Chapter 220: Fucking Up_Alpha's Dark Desires

<h4>Chapter 220: Fucking Up</h4>

 Damon – POV

 The council meeting had gone as expected.

 Threats. Posturing. Blood.

 One idiot had the nerve to challenge me — he was now decorating the wall with what was left of his spine.

 The others got the message.

 I was in control. And once Ipleted the final part of the prophecy... once Elena gave herself to me fully — body, soul, and bond — not even the gods would stand in my way.

 So imagine my fucking delight when I returned to the grounds, prowling along the edge of the training field, and saw her.

 Elena.

 Smiling.

 Laughing.

 Sweat-slicked and radiant in the early dusk light, sparring with someone who wasn’t me. Someone with too-pretty eyes and a jaw that deserved breaking.

 The fucker touched her back.

 She didn’t p him.

 She didn’t burn him alive with a re.

 No — she leaned in. Laughed at something he said.

 What. The. Fuck.

 I didn’t move. Just stood in the shadows like a damn ghost as the two of them wrapped up their little session. She looked flushed — not from embarrassment. Not from anger. From exertion.

 And excitement.

 He said something to her. She nodded.

 He left.

 She watched him go.

 I wanted to rip his fucking throat out.

 Elena turned, just barely, like she sensed me. I stepped back before she could see. Vanishing into the trees like the shadow I’d be.

 My wolf was pacing under my skin, snarling.

 She’s ours. Ours.

 She’s not mated yet, I reminded it.

 Yet.

 It wasn’t jealousy. No. I was above that petty shit.

 This was possession.

 The prophecy. The bond. Her body. Her soul. They belonged to me — whether she admitted it yet or not. She could flirt. She could train with him. Hell, she could fuck him for all I cared.

 But she would still be mine in the end.

 Still moan my name.

 Stille apart on my cock, sobbing for mercy and wanting more.

 Let her y her little games.

 I’d bide my time.

 And when she came crawling back, desperate, frustrated, aching with the need I knew she carried for me...

 I’d remind her who she fucking belonged to.

 ******

 I found him behind the weapons shed, wiping sweat from his neck with a towel, still wearing that smug, easygoing smile that made me want to remove his teeth one by one with a rusty spoon.

 "Hey," he said when he spotted me. "Alpha—"

 My fist connected with his jaw before he could finish the word. The sound was satisfying. Bone cracking against bone, flesh caving under the force of rage I’d been holding back all damn day.

 Luca went down like a sack of bricks, groaning, blinking up at me in confusion. "Wha—fuck—what the hell?!"

 I grabbed the front of his shirt, yanked him up, and mmed him back against the metal siding of the shed hard enough to rattle it.

 "I’m sorry alpha." he panics "I didn’t know"

 "You didn’t know she was the Luna?" I snarled, fangs threatening to pierce through. "That’s your excuse?"

 "I—shit, I swear! I didn’t know, Alpha!" he panted, blood dripping from his lip. "No one said—she didn’t wear a mark—there’s no im—"

 "You don’t need to see a fucking mark to know she’s mine," I growled. "Look at her once and you know she’s not for your filthy hands."

 He trembled. The scent of fear pouring off him was delicious. My beast purred. But I wasn’t done.

 "If I ever, ever see you with her again..." I leaned in until my nose was almost against his, my voice low, guttural, pure alpha dominance. "You won’t be able to walk. Or fight. Or breathe without remembering what it feels like to be hunted."

 Luca nodded so fast his head nearly flew off. "Yes. Yes, Alpha. Never again. I swear it."

 I dropped him, and he slid to the ground like a sack of bones. Still breathing. For now.

 I walked off, fists still twitching.

 The dining hall buzzed with the usual midday chatter. Trays ttered, cutlery scraped, and I didn’t give a fuck about any of it.

 I spotted her instantly — like my eyes were trained to seek her out.

 Elena.

 She sat at the far end of the long table, surrounded by a few warriors and female fighters. She was chewing a piece of bread like it personally offended her, stabbing at her te with the kind of focus she usually reserved forbat.

 Her hair was slightly damp from the shower.

 Her neck was bare.

 She didn’t look at me when I entered.

 Didn’t flinch. Didn’t pause.

 Didn’t even acknowledge me.

 Great.

 Fucking perfect.

 The woman I’d nearly taken against the wall that morning, who had begged for me to im her, was now acting like I didn’t exist.

 I didn’t move toward her.

 Didn’t announce myself.

 I just stood there, watching her chew, every now and then lifting her eyes to someone else at the table to respond to some meaningless chatter — a sharp nod, a flick of a smile.

 She was pissed.

 I could feel it like a cold front across my skin.

 And honestly?

 She had every right to be.

 I’d left her burning. Aching. Needy.

 Walked out without a word and went straight to business.

 Because if I hadn’t... I wouldn’t have made it to the council chamber. I’d have stayed buried inside her all fucking day until she was marked, mated, and carrying the next generation of monsters destined to rule the world with me.

 But I couldn’t do that.

 Not yet.

 Not until she chose it.

 Chose me.

 *****

 She was ignoring me.

 Elena — my mate, the woman who had practicallye undone under my hands this morning, who had thrown herself at me — was ignoring me like I was a waiter who forgot her drink order.

 Unbelievable.

 I stood in the corner of the dining hall, arms crossed, watching her.

 She didn’t so much as flick her gaze in my direction.

 No reaction.

 None.

 Not to my presence, not to the scent she was clearly attuned to — mine — not even when I purposely let a low growl slip past my lips.

 Nothing.

 She sat there, eating like a goddess on a warpath, stabbing her food like it was my damn heart. Smiling at warriors who had no business being smiled at. Laughing—<iughing—with that another cute little snort that used to onlye out when sheugh.

 What. The. Fuck.

 I had handled rogue uprisings, alpha rebellions, political executions, and supernatural treaties. But this?

 This was a whole new battlefield.

 And somehow, I was losing.

 Gods, I should’ve stayed. Should’ve imed her, marked her, taken her until she couldn’t walk straight or think of anyone but me.

 But no. I had to be responsible. Had to march off to my throne like a good little tyrant and deal with spineless Alphas who couldn’t even sniff without asking permission first.

 And now?

 She was making me pay for it.

 I moved toward her, slow and smooth, watching the way her shoulders tensed the moment she sensed me. Ah, there it was. She did feel me. She was just pretending she didn’t.

 That should have amused me.

 It didn’t.

 I slid into the seat next to her like I belonged there. Because I did. She was mine.

 "You didn’t wait for me," I said casually, voice low, as if that would soften her mood.

 She didn’t flinch.

 Didn’t speak.

 Didn’t even turn her head.

 I leaned in, close to her ear, letting my breath dance against her skin. "I would’ve made you breakfast, you know. You seemed... hungry."

 Nothing.

 Not even a twitch.

 But the scenting off her said otherwise. She was still flushed. Still burning. Still wet for me, if my nose wasn’t broken.

 So I pushed further.

 "I mean, I heard all that moaning and thought, damn, I should’ve stayed. Could’ve helped with that tension."

 A knife could’ve dropped and ttered with less tension than the one that radiated from her in that moment.

 Still, she said nothing.

 So I smirked and dropped the dagger.

 "Oh,e on, Elena. Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy it. You were practically begging me—"

 Her chair scraped violently as she shot to her feet.

 Well. That got a reaction.

 She leaned over, lips inches from mine, and hissed, "You don’t get to flirt with me after leaving me high and dry. You don’t get to tease me like it didn’t mean anything. You don’t get to look at me like you own me when you haven’t even earned the right to touch me."

 I didn’t flinch.

 Didn’t blink.

 But fuck me, her words sliced deeper than any de ever had.

 And the worst part?

 She was right.

 She turned and walked off, hips swaying, shoulders stiff, jaw tight — and I just sat there, stunned. Frozen.

 Because I wasn’t expecting that.

 I expected her to be annoyed. Maybe roll her eyes. Shove me a little. Give me hell, sure.

 But this cold, hard freeze-out?

 I felt it in my soul.

 And the beast inside me — Hades, whatever the fuck I was now — roared. Not in fury. In possession.

 Because that?

 That was mine.

 And I had fucked up.

NovelLamp

Chapter 220: Fucking Up