The Possessive Alpha
Chapter 90

DAMON POV

‘Whatever you’re thinking about doing, don’t,’ My father says through the link, a warning in his tone. I can feel the heat of his eyes watching me watch Elle in the middle of the dance floor with Alpha Fennick. Slade and I start to lose our grip as they continue talking. ‘Remember who is in this room and the scrutiny you have already brought upon yourself by pulling that stunt earlier. Neither of you can afford to make any more mistakes tonight.’

‘All we did is dance,’ I reply, a bitter taste coating my tongue as he continues reprimanding me. ‘You act like we marked each other on the dance floor. It was a f*****g dance. Did we magically transport into the plot of Footloose, and no one tell me?’

‘Yeah,’ he snarls, ‘after the goddamn Mate Find, with a woman who hasn’t been confirmed as your mate and is underage. What the hell were you thinking? It told every guest that Elle is a born Luna, and any chance we had of hiding that is now gone.’

‘Were you ever going to hide it? I mean, look at her! Everything about her screams “Luna,”‘ I ask, skeptical that they would be able to hide what she is, the energy surrounding her becoming more powerful every day. Her Alpha traits aren’t only present in her energy but in everything she does. From her walk to the way she laughs, her presence alone commands a room.

‘I don’t know,’ My father exclaims, his patience growing thinner by the moment, ‘but we probably would have had better luck than we are now.

‘We did nothing wrong,’ I remind him, ‘I haven’t marked Elle, and I didn’t ask her to marry me.’

‘You might as well have,’ he snorts, ‘only mates dance right after a Mate Find. You know this and have for years, yet you decided to dance with Elle anyways. Stop playing dumb, Damon; you knew what you were doing.’

‘So what if I did know?’ I sigh, tired of this argument, watching Fennick with his hands still on Elle. While I commend him for keeping as much distance from her as possible, it doesn’t mean I have magically stopped wanting to rip his hand off and shove them up his a*s. ‘From the moment Elle stepped on this territory, she became mine. I am done running away from it, and so is she.’

‘As long as you can make it through the night without beating the s**t out of anyone,’ he sighs, ‘we don’t need a war with another pack. Which will happen if anyone figures out what you have planned. Packs are pissed that we had a Luna Born hidden here, questioning how we obtained one.’

‘Elle’s not a f*****g commodity for other packs to strengthen their Alpha,’ I snarl as I look across the room, meeting my father’s eyes for the first time since the conversation started.

‘Yes, we know that, but that’s not how the other Alpha feels about the situation,’ he grumbles, ‘this wouldn’t even be a conversation if you had just done the thing that’s expected of you and sat down.’

‘What? This fabulous plan didn’t go exactly as planned. Shocker,’ I say sarcastically, ‘look, we can’t follow a plan we don’t know. You think we are just puppets on strings dancing around for your enjoyment. No more. I am cutting the f*****g strings. I don’t give a f**k about your plans anymore. We are creating our own.’

‘Damon…’ Slade’s voice comes through, speaking for the first time all day, ‘stop wasting your time with this argument and look at the time. We have to go.’ Glancing at the wall, I see we have only twenty-five minutes until midnight.

‘I am sorry, Damon,’ my father’s voice comes through, ‘we only did what we thought best at the time. All of us…’ but the way he says it makes it sound like there were more opinions on the matter than just his and my mother’s or Elle’s parents.

‘I know,’ I reply to him before turning and closing the link between us, ‘but now it’s our turn to do what’s best for us.’ Fixing my attention back on Elle, I find Alpha Tristan Dugray standing too close for comfort; the temper I was already starting to lose control of is nearly gone.

I am about to lose a gasket and storm across the room to remind Tristan of what happened the last time he was too interested in Elle when Andrew and Matt walk up beside me, ready to restrain me if necessary. ‘Don’t worry, Theo and Charity are already circling,’ Andrew says through the link, ‘they sent us over here to keep you calm. Let them handle it.’

Looking behind Tristan, I see Charity and Theo closing in, ready to subdue Dugray if it comes to that. ‘Gotta give it to Scarlett,’ Matt includes, ‘She knows how to pick the loyal ones.’

‘Yeah, she does,’ I agree, letting Elle and her comrades handle the situation but staying ready and alert. I can sense Slade’s disapproval of my refusal to go over there, but Andrew is right. I need to start letting Elle take care of her issues and trusting her to ask for help if she needs it.

Two seconds later, my resolve is nearly broken as Tristan steps closer to Elle, invading her personal space even more. Andrew and Matt grab my arm in precaution after feeling my body tense up in anticipation of thundering over to use his face as a punching bag.

As I pull my arm from their grasp, Charity steps around Dugray, walking into his line of sight and causing him to falter as he realizes who she is before stepping away from them both. ‘Do they know each other?’ I ask Matt through the mindlink, curious why seeing her would make him act like that.

‘Not that I know of,’ he growls, and now I am worried I’ll have to be the one to hold him back. I don’t know what Charity said or did, but it had Tristan running away like a scared little pup with his tail between his legs. Using his departure as my cue, I rush to Elle before another grimy Alpha can put his hands on her.

Slade and I are giddy as our skin dances with electricity at the contact. Doing my best to ignore the scent of other males on her, spinning her around, I grab her hand and whisper loud enough for only her to hear through the crowd, “Come on, Biscuit. It’s time.”

Before I can pull her through the crowd, she looks around, noticing the number of eyes on us from all over the ballroom. “How will we sneak away with all these eyes on us?” Her voice cracked from lack of water and the nerves settling over her about tonight.

“Don’t worry, Biscuit,” I smile at her while keeping my eyes locked on hers, “I thought of everything to make this night perfect.” Andrew and Matt’s voices come over the loudspeaker as I say the words calling everyone’s attention to the stage and allowing us to move slowly to the sidelines of the ballroom without being noticed.

“Thank you to everyone who came out tonight to celebrate the eighteenth birthday of our Alpha,” Andrew starts the speech, “as an extra treat, Matt and I have arranged for a little surprise for everyone here tonight.”

“If you could all follow us, we have arranged for local food vendors to serve complimentary midnight snacks, with a few bonfires to make smores.’ Matt picks up the speech as people start heading to the doors on the other side of the room en masse. Both of them hoping down from the stage to usher everyone away from us.

“Smart, using the free food,” Elle compliments, throwing me a casual smile before opening the door and leading us further from them.

“Really?” I ask, with a shrug, “who resists free food? Not a werewolf, I know.” I say like it’s no big deal, but I secretly enjoy her praise of my ideas.

“So where are we going?” She asks, grabbing my hand as we run down the hallway towards a side entrance leading to the woods leading right to our spot in the field, but I don’t want to say anything to ruin the surprise.

As soon as we get to the edge of the parking lot and she figures out where we are going, she stops, looks down at the muddy trail, and then returns to her dress. “Oh hell no,” Elle mutters, planting her heeled feet on the pavement, refusing to budge a step further, “I don’t care how petty this sound; I am NOT getting a single drop of mud on this dress. No way in f*****g hell is that happening.”

“Biscuit, it’s just a dress,” I tell her, trying not to delay this further. I mean, it’s a gorgeous dress, but I don’t see the big deal?”

“No, not just a dress! A fifteen thousand dollar dress that your mom insisted I have!” She says frantically, her hands waving around like a crazy person. I would probably find it cute if I weren’t annoyed by the situation.

“Fifteen thousand dollars for a dress?” I ask in disbelief, looking her up and down, checking to make sure emeralds aren’t sewn into her gown or something.

“I don’t know, Damon! The Goddess herself couldn’t explain your mother’s shopping habits!” As her words lash out at me, I can’t help but find her incredibly sexy, standing underneath the moon, her eyes bright with anger and annoyance as she stares me down.

“Earth to Damon!” She says, stepping closer to me, the sweetness of her scent filling my nose, and as if in reflex, I pull her into my arms, planting an earth-shattering k**s on her lips. Pulling away from her, I walk over to the clothes tree, grab the bag and walk back to her as she starts undressing, folding the dress as neatly as possible to place in the bag as I take off my own clothes and do the same.

Looking at my phone, I see we have fifteen minutes to make it to the greenhouse. Grabbing her hand and the bag with our clothes, I lead her down the path, knowing we have more than enough time to get to our destination before midnight.

‘It’s finally happening,’ Slade says from the corners of my mind, the calmest I have ever seen him, and as we walk further into the woods, I let it wash over me, too, knowing we are about to get everything we ever dreamed of.