Chapter 533 - I don’t think she cares about titles
Corvine glanced to his left, then to his right, his gaze sweeping through Alpha Killian and Prince Jasper working nearby. Their ears were close enough to catch every word, so he swallowed the things sitting right on the tip of his tongue and kept his voice low.
"Can we talk about this at the hotel instead?"
There was no point talking about something so sensitive right there in the open. They still had too much work left to finish, and the last thing either of them needed was an audience.
Corvine released his hold on the shovel, allowing Voren to have it, and went to pick up another one. When he returned, he looked around once again and went back to clearing the heavy snow beside Voren without another word.
Voren immediately understood why Corvine was holding back. Without saying anything out loud, he slowly made his way toward the parked vehicles while casually motioning for Corvine to follow. Corvine caught the silent gesture and walked over, falling into step beside him.
The two of them worked side by side, scraping thick layers of packed snow from the SUVs in steady, focused movements. As Voren cleared the windshield of the nearest one, his voice finally broke the quiet between them.
"What is it?"
Corvine took a deep breath, his grip tightening around the shovel handle. "I like being your Beta. It doesn’t feel right to create the position of a Co-Alpha to someone who isn’t even a member of the pack."
Voren didn’t answer right away. His expression stayed unreadable as he continued brushing snow from the hood of the vehicle, the silence stretching long enough to make Corvine start to feel uneasy.
Thinking he might have offended him, Corvine searched for a better way to explain himself while still pushing the snow beneath his feet.
Then Voren finally spoke, his tone calm but carrying weight. "Do you even understand what it means to marry the daughter of an Alpha King?"
The mention of Athaliah instantly softened Corvine’s expression. A faint smile appeared on his face despite himself as he let out a quiet sigh.
"King Jaron already warned me. I know he doesn’t like me." His smile returned as Athaliah’s face flashed through his mind. "But Liah is different. I don’t think she cares about titles." There wasn’t a hint of doubt in his voice.
Voren stopped working. He turned and looked Corvine straight in the eyes, the seriousness in his gaze impossible to miss.
"When we get to the pack, I intend to train you, but before that, there’s something you need to understand." He leaned the shovel against the side of the vehicle and folded his arms.
"If you want to defeat your enemy, you have to learn how to think like him. For example... if I were the Alpha King, I’d want exactly what King Jaron wants for Athaliah." He corrected himself with a small smile. "For Esperanza too, but if she found herself in Athaliah’s situation, I’d play it safe."
Corvine slowly began to understand. For the first time he could see the real advantage of the higher position Voren had offered him. All his life he had thought like a Beta.
Even after becoming the CEO of MindNest, his perspective hadn’t changed all that much. But leading an entire pack and learning to think like an Alpha... that was a completely different game.
"How would you play it safe?" His voice carried genuine curiosity now. Voren sighed and went back to clearing snow as he explained.
"King Jaron holds two titles. His plan is for Prince Jasper to inherit the Alpha title."
Corvine nodded, following along. "But if you remain a Beta and Athaliah refuses to marry anyone else, King Jaron may eventually have no choice but to accept you."
Corvine frowned. "Wouldn’t that solve the problem?"
"It would," Voren agreed with a nod. "But it would create another one. If you stay a Beta, he’ll most likely change the rules."
Corvine stared at him. "How?"
Voren smiled, clearly pleased that Corvine was asking the right questions. "Good. He could decide to make Prince Jasper the next Alpha King instead of simply making him Alpha."
Corvine blinked. "I don’t see a problem with that," Corvine said honestly, Voren succeeded in opening the door to one of the cars as he met Corvine’s eyes again.
"For you to marry his daughter, he would be forced to make you the Alpha of the Silver Moon pack." Voren’s expression turned serious. "The problem is, Prince Jasper is honest and wise, but I’m not convinced he could keep all these Alphas under control."
Corvine followed his gaze toward Jasper, who was still helping clear snow a short distance away.
"And neither could I." His answer came without hesitation. He knew his own strengths well enough.
Managing a company like MindNest was one thing, but managing a room full of stubborn Alphas with oversized egos was something else entirely, and just thinking about it gave him a headache.
Voren chuckled quietly, the sound low and confident. "Yes, you can. You already have everything it takes, but you just haven’t realized it yet."
Corvine instinctively wanted to argue, but then he remembered Kylie’s words about the black wolf. He was gifted at recognizing talent long before anyone else saw it.
Maybe, just maybe, Voren was seeing something in him that he still couldn’t see in himself. Voren continued, his voice steady as he brushed the last of the snow from the roof of the vehicle.
"I’ve spent years watching Alphas. The truth is, most of them only wear that title because they inherited it, not because they earned it through strength or wisdom."
Corvine couldn’t deny it. After everything that had happened during the Moon Festival, the evidence was impossible to ignore.
"The power of an Alpha wolf comes with the title. It manifests during the declaration ceremony." Voren shrugged one shoulder. "My situation was different." Being born with a gifted black wolf had placed him in an entirely different category from ordinary Alphas. He had never relied on a title to become powerful.
After a long silence, Voren looked back at Corvine. A knowing smile appeared on his face as he folded his arms once more.
"So, have you figured out why you need a higher position in the Grimroot Pack if you want to marry the princess now?"