Chapter 5: To punish and to protect

Lucien's POV

I leaned back in my seat, glaring at Rowan and Kane like I was deciding who to kill first. Maybe I was.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" I asked, as I stared into their eyes one at a time.

"She stepped out of the house against your order." Kane was the first to answer, his jaws clenched like he had something to be angry about.

"And what was my order to you about her?" I asked.

"She brought it upon herself. She—"

"I gave an instruction. Keep Davina in the house. I never said you should touch her."

Kane looked like he was going to argue, but he took a second to choose his next words carefully. "Davina is the daughter of Gideon Carson. The man that ruined you. The man that—" he cut himself off sharply before he could finish that sentence. "I don't know why you are letting her live. You should have ended her the day you killed her father."

Something about this way he said it made my blood boil. It made me want to stand up and throw a series of punches in his face, until he was beyond recognition. But I took some breaths to calm myself down.

Recently, my anger had been spiralling out of control.

"Davina is not yours to punish or kill. She is mine. Leave her to me."

My words seemed to displease Kane. "That was not the plan. We were supposed to wipe out Alpha Gideon and all those that support him. Now you are acting like her captor one moment, and in the next, you are rescuing her like some kind of shiny prince."

"Kane!" Rowan growled in warning.

"He needs to know that she is not his princess, but the daughter of his greatest enemy. She is your enemy too, and if you let her live, she will do something to you."

A ghost of a smile touched my lips for less than a second, and a part of me was curious to see what Davina would do.

"Davina did nothing." Rowan seethed, turning to Kane. "We had a problem with her father. We took him out. That's enough. Davina is innocent. She even has no idea what her father did."

"Dumb bitch." Kane hissed, and I felt a spark of anger which I did my best to push down. Davina was an enemy, and I should not concern myself if she was being insulted or not.

"She might had lived in a bubble, but she is still innocent." Rowan said with a shake of his head.

He had always been the empathetic and more reasonable one among us.

"You dated Davina. Hell, you two look like you were in love, and I know that she loved you." Kane began again. "She is going to use that against you, and by the time she is done, you are not going to believe it. You still feel something for her, that is why you protect her!" He said it like an accusation.

His arrogance was beginning to grate on my skin. I had to think back about how helpful and loyal he had been. If not, I might have had my hand around his throat.

"I don't need to be reminded of who Davina is, what we were. I know her more than the both of you, more than anyone in this pack. Even more than her father that did nothing but protect her."

I stood up, slow and deliberate, the tension in the room thickening like a fog. "But Davina is mine, and no one touches her unless I say so. Not a word, not a finger. Not a bruise on her skin. Not even a hair out of place unless I fucking command it."

Kane looked away, his jaw locking with restrained anger. While Rowan continued looking ahead, his gaze unreadable.

"I don't give a damn if she is the daughter of the fucking devil. She is still mine. Mine to punish or to protect. You should not concern yourself with it."

Kane swallowed hard. He looked like he had so much to say, but he knew that if he dared, this might not end well for him.

"And if anyone steps out of line again, touches her, so much as looks at her the wrong way, I'll rip your spine out and nail it to the front gate as warning."

The warning seemed to shock even Rowan, and he pinned me with a disappointed look. He probably didn't like the way I was talking to them, but I was too angry to give a fuck.

"You are dismissed."

Neither of them dared to speak. They bowed their heads, turned and left in silence, Rowan in front and Kane reluctant behind him.

I ignored them, taking out the pile of paperwork I had to go through. I had so much work to do. So fucking much.

"You are going to need a Beta." Kane's voice came through, and I looked forward to see that he was still standing there. "You can't rule the whole pack alone. You are going to need a Beta and Gamma. But a Beta first, or you will drain out soon."

He was right. No pack functioned with only an Alpha. But I had the problem of trust. I needed someone that I could absolutely trust. Rowan, Kane and some other warriors had been there for me and with me, but they still had their own revenge to take.

"I know." I said simply, but that didn't seem to satisfy him. He waited a little more, and when I didn't say anything else, he left angrily.

He wanted me to make him Beta.

I closed my eyes and relaxed in my seat, wanting to savor the silence a little. Even though nothing was ever silent with me. My head was always filled with screams—agonizing screams, pleas, weeping. It had tortured me for years, haunted my sleep for so long that I had forgotten how it actually felt to sleep like a normal person. It had become easier to ignore after the years, but the pain was still there.

After staying in the office for a few hours, I stepped out.

I went to the kitchen, and I was shocked to see Davina there, cooking.

"Where are the Omegas?" I asked, and she stilled for a moment, as if the sound of my voice disgusted her. She had once been so happy to hear it.

"Apparently, it seems they also can't stand my presence." She said finally, not bothering to look at me, and not stopping.

"You can just ask them to make your food?"

She shrugged one shoulder casually. "I prefer to make my own food today."

I studied her for a moment too long.

She was totally different from the Davina of last week. The one that was all sunshine and rainbow. The one that would never stop talking in my presence. The one that would come to me to tell me the slightest thing that happened in her day, no matter how irrelevant. And I always... listened.

I pushed back that ugly feeling that was threatening to rise in my chest. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Everything was an act from the start. So that breaking her father would hit hard. I wasn't going to go easy on her now, not when I know that Gideon's soul was somewhere, watching. I wanted him to see how I would make his daughter suffer, and he would be unable to do anything.

"You probably still think the house is yours."

She laughed. A mirthless sound. "Oh, it isn't. You made that very clear the day you killed my father."

I flinched. She had gone too cold, I almost didn't recognize her. "Shouldn't you be somewhere recovering?"

"Food will help me recover."

I stayed here for a little longer, and not once did she turn. Not once did she try to speak when I didn't ask her a question. And when I did, every of her words were cold enough to bite.

I turned to leave. My mind was clearly not in the right place.