Chapter Fourteen

Damien's POV

The ride home was silent.

Not because I had nothing to say.

Because every time I closed my eyes, I saw Maria's face.

Not the bruises.

Not the torn uniform.

Her eyes.

She hadn't looked relieved when I arrived.

She'd looked...

Defeated.

As though she'd already accepted that no one was coming for her.

Then came her words.

"I hate you."

They echoed through my head with every passing mile.

By the time the palace gates came into view, I already knew.

Father had seen the livestream.

The guards standing outside the estate avoided my eyes.

None of them greeted me.

None of them spoke.

That was all the confirmation I needed.

The moment I stepped through the front doors, a servant hurried toward me.

"Young Alpha..."

"The Alpha is waiting for you in the council chamber."

Of course he was.

I walked the familiar corridor alone.

Portraits of former Alphas lined the walls.

Every one of them stared forward with expressions carved from stone.

Strong.

Unshaken.

Unyielding.

I wondered what they would have thought of me today.

When I reached the council chamber, the massive doors were already open.

Father sat at the head of the long table.

Alpha Kael Blackwood.

The most powerful Alpha in the Northern Territories.

His expression revealed nothing.

Standing beside him was Lady Celine.

His fated mate.

Draven's mother.

Her perfectly composed smile vanished the moment I entered.

"So," Father said, folding his hands together.

"You've embarrassed this family."

I met his gaze.

"I protected a student."

"You assaulted two young wolves."

"They were attacking someone who couldn't defend herself."

Father's jaw tightened.

"And that is precisely where you failed."

For a moment, I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly.

"Failed?"

"An Alpha does not abandon his responsibilities over a dispute between students."

"A dispute?"

The word tasted bitter.

"It was far beyond that."

"It was still beneath the concern of the future Alpha."

Silence settled over the room.

Lady Celine took a graceful step forward.

"Your father is worried about perception, Damien."

She spoke softly.

Almost kindly.

"The livestream has spread beyond the academy."

"Every neighboring pack has seen the future Alpha acting without restraint."

"They've seen the future Alpha protecting someone everyone else considers beneath him," I replied.

Her smile stiffened.

"You allowed emotion to cloud your judgment."

"No."

I took one step toward the table.

"I allowed my conscience to guide it."

Father's hand slammed against the polished wood.

"You are heir to this pack!"

"I know exactly what I am."

"Then act like it!"

His voice echoed through the chamber.

"The next Alpha cannot involve himself in every insignificant problem."

I stared at him.

"Is protecting one of our own insignificant?"

Neither of them answered immediately.

Lady Celine broke the silence.

"She is only an omega."

The words hung in the air.

Cold.

Dismissive.

Something inside me snapped.

"She is still a member of this pack."

"She is still under our protection."

"And if we decide some lives matter less than others..."

I looked directly at Father.

"...then we have already failed as leaders."

For the first time...

He looked uncertain.

Only for a heartbeat.

Then the mask returned.

"This is exactly why the council has concerns."

My heartbeat slowed.

"The council?"

Father nodded.

"They are questioning whether you possess the discipline required to inherit the Alpha title."

I understood immediately.

This wasn't about today.

Today had simply given them an excuse.

Lady Celine lowered her eyes, hiding the satisfaction she couldn't quite conceal.

"They believe," Father continued carefully, "that your judgment has become... compromised."

Because of Maria.

They were using her.

Not because they cared about what happened.

Because they needed a reason to weaken my claim.

I almost laughed.

Not because it was funny.

Because it was so predictable.

Politics had finally reached my doorstep.

Father rose from his chair.

"Until the council convenes, you are relieved of all official duties."

The words landed like a blade.

Not disowned.

Not stripped of my title.

But publicly humiliated.

Exactly enough to make the packs question whether I was truly fit to become the next Alpha.

I looked from Father...

To Lady Celine.

She lowered her head respectfully.

But I caught it.

The smallest smile.

A smile that lasted less than a second.

She had wanted this.

Maybe for years.

And now she believed she'd found the perfect opportunity.

She was wrong.

Because if they thought I would regret protecting Maria...

They had misunderstood me completely.

If I had to choose again...

I would still stand between her and anyone who wished her harm.

Even if it cost me the crown.

I wasn't surprised.

Disappointed?

Maybe.

Surprised?

Never.

The moment Father suspended my duties before the council, I knew Lady Celine wouldn't stop there.

Power is a hungry thing.

Once someone tastes it, they never settle for a single bite.

From the balcony outside my chambers, I watched the training grounds below.

Servants hurried from one building to another.

Pack warriors lined the courtyard.

And standing in the center of them all...

Was Draven.

A royal attendant bowed respectfully before him before handing him the ledger that normally belonged to me.

"These are the reports from the eastern patrols, Young Master."

Draven accepted them with practiced ease.

He looked... comfortable.

Too comfortable.

I knew exactly whose idea this had been.

"Your father shouldn't overwhelm Damien while the council investigates," Celine had said.

"Let Draven assist for a few days."

Just a few days.

That's how every coup begins.

Not with crowns.

With favors.

Temporary responsibilities become permanent habits.

People grow accustomed to seeing another face giving orders.

Soon enough...

They begin believing that's how things have always been.

A knock sounded at my door.

"You may enter."

My oldest retainer stepped inside.

"They've reassigned today's border inspection to Young Master Draven."

"I know."

"And tomorrow's council briefing."

"I know."

"The warriors are beginning to wonder if—"

"They're wondering whether the future Alpha has already changed."

He lowered his head.

"...Yes."

I looked back toward the courtyard.

"No matter."

The old retainer frowned.

"My lord?"

"If a title can be stolen that easily..."

"It was never secure to begin with."

He studied me carefully.

"You don't seem angry."

Angry.

That word almost made me laugh.

Anger was fleeting.

What I carried was older.

Heavier.

It had begun years before Celine ever entered this house.

Years before Draven was born.

It began the day my mother died.

...

I still remember the rain.

The estate was quieter then.

Mother had been ill for weeks.

Every healer said the same thing.

She wasn't dying because of disease.

She was dying because her wolf had given up.

Father had already found his fated mate by then.

The same mate he had promised to reject for her sake.

The same mate he had said would no longer matter since he was married.

Now occupied the biggest part of his heart.

Everyone said it wasn't his fault.

How could anyone compete with fate?

But they never saw what I saw.

Mother waiting by the window every evening.

A place set for Father at dinner.

Letters she wrote but never sent.

Times she tried to talk to him about their situation but he ended up shouting at her and calling her selfish.

Hope slowly turning into silence.

She never once spoke badly about him.

Not once.

Even after she got severely wounded by wolf's bane yet he left her to visit his mate who simply had a finger cut.

Even after he stopped visiting her wing of the estate.

Even after the servants began whispering.

Even after the celebrations for his new union echoed through halls she no longer walked.

The night she died...

I was only ten.

She smiled as though nothing was wrong.

She brushed my hair back and held my face in both hands.

"Promise me something, Damien."

I nodded through tears.

"Become an Alpha who protects."

"Not one who is simply obeyed."

Those were the last words she ever spoke to me.

The next morning...

She was gone.

Father cried at her funeral.

The entire pack saw his tears.

They praised him as a grieving husband.

I watched from beside the coffin and wondered where those tears had been while she was still alive.

Grief after death costs nothing.

Love while someone is living...

That is the difficult part.

From that day forward, I stopped calling this place home.

It became a palace.

A beautiful prison filled with people connected by blood but divided by ambition.

Father chose fate over loyalty.

Celine chose power over family.

The council chose politics over justice.

Only Draven remained.

I had tried, for years, not to blame him.

He hadn't chosen the circumstances of his birth.

As children, I even shielded him from Father's impossible expectations more than once.

But somewhere along the way...

He changed.

Or perhaps he had always been hiding behind a pleasant smile.

Now, every glance he cast toward Father's throne lingered a heartbeat too long.

Every "temporary" duty he accepted came with quiet satisfaction.

He never demanded my position.

He simply never refused to take another piece of it.

That was what made him dangerous.

Not his strength.

His patience.

He knew that if enough people became accustomed to seeing him lead, they would eventually forget that I had ever been the heir.

I rested my hands on the balcony railing and looked toward the horizon.

Let them play their game.

Let Celine whisper into Father's ear.

Let Draven wear the title for a while.

They believed they were taking everything from me.

They couldn't have been more mistaken.

A title could be stripped away.

Authority could be suspended.

But my mother's final lesson...

No council could ever take that from me.

If protecting the weak was enough to make me unworthy of becoming Alpha...

Then perhaps this pack needed a different kind of Alpha than it had ever known.

There was one thing Celine could never understand.

She believed I was still standing because Father loved me.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Love had nothing to do with it.

Politics did.

The only reason I was still acknowledged as the Crown Alpha...

The only reason no one had openly stripped me of my birthright...

Was because of my mother.

Or rather...

The people she left behind.

My mother's pack wasn't merely powerful.

It was one of the oldest Alpha bloodlines on the continent.

For generations, they had guarded the northern borders while my father's family ruled the central territories.

Alone, either pack was formidable.

Together...

They were nearly untouchable.

That alliance had been forged through my parents' chosen marriage.

A union meant to strengthen both packs for generations.

Then Father found his fated mate.

The alliance should have shattered that very day.

Every elder expected war.

My grandfather certainly did.

When Mother died...

Thousands of wolves from her pack filled the valley below this palace.

Not in mourning.

In armor.

I still remember standing beside Mother's coffin, watching banners bearing her family's crest flutter in the wind.

The air itself felt heavy.

One command...

That was all it would have taken.

One command from my grandfather.

The palace would have become a battlefield.

Father knew it.

The council knew it.

Even Celine knew it.

For hours, the two packs remained locked in silence, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Then the elders disappeared behind closed doors.

No one was allowed inside.

Not even me.

The negotiations lasted until dawn.

By sunrise...

The war had vanished before it ever began.

When Grandfather emerged, he looked twenty years older.

He walked straight toward me.

Placed one weathered hand on my shoulder.

And said only one sentence.

"They've sworn before the Moon Goddess that you will become the next Alpha."

I didn't understand then.

I do now.

That was the price of peace.

My mother's family agreed not to seek vengeance.

They agreed not to accuse Father publicly.

They agreed not to dissolve the alliance between our packs.

In return...

The succession could never be altered.

I, Damien Blackwood, would inherit the Alpha title.

Not because Father wished it.

Not because the council supported me.

Because it had been written into a blood oath witnessed by every elder of both packs.

An oath sealed beneath the full moon.

Breaking it wouldn't simply dishonor Father.

It would destroy every treaty between our territories.

Trade would collapse.

Border agreements would end.

Old rivalries would awaken.

The peace my mother had died protecting would burn alongside her memory.

That...

Was why Celine moved so carefully.

She couldn't simply demand that Draven replace me.

She knew Father's hands were tied.

So instead...

She chipped away at my reputation.

One accusation.

One rumor.

One carefully placed doubt at a time.

If she could convince the council that I was unfit...

If she could make my own mother's allies question my judgment...

Then perhaps they would agree to amend the oath themselves.

It was a dangerous game.

One she had been playing for years.

Only now did she believe she finally had the perfect opening.

How Pathetic.

She saw today's events as my downfall.

I saw them as proof that she'd become desperate.

Because people who know they're entitled to victory don't need schemes.

Only those afraid of losing do.