22 Chapter 22
Damien’s POV 1
The past few days had been absolute torture. Every morning, I’d called Lucas before my coffee had finished brewing. Every lunch break,
I’d summoned him to my office with increasingly desperate demands for updates. Every evening, I’d texted him the same question: *Any
news?*
The answer was always the same infuriating response: *Still searching. These things take time.*
Meanwhile, Sera worked at her desk just outside my office,pletely oblivious to the storm raging inside me. She’d settled into her
role with impressive efficiency, anticipating my needs before I voiced them, managing my impossible schedule with grace that would
have impressed even ire. But every time she leaned over to ce documents on my desk, every time her vani and jasmine scent
wafted toward me, Alex would snarl with barely contained hunger.
*im her,* my wolf demanded for the hundredth time that day. *She’s ours. Stop this foolish waiting.*
But I couldn’t. Not until I knew for certain. Not until I had proof that she was the woman who’d haunted my dreams for five years.
Today had been particrly brutal. Sera had worn a fitted ck dress that hugged every curve, and when she’d bent to retrieve a
dropped file, the sight of her perfect ass had nearly made me lose all control. I’d spent the afternoon with my hands clenched into fists,
fighting the urge to pull her into my office and finish what we should do.
By five o’clock, I was wound tighter than a spring ready to snap.
“Alpha,” Lucas’s voice crackled through the inte for what had to be the tenth time that day.
“Tell me you have something,” I growled, not looking up from the quarterly reports I’d been staring at without actually reading for the
past hour.
“I have twenty-three pawn shops still to check, forty-seven jewelry stores, and a list of online auction sites that would make your head
spin.” His voice carried the particr tone of someone whose patience was wearing thin. “For the love of the Moon Goddess, Damien, I’ll
call you the moment I find anything. Asking me every hour isn’t going to make it happen faster.”
I hung up without responding and mmed my palm against the desk hard enough to make my coffee cup jump. The sharp sound
echoed through my office, and I saw Sera’s head turn toward my door through the ss partition. Her emerald eyes met mine for a brief
moment, concern flickering across her features, before she quickly looked away.
This was insane. I was behaving like a love-struck teenager instead of a powerful Alpha whomanded respect from wolves across my
territories. But the uncertainty was eating me alive. Every night, Iy awake imagining what it would mean if Sera truly was my mystery
woman. Every morning, I convinced myself I was chasing shadows.
*You’re driving yourself crazy,* Alex observed with uncharacteristic gentleness. *And you’re making everyone around you miserable in the process.*
He wasn’t wrong. I’d snapped at three department heads this morning, reduced my secretary to near tears over a minor scheduling conflict, and growled at the building’s security guard for having the audacity to greet me with his usual cheerful “Good morning, Alpha.”
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I stood abruptly, grabbing my suit jacket from the back of my chair. “I’m going out, I announced to the empty office, not caring that Sera
couldn’t actually hear me through the soundproof ss.
I strode past her desk without making eye contact, afraid that if I looked into those emerald eyes for more than a second, I’d do
something spectacrly unprofessional. Like pin her against the wall.
“Good night, Mr. Nightshadow,” she called softly as I passed, her voice carrying that particr note of concern that made my chest
tighten.
I paused at the elevator, my finger hovering over the call button, every instinct screaming at me to turn around and go back to her.
Instead, I stepped into the elevator and let the doors close between us.
Twenty minutester, I was seated at the bar of *Moonlight & Shadows*, the upscale establishment where Silver Moon Harbor’s
supernatural elite went to drink expensive whiskey and pretend their lives weren’t infinitely moreplicated than their human
counterparts. The bar was dimly lit, all mahogany and brass fixtures, with enough ambient noise to drown out the restless pacing of my
thoughts.
“The usual, Alpha?” The bartender had been working here for years. He knew better than to make small talk when I was in this particr
mood.
“Make it a double,” I said, loosening my tie and trying to force my shoulders to rx.
The whiskey burned pleasantly down my throat, but it did nothing to ease the tension coiled in my chest. I was contemting ordering a
third drink when amotion near the bar’s entrance caught my attention.
“Sir, I’m sorry, but you can’t just demand to see someone without an appointment,” the hostess was saying, her voice strained with the
particr politeness of service workers dealing with difficult customers.
“You don’t understand!” The voice was female, shrill with desperation and just loud enough to carry over the ambient conversation. “I
need to speak with Alpha Nightshadow! I have something that belongs to him!”
Every muscle in my body went rigid. I turned slowly on my barstool, following the sound of the voice to its source.
Standing near the entrance was a woman. Her blonde hair was brassy and over-processed. She wore a tight red dress that had probably
been expensive once but now looked cheap under the bar’s harsh lighting.
But it was what she was holding that made my blood turn to ice.
Clutched in her perfectly manicured fingers was a golden wolf pendant, catching the light as she waved it frantically at the hostess.
“I’m his lover!” she was saying, her voice rising to a pitch that made several nearby patrons turn to stare. “This is his pendant! He gave it
to me five years ago! I have proof of our rtionship!”
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