Chapter 208
Chapter 209
ALEXANDER
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I sat at the head of the conference table, fingers steepled beneath my chin, eyes fixed on the young man at the far end of the room. He was making a presentation – something about restructuring the
security rotations for the borders.
Normally, I would have absorbed every word, every statistic, every projected outcome. I never let
my attention slip, not in meetings, not in training, not anywhere.
But today… today was different.
His voice faded in and out like a distant echo, and all I could think about was Faye’s face across the
breakfast table–calm, steady, determined in that quiet way she had. The way she spoke about it.
The way she looked at me when she did. I’d brushed it off. I’d walked away before I could let it settle too deeply.
Yet here I was, sitting in a room full of my officers, and all I could feel was the weight of her words
pressing against the back of my mind.
“…so with this shift, we can reduce the load on the night patrols by p>
I blinked, refocusing. The man hesitated, eyes flicking nervously in my direction. He must have
sensed my distraction. I nodded for him to continue, forcing myself to sit upright.
Pull yourself together, Alexander.
But the moment he resumed, my mind betrayed me again.
What if she was right? Why was she so certain? Maybe she saw another vision or something.
“…we also ran three simulations with the new guard rotations- ”
Simulations, numbers, charts. I should have been absorbing all of it, but instead, all I saw was the
way her brows pinched when she tried to hide she was worried. The way she didn’t push. The way
she simply said what she needed to say and left me to wrestle with it.
I hated how much that unsettled me.
A chair shifted somewhere to my right. Someone cleared their throat. I realized too late that the
room had gone quiet… the presenter had stopped speaking. They were all waiting… for me.
I straightened, schooling my expression into that controlled calm they expected from their Alpha.
“Proceed with the adjustments,” I said, voice steady even if my thoughts weren’t. “Send me a full
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A chorus of “Yes, Alpha” followed, and the meeting moved on, but the damage was already done.
I wasn’t focused… I wasn’t present.
After the meeting, I stayed in the conference room long after everyone else had left. The door closed behind the last of them, and the silence settled over me like a thick, heavy blanket.
I leaned back in my chair, staring at the table but seeing nothing on it–only the mess inside my
head.
It was funny how most people thought everything was handed to me on a platter. That leadership, territory, respect… that they were all handed to me only because I carried the Blackwell name.
They looked at Crescent Dynamics and saw the legacy of my father and grandfather. They looked
at Blood Crescent Pack and saw the authority of my lineage.
They never saw the years I bled for both.
My grandfather built the foundation, yes. My father expanded it, shaped it. But me? I turned it into what it is today. I built the branches that kept us ahead. I modernized our systems, negotiated alliances, secured the contracts that put Crescent Dynamics at the top of every list.
Half the territories Blood Crescent calls its own were won under my command before I even became Alpha. I fought for every inch of it–through dust, blood, and nights I didn’t know if I would
see dawn.
I didn’t inherit strength and respect; I crafted it, earned it, paid for it.
So when Faye looked at me this morning and asked me how badly I wanted to keep all of it… it felt
almost insulting.
As if I hadn’t given everything to get here.
As if Marcus–Marcus–could simply walk into my life and rip it all out of my hands because we
share a father.
I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to breathe slowly.
I wasn’t going to lose the company. I wasn’t going to lose the pack. And I wasn’t going to lose the life I built, the future I’m supposed to have… with her, with our child. I intended to win the Ring of Fire. I intended to stand over Marcus and make it clear he was never going to take what belongs to
But at what cost?
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My fingers drummed once on the table before I stopped myself. My thoughts spiraled the same way they had since breakfast, no matter how hard I tried to shut them down.
Could I really stoop that low? In front of the entire pack? In a sacred fight that was meant to show
honor and worthiness?
I shut my eyes.
Faye wanted me to embrace that part of myself–the part I spent years trying to cage. The part that terrified even me sometimes. The feral, merciless, blood–drunk darkness. The beast that didn’t think, didn’t feel, didn’t measure consequences. The thing I became when control slipped.
She wanted me to willingly bring that creature out in the ring… with everyone watching.
My ancestors… would they be proud of that? Would they stand with me, or shake their heads in disappointment? Would the council look at me the same? Would the younger ones look up at me
and see a leader–or a monster?
My pack who trusted me, followed me, believed in me. Would embracing my darkest side–even for the sake of victory–make me unworthy in their eyes?
A bitter laugh escaped before I could stop it.
Marcus didn’t care about any of that. He had no dignity to protect, no legacy to safeguard, no one to disappoint. He would walk into that ring willing to use anything–cheap tricks, dirty tactics, every underhanded move in the book–to win. Not because he deserved leadership, but because he
wanted what was mine.
He would burn the entire packhouse down if it meant winning.
But me…
I had something to lose. Everything to lose.
I rubbed a hand over my face.
Faye saw something. She believed in it. And the worst part? I trusted her instincts.
Whatever she saw… it shook her enough to confront me. And she wasn’t one to push unless it
mattered.
But I couldn’t afford to go down that road.