Semua Bab Contract Marriage To The Alpha King : Bab 161 - Bab 165

Damian’s POVMorning in the mansion always arrives like an intruder—I can hear it before I see it, the thin sound of the city beginning to breathe, the light seeping under the curtains in pale, patient bars. For once I’m awake before it, more alert than the room deserves to be. Ava is curled against me, breath soft and even, the faint scent of rosewater and something that’s only hers drifting into my senses. I could stay like this forever, a predator lulled by a warmth it doesn’t deserve.My wolf paces, low and eager at the edges of my thoughts. Take the day. Claim the hour. Mark the world. I ignore him, because some parts of me have learned restraint, and because she looks like something fragile and priceless and I want to learn the shape of protecting rather than destroying.She wakes with a little sound—half-sigh, half-name—and turns, hair a loose fall around her face. The sheet slips and I let my hand fall across her ribs, feeling the quick, steadying beat of her heart under my pa

Damian's POV The mansion is quiet again—a rare and deliberate luxury, a hush earned through the day’s calculated violence. I refill both our glasses with Bordeaux, the vintage chosen not for status but for memory: the sunlight that ripened these grapes is the only thing tonight that's older than my ghosts.Ava sits across from me, framed in lamplight. The room is nearly all shadow, broken only by a slant of gold across the Turkish binder chairs and the glint of glass. No staff linger. No security checks pulse through the air. It’s just us—a dinner set for two, plates cooling between stories and silences that say more than words.She kicks my foot beneath the table, her gaze teasing. “Are you actually hungry, or is this all for show?”I glance at my untouched fillet, pretending to study its charred lines. “Not hungry for food,” I admit, swirling the wine. “But I’m trying.”She laughs, the sound soft but edged—it’s her gift to me, a melody meant to break the storm of my thoughts. “I no

Ava’s POVThe city burned, neon bleeding through the clouds, the pulse of Manhattan stamping its signature across the sky. The motorcade knifed through morning traffic, sirens parting like a sea at our approach. Inside the backmost car, the world dissolved to tinted glass: cocooned in quiet power, yet bracing for war.Damian Blackwood lounged beside me, all crisp dark wool and impossible focus. He looked out the window like a king surveying his domain—every inch the billionaire predator they all feared. But I sensed the tension winding through him, an alertness taut as a drawn bow. He rolled the tension between his fingers, slow and silent, until the final stretch to Blackwood Tower.His gaze slid to me—sharp, appraising, a secret touch behind his impassive façade. A singular brush of his hand found mine and remained, fierce and fleeting. It was just a heartbeat, but I felt it through every inch of me: a vow, an anchor. For him, I was something the world couldn’t touch—his shield, his