Chapter 235 There’s someone I need to meet with
Author’s POV
Around midnight, Vanessa was jolted awake by her phone vibrating incessantly against her nightstand.
Her account had exploded. Thousands of people were tagging her, demanding a response. Her comment section was absolute chaos.
Her fans had spent days shipping her with the mysterious Alpha King figure from the photos.
If the rumors were completely baseless, why would Damian Blackwood himself step in to refute them? And why would he post such a declarative, possessive announcement?
Vanessa’s dedicated fanbase was furious.
They were convinced this was a deliberate attack on their idol. Perhaps Damian had led Vanessa on, broken her heart, and that’s what had driven her to her recent... instability.
Since the Alpha King had responded publicly, Vanessa’s fans wanted her to do the same. They wanted her to expose everything about their past relationship. To demand justice.
Vanessa stared at the trending topics and spiraling discourse, and something sharp and painful lodged itself deep in her chest.
She hadn’t been able to sleep properly since returning Riverside Pack territory.
Tonight had been the first time in days she’d managed a few hours of rest. Now, any hope of sleep was completely gone.
Her phone continued to light up with messages and missed calls from concerned friends. They knew. Not the general public, but everyone in Vanessa’s inner circle knew what had happened—how she’d nearly ended her life over Damian Blackwood.
Now that he’d made such a public, devastating statement, everyone was terrified she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
But Vanessa had no desire to respond to anyone. Her screen remained frozen on the photo Damian had posted—two hands intertwined, matching rings glinting in the light.
**Mated. Anyone who suggests otherwise will answer to me personally.**
Those words felt like a slap across the face. Public humiliation of the worst kind.
Vanessa’s eyes burned, but no tears came. She’d cried herself dry days ago.
So this was what it felt like to completely lose someone. To be erased from their life as if you’d never mattered at all.
---
Meanwhile, across the city, Sylvia Smith was receiving some news.
She’d just been informed that Damian had been found alive and returned safely to Blackwood territory.
She couldn’t comprehend it. The people she’d hired were supposed to be professionals. They didn’t leave loose ends. How could they have possibly allowed the Alpha King to survive the ocean?
Sylvia immediately dialed an encrypted number, her fingers trembling slightly with barely-contained rage.
"What the hell happened?" she hissed the moment the line connected. "I thought your people were supposed to be competent. I paid for a permanent solution, and you promised me it would be handled."
The voice on the other end was decidedly unimpressed by her tone. "We didn’t have enough time. The window was too narrow."
"Are you serious right now?" Sylvia’s voice rose despite her best efforts to stay calm. "What if he traces this back to me? What if—"
"I’ll handle it," the voice cut her off coldly. "But let me be clear, Mrs. Smith. You don’t get to give me orders."
The line went dead.
Sylvia stood there, phone still pressed to her ear, fury building in her chest like a physical pressure. She wanted to scream. To throw something. To tear apart the entire room.
These people were black market mercenaries,rogues. Dangerous. Not fully under her control.
But they also couldn’t treat her like some kind of disposable pawn. She’d paid them an enormous sum. Provided them with intelligence.
And now they were telling her that Damian Blackwood—the primary target—had walked away without a scratch?
Unacceptable.
Sylvia paced her study, her wolf prowling restlessly beneath her skin. The animal was agitated, sensing its human counterpart’s distress. It wanted blood. Wanted to hunt.
Just as she was about to give in to the urge to destroy something, her phone buzzed with a new message. International number.
Despite the money she’d paid, the contact was apparently willing to offer some explanation.
The message was brief and to the point: They’d executed the ambush as planned. But Damian had been extracted by an unknown wolf pack before they could finish the job.
The rescue team’s patrol patterns were airtight—military precision. There had been no opportunity to bypass their defenses and complete the assassination.
However, the contact assured her they would fulfill the contract.
Damian was Andrew Blackwood’s son, after all. That made him a high-value target worth seeing through to the end. They just needed to wait for the right opening.
Reading those words should have calmed Sylvia down. Instead, her mood darkened further.
The entire point of orchestrating an attack outside pack territory had been to avoid domestic complications.
She needed this handled cleanly, far from any investigation that could circle back to her.
"Mom."
Nathan’s voice cut through her spiraling thoughts. He pushed open the study door without waiting for permission, and Sylvia nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Who told you to come in?" she snapped, whirling to face him. "Don’t you know how to knock?"
"I did knock," Nathan said evenly, his eyes scanning the room.
Several expensive decorative pieces lay shattered on the floor—evidence of Sylvia’s earlier rage. "Multiple times. I heard crashing and thought something might be wrong."
His gaze lingered on the phone still clutched in her hand.
"What do you want?" Sylvia forced herself to take a breath, sinking into her desk chair. She needed to get herself under control.
"Lucas has disappeared."
Nathan’s tone was measured, but there was something underneath it. Something that might have been amusement, if Sylvia had been paying closer attention.
Her eyes snapped open. "What did you just say?"
She’d been planning to use Lucas as leverage against Victor. Insurance, in case her brother-in-law decided to fully back Aria’s claim to the Smith fortune. But she hadn’t expected Lucas to realize he was being watched so quickly.
"You told me to monitor Victor’s movements," Nathan continued. "But they’ve clearly caught on. Information blackout. No one’s going in or out of the property. Lucas hasn’t been spotted in over forty-eight hours."
Sylvia’s expression darkened dangerously. Her hand came down hard on the desk surface, the sound echoing through the study.
"Victor. Lucas." She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Fine. Perfectly fine."
So this was how it was going to be. Victor had chosen Aria’s side. Had actively moved to protect his son from Sylvia’s reach.
The Smith family was circling the wagons around Vincent’s bastard daughter. Every single one of them.
If they wanted to treat her like the enemy, then she’d simply have to embrace the role.
"Victor’s made his position clear," Nathan said quietly. "What do you want me to do about it?"
Sylvia considered for a long moment, her wolf’s instincts screaming for action. For dominance. For the kind of brutal response that would remind everyone exactly who held the real power in this family.
"I’m leaving the city for a few days," she said finally, her voice dropping to something cold and decisive. "There’s someone I need to meet with. You’ll return to the company. Keep eyes on Aria at all times. I want to know everywhere she goes, everyone she speaks to."
"Understood." Nathan inclined his head, the perfect picture of obedient deference.
But as he turned to leave, something flickered across his expression. Something Sylvia was too distracted to notice.
Something that looked an awful lot like calculation.