Damon switched to a voice call.
This time, Ava picked up.
“Alpha Damon?”
“Busy?” Damon’s voice came through low and steady.
“Yeah, on-site surveying for the project.
It’s a bit loud here.” Ava spoke faster than usual.
“Did you need something?”
“Last night’s video call.” Damon got straight to it.
“There was a little boy.
Did you see him?”
“Yes.
A cute little boy.”
Ava didn’t ask who he was.
She didn’t push.
Damon’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“That was my sister’s son.
My nephew.
I had a minor surgery last night and stayed at the hospital.
They came to keep me company.
He’s a little terror.
Grabbed my phone and started tapping at random.”
“Oh, I see.” Ava’s tone gave nothing away, whether she believed him or not.
“You had surgery?
Is it serious?”
“Minor.
Keyhole procedure.
I’ll be discharged tomorrow.” Damon said it again, each word deliberate.
“Ava, the boy is my nephew.”
“Mm.
I understand.” Someone seemed to be calling for her in the background.
She spoke quickly.
“Alpha Damon, get some rest.
I’ve got something to handle here.
I’ll let you go.”
The call ended.
The dial tone hummed in his ear.
Damon stared at the darkened screen, his eyes unreadable.
She knew.
But did she believe him?
When Mara came back to the room after picking up Leo, she found Damon leaning against the headboard, staring at his phone, miles away.
“Did you straighten things out with Miss Bennett?” she asked.
Damon looked up.
“Mara, what exactly happened last night when Leo had my phone?”
Mara thought back.
“I saw him poking at a phone and figured he’d grabbed Jax’s again.
I rushed over to take it and said, ‘Leo, did you take Daddy’s phone again?'”
Daddy’s phone.
Damon closed his eyes briefly.
It couldn’t have been easier to misread.
Knowing Ava, she’d never demand answers.
She would swallow the doubt and the humiliation, then pull back even further, playing her Luna Queen role more carefully than ever and keeping her distance.
He had to see her.
Some misunderstandings only festered over calls and screens.
He needed to go to her, tell her who Leo was, face to face.
At the very least, she needed to see that he meant it.
Paris.
Ava hung up and stood still.
Damon’s explanation sounded reasonable enough.
But was that really all there was to it?
What if he was lying?
The gulf between their rank and power left her without the means, or the nerve, to dig any deeper.
If he wanted to fool her, it would cost him nothing.
If she wanted the truth, she’d be chasing her own tail.
Her stomach turned again.
Ava pressed her thumbnail hard into the side of her finger.
Whatever the case, she couldn’t fall apart now.
She still had work.
She still had tomorrow’s presentation, the one that mattered.
This was the first overseas project she was leading on her own.
She couldn’t afford to blow it.
“Miss Bennett, the data’s all checked over here.”
“Coming.”
Feelings could betray her.
Work and money wouldn’t.
That was the one truth Ava had always held onto.
The Royal Pack, Sterling Medical Center.
Mara watched her brother’s face darken, and her own heart sank.
“What is it?
Did Leo cause trouble?”
“Leo had my phone last night and video-called Ava by accident.”
Mara’s expression shifted.
She got it at once.
“She misread it?”
“Most likely.” Damon’s fingers worried at the edge of the blanket.
If Ava had questioned him, if she’d shown even a flicker of hurt or anger, it would have meant she cared.
It would have meant she saw him as someone she could let her guard down with.
But she’d asked nothing.
That composure, that careful distance, was a wall, and it shut him out.
“It’s my fault.
I should’ve kept a closer eye on Leo.” Mara looked stricken.
“You need to explain this to Miss Bennett properly.”
“I know.” Damon threw off the blanket and moved to get up.
“What are you doing?” Mara’s voice shot up.
She pressed him back down.
“The doctor said you’re staying in bed for observation.
Your wound hasn’t healed.”
“I’m going to Paris.” Damon reached for the call button.
“Now.”
“You had surgery less than twenty-four hours ago.
You sit on a plane for ten-plus hours, your wound splits open or gets infected, then what?” Mara’s voice climbed.
“You can explain over the phone, send a message, or just wait till she’s back.”
Ragnar rolled over in his mind, dry with amusement.
“Royal Alpha or not, your flesh isn’t going to knit itself back together at forty thousand feet.
I’d rather not go down as the wolf whose Alpha King became the first in history to run a fever from an infected wound mid-flight.”
“And I’d rather not go down as the Alpha who let the luna we waited two thousand nights for slip away over a misunderstanding.
Pick your humiliation.”
Ragnar went quiet.
He had no comeback for that.
“I can’t wait,” Damon told his sister.
He’d waited too long already.
Two thousand days and nights of restraint had finally brought her to his side, and he wouldn’t let a misunderstanding tear apart what he’d fought so hard to reach.
A nurse came in soon after.
Under Mara’s helpless watch, she checked the wound, re-bandaged it, and ran through the post-op precautions again.
Damon used the time to call Lance, his other assistant.
“Go to the pack house for me.
My study, second drawer on the left.
There’s a brown leather photo album.
Bring it to the hospital.”
“Yes, Alpha King.”
Mara knew she couldn’t stop him.
She sighed.
“I’ll book your flight.”
“Thank you, Mara.” Damon’s voice softened.
Mara looked at his pale face, her chest tight with sympathy and worry.
Her youngest brother had always been more composed, more disciplined than others his age.
His emotions had always been held so tightly in check they read as cold.
She’d once thought he might spend his whole life that way.
Work as his everything, and nothing more.
Until six years ago, when Damon moved out of the pack house.
She’d come across a photo in his new study: a girl with waist-length hair standing on a stage in the sunlight, her smile clear and defiant.
She’d asked who it was.
He’d only said, “No one.”
Later, she learned the truth.
That was Victor’s fated mate.
A freshman at Anlingdale University.
Her name was Ava.
Mara had been horrified.
She’d tried to talk him out of it, even yelled at him for being reckless.
But Damon had only stayed silent.
Then he’d thrown himself even harder into work, raising the Royal Pack to new heights and building a sprawling business empire, as if he could bury every forbidden thought under sheer ambition.
She’d quietly looked into the girl.
Beautiful.
Smart.
Stubborn as a weed pushing up through concrete.
Little by little, Mara came to understand her brother’s obsession.
Now he’d finally brought her home.
And already another misunderstanding had cropped up.
“Damon.” Mara poured him a glass of warm water, her tone gentle now.
“Once this is sorted, let’s set up a proper introduction.
I’ll bring Leo and Jax to meet Miss Bennett.
We’re family.
Everyone’s going to have to know each other eventually.
It’ll save us mix-ups like this down the line.”
Damon took the glass.
“Alright.
After Paris.”