Chapter 5 — Seven Years of Ruin

~ Damien POV ~

~ Seven Years Later ~

"If you don't sign the restructuring agreement by noon, Black Enterprise ceases to exist," Caleb said through the phone.

"I'm not surrendering our lands to a debt collector, Caleb," I replied, stepping into the private elevator at the base of the city tower.

"They bought seventy percent of our defaulted loans overnight, Damien," Caleb warned, his tone strained with panic.

"Brooks Global owns the mortgages on the ancestral pack house, the training grounds, and the southern forest. The managing director has the legal authority to foreclose on our entire territory today. If you don't convince them to grant an extension, five hundred pack members will be homeless by nightfall."

"I'll handle it," I said, pressing the top-floor button.

The elevator doors closed, cutting off the noise of the street below.

The car rose smoothly toward the top floor.

Seven years of relentless financial warfare had brought Shadow Ridge to its knees.

After Vance's death in a border skirmish four years ago, we discovered the council had drained our treasury, securing bad loans against our ancestral soil to fund northern grain contracts that never arrived. Now, a private investment firm held our future in its hands.

The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open into a vast penthouse suite.

I stepped out onto the tiled floor. Across the room, wide windows looked out over the sprawling city skyline beneath gray clouds. Standing by the central desk was a woman dressed in a tailored black suit, her dark hair pinned up with quiet elegance. She looked at a stack of parchment files, radiating wealth and unquestioned authority.

"I'm here for my ten o'clock appointment with the managing director," I announced, walking forward.

The woman set her pen down on the desk and slowly turned around.

The breath left my lungs in an instant.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my shoes freezing against the floor.

"Celine?" I whispered.

Seven years had erased every trace of the quiet archivist I had banished into the freezing blizzard. The thin, trembling girl was gone. In her place stood a striking, untouchable woman with cold hazel eyes that held no fear, no warmth, and not an ounce of mercy.

"You're two minutes late, Alpha," Celine replied, her voice smooth and steady.

My mind spun in circles. My wolf stirred violently inside my chest, slamming against my ribs with a frantic, desperate shock. The severed mate bond remained a hollow scar in my soul, but seeing her standing alive in front of me felt like lightning striking my skull.

"How are you alive?" I asked, taking an impulsive step forward. "How is this possible?"

Before I could close the distance, a massive, scarred warrior stepped out from the side corridor, stepping into my path. Rowan Cole—one of the most feared mercenaries in the continent folded his arms across his broad chest, his dark eyes warning me to stay back.

"Take another step toward her, and you lose those teeth," Rowan warned, his deep voice carrying a low growl.

"Rowan," a calm, cultured voice called out from the adjoining private office. "Let the Alpha speak."

The second man walked into the room with effortless grace. Sovereign Lycan King Julian Thorne adjusted the silver cufflinks of his charcoal coat as he approached. His silver eyes swept over me with cold amusement, dismissing my presence entirely.

Julian walked straight to Celine's side. Without hesitation, he placed one large hand flat against the curve of her hip, pulling her slightly closer to his side in a gesture of unmistakable familiarity.

The sight made the blood burn in my ears.

My wolf snarled in pure fury, clawing at my throat to tear Julian's hand away from her body. Every possessive instinct I had buried for seven years surged to the surface, burning through my veins like acid.

"Is this man causing you trouble, darling?" Julian asked, his thumb lightly stroking the fabric of her jacket at her hip.

"Not at all, Julian," Celine answered, glancing up at the Lycan King with a faint, genuine smile that made my chest ache with jealousy. "Just a desperate debtor looking for a miracle."

"Take your hand off her," I snarled, glaring at Julian.

Julian didn't move his hand. He chuckled softly, resting his palm flat against her waist. "You seem confused, Alpha Damien. You severed your claim to this woman in front of hundreds of cheering wolves seven years ago. You threw her into a winter blizzard to freeze to death. You don't get to tell anyone who touches her."

"This is private pack business," I said through clenched teeth, forcing my focus back to Celine. "Celine, what is this? How do you own Brooks Global Capital?"

"I built it," Celine replied, stepping around the desk and taking her seat in the tall leather chair. "While you spent seven years struggling to manage an impoverished territory, I worked. I partnered with King Julian and built the largest private equity firm in the territory."

"You bought our loans," I said, walking to the front of her desk, ignoring Rowan's dark glare. "You bought seventy percent of Shadow Ridge's defaulted debt."

"I bought all of it," Celine corrected, leaning back in her chair and folding her hands over the desk. "Every delinquent mortgage. Every unpaid grain invoice. Every single bond your corrupt elders signed before they died. You owe my firm two hundred and forty million credits, Damien. And the final notice expired at midnight."

"You did this on purpose," I said, the bitter realization hitting me. "The sudden loan recalls from the banks last month. The refusal to refinance our credit lines. It was all you."

"Of course it was me," she said, her hazel eyes locking onto mine without flinching. "Did you think I forgot my promise? I told you seven years ago that the next time I stepped foot near Shadow Ridge, I would tear your empire to the ground."

"Five hundred wolves live in that valley, Celine," I said, leaning over the desk with desperate urgency. "Families, children, elderly wolves who had nothing to do with Vance's trial. If you foreclose on our land, you destroy an entire generation."

"You didn't care about justice when you broke our bond to protect your title," Celine replied, her tone turning to ice. "You wanted to keep your seat. You wanted to satisfy the Council. Now the Council is gone, your treasury is empty, and the only person standing between your people and total ruin is the outcast you banished."

Julian rested both hands on the back of Celine's chair, leaning down until his shoulder brushed hers. "She owes you nothing, Alpha. If anything, she's being generous by giving you an audience today."

I looked at Julian, then at Celine, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. "Give me six months. Six months to secure new trade routes and pay off the principal."

Celine let out a dry, quiet laugh. She reached into the desk drawer, pulled out a thick parchment document, and slid it across the table.

Attached to the front was an official purchase offer stamped with the Bloodcrest serpent crest.

"Bloodcrest offered triple the market value for your eastern boundary lands," Celine said, picking up a silver fountain pen from the blotter. "They want the exact territory where Garrett died. If I sign this agreement today, Bloodcrest takes ownership of your borders by sunset, and my firm recovers its investment with interest."

"You can't sell our ancestral lands to Bloodcrest," I said, my voice shaking with rage and dread. "They slaughtered Garrett! They slaughtered twelve of our warriors!"

"And your pack slaughtered my life," Celine replied, leaning forward as she tapped the silver fountain pen against the parchment. "You have exactly three minutes to convince me why I shouldn't sign this deed over to your worst enemy, Alpha. Start talking.”