Caspian’s POV
The Blackwood estate fell short of expectations.
Lukas Blackwood had earned respect as Beta of the Moonstone Pack through careful maneuvering and strategic thinking, but his home told a different story.
Standing in his neglected courtyard, I witnessed nothing but weakness.
Rotting wood and untended gardens filled my nostrils with their sour stench.
The gate guards slouched at their posts, their attention wandering.
Servants scurried past with downcast eyes, moving like shadows in their own domain.
Pathetic.
Every single one of them.
Yet Lukas had the nerve to face me now, spine straight and eyes steady, barely concealing his annoyance behind a mask of forced civility.
“Alpha Caspian.” His words came out strained, wrapped in obligatory respect.
“What brings you to my home without notice?”
I nearly laughed at his pretense of ignorance.
“You heard my declaration at the Astral Ball,” I replied, keeping my voice level but unyielding.
“I’ve come for Talia.
She will be my wife.”
Lukas’s mouth formed a hard line.
“You’re mistaken.”
Bold words.
Foolish ones.
My Beta, Logan Grier, stiffened at my right side.
His keen eyes darted between Lukas and me while fury simmered beneath his controlled exterior.
“Beta Lukas,” Logan spoke with barely restrained irritation, “Will you not invite us to sit?”
Lukas fixed him with an icy stare.
“Forgive my poor manners.” The apology rang hollow.
His gaze returned to me.
“Your arrival caught me unprepared.”
A weak excuse for his deliberate disrespect.
He wanted me to endure his insolence while he played games with protocol.
I remained silent.
His approval meant nothing to me, and his pitiful attempt to challenge my authority deserved no response.
Lukas made no move to welcome my party into his home.
He offered no refreshment, no courtesy.
Fine.
I had no intention of lingering.
If he believed cold treatment would make me retreat, he had severely underestimated his opponent.
I allowed my dominance to unfurl slowly, deliberately.
The air grew thick with warning, with promise, with consequence.
His wife and three eldest children emerged from the house at that moment, their faces tight with worry.
“Will you honor me by bringing Talia here, or shall I retrieve her myself?” I asked with deceptive calm, presenting him with choices that weren’t really choices at all.
Lukas’s jaw clenched.
“Alpha Caspian, you have no authority to enter my home and make demands for my daughter.”
“Yet here I stand,” I said simply.
My response darkened his expression further.
“Even if you had approached me properly,” he continued, his voice dropping to a threatening rumble, “my answer would remain no.”
Lukas needed to grasp that I had shown him courtesy by leaving most of my men at his gates, entering with only Logan at my side.
The sooner he accepted that I would depart with Talia regardless of his protests, the less unpleasant this encounter would become.
Lillian Blackwood tensed beside her husband.
Her fingers brushed against his sleeve—a gentle warning, a desperate plea.
She understood what I represented.
Intelligent woman.
But Lukas ignored her silent counsel.
“Now that you know my position, I ask you to leave, Alpha,” Lukas declared with finality, extending his arm toward the gate in clear dismissal.
A Beta.
Dismissing me.
Logan drew a sharp breath, muscles coiling as he prepared to act.
I raised my hand, halting him.
Instead, I spoke with deadly quiet.
“Beta, you will obey my command.”
Logan dropped to one knee instantly.
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Summon the men.
Sweep this estate.
Turn over every stone if necessary to locate my bride.
I will not depart the Blackwood lands or the Moonstone Pack empty-handed.”
Silence fell like a blade.
Lillian gasped.
One of Lukas’s daughters went white, fists forming at her sides.
Lukas’s reaction was the one I anticipated.
His composure shattered.
“Alpha Caspian!” His voice thundered across the courtyard, his entire frame trembling with barely contained fury.
I turned toward him with deliberate slowness, my golden eyes hard as steel.
“Beta,” I said with cutting precision, “you will address me with proper respect.”
Every eye focused on us, waiting.
Lukas’s pride battled against survival instinct.
His anger demanded action, but his mind knew the cost of defying his future King.
No amount of courage could shield him from those consequences.
Logan stood, already moving to execute my orders when—
“Wait!” Lukas’s voice cracked with the force of his own rage.
Logan paused, then faced Lukas with casual readiness for violence.
“Stopping me suggests you’ve reached a decision,” he said smoothly, his mockery cutting deep as payback for the earlier disrespect.
Thick silence stretched between us.
Lillian’s hands formed fists.
Lukas’s features contorted.
Finally, with visible reluctance, he released a harsh breath.
“Maddox,” he barked at his son, “fetch Talia immediately.”
Maddox’s jaw tightened, but he inclined his head slightly.
“Yes, Father.” His glare found me, burning with hatred that matched his father’s temperament.
His resentment toward me ran deep for reasons I neither knew nor cared about.
His feelings held no importance.
They deserved none of my attention.
As Maddox stalked toward the rear of the estate, Lukas wasn’t finished issuing commands.
He turned his remaining daughters into servants.
“Bianca, Sasha,” he called, his burning gaze settling on them, “collect your sister’s belongings and bring them here.”
“Yes, Father,” they whispered, hurrying away.
Only the four of us remained—myself, Logan, Lukas, and Lillian, who pressed close to her husband’s side as tension filled the space between us like smoke.
Lillian stayed quiet, but her eyes never left me.
Not with open rebellion or complete surrender, but with something else entirely.
Something I couldn’t quite decipher.
Something that resembled protection.
Curious.
From what I had learned about Talia’s place in this family, everyone supposedly despised her, yet her mother’s behavior suggested otherwise.
Perhaps there were layers to this story I hadn’t uncovered.