Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 52

Damon:

The sting of her slap lingered longer than it should have.

It lingered longer than I would have wanted it to.

Not just on my skin.

But somewhere deeper.

It was something that I could not describe the feeling that I had. It was an anger that I did not like. It was a piece of rage that I found myself thinking about no matter how hard I tried to suppress the feeling that I had.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my feet to move, to walk away before I did something I’d regret.

And I knew that if I had stayed, I would have done something that I knew would have harmed her. And that was not something that I wanted. I did not want to be the reason behind her harm, nor did I want to be the reason behind her pain. Not anymore.

Sienna had always had fire in her, but never once had she dared to strike me. No one who was in the park had ever dared strike me the way that she did. Not until today. Not until she was the first person to lay hands on me, the first person to look me in the eye, silently letting me know that she was not going to submit, and not only that, but that she was willing to fight back.

And fuck if it didn’t set something ablaze inside me.

Fury. Annoyance.

The number of feelings that I had were ones that bothered me even more because I knew that no matter how hard I was going to try, I was not going to be able to contain them.

It was something else I didn’t want to name.

I pushed open the doors to my office with more force than necessary, the sound echoing through the room as I stormed inside.

But I wasn’t alone.

“Interesting,” my father’s voice came from the corner of the room.

I turned sharply, finding him seated in the leather chair across from my desk, his arms crossed as he observed me with amusement. He was a little more impressed by the show that I was putting in than anything else. It was as if this was something that fell to his amusement line.

“Do you ever knock?” I snapped, rubbing a hand over my jaw where Sienna had struck me.

Dad chuckled, shaking his head.

“I didn’t have to. You stormed in like a damn hurricane. I figured I’d sit back and watch the aftermath. Plus, I don’t think that I need to knock on the door when you’re not even in the room.” His gaze darkened as he tilted his head. ” Let me guess. Sienna?”

I scoffed, pacing the room like a caged animal. “She thinks she can do whatever the hell she wants. She refuses to understand that things aren’t the same anymore. She doesn’t get it, that she’s not some free wolf who can just walk out of here.”

My father hummed, tapping his fingers against the armrest. “And you think you can control her? You think that by what you’re doing, you can actually get her to submit to you, don’t you?”

“She needs to understand her place,” I bit out. “She needs to be reminded that she is nothing but an Omega within the pack, that I am the alpha. She cannot just get away with whatever it is that she wants to do. That is not something that I can just easily allow.”

Dad let out a humorless laugh. “And what place is that, Damon? The woman you threw away? The woman you forced back into this pack under your own rules? She’s been treated like nothing more than a prisoner, and yet, you expect her to fall in line? To thank you for it? Do you really expect her to be grateful for you letting her stay in the park by force for the way you’ve been treating her? Do you expect gratefulness?”

“She has my child,” I snapped, glaring at him. “She should be grateful she’s even here. She should be grateful that I did not have her head on a stake the second that I found her.”

Kael’s eyes narrowed. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

“If you want her to submit, you’ll never have her,” he said simply. “If you want her to obey, she’ll always resent you. But if you want her to stay, really stay, you need to figure out how to earn her trust again. Otherwise you’re going to end up losing her before you manage to at least get her to trust you. That’s not something that you want to do.”

I clenched my fists.

Trust.

That was a lost cause.

Still, I said nothing as he patted my shoulder and walked past me, heading for the door.

Before leaving, he glanced back. “Oh, and Damon?”

I didn’t turn. “What?”

“Next time a woman slaps you, maybe ask yourself why, before assuming she’s the one at fault.”

With that, he left, leaving me standing there alone, fists clenched, jaw tight, and my mind filled with a woman I couldn’t seem to control.

And the worst part?

I wasn’t sure I wanted to anymore.