Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

RAFAEL

I stepped out of the hospital room, the cold air grazing through my rolled-up sleeves. I grabbed my phone, my hands furiously typing against the keypad.

"Put my lawyer on the call in fifteen minutes."

I tapped send, the message going straight to Seth's inbox.

You want us to stay back. She needs us right now. I don't want her to leave our sight.

Gael purred in my head, but I pushed him back. The last thing I needed was him taking over and doing something reckless.

Gael was the most vicious, fearsome wolf, and he had instantly taken a liking to her. Too much of a liking.

***Flashback***

The moment I saw her at that masquerade ball, wearing a black dress that clung to her body like a second skin, staring down at a file in her hands with a smile tugging at her lips, I realized she had no idea my bastard brother was cheating on her.

I wanted to stop her right then, grab her hands and walk away from that room.

But it was too late. Before I could reach her, she had disappeared from the crowd, and I wanted to protect her at that moment, stop her from seeing the scene that was going to break her heart, but my wolf had stopped me.

‘Let her see it.’

"It's my duty to protect the werewolf community!" I growled back at my wolf.

‘From heartbreak?’

He asked. I tucked my hands in my pocket…he was right.

I had warned her about Connor right from the first time I saw her in that garden, three days after my mate had died. She was seventeen, brown hair which ran past her waist. She looked so unreal, so fucking perfect, that I thought she was unreal, but I had no right to stare at her in a way that was not proper. I had fucking lost my mate, I was mourning the loss of my mate, but she had given me something so bright, so beautiful to gaze upon.

But that momentary hope had shattered when she got so close to my bastard of a brother.

I knew Connor was never the type to have such an angel like her. Neither was I.

I was in fact worse. When she had walked out from that hall, my alpha hearing was able to catch the sound of her heartbeat, how her heart beat in sharp breathless motions, signifying she had seen them, probably caught them under sheets.

For one sick moment, a smile tugged at my lips.

I had watched Meris in the dark for five years, when everyone thought I was gone, when everyone had given up on the first son of Alpha Belmont…most ruthless alpha in the world, and the rumors circulating that I had disappeared because I was too broken by my mate's death.

She did not recognize me as ‘Rafael Belmont’ when I stood before her, and when she had told me to kiss her, right there in the middle of the ball, her voice sounded breathless, enough to make my cock hard, enough to make me want to break every protocol I had kept tucked for the past seven years. I allowed myself to unravel in the thoughts of stripping her right there in the party and claiming her while everyone watched in horrified faces.

She had left the moment I wanted to grab her right there and fulfill her demands, but I would not allow that to slip through my hands.

I had followed her out too quickly, the cool air smashing against my face, but none of it mattered except the woman walking a few feet away from me.

And I had kissed her recklessly, like I could not breathe, like I was trying to break the torrent growing inside me. But kissing her was not enough, I wanted everything, all of her. My wolf wanted to mark her, remove that diminishing mark of her repulsive ex-mate from her.

I wanted to fuck her right there, break boundaries which I had kept in check.

But that one phone call had changed everything and had broken something in her.

But it was enough to give me what I wanted… the chance to not just give her what she wanted, but give her what she would need.

Revenge.

A revenge that comes with lots of compromise, and one that would solve my father's pressing demands.

And I knew she would come running to me, and even if she did not come running to me, I was going to make her run toward me.

My Beta's name had flashed against my screen afterwards, and my lips rose up with a smirk.

"Today, tell the whole world that Rafael Belmont is back. I want everyone to know…. every single human… that the Alpha Rafael is back and he's launching his new company to the world."

The emotional link between us crackled with his shock. I could feel his disbelief rippling through our bond, his thoughts scrambling to process what I had just demanded.

"I will ensure I inform all the media about this, but is there a reason for this, Alpha?"

"The reason is because I said so."

I snapped, cutting the link.

***End of Flashback***

I pushed the steering wheel toward the track of the road, my hands instantly steering toward the avenue's road, the road that led to my hotel. I had planned on going back to my villa, but I could not. I wanted to be close by, so I opted to drive to one of my hotel resorts which was actually very close by, close enough to the hospital, where I would be able to monitor what was going on.

The engine purred beneath me as I drove through the empty streets, the city lights blurring past my windows. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to go back to that hospital room, to stay by her side, to make sure she was safe. But I had work to do. Plans to set in motion.

My phone buzzed with incoming messages… Seth coordinating with the alpha’s from other packs about an incoming meeting, my assistant confirming meetings.

Another message caught my attention. A notification from Cartier's private collection, the ring I had ordered was ready for pickup. Not just any ring. An engagement custom piece that had taken their master jeweler every effort to create. A ten-carat black diamond surrounded by blood-red rubies, set in platinum. The kind of ring that screamed power and possession. The kind of ring that would make every woman in the supernatural world green with envy when they saw it on her finger.

And that was exactly what I wanted.

Make everyone know she was mine.

When I had taken Connor's pathetic excuse for an engagement ring off her finger earlier, I knew this was the end of anything she had to do with my worthless brother and the beginning of something more. Something exciting. Something dangerous.

I parked outside the hotel and made my way to the penthouse suite. 

Ignoring the looks I was receiving from the staff and every single one.

This was the first time, in perhaps seven years, people were gazing upon me. 

I’d worked and ruled like a ghost after my return six months ago, but that won’t be any more.

My phone rang again. This time, it was my father.

"Rafael, what the hell are you doing? The board is calling me, asking about announcements and media coverage. You don’t make headlines when you have an obligation to fulfill, get married and you make headlines. That isn’t the deal."

"Hello, father. You are right father, we made a deal, and who says I wouldn’t honor my part of the deal?”

"You can't just…"

"I can do whatever I want. And what I want is for everyone to know that Rafael Belmont is back in the game. Stronger than ever and you will be hearing from me soon on our deal."

I ended the call before he could respond.

And Meris... my beautiful, broken Meris... she had no idea what she had unleashed when she walked into my office today. She thought this was about revenge, about saving her mother, about proving she was worth something.

She was right. But it was so much more than that.

My phone buzzed with a final message from Seth: ‘All major networks confirmed. The news industries all want an interview with you after your breakout.’ 

"Alpha Chairman Rafael Belmont Returns: Announces New Empire. Is there something more we should be expecting from the Unveiled Alpha Chairman?”

I smiled, dark and predatory.

Perfect.

I pressed my forehead against the cool glass and whispered the words that had been building in my chest all day:

"I, Alpha Rafael Belmont, have returned all because of you, Meris Volkov. And soon, the whole world will know you are mine."