Dahlia's POVThe jerk said no again!Something about loyalty is not bought. As if sex should be! He buys off our mate bond with protection, and now all of a sudden he plays legit?!I can't even negotiate with him because I have nothing else to sell."Ava, I need your help," I pull Ava into my room as soon as I leave Damon's office.I can only assume that Damon already knew about me targeting Jared. Even if he hadn't figured it out, he would soon. You can't take a chance with that man! He has nothing but schemes in his head, and he can read me like an open book.I need to act fast.I NEED to know what happened to my pack, and if I catch Jared by himself, I think I can take him."What do you need a silver dagger for?!" Ava covers her mouth with a scared gasp, utter horror written in her timid eyes.Well, I did just ask her for a weapon that could put down an Alpha."Ava, I'm only using this on a super bad person, okay?" I grab little Ava's shivering shoulders, trying to soothe her, "He
Dahlia's POVDamon came back late that night.Later than Justin's gift.I don't know how I got back to the room after Jared left me alone in the garden. I was worried Jared was going to kill me, yet what he did was way worse. The last time he broke my life into pieces he had soldiers with him, this time he managed to do it all by himself.Just when I started to warm up to a life with Damon, its lie of a base crumbled.Justin's gift was waiting for me on the dresser, wrapped in a piece of white cloth. No box. On the piece of cloth written--Sorry I couldn't protect you at the party. Protect yourself.His gift was a silver dagger. The kind that can take down an Alpha.Irony how I wanted this only a few hours ago. If only Justin's gift arrived earlier.Sitting in front of the mirror, I watch the moonlight bouncing off the cold metal, suddenly having a surreal feeling as if all the tangible around me are flying away.My pack's fall, Damon's scheme, Justin's perfection. It all feels surrea
Dahlia’s POVListening to the water running through the wall between us, I magically found peace.Now I look back, the past three months have been like an endless marathon, one that I didn’t sign up for, nor was I prepared for. But now it finally comes to an end. I can’t just let go of the death of my whole pack, but even if I can survive assassinating an Alpha, I find the world dreadful to live in.If I was still the old me who doesn’t have a wolf to find my mate with, I might live for that slight hope of him finding me. But now I don’t even have that.He found me. He didn’t reject me like I feared, he destroyed my world.“What are you thinking?” Damon’s voice suddenly rises beside my ear, I turn startled, and my hand reaches for my pillow by instinct. The dagger is under there.Damon’s eyes dart over, following my move.None of us moved again. Silence.“You look paler than usual,” Damon taps my chin up, his eyes almost gentle, “Something happened to you today. Tell me.”It already h
Dahlia's POVI hear the sound of my heart breaking into pieces in disappointment.Somehow he gives me the worst answer. He not only lies but also endorses Jared himself. Not even giving me Jared’s head like the sex-swayed tyrant Jared took him for.Goodbye, Damon Hayes.I nod, unable to look him in the eyes again. I can’t trust them anymore, no matter how soulful they are.“Dahlia, let go of your pack’s tragedy,” Damon suddenly says, pinching my chin with two fingers to make me look at him, “It’s not something you can handle.”I curve my lips sorrowfully: “I guess not.”I can’t handle this man. I can’t defeat him the right way. I can’t even help falling in love with him when he did such horrible things. But I can’t live like this either.I’ll die with you, Damon Hayes. Next life, let’s hope we won’t be assigned as mates.“Dahlia--” With a hesitant look, he opens his mouth again but I’m not listening anymore. He had his chance.“Enough work talks,” I poke my head forward and brush my l
Dahlia’s POV“You promised to be gentle tonight!” I kick the man who is basically biting me all over like some big reckless dog.“When?!” Damon raises his head to glance me with a perfect innocent, then he dives right back to my body to plant his sharp, stingy strawberries on my stomach like the most hard-working farmer ever!I wanted to make that request. I guess I forgot?But not everyone has muscles like his stone-made ones that don’t feel pain, okay?!I did want to give him a good time, and I think I did it too well. The Alpha came right in my mouth when he lasted not even half of the time when he tortured me in the little black room.Apparently, that pissed him off.And the big dog is hiding his red ear tips by burying his steaming face on me with more torture!“No, not there!” I grab his hair when he moves his lips south. I don’t see it being enjoyable at all if he uses his iron clamps on my lips down there.“You don’t want it?” Damon looks shocked, “It’s the best thing ever, I
Dahlia’s POVThe dagger cut into him like a laser into tofu.Silver kills our heightened cells. Instantly.I will never forget the hurt in his eyes when the dagger pierced into him. It’s not pain from the wound, it’s from his bleeding soul.“Bold!” Damon snarls as he jerks up, pressing me under him with his fingers around my neck. I close my eyes to embrace my death but it doesn't happen.I don’t know if it’s because of the tear that dropped from my eyes, but Damon backed off the bed, one hand pressed on his ribs—I missed his heart by an inch.I don’t know how I would have missed it. I aimed for his heart. I aimed for his death and mine. I would have died with him before the pack could condemn me. But I missed it.“So this is what you wanted from me…my life.” With a dreadful tone, Damon leans on the dresser, his move almost elegant. You can barely tell he is bleeding badly and weakening even faster.“I’m sorry…” I burst into tears. I couldn't feel the mate bond, but I feel like I do.
Dahlia’s POV Damon left, wounded but neatly dressed. He took everything with him. The bloody clothes, the dagger, the file of my land. I only pull myself up when my limbs are numb from the coldness. I pull out a gown to wrap around my numb body. The luxury piece just feels off for some reason, and I couldn’t seem to make it right. The room is empty again. It’s not empty empty because all the furniture and things are still here. But it’s empty now. The heat of the moment is gone. My homeland is taken. And I’m pretty sure I just lost any chance with my mate. It’s the same room, yet I feel more lonely and colder than ever. Because he is gone. It doesn’t quite sink in that I just stabbed the Alpha. The most infamous ruler of all packs. The devil himself. Not even when he left with a cold warning. Until Lola comes. It’s only minutes after I put myself under the cover with the uncomfortable gown, shivering instead of sleeping, Lola barges in. “You are so dead!” She charges at me wi
Dahlia’s POV “Let go of me! Let go!” I shrill at the top of my lungs as Lola drags me out of the wine cellar. I didn’t know where I was kept, but I have little mind to care now because I have a much more urgent problem-- “I can’t breathe! The sun! The sun is burning me!” The hot, bright beams of the sun glue on my skin, and I can feel my skin melting like under acid! I’m a sinner! I will forever belong only in darkness! I can’t bear the sun! “Stop with your raving!” Lola keeps her iron claw on my arm so tightly I think her goal is to break it in half, “The Alpha demanded you.” She wants me to walk past the hundred yards from my prison to the main building. She wants me to melt under the sun! Fear of the sun gives my dying body one last shot of adrenalin and I scream as I try to claw and kick, anything to put distance between me and the woman who hates me to the guts. She raises her hand to slap me but it doesn’t land -- Barke stops her. “She is not worth getting yourself punishe
Dahlia’s POVHome is too strong a word for me now. Let’s just say, I agreed to go with Dad.Damon is gone, and Justin left soon after. Kayle disappeared from my sight, and so did Lola. My life suddenly became a vacuum. One thing to my solace is that Dad became the perfect dad in my memory after we left the headquarters.Sometimes I feel like the few weeks during the trial of Damon was just a nightmare, just like my memory of Dad before I was five.It was on the plane that I finally got the whole story of what happened to Dad after I was taken.Dad found out that the attack on our pack was a well-planned scheme. Damon gets me, the land of the pack, AND mom’s title for his friend. Well, by the time when this was planned, Justin was still Damon’s friend. And the rogues he hired got all the money they could scrap from our home.Dad had no choice but to flee the land. He ended up in a new city with the help of an old friend. And that’s our new “home”.Like I said, this is not home.Dad is
Dahlia’s POVA rejection is the worst experience you could have as a werewolf.The mate bond is what connects two souls together. The humans can’t feel their souls, but to sensitive creatures like us, our souls are almost tangible, and so are our mate bonds. To break something like that is like cutting us open, except the wound is not on our body, but on our souls.You won’t be able to even imagine the pain if you have never lost a limb.The rejection tears. It tears apart something that should not be apart. It leaves one bleeding, hurting, and itching for all their conscious time, as well as in their sleep. It’s like your flesh is cut open, and left open in the air, and unlike a physical wound, you can’t faint due to blood loss. You will always feel that something is broken in you, and you have no way to heal it.It’s hard to understand the concept of one’s soul being complete by itself, is also complete when it’s combined in the most intimate way with someone else’s soul, while keep
Dahlia’s POVThe van is quiet. No guards anywhere near it, not even a driver. Not exactly what I had in mind for a jail of “the devil”.Not daring to hesitate, I pull open the back door and slip up. Though it looks like a trap off the textbook, I don’t really have any other move left.It isn’t a trap. Damon is in the trunk, alone, hands not even cuffed. He is smiling at me as I close the door behind me with a thumping heart, panickedly looking for a proper place to sit when my move is so limited by the handcuffs I hid under the shirt.I feel like I’m the prisoner, not him.Damon remains silent, but I see taunt in his eyes.“Hi...” I break the silence, frowning lightly. This is not exactly what I expected. I thought he would be angry, desperate, regretful, or sad. But not this. Not this calmness with a shred of taunt.He curves his lips.“Hi yourself, Dahlia.”His voice is the bass I always indulge in, and his tone is not exactly aggressive. I’m confused now. I rise my eyebrows questio
Dahlia’s POV“Where are you heading to, miss?”I maintain my smile and clear my throat, stalling because I didn’t come up with a good excuse.Aiden managed to put together a plan at the last minute. Well, sort of. He found out where the prison van for Damon was parked, AND he took on the job to distract the guards. All I needed to do was to make it to the elevator to parking lot G and see Damon.Who would know they’d put a guard in front of the elevator door on each floor?!“I--uhhh, my Alpha told me to go meet him in the parking lot,” I open my mouth, only to realize Damon’s case definitely made the “news” here. Revealing my identity might not be the wisest move.“Which section of the parking lot, ma’am?” The guard asks with extreme patience, sympathy even. I would have taken him as caring if I was the old me. But recently I have realized that the colorful fog around people that I can see, is not something that everyone can.I can’t quite explain it, but I can more or less tell the p
Dahlia’s POV“Do you even know what you are doing?! He is the monster that destroyed our home!” Dad presses on, but Aiden steps up and he stops a few inches away. He is furious and panting, as if he just hurried over when I decided to visit Damon. Two seconds ago.Could it be? Did Dad plant surveillance on me? This thought gave me a chill down my spine. Or maybe I feel cold because of how easy it is for me to suspect my own father now.I guess I can’t just forget everything like I was little just for a few days of kindness from him anymore.“You still haven’t shown me any evidence that pins what happened on Damon, Dad,” I remind him calmly. He is hiding something from me, I can feel it. And it annoys me. If Dad was using the stress of the case to explain why he avoided letting me in on anything before the trial, he is definitely failing to explain himself for still not showing me any of his investigations now.“You have no idea how brutal they are. Do you really want to look at the pi
Dahlia’s POVIn the end, Damon was found guilty.Something about him refusing to give the court Jared and stuff. I guess that explained Dad’s sudden change of attitude -- After five months, he finally got the justice he wanted.I wanted to visit Damon, but I couldn’t find a good reason.To see my old owner who kept me as a sex slave? To see the evil who was found guilty of the crime over my fallen pack? To see the man whom I betrayed and had a bad fallout with the last time we saw each other? Or...Just to see my mate.That word feels so strange to me now.I don’t have a wolf to feel the mate bond, and with Damon gone from my life, I have totally forgotten that I have a mate. Who is in prison now, for the most horrifying crime one can do.I can’t justify visiting him, and luckily, Dad and Justin helped me from struggling myself into halves.Dad has been unprecedentedly nice to me ever since the trial. Even nicer than before the incident, I would say. He insisted on having EVERY meal w
Dahlia’s POV“She’s lying!” My Dad growls at the judge, “She’s fucking lying! How dare you, you little useless brat?! You--”“Liam Palmer!” Damon suddenly raised his voice before the judge could react to my Dad’s outburst. He turns to Dad with a calm smile yet his eyes are cold as ice, “She is an Alpha now, as much as you are. I don’t want to see you disrespecting her again.”“She is MY daughter! And I won’t take orders from a murderer! You! You murdered my wife!” Dad spat at him. Frankly, I find it shocking that he dares to shout at Damon. No one else in the Leagues seems to have the courage to do so, not even Kayle.But I guess by suing Damon, Dad already put him on Damon’s bad side permanently.Damon shoots a worried look at me. I blink in confusion.Did he think that Dad’s mentioning of Mom’s death would change my mind? I hate the murderer and I want a thousand deaths of him, but that doesn’t mean I would jump and bite anyone who my Dad accuses without proof like I’m his mad dog.
Dahlia’s POVI’m daunted in the face by this life or death question.“Dahlia Morgan, please answer my question,” The lawyer urges, his tone getting cocky, “Did Tom Sanders call out Alpha Damon’s name in the last phone call you shared with him, 10 minutes before he showed up dead in front of you?!”The truth is, Tom did. But somehow I feel wrong to answer yes.Too many things feel wrong.First of all, Tom lived in Damon’s mansion for weeks, and yet never has he showed any particular fear toward him. He is timid in front of Damon, but any Omega does in front of a fearful Alpha.Secondly, when Tom told me about that he heard the man who captured him calling the man behind the attack on that night “Alpha Damon”, he only mentioned that as highly suspicious of Damon, unlike the night at the train station when Tom shouted “It’s him! Alpha Damon is here!”If I’m trusting my gut, I would say that something made Tom recognize the man from the night of the attack on my pack, not Damon this perso
Dahlia’s POVI never got to see Dad again in those 48 hours, and it was pretty clear that even if I could, it would be fruitless. Even after two days of thinking, I still don’t understand how a simple inquiry on the case turned into such a bad fight with him.I can’t see Damon either. Apparently, the 48 hours is all they have to get anything out of him, and they are not allowing any visit until the hearing.I got a subpoena to attend as a witness, hence here I am, in the witness waiting room with a bunch of people that I have never seen in my life. Aiden can only appear as an audience.“This way, ma’am,” After what felt like an eternity, the guard came for me. I’m the last one to appear in court.The moment the guard pushes open the courtroom’s heavy door, I instantly feel Damon’s hot sights landing on me. But when I look over, he is already looking at the file in front of him on the defendant’s stand as if he never looked over.He looks the same as I remember him. Handsome, neat, sha