Dahlia’s POVI didn’t snap out of the shock until a car beeped at me.“Get in!” Aiden waves at me from the shotgun.I glare at the driver’s familiar face, and Finn lowers his eyes. I don’t want to get in, but I have to get to Tom as fast as I can.“So you are the ONLY one knowing about my plan, huh?!” I sneer at Aiden when I slam shut the back door of the car. I knew I shouldn’t have believed him! His Luna my ass! They are just a bunch of horrible cats playing me in their palms!“I can explain about Finn later,” Rarely, Aiden doesn’t joke with me or look guilty, but all serious as if in face of danger, “What happened to the kid? Is he alright?”“He is not alright! Your damn Alpha appeared and scared the poor little boy half to death!” I roll my eyes at Aiden, “Is that why you dared to let me go?! Because you told him about my escaping plan and you knew he was waiting for me at the station?!”“Damon?” Aiden frowns, “It can’t be him. Is that what the boy told you?”“It can, and it is!”
Dahlia’s POV“You can explain...?” I mumble, feeling like my soul lifting from my body and watching over myself from the air.How could he explain when the whole world doesn’t make any sense to me?“I don’t know what happened to Tom, but I WILL find it out,” Damon walks up, and Aiden lets go of my arm gently before stepping aside.“Like how you found out about what happened to Ava? Remind me, what happened to her murderer?” I didn't mean to use a sour tone, but it came out stinging. My voice is so calm that I scare myself. I don’t even want to cry. I’m too shocked to feel anything.I must have lost my soul somewhere.Damon looks sad. But I couldn’t care less.“I’m sorry that I let this happen--”“LET this?” My voice came out shouting. I didn’t know I wanted to shout. “Are you seriously trying to get yourself out of this?!”“You are right,” Damon raises both his hands, his tone careful, “This happened in my territory, and I’m definitely responsible, but I didn’t hurt him, Dahlia, you h
Dahlia’s POVSilence fills the lobby after my outburst. I storm at the door, not care to find out how mad Damon is.I was wrong.I thought I wanted a rejection from him. I thought I didn’t care about the title, and I thought I was okay with him hiding his dirty little secret from me. But I wasn’t okay. Not okay. I want my mate, just like any girl. I want the perfect, unconditioned love, the love blessed by the moon goddess.I guess I was secretly hoping that he would come around one day and claim me. He would tell me that he doesn’t care about my flaws and he values me when no other does.What a ridiculous illusion. And for this stupid dream, I cost two innocent to die for me.“You can’t go,”Damon’s low, cold voice broke the silence when I barely made it to the door.I don’t stop and I don’t look back. I no longer want him. But Aiden moves at Damon’s words and blocks my way. I stop with a smirk: “So much for my command over Damon’s, huh? How hypocritical, both of you!”Aiden looks at
Dahlia’s POVI must be something of a kind in our history, to be an Alpha with no wolf, and one Beta.Damon often says that his power comes from his people, and I always took that as some hypocritical, political slogan, one to earn the loyalty of his people.I was wrong.Turns out one doesn’t need to have a fortune or a pack to be an Alpha. So long as you take the pledge from another, even just one, you can be an Alpha. Only, with tiny power.Damon kept his promise and let me go, and I remained in shock even after we had driven for a whole day.Right there in the shabby, cold, old, and empty train station, Damon asked Aiden to renounce his loyalty and pledge to me. Aiden obeyed tamely. The moment I took Aiden’s pledge and promise to be his Alpha, a tiny but bright power rose inside me. It was invisible, and I looked the same after, but I just know.Something changed inside me, forever.I’m still as weak physically as before, I tried. But I feel a faint shred of power in my chest, one
Dahlia’s POVI thought it would be weird to not have Damon in my life, but I haven’t even got time to feel that, even if I would.Time flies here in the headquarters of the League.I never knew it would be such a hideous job to be an Alpha, with the mountain-like heavy paperwork pouring down. If it wasn’t for Aiden I would be totally lost.A week after I arrived, I hadn’t even gotten around to meeting my dad. He is here to register his new title as well, meaning he would be buried under a heavy workload like me. Guess he wouldn’t have any more time than me to spare.But the truth is, he feels a little estranged from me all of a sudden. I think it’s because of his new title.Dad was a mild person, in my memory. He always had a smile on, for anyone and anything. He doesn’t talk much nor do much even though he was a Beta of my mother. Most of the time he just stands behind my mom like a standing board, supporting my mom with no objection, ever.He wasn’t the strong type, not an Alpha. Ev
Dahlia’s POVDad doesn’t look happy, seemingly having a heated quarrel with Justin. Justin has a weary smile. He is polite, as always, but I can tell that he is in a bad mood, too.I sit there and watch the two men, not wanting to make myself noticed.It feels weird.I have imagined seeing Dad again so many times, but none of them was like now, when I feel like I’m looking at a total stranger.He is in a fancy suits. Unlike the ones mom used to pick for him, they are cold and tight, giving off a sharp aura. I forgot, he is an Alpha now. He is no longer the friendly Beta who plays nice with everyone. His eyes are cold and his jaw cleanly shaved, his shoes shining and his chest help up high.It’s definitely my dad, but I feel like I don’t know him anymore. I want to go dive into his arms and cry about what happened like his little princess, but I seem to have forgotten how.And then they see me.Justin’s face instantly lights up. He strides to me before he stops abruptly and turns aroun
Dahlia's POVIt's stupid to blame Dad just because he wouldn’t take my leftover, but I do.Not because of the meal, because he talks about Mom with no love, and because he has dropped all our father-daughter habits so soon. He still calls me princess, but I feel a shade of coldness in his eyes, one that I have never seen before. I can’t help feeling like the past few months put a lifetime’s distance between us, like I no longer know him anymore.I didn’t get another chance with Dad after that dinner. But Justin stayed around and helped me get used to all the Alpha stuff. Though I have got Aiden, it was nice to have friend reminding me and going to the Alpha meetings with me. He would introduce me to all the Alpha coming and going to the headquarters, and it helped a lot with him by my side when most of them made it clear with their attitude that--An Alpha with only one member in her pack is not one they need to care about.But even with familiar faces like Justin’s, life here soon tu
Dahlia’s POV“How dare you!” Lola growls at me, baring her teeth, “Who do you think you are, interrupting the meeting?! Notice that you are not on the table, but only sitting on the learning seats, low life!”The learning seats are a row of less than ten chairs by the wall, for Alphas of small packs that occasionally come to the headquarters for all sorts of reasons.The League promises that all the important decisions that are going out from the headquarters are decided by EVERY Alpha, no matter the size of their packs. Democracy. But the thing is, it’s hard to gather all a hundred and something of Alphas in the headquarters all the time for these meetings, so for practical reasons, the meetings can only expect the three Supreme Alphas to be there all the time when the rest Alphas can choose to come or not.But Lola makes it sound like the rest of us don’t have that right.I don’t know if I should make a scene here because I know how unwise it is to go against a Supreme Alpha directl
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