Dahlia's POV Blood is not spouting out like I expected. I look down at my wrist in confusion, and Damon lets out a light laugh, only to tighten his look back into a poker face under the death stare I shoot over. The glass is not cutting through my wrist. “You know you are a werewolf...right? I mean, it’s another story if this is diamond but--” Damon asks before he purses his lips again, tilting his head as he observes my embarrassment. “I’m not experienced in suicide, okay?!” I push him on his chest and he pulls me into his arms instead. “Come home with me, okay?” Damon lures. It’s cheating when he demands with his rough bass. I had a good time with him before Jared appeared. But since then so much has happened and I don’t want to go back to it. I don’t want to be the pet that has no say in my life anymore. “Everyone knows that you are my little pet now...” Damon lets out a resigned laugh, stroking my hair gently with his huge palm, “You cost me my title and you ruined my party.
Dahlia's POVThe jerk leaves right after he dropped the bomb on my head!“What did you--!” I don’t have time to snap out of it before lets go of the door frame and leaves. Clean and swift.!“Did you seriously just--?!” I chase after him to the door, and his tall figure half hidden by the shadow, “You jerk! Tell me everything!”He is walking away without even a pause.“You--Damon Hayes! This is not funny! You come back and you tell me everything!” I burst out cursing him and he starts walking again. I so want to charge up but I can’t hurt him. I dash back to pick up the piece of glass -- the only thing in the little dark room Ethan took me to -- and charge back before I throw it at his head.It hit him right in the back of his head.With a click of his tongue, he stops. But he doesn’t turn around.“Tell me!” I demand at him, panting with my whole body shaking.“Move back to the mansion and I’ll tell you,” He says. His tone leisure, and his back straight and stretched.The stone-hearte
Damon’s POV The only two people that can piss me off in one room is too much for me. Lupus knew Aiden cared about Barke and wanted no one else as his mate, yet it still burns to see Dahlia being so friendly to him with her watery deer eyes pasted on Aiden. I can’t quite pin down whether it’s pure jealousy, or the fact that Lupus knew Dahlia would not look at us in this way. She wouldn’t be here if we didn’t lure her with her father as bait. I shouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t know what else to do. The grey desperation in her sorrowful eyes scared me. As an Alpha, I rarely feel powerless at anything, but it’s a normality facing Dahlia. I can’t bear to see her giving up on her life, and I took the poison when I knew it might be a mistake if it turns out to be false hope. I just didn’t know it was such a deadly one until it was too late. “So,” Dahlis sits across the table, her back straight and her hands on the table like a proper businesswoman ready to negotiate, “what’s your co
Dahlia’s POVI have missed Damon when he has been a strange, cold-looked Alpha that doesn’t see me for two weeks. But now I remember what a jerk he was before that!Standing by his door, I seriously weigh between storming out and begging him for the drops of information on my lost family. But there is little to weigh. I have no resources, no ability, not even a wolf. There is no way I can rescue my father on my own. I try to believe that he is not in the destruction of my pack, but he just keeps on giving me reason to believe otherwise. Like Jered, like how he keeps important information like my father from me.I feel guilty stabbing him, but it’s extremely hard to believe that he is on my side when his actions match exactly like some Alpha who wants my family gone so he can keep me imprisoned.I doubt if he would tell me anything about my father if I didn’t tell him I didn’t want to live.But still, that changes everything.To even think about the possibility that my father might sti
Dahlia’s POV “Damon Hayes, you are such a liar!!!” The piece of information of our “quid pro quo” is that he hasn’t found the body of my father from the ruins of our pack! How is that the same as my father being alive?! And how is that even “quid”?! “You said he is still alive!” I grip his collar and all he does is laugh. He should feel threatened! “I’m pretty sure I said ‘might’. I was very careful with my words.” The jerk lies in this seat leisurely, ignoring my attack completely. “Just because you haven’t found his body?! Ughhhhhh!” I shake the devil Alpha, “It could have been anything! Maybe you just missed it! Maybe somebody took it. Or...anything!” Damon shrugs with an annoying smirk: “I totally agree.” “...” “You are the evilliest monster!!!” I give up and stand up but he won’t let me. Did he lie to me yesterday? Or is he lying now? I can’t tell. All I know is he just gave me a string that I have to hold on to, no matter how thin a hope it is. Even though it just might
Dahlia’s POV After agreeing to let me join in the investigation -- well, after I tricked Damon into agreeing, everything seems to fall back to normal. Damon leaves the pack more, but so long as he is back, he will come and snuggle me into sleep. I sleep better with him than without. I prefer to have him around, not just trick updates of the investigation from him, but also, I still can’t breathe under the sun, not unless he is by my side. It’s like a brand ironed on me, reminding me of the unspeakable night. It’s our tacit agreement to never talk about that night again. But I know it left a brand on him, too. No matter how heated our sex is, or how nice when we sleep, he always gets up and leaves early in the morning before I can wake up. I don’t expect him to get past it. How could anyone be able to forgive and forget such a thing? “Dahlia,” Aiden comes to the darkroom and knocks on the door, “I got a deer today. If you come out now, I’ll let you have the dark meat.” Ever since
Dahlia’s POV“Why don’t you get fat when you like the prime rib so much?”That’s the first words out of Damon half into a long, painful, quiet dinner. If I wasn't taught to have great manner, I would have thrown my fork at his head! But I was! So I just glared at him, chewing my mouthful as if it was him!Damon lets out a tired chuckle before he puts down his fork and stands up.I stop chewing, staring at him with nervousness.He has been acting really weird ever since he caught me red-handed--Of course now that he was back, Aiden would step aside from our dinner plan.Aiden put the ridiculously expensive wine in my arms before he excused himself. “Guarding the chief on cooking his deer right”. That was the excuse Aiden used, leaving me all alone to come up with some good lines for stealing the scary Alpha’s wine.But Damon seemed more distracted than mad.In fact, he just took the wine over from me and led me to the dining room. No word out of him. Not when we settled on the table.
Damon’s POVA month ago I thought giving Dahlia false hope would be the worst outcome, but now when I actually found something, I’d rather go back to the unknown, to where she comes to me all day long urging about the search for her father.I wanted to tell her straightforwardly, but fear took the better of me. At the dinner table, when I looked into Dahlia’s anticipating, innocent eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to break the news. So I backed off and averted the subject. I guess I deserve the fork. But at least that got Dahlia off me for the day so I can sleep on the news I just got.For the first time in my life, I retreated. I escaped from Dahlia and hid in my office, not sure what to do.A knock on the door rises, and instantly I clench the glass in my hand due to nervousness. How ridiculous. People would laugh if they knew that the infamous Alpha they rumor about gets nervous at a knock in his own office.[It’s just Aiden,] Lupus rolls his eyes at me.“Come in,” I raise my voice. I
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