BLOOD OATH EMPIRE

CHAPTER 14 : PACK POLITICS

POV: Alessia De Luca

The dead man’s finger was still pointing at me. For several long seconds, nobody moved.

Blood continued to drip from the prisoner’s body, spreading across the concrete floor beneath the chair. The silver restraints held him upright even in death, turning him into something grotesque, a corpse that refused to stay still in my memory because he had been dead.

I had watched Cassian kill him yet somehow he had spoken.Twice.

Lunar blood.

The words echoed through my mind like a curse. I stared at the body, then at Cassian.

“What the hell was that?”

My voice sounded thin in the cold underground chamber.

Cassian didn’t answer, his attention remained fixed on the prisoner, his expression unreadable to anyone who didn’t know him but I knew him well enough now to recognize when something had gotten beneath his skin.

For the first time since I’d met him, he looked unsettled.Not afraid, Just disturbed and somehow that frightened me more.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

Nothing. The silence stretched, the longer it lasted the more certain I became that the answer mattered.

Finally, Cassian looked at me.

Whatever reaction I’d seen before was already gone. The mask was back in place.

“Forget it.”

A short laugh escaped me.

“Forget it?”

“Alessia.”

“No.”

I folded my arms.

“A dead man just pointed at me after you killed him. He mentioned the same thing Matteo hinted at.”

Cassian’s jaw tightened.

“The same thing connected to the servant who supposedly died eleven years ago.” Something flickered across his face.It lasted less than a second but I caught it.

Good.

That meant I wasn’t imagining things.

“You know what it means.”

His gaze hardened.

“And you’re not telling me.”

The tension between us thickened. Then his phone vibrated.

Cassian glanced at the screen.

Whatever message appeared there erased the rest of the conversation immediately. Business, important business.

“Nikolai.”

The Beta appeared almost instantly. At this point I was convinced he materialized from thin air whenever Cassian called his name.

“Council gathering in fifteen minutes.”

Cassian frowned.

“The entire council?”

“Every Alpha.”

Even I understood the significance of that. The most powerful men in the Volkov Syndicate rarely assembled together unless something serious was happening.

“The eastern families want answers,” Nikolai continued. “They believe the attacks are escalating.”

Cassian glanced once more at the dead prisoner.

“I’ll handle it.”

Nikolai nodded before turning away, his gaze briefly met mine, concern flashed there. Gone almost immediately, but I saw it.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

A lie. Unfortunately, before I could push further, Cassian was already heading toward the exit.

The discussion was over. For now. I looked back at the corpse one final time.

Lunar blood. The words followed me upstairs.

The Volkov Council Chamber occupied the highest floor of the estate. The symbolism wasn’t subtle. Power always preferred a view. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the city while digital maps and financial reports glowed across massive screens mounted along the walls. Shipping routes, security networks, political influence, financial projections.

The sheer scale of it was overwhelming. This wasn’t merely a criminal organization, It was an empire. A hidden kingdom operating beneath the surface of legitimate society. Every Alpha seated around the table controlled part of that machine,ports,banks, weapons contracts, political connections, entire industries. They weren’t gangsters, they were kings who happened to conduct business in the shadows.

The room changed the moment Cassian entered. Conversations stopped, chairs straightened. Eyes followed him, nobody stood, nobody announced him.

They didn’t need to. Everyone present already knew who held the most power. Then they noticed me.

The shift was immediate.

A silver-haired Alpha openly studied me before looking away with clear disapproval. Another regarded me with irritation. Several exchanged glances that spoke volumes.

I understood exactly what they were doing.They weren’t evaluating me, they were evaluating Cassian’s choice.His marriage, his judgment. Whether I strengthened him or weakened him. Cassian ignored all of it. He crossed the room and took his place at the head of the table.

Nobody questioned it, nobody ever would. The chair waiting for him looked less like office furniture and more like a throne.

Once he sat, the others followed and the meeting began. Reports arrived from every corner of the empire, Romanian shipments remained stalled, Customs officials in Serbia had stopped cooperating, transport contracts were disappearing, financial partners were becoming unreliable, political contacts had suddenly become unavailable.

One report followed another until the pattern became impossible to ignore. Someone was targeting the Volkov Syndicate, not through violence but through influence, money,infrastructure, pressure. Every strike landed exactly where it would hurt most.

Cassian listened without interrupting, that worried me. Anger was easy to understand but silence wasn’t. Silence meant he was calculating, and men like Cassian were most dangerous when they were calculating.

“Perhaps we’re discussing symptoms instead of the disease.”

The room quieted immediately.

I turned toward the speaker and Alpha Viktor Dragunov sat halfway down the table. Older, scarred, confident.Unlike everyone else, he looked completely comfortable. That alone made him dangerous.

“The attacks didn’t begin because our enemies suddenly became stronger,” he said calmly. “They began because we’ve given them a reason to believe we’re vulnerable.”

Several Alphas shifted, nobody interrupted him.Cassian leaned back slightly.

“What exactly are you suggesting?”

Dragunov’s gaze settled on me, deliberately. Like a man selecting a target.

“I’m suggesting perception matters.”

The room grew noticeably quieter.

“Our rivals watch everything. The Kozlovs. The Balkan families. The Bratva. The cartels. They see instability. They see opportunities.”

Nobody spoke.

Then he delivered the real attack.

“They see a human sitting where a future queen should be.”

The insult landed exactly where he intended. No one defended me, no one openly agreed with him either, they simply watched, waiting.

“The De Luca marriage secured an alliance,” Cassian said.

His voice remained calm, controlled.

Dragunov shrugged.

“Temporary alliances can be purchased.”

Several heads lifted, then came the next strike.

“Bloodlines cannot.”

The atmosphere shifted. This wasn’t about marriage anymore, this was about succession, legacy, power.

“The empire needs strength,” Dragunov continued. “It needs stability. What it cannot afford is uncertainty.”

Silence followed. Not because people agreed but because nobody wanted to be the first to choose a side. I could practically see the calculations happening behind their eyes.

Had Cassian made a mistake?

Had emotion influenced strategy?

Would marrying me eventually become a liability?

Dragunov pressed forward.

“Our problems are no longer isolated incidents. Three ports frozen. Millions lost. Contracts disappearing. Long-term allies becoming unreliable.”

Every setback, every delay, every loss. He gathered them together and laid them neatly at Cassian’s feet.

“Our enemies are testing us,” he said. “The moment they sense weakness, they’ll push harder.”

Then his gaze returned to me.

“The marriage has done nothing to strengthen our position.”

The words settled heavily across the room. No one challenged him. For a brief moment, neither did Cassian. Something tightened painfully inside my chest.

Then Dragunov smiled, the expression carried no warmth, only confidence. The confidence of a man who believed he had already won.

“One woman has cost this empire more than any rival family.”

Silence. The dangerous kind, the kind that comes before violence.

I looked at Cassian.

He remained seated for a moment.

Then he stood. No dramatic movement, no visible anger. Just a simple decision to rise. The effect was immediate, every conversation died, every eye followed him.

Across the table, Dragunov slowly stood as well.

The scrape of his chair echoed through the chamber. This was no longer about business, this was about authority. The atmosphere became almost unbearable.

Several Alphas lowered their eyes, others shifted uneasily, only Dragunov remained standing though not comfortably. Sweat glistened along his forehead.

“I’ve served this empire for thirty years.”

Cassian said nothing.

“I helped build the eastern routes.”

Silence.

“I buried brothers for this family.”

Still silence.

“I won’t watch everything we built weakened by sentiment.”

Nikolai closed his eyes. Like a man witnessing an execution before it happened.

Cassian stepped forward. One step, that was all. Dragunov’s face lost color.

“You would challenge me?”

Cassian’s voice remained calm, almost conversational which somehow made it worse.

Dragunov lifted his chin. A mistake.

“I’m protecting the pack.”

The words had barely left his mouth and Cassian moved.

CRACK.

The sound exploded through the chamber.

Dragunov screamed. His arm bent sideways with sickening force, not broken in combat, broken deliberately. A punishment, nothing more.

Cassian released him, Dragunov collapsed to one knee, breathing hard. Nobody moved to help, nobody dared.

Cassian turned toward the rest of the council. His gaze swept across the room.

One by one, men looked away. The challenge was over, fear had settled the matter.

“Let me make something clear.”

The chamber fell silent, then his eyes found me. Every wolf in the room followed his gaze. His expression became something cold and absolute.

Final.

“Anyone who disrespects my wife dies next.”