. “She disgraced me in front of the entire pack, Uncle. I have the right to discipline my promised woman." He stepped forward. "She belongs to me. Let me take over from here.”
Belongs.
My wolf snarled like Chase had just challenged us for prime territory. I released a tiny fraction of my King’s Aura—just enough to remind everyone in this damp tunnel exactly who they were dealing with.
The royal guards dropped to their knees instantly. Chase tried to stand his ground, but his weak legs gave out and he hit the dirt hard.
Claire swayed but stayed on her feet. My raw power had bent around her, protecting her without my conscious choice.
Interesting.
“Claire is under royal custody,” I said quietly. “You’re dismissed.”
Chase’s jaw clenched.
For a split second, his dark gaze cut to Claire, burning with toxic humiliation and sick possession.
Then he lowered his head.
“Yes, Uncle.”
I turned and swept Claire into my arms before she could even blink. She tensed, but then her soft body went totally still against my chest as I carried her deeper into the dark tunnel.
“Where are you taking me?” she whispered.
“To my chambers,” I stated. “Until I decide exactly what you are.”
The sealed chamber beneath the Pierce estate was warded, dead silent, and guarded by lethal men who knew better than to ask questions. My shadow guards materialized from the dark corners. Claire tensed, realizing we weren't alone.
I set her down and pointed to a plush chair. She stayed standing.
Stubborn.
I studied her under the dim lamplight and noticed a faint shimmer on her torn dress. Lust Dust. The toxic dose was strong enough that I could still smell it clinging to the ruined fabric, even after she’d clearly diluted it.
That heavy amount should have clouded her mind, driven her inner wolf into a wild frenzy, or made her violently ill. Yet she was completely clear-headed and standing there like a seasoned pro who knew exactly what she was doing.
Abnormal.
I circled her slowly.
"Lust Dust on the dress. A locked VIP room. A rogue planted inside," I mused aloud, watching her reactions. "Someone didn't just want you dead. They wanted you utterly ruined. Care to fill in the blanks?"
She didn't flinch. "Ivy poisoned the dress. Chase supplied the rogue. The grand plan was a public rejection."
"And you just let them set the stage?" I scoffed, stopping right in front of her. "Why not throw your sweet sister under the bus before the ceremony?"
"Who would listen?" Her voice sounded hollow, but her eyes burned with raw fire. "I'm a nearly wolfless disappointment. My only value was my father’s name. The second Chase didn't need it, I became disposable."
I bought that part. High society buried weak daughters every single day.
But the defiant girl standing her ground didn’t match the victim profile.
I leaned in. "So, how did you know I'd be creeping around that royal tunnel tonight?"
She swallowed hard. The first real crack in her armor. "I didn't."
"Lie." I growled, the deep sound vibrating through the quiet room. "That passage was hidden. You ran straight toward my patrol route."
"Because my mother showed me that exit when I was a kid!" she shot back, her chest heaving. "I was running from my death, not looking for you." She took a shaky breath, forcing herself to calm down. "I knew you were in town because Ivy bragged about it... in my vision."
My boots stopped moving. The room went dead silent.
"Vision?"
Her fingers curled tightly into her shredded dress, betraying her nerves. "That’s what it felt like. Sometimes I see things before they happen. Like a waking dream."
For a heartbeat, even my inner beast froze.
A nearly wolfless girl in a poisoned dress was claiming she could see the actual future.
Trap, my paranoid mind roared.
But… if she wasn’t lying, she was the most powerful weapon in this corrupt estate.
I closed the distance entirely, backing her against the cold stone wall. "What exactly did you see, Claire?"
She tilted her chin up, refusing to cower. "My own murder. And every dirty secret Chase and Ivy spilled while they thought I was too poisoned to listen."
“Such as?”
She squared her shoulders. “Before dawn, a border patrol near the northern ridge will walk straight into an ambush from the dried riverbed. The hidden attackers are packing wolfsbane smoke and silver-tipped bolts.”
I froze. That patrol route was highly classified. Only my inner war council and the patrol captain knew the exact details.
I gestured to a shadow guard. “Send word to the northern ridge. Reroute the patrol and keep a close watch on that dried riverbed.”
The silent guard vanished without a peep.
I studied her carefully. She was either telling the god's honest truth or she was a deep-cover pawn in a massive conspiracy that reached right into my war council.
Either way, she was extremely dangerous.
And I needed to know which.
“So, what do you want out of this?” I asked.
“I can be useful to you, Alpha,” she bartered. “I just need a brand-new identity. One Chase cannot touch. One my toxic family cannot drag me back from.”
Those were bold demands for a girl who’d been running for her life less than an hour ago.
“What's stopping me from tossing you into a dark cell and extracting that information by force?”
“If you cage me, I shut my mouth,” she fired back, her chin tilted up. “If you hand me back to Chase, you lose the only person who sees what’s coming.”
A dark smirk tugged at my lips. She had more backbone than half the Alphas in my court.
That defiant spark did something dangerous to my control. The heavy scent of her—sweet, panicked, laced with that lingering Lust Dust—slammed into my senses.
“You’ll remain strictly under my watch until I figure out exactly what you are,” I ordered, my voice dropping an octave.
“Being under your watch isn't the same as belonging to you,” she countered softly, though her breath hitched.
I erased the physical distance in two long strides, backing her flush against the heavy table. My body caged hers, hard muscle trapping her soft curves.
"I’ve slaughtered grown men for showing less defiance than you’ve thrown at me tonight," I warned, staring down at her parted lips.
"Then it’s a damn good thing I’m not a man."
I wrapped my large hand around the sensitive nape of her neck, my thumb grazing the exact spot where a mate's mark belonged. I yanked her forward.
Her soft hips slammed directly against my hard arousal.
Her frantic pulse fluttered wildly under my rough palm, and her breath hitched in her throat.
But she didn't flinch away.
I leaned in, inhaled deeply, letting my sharp fangs drag lightly against her delicate skin.
“Unless…” I purred against her neck, sliding my free hand down to grip her waist, “you have a much more entertaining use to me.”