CHAPTER 90: THE GARDEN

Damien

I don’t report Camilla as a missing person. It would be too easy to write her off as just another number in the long list of missing females, but I don’t need that kind of attention right now.

Magnus is already sharpening his teeth at me, and until I’m ready to strike, I don’t want him sniffing around in my business. For now, I’ll let my wife rot in the secret basement. She’s always been so eager to flaunt her power—so desperate to prove herself. I want to watch her as that power seeps away, drop by drop, until there’s nothing left but the hollow shell she’s tried so hard to hide.

That thought of power inevitably drags my mind back to Kaya.

It’s been too long. I’m growing restless, and my time is running out.

I need her back. I need her power.

"Alpha Damien?" The driver’s voice cuts through my thoughts, snapping me back to the present. "We’ve arrived."

I blink, slow at first, until the haze of my thoughts lifts completely. Dark Wood. I’m back where it all began.

"Take my things to my room and let the maids handle them," I instruct, my voice clipped. But instead of heading to the packhouse, I give the guards and my beta a curt nod and turn toward the gardens.

Kaya loved this place. She loved anything that brought life to her surroundings—flowers, animals, even the lake. It always baffled me... how could a powerful, bloodthirsty beast like her adore the very things she was born to destroy?

As soon as I step past the garden’s threshold, the air hits me—sharp and acrid, tainted with the pungent stench of something long rotten. The smell clings to the back of my throat, bitter and unpleasant, snapping me out of my thoughts like a slap. I glance around in a sudden, almost frantic haze, my mind struggling to register the sight before me.

It’s gone. Of course, it’s gone.

The garden is nothing but a shadow of what it once was. The air is colder now, heavy with the bite of late autumn. November. My favorite month. The month everything changed.

The month I met her.

I close my eyes and draw in a long, steady breath, letting it fill my lungs before resuming my stride. Dry leaves crunch beneath my boots with a crisp, crackling sound—like the whisper of a fire that refuses to die.

That night, the fire had been unstoppable.

It devoured everything—the bodies of the packmates I once called family, the fragile bonds that had tethered me to them. It erased every trace of what they had been and burned away the evidence of Kaya’s true power. And in doing so, it opened the door to a new world for me.

Back then, I was nothing—a rogue with barely forty people to my name. Now... I command two powerful packs and hold a secret weapon that will inevitably pave my way to the crown.

I’ve always wanted this. I’ve always known I was born for it.

All that poverty, abuse, neglect, and desperate survival—it was never meant for me. I was different. Ambitious. Cunning. Clever.

I could never settle for life as a mere omega, letting my abilities waste away while the weak fools, born with titles already etched into their names, bled others like me dry.

Having escaped the pack where I was nothing more than a lowly errand boy, I had clawed my way up from nothing, building my reputation from the ground up. The means I used to achieve my goals were far from noble—but I couldn’t care less.

As long as I reached the end I envisioned, I didn’t mind posing as Robin fucking Hood.

But as the years dragged on, restlessness began to gnaw at me.

My progress felt agonizingly slow, and worse, the people who wanted to join my makeshift pack lacked my hunger. They craved quiet, measured lives hidden from the world—while I... I craved chaos. I craved submission. I craved power.

Yet I was growing older, and my resolve was starting to wither—evaporating like morning dew under the punishing glare of the sun. Sometimes, I caught myself wondering if I’d ever be more than a rogue, my head bloated with impossible ambitions.

And then... I saw her.

The silver-haired girl who had fled the same kind of pain I had. The girl who possessed nothing yet could offer everything.

And she offered it to me.

A sudden snap shatters my thoughts, jerking me back to the present. My head turns sharply toward the sound, every nerve on edge. My senses flare, my wolf stiffening with anticipation.

This area is under tight guard, so the chance of an intruder is nearly nonexistent. Still, another crisp crack rings out—a dry branch giving way underfoot.

Someone is approaching.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

And yet... there is no malice in the air.

And then it hits me—the scent. Familiar, tempting, yet carrying a faint, sour note that makes my stomach tighten.

"Alpha?"

I freeze, unsure if I’m still caught in some fevered daze or if reality has just shifted beneath my feet.

A soft gust of the evening wind sweeps past, clearing the fog from my mind. My mouth falls open—part shock, part disbelief, and, strangely, a flicker of relief.

"Shelly?"

It’s her. Disheveled, filthy, and utterly worn down, she is almost unrecognizable, her beauty buried beneath exhaustion and grime. Yet there is no mistaking her. The moment she catches the spark of recognition in my eyes, a loud whimper escapes her, and she bolts toward me. She crashes into my chest, pressing her face into my shoulder as though she could melt into me.

"Alpha Damien!" she cries, her voice breaking as her whole frame trembles. Heavy sobs shake her chest. "Oh, I’m so happy—I’m finally home!"

My hand moves to her head instinctively, my fingers brushing through tangled strands. For the briefest moment, I feel a flicker of happiness—not because she has returned, but because her return might be the key to bringing me back to Kaya.

"Shelly," I murmur, layering my voice with feigned warmth. "I’d lost all hope of finding you, doll."

She whimpers again, her body frail and featherlight against mine. Then she lifts her head at last. Her swollen, reddened eyes glisten beneath the fading crimson glow of the setting sun.

"I couldn’t stand being away from you, Alpha. I’m... I’m pregnant. With your child."

Well. Fuck.