All Chapters of Demoted to the Throne : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The scent hit him before the elevator doors even opened — cedar and rain and something colder underneath it, the particular weight of an Alpha’s presence that made even Alaric’s own wolf go still and wary. His father had always announced himself this way, long before he said a single word.Alaric straightened his cuffs, rolled his shoulders back, and reminded himself, as he always had to, that he was the CEO of this building and merely the son in that room.It didn’t help much. It never did.The private lounge sat one floor below the executive suite, tucked behind a door that looked like nothing more than a supply closet, to anyone without a wolf’s senses.His father was already inside when Alaric arrived, standing by the far wall with his hands clasped behind his back, studying an old photograph that had hung there longer than Alaric had been alive. Silas Blackwood didn’t turn around right away. He never did. Making people wait was as natural to him as breathing.“You sent for me, fa

“Walk me through it one last time,” Warrick said, not looking up from the folder spread across his desk.The man Warrick had hired didn’t look like much — late-thirties, plain shirt, the kind of face people don’t look at twice when walking down the street. That was precisely why Warrick used him.“Selene Hart. Twenty-five. Orphanage records place her arrival at age seven, no prior documentation on file, no property to her name.”The man flipped through his own copy without needing to check it closely—he’d probably memorized every gap in it already. “The usual standard for the system would be a transfer record from wherever she was before. Hospital, previous guardian, something. There’s nothing.”“Nothing, or it was erased?”“That’s the interesting part.” The man slid a single photocopied page across the desk. “There’s a placeholder where the intake record should be. A file number, a date stamp — but the actual document behind seems like it has been removed. Not lost, clearly. Pulled d

Blackwood Corporation was buzzing with excitement. The whole building felt unusually alive. Voices of employees overlapping, barely focused on any work because tonight was the annual Blackwood Charity Gala—the biggest corporate event of the year.Normally, Monday mornings were filled with quiet determination and the rhythmic tapping of keyboards. Today, however, conversations floated through every department as employees abandoned their usual composure for barely contained excitement.Groups gathered around coffee machines discussing expensive dresses, matching tuxedos, plus ones, celebrity guests, and rumors that influential investors from overseas will attend.“The guest list this year is insane.”“I heard many big people will be coming from abroad.”“My cousin says there’ll be representatives from at least all our rival companies this year.”“I just hope the food is better than last year’s.”Selene arrived carrying her usual coffee, amused by everyone’s excitement. It was the firs

The hall used for the Blackwood Charity Gala looked like it was built for this kind of moment — the high ceilings, low light, the little flowers draped on the corners of the wall that make people feel like they’d wandered far into a fairy tale movie. Selene had been standing at a corner in the ballroom for over half an hour, holding a glass of wine she knew she wouldn’t manage to finish, watching Alaric Blackwood work the room like a man knowing he was born for that exact purpose. And…Maybe he was.Selene knew she wasn’t supposed to be watching him. Even Nyx had called her out on it. She was supposed to be watching the clock, counting down the minutes until the gala would end and she could clock out and stop pretending her feet didn’t hurt in these heels. But her eyes kept finding him everywhere, and every time they did, something warm turned over in her chest before she could stop it.She would tell it to stop, but it didn’t listen. It never did.The orchestra started playing somethi

The penthouse was too quiet. It was a work-free day for everybody.Alaric Blackwood stood by the windows, still in his tuxedo from the night before, watching Los Angeles stir to life beneath him. The city wide awake—cars beginning to fill the streets, lights flickering on in distant office buildings, pedestrians in coats hurrying to make the bus.He hadn’t slept.More like he couldn’t.Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her.Selene in that dress. Selene’s hands around his neck. Selene’s laugh—genuine, unguarded, the kind of laugh that made him forget, for one stolen moment, that he was the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation and the future Alpha of a pack that expected him to marry someone else.He'd spent all his life learning to control every impulse, every instinct. His father had made sure to enforce that. An Alpha does not react. An Alpha controls. An Alpha must not show weakness.One dance with Selene Hart had undone all that learning.His wolf stirred beneath his skin, restl