Chapter 5:The Alpha’s Frustration
1223 Words
Chapter 5 – The Alpha’s Frustration
Damien’s POV
The city stretched beneath me, all glittering glass and steel, but I barely saw it. My penthouse office soared above Manhattan, yet for once, the skyline failed to ground me. I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows with my hands braced on the frame, replaying last night in my head for the hundredth time.
Maya Carter.
Every detail of her had etched itself into me the sweep of her hair, the stubborn tilt of her chin, the fire in her voice when she refused to be impressed. The women in my world bent to power. They simpered, they schemed, they offered themselves in hopes of securing a piece of me. Maya had done the opposite. She’d looked me dead in the eye and told me she was leaving.
And that was before the sparks.
I closed my eyes, jaw tightening. I could still feel the heat of her hand in mine, the rush of energy that had crackled between us. It wasn’t subtle it was fate. The mate bond awakening, undeniable and feral. Every instinct I had screamed to claim her, to mark her, to drag her into my world where no rival could ever touch her.
So why…
Why hadn’t I caught her scent?
I turned from the window and paced the office, restless. The mate bond was primal, absolute. A wolf knew his mate the moment he found her the unique signature in her scent, the way it pulled on the soul like a tether. But with Maya, it was different. I felt the pull, stronger than anything I’d imagined, but the scent was muted. Human. Too human.
It made no sense.
Either the bond was broken somehow or she wasn’t what she seemed.
The thought made my chest tighten with something dangerously close to fear. Because if she wasn’t just human… then what the hell was she?
The elevator chimed behind me. My wolf surged immediately, protective and irritable, but the scent that followed was familiar. Elias.
“Boss,” he said as he stepped in, his tone clipped. Always efficient, always disciplined, my beta to the core. He carried the faint musk of wolf beneath the polish of his suit, a reminder that even here, surrounded by skyscrapers, we were not like the humans below.
“You’re early,” I said, keeping my voice calm despite the storm beneath my skin.
He gave me a sharp look. “So are you. I expected you to be… occupied.”
I knew what he meant. After years of enduring the pack’s whispered questions, the council’s disapproval, and my family’s constant pressure to choose a mate, I had finally found her. The news would have spread quickly through the ranks, relief rippling through them like wildfire. An alpha unmated was a vulnerability. An alpha with a human? A liability.
But Maya wasn’t a liability. She was everything.
“She’s different,” I said, more to myself than to Elias.
His brow furrowed. “Different how?”
I didn’t answer. Not yet. Not until I understood it myself.
Instead, I poured myself a glass of whiskey, ignoring that it was barely past ten in the morning. The burn helped me think, if only for a moment.
Elias shifted his weight, hesitant. That alone set me on edge he never hesitated.
“Spit it out,” I growled.
He cleared his throat. “It’s about the delivery.”
My grip tightened around the glass. “The roses?”
“Yes.” He straightened, his expression carefully neutral. “They’ve been returned.”
The words dropped like a blade between us.
Returned.
For a moment, I thought I’d misheard him. No one returned gifts from Damien Blackthorn. No one.
“She sent them back,” Elias confirmed when I didn’t speak. “All of them. The roses, the chocolates, the bears. Everything.”
The glass cracked in my hand. I forced myself to set it down before it shattered completely. Whiskey dripped onto the desk, the sharp scent filling the air.
“She sent them back,” I repeated slowly, as though the words themselves were foreign.
“Yes.”
I turned back to the window, trying to leash the wolf inside me. Rage prowled in my chest, a low growl rising in my throat. The city lights blurred, my reflection in the glass warping as my control frayed.
No one rejected me. Not in business. Not in the pack. Not in anything.
And yet Maya Carter had not only rejected me she’d humiliated me. Publicly. The delivery had been extravagant, yes, but deliberate. A statement. And she had thrown it back in my face.
Elias watched me carefully, no doubt weighing how much truth he could speak. “With respect, Alpha, maybe this is for the best. The pack already questions the wisdom of a human mate”
My head snapped toward him, a snarl ripping free before I could stop it. “She is mine.”
The words hung heavy in the room, vibrating with the force of my wolf. Elias flinched but didn’t back down, to his credit.
“You feel the bond,” he acknowledged. “But the pack doesn’t. They only see a human. A distraction.”
“She’s not a distraction.” I stepped forward, the wolf in me pacing, restless. “She’s stronger than they realize. Stronger than you realize.”
Elias’s jaw tightened, but he inclined his head. “Then prove it. Win her over properly. Or let her go before this becomes a weakness others can exploit.”
I hated him for saying it. I hated that he was right.
But letting her go? Impossible.
The wolf snarled in my chest at the thought, a violent rejection that left no room for compromise. She was mine. My mate. Fate had chosen, and fate didn’t make mistakes.
Still… the sting of her rejection cut deep.
I sat behind my desk, forcing my voice into something cool and steady. “She doesn’t know me. Not yet. But she will.”
Elias raised a brow. “You think sending another hundred roses will change her mind?”
I smirked, though it didn’t reach my eyes. “No. I think I will change her mind.”
He looked unconvinced, but wisely stayed silent.
The truth was, Maya intrigued me because she didn’t care about the name Damien Blackthorn. She hadn’t recognized me, hadn’t bowed to my wealth or my reputation. It infuriated me… and it excited me. She saw me not as the billionaire alpha, but as a man. A man who, for the first time in years, wasn’t certain of the outcome.
And damn it, I wanted her even more for it.
I leaned back, steepling my fingers. “She can send back roses, she can slam the door in my face, she can curse my name if she wants. But she won’t escape me. Not when fate has already bound us.”
Elias shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “Alpha ”
“She will be mine,” I said, voice low and certain. “One way or another.”
I didn’t add the thought that burned through me as I looked back at the skyline.
She can hate me, she can fight me, but when she finally surrenders… she’ll never walk away again.
- Writer
