Chapter 5: I've Wanted Her for a Long Time

Reign's POV

When Elvira and Caleb left Greyrock, I stood behind the second-floor window and watched the Blackpine car pull out of the restaurant. Only after the taillights disappeared completely into the pine forest did I reach up and touch the corner of my mouth.

That's where she had bitten me last night.

Not deep, but it hadn't stopped hurting. Just like her — she looked calm, composed, and restrained on the surface, but get close enough, and you'd find out what kind of ruthlessness she had buried in her bones. Even in my arms, she refused to show weakness completely. Even as her body trembled under the pull of the bond, her eyes still held that stubborn refusal to yield.

I liked that about her.

I had liked it for a long time — which is why I'd been quietly keeping watch over her all these years, quietly sending people to protect her.

But back then, I wasn't yet Greyrock's Alpha, nor was I the only one the Elder Council believed could hold the family together. The one Greyrock had truly pinned its hopes on was my older brother. I was just the second son standing behind him — sharp enough, useful enough, but without a name that carried enough weight. Elvira was different. Even with her awkward position within the Veil family, even as those people mocked her for awakening her wolf nature late while coveting the Moonstone Trust her father had left behind, she was still luminous to me.

She didn't need to say much. She just had to stand there, and she outshone everyone around her — all those people talking bloodlines, talking interests, talking arranged marriages. She was more like moonlight than any of them.

It wasn't as though I'd never thought about pursuing her.

But what did I have to offer back then? A second son of Greyrock who hadn't yet found his footing. An Alpha candidate who could be sent to bleed on the border at the family's whim at any moment. A man who couldn't even hold his own fate steady — what right did someone like that have to take her out of the Veil family's cage?

Then came that night at the old assembly hall. I pulled her out of the rain. She was lying there, her face drained of color, barely breathing, but her hand was still clenched tight around the moonstone pendant her late husband had left her. Stubborn enough to break your heart. The scent on her was faint, but the moment I touched her, it slammed into my blood like a collision. My wolf recognized her almost instantly. It wasn't ordinary attraction. It wasn't a young man's lust at the sight of a beautiful woman. It was something more primal, more lethal — like a missing piece buried deep in bone and blood, finally forced back into place.

When I lifted her into my arms, the wolf inside me lost control for the first time, to the point of pain. It wanted to bite her. It wanted to hide her away. It wanted everyone who came near her to get the hell back. But she was unconscious then, so fragile she looked like she'd shatter at a touch. I had no choice but to force every urge back down until my palms went numb.

Then Caleb appeared. Caleb was the Blackpine heir and my college classmate. He had standing, he was patient in his pursuit of Elvira, and more importantly, the Blackpine family was powerful enough that the Veil family couldn't find a reason to refuse him.

So I stepped back.

I thought he would at least protect her. At least cherish her. At least give her a real mark before the Moonstone altar — something that would free her from the Veil family's grip and stop her from being treated like an asset to be fought over.

But he didn't. Caleb — what a bastard. For three full years, he did nothing but enjoy the dignity that came from having Elvira stand beside him. He enjoyed her handling the elders, the banquets, and every scrutinizing gaze on Blackpine's behalf, yet he never once marked her. He let her carry the title of future Luna while giving her no real belonging. He made sure everyone knew she was Blackpine's, while making sure everyone could also see that no Alpha had truly chosen her. He was humiliating Elvira.

The thought of it made me want to tear that bastard apart on the spot.

But I had seen the way Elvira looked at him. She hadn't been indifferent to the mark. She had waited for it.

And because she had waited, when she tore off the moonstone necklace last night and walked into that club, the coldness that settled in her eyes nearly made me lose control of myself. I want to take Elvira away. I want to protect her. I want to tell her, when everything has finally settled, that she is my goddess — the Luna I have been waiting for since I was young. I love her.

A knock at the study door. The tech officer walked in and set several files on the desk. "Blackpine is hosting a family dinner tonight. The Elder Council will be there. Helena has also extended an invitation to Greyrock — nominally to discuss the border salt route."

I opened the invitation and saw Caleb's name. I also saw Elvira's.

She would be there.

Of course she would. Elvira wasn't going back to admit defeat. She was going back to gather evidence. When she woke in my arms last night and saw the news about Leah's pregnancy, pain flashed through her eyes for just a moment — but it was quickly buried under something far colder. She no longer wanted to wait for Caleb to come back to her. What she wanted was to dissolve the contract. What she wanted was to reclaim what her father had left her.

I closed the invitation and shifted my gaze to another file.

The Moonstone Trust.

Blackpine had already started moving. Silverbay Assets had one irregular filing. The approving signatory was a Blackpine internal attorney, and Elvira's name appeared nowhere in the notes. Helena had met with Leah that afternoon. When Leah came out, she was carrying a document envelope bearing the old seal of the Silverbay Asset Management Office.

I stared at the photo of Leah with her head bowed over her stomach, and my fingers slowly tightened.

They were moving faster than I'd expected.

"Get the car ready," I said.

The tech officer looked up. "You're going in person?"

"Blackpine invited Greyrock." I tossed the invitation back onto the desk. "If I don't go, how would that look for them?"

He turned to leave. I stopped him. "Bring a recording device."

The image of Elvira lifting her chin beneath me last night flashed through my mind. The bond had her breathing in disarray, and she still looked at me with those provocative eyes. She thought she was only using me to get back at Caleb. But what she didn't know was that the moment she came near me, the wolf inside me had already gone mad.

Her scent is still on me. Cold and sweet, with a sharp edge that comes from something suppressed too long finally cracking open. Every time I think of her, my blood runs hot and a hunger rises in my throat — the hunger to bite down on the back of her neck.

But I can't. Not yet.

Caleb had three years and never gave her that mark. I won't take advantage of her when she's at her most furious, her most wounded, her most desperate for revenge. I want her to choose me with a clear head — not to use me as a knife to hurl at Caleb.

The tech officer was quiet for a moment. "And if Caleb finds the recording?"

I smiled.

"Good."

I'd like to see how much longer Caleb can keep up the act. Pretending he truly loves her. Pretending he can truly protect her. Pretending he doesn't know that the child in Leah's belly is being used to pry open everything Elvira's father left behind. If he can't hold it together, he'll make a mistake. And what Elvira needs most right now is for them to make a mistake.

By evening, I had changed into a suit. I was halfway through tying my tie when the mirror caught the faint mark at the corner of my mouth. The attendant asked quietly, "My lord, shall I cover that?"

"No."

She bit me there. Why would I cover it.

On the way to Blackpine, I went over the evening's seating arrangement one more time. To Caleb's right — what should have been Elvira's seat had been quietly changed at the last minute.

I stared at the name that had been displaced for a few seconds. The wolf inside me went still. Not calm — still in the way a predator goes still before it strikes.

When the car stopped outside Blackpine's main hall, Caleb came out to greet me himself. His expression was strained, and the Blackpine aura pressing off him was heavy. Last night on the phone, he'd still managed to sound at ease. Now, face to face with me, the hostility in his eyes was barely contained.

We shook hands. We exchanged pleasantries. I walked into the dining room the same way I had many times before. And then I saw her.

Black dress. Moonstone brooch. Seated on Caleb's other side. Leah sat to Caleb's right, one hand resting gently over her stomach.

Elvira looked up at me. Her expression didn't change. She was even smiling — as if this humiliation were nothing more than a misplaced place setting at the dinner table.

But I could smell it. She was in pain.

I took my seat diagonally across from her, fingertips brushing the recording device in my pocket, slowly pressing down the fury that was threatening to break through my chest.

I can't take her away tonight.

Not yet.

But I will stop at nothing to help her get everything she wants — and if it comes to it, I will declare war on Blackpine in the name of the Greyrock Alpha.