Chapter 19: Are You Jealous?

I pulled the man down by the neck. He was a head taller than me, but I didn’t care whether he was watching or not. His faint breath brushed against my nose, and I shut my eyes, feeling both nervous and uneasy.

Then, to my shock, my palm suddenly met empty air. The neck I had been pulling was gone. A crashing sound followed, along with a groan, and my eyes snapped open.

Alpha Damon stood before me, his eyes cold and emotionless.

My heart pounded as I stared at him in confusion, wondering what he was trying to do. Before I could react, he tugged my arm and pulled me close.

I fell against his chest. He gripped my chin, forcing my face up, and then his lips crashed onto mine.

I froze in shock.

When his tongue parted my lips, the kiss turned fierce and deliberate, stealing the breath from my lungs. I stood there dazed and light-headed, unable to think, unable to move.

Before I could say a word, Alpha Damon was gone.

I blinked, and it was only the blur of his silhouette at my window that made me realize he had actually come into my room.

I was dumbfounded. What the hell was going on? What had just happened?

I shook my head.

Then I looked back at the man I had been about to kiss. He was struggling to get to his feet. My gaze shifted to the other man who had come in with him.

Though his face was hidden behind a mask, I could still see the shock in his eyes—followed quickly by fear. Without wasting another second, he turned, helped his partner up, and hurried out of my room.

I had so many questions running through my mind, but there were no answers to them. In the end, I decided to wait until dawn, since worrying over it would not bear any fruit anyway.

I thought Alpha Damon would come to my room the next morning, but he did not. Instead, it was Christina who came, bringing my breakfast and lunch. Even after two days passed, I still did not see Alpha Damon, nor was any man sent to my room.

I exhaled in relief, but that relief was short-lived when Alpha Damon suddenly appeared in my room, his face cold and his eyes menacing.

He looked at me intently before asking, “Your father wants to speak with you. Do you want to talk to him?”

“Sure,” I agreed without hesitation.

He gave me a meaningful look, then turned and headed for the door. Since he did not seem willing to bring it up, I decided to ask anyway.

“Were you jealous?”

He stopped still. For a moment, I saw his shoulders tremble, but then he shot me a sharp look and sneered.

“Alexander, you think too highly of yourself. Take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask if any man would love enough to make you his. You are not worth fighting over, and I would never be jealous over you. Do not flatter yourself.”

I was not flustered by his intense reaction. Calmly studying his face, I waited until he was done ranting before saying with a smile that was not quite a smile, “Then why did you kiss me that night? Why did you attack that man?”

I could see the corner of his lips twitch, even as he tried to force his face into its usual expressionless mask. The struggle was amusing.

He snorted coldly. “I have no answer to your question.”

Then he flicked his sleeve dismissively and turned toward the door. But before he could walk out, I asked, “Why have you stopped sending men to my room? Have you given up on making your men stronger?”

He froze for a full minute, standing there without moving. Then his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

When he finally turned back around, his face was dark as he asked coldly, “I will send them tonight.”

With that, he stormed away.

At that moment, I only became more confused.

Later, when Christina brought my dinner, she said, “Alpha Damon has left the pack with several warriors to attack the Northern border.”

I pressed my lips together and lowered my gaze. Alpha Damon’s recent actions only confused me more.

Christina continued, “His uncle Chris is returning to the pack. I do not wish to question the Alpha’s decision, but if he had waited for his uncle to return, dealing with the threat on the Northern border would have been much easier.”

At that moment, I concluded that I was not the reason Alpha Damon had chosen to lead the attack. He was afraid that his uncle’s return would weaken his standing in the pack, that people would no longer look up to him. I shook my head inwardly. Risking his life because of pride.

Still, I was curious about his uncle Chris, but I decided not to ask.

Suddenly, Christina reached out and held my arm. I looked up and saw the struggle in her eyes, which only deepened my confusion.

Then I heard her say, “I know your mother, Alex—”

She was cut off by my father’s boisterous voice from the doorway.

“Alex! Your father is here to see you!”

I knew why my father had hurried over to see me. It was to boast, not because he missed me, nor because he truly wanted to see me. When I was younger, I always wondered why my father constantly flaunted his achievements before me, until I stumbled across a photo of my mother and saw the striking resemblance between us.

There was also the rumor that my father had married far above his station, that he had been a nobody before my mother gave him both her hand and a place in the pack. Though the matter had long been suppressed, it still lingered in the darkness as a quiet whisper throughout the pack, even after my father’s family was gone.

I had come to accept that this obsession of his would not end anytime soon. He would never stop trying to prove himself in front of me.

I looked at Christina, but she had already returned to her usual calm expression, her emotions hidden once more.

“My La—”

Before she could finish, my door flew open and my father strode in, saying, “Alexander, my child.”