Chapter 54: Chapter 54 The Alpha King’s Fury
Aria’s POV
But when I pulled the door open, it wasn’t Damian standing there.
It was the boutique manager from this afternoon, holding two enormous gift boxes wrapped in cream silk and tied with gold ribbon. The kind of packaging that screamed *obscenely expensive*.
"Miss Smith." He inclined his head respectfully.
"Alpha King Andrew and Luna Queen Elena requested these be delivered to you this evening. The gowns you tried on today have been altered to your exact measurements, along with the matching jewelry sets."
I stared at the boxes, my brain refusing to compute. "For me?"
"Yes, Miss. All six gowns, as per the Luna Queen’s instructions. She was quite insistent that you have them for tomorrow’s ceremony."
Tomorrow’s ceremony. My engagement ceremony. The one I’d learned about approximately five minutes ago.
"Thank you," I managed, taking the boxes on autopilot. "I appreciate you bringing them over."
He left with another polite nod, and I stood there in my doorway holding thousands of dollars worth of formal wear, my mind completely blank.
When I finally managed to close the door and turn around, I nearly dropped the boxes.
Alpha Andrew and Luna Elena were both staring at me with identical expressions of hopeful guilt, like puppies who’d chewed up the furniture and were praying you wouldn’t notice.
I set the boxes down on my coffee table very, very carefully.
"So," I said, my voice impressively level considering the circumstances.
"Wedding gowns. Jewelry. A fully planned engagement ceremony. Anything else I should know about? A Bonding Ceremony scheduled for next week? Maybe you’ve already picked out names for our future children?"
Luna Elena had the grace to look embarrassed. "We wouldn’t presume to choose names. That’s entirely up to you and Damian."
I was opening my mouth to respond—though I had no idea what I was going to say—when my phone rang again.
Damian.
My heart did something complicated and uncomfortable in my chest. I answered without thinking.
"Open the door." His voice was cold, controlled, lethal.
I looked up to find him standing in my hallway, visible through the peephole. Phone pressed to his ear, jaw tight, eyes blazing with barely contained fury.
"I wasn’t —" I started.
"I know." He cut me off, but his tone gentled fractionally. "Open the door, Aria."
I did.
Damian walked past me without another word, his entire focus locked on his parents like a predator zeroing in on prey. The temperature in my apartment seemed to drop ten degrees.
"Having fun?" he asked quietly. Too quietly.
The kind of quiet that preceded violence.
Luna Elena immediately dropped her gaze like a scolded child. Alpha Andrew had the decency to look apologetic.
"My dear son—"
"Don’t." Damian’s voice cracked like a whip. "Let me guess. The engagement ceremony? I was the last to know?"
I winced at the bitterness threading through his words.
"How did you find out?" Luna Elena asked weakly.
"You think you can organize an event of that magnitude without word getting back to me?"
Damian’s laugh was harsh, humorless. "I have informants in every major Pack in North America. The second you sent out those invitations, I knew."
He turned to look at me then, and some of the ice in his expression thawed. "I’m not angry with you. This ambush wasn’t your idea."
Relief flooded through me so fast I felt dizzy. "I really didn’t know—"
"I know." His jaw unclenched slightly. "I’m furious with them for putting you in this position. For making decisions about your life without consulting you first."
Luna Elena made a soft, wounded sound.
Damian’s attention snapped back to his parents, his expression hardening again.
"You’re both exhausted. You flew eight hours, you’ve been running around the city all day, and you’re not twenty anymore. We’re leaving. Now."
"But Damian—" Luna Elena protested.
"Now." No room for argument in that tone.
"Wait." The word left my mouth before I’d consciously decided to speak.
Damian turned to me, one eyebrow raised.
I looked at his parents—these two powerful wolves who’d flown across the country just to meet me.
In one afternoon, they’d shown me more genuine warmth than I’d received in two years with the Holts. I felt my resolve crystallize.
"They were just trying to help," I said quietly. "They care about you. About us. Yes, the approach was... unconventional. But their hearts were in the right place."
Something flickered in Damian’s eyes. Surprise, maybe. Or respect.
"The engagement was already part of my timeline," he said after a moment, his voice losing some of its edge.
"I’d planned to discuss it with you properly. Not spring it on you like some corporate merger."
My breath caught. "You... you’d already decided?"
"I’m a wolf, Aria. Once we’ve claimed someone, we don’t hesitate." His gaze held mine, intense and unwavering.
"But you deserved a choice in when and how it happened. You deserved to be asked, not informed."
Luna Elena’s face lit up like sunrise. "So you’re not opposed to tomorrow night?"
Damian’s expression tightened again. "I’m opposed to the method, not the outcome."
He turned back to his parents, his commanding presence returning in full force.
"We’re going back to the house. You’re both going to rest, and tomorrow we’ll discuss the logistics of this ceremony you’ve planned without consulting either of the people actually getting engaged."
Then he looked at me, and his voice gentled again. "After I get them settled, I’ll call you. We need to go over the details together—make sure you’re comfortable with everything. If there’s anything you want changed, anything at all, it gets changed. Understood?"
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
His parents both stood, and to my surprise, Luna Elena crossed to me and pulled me into a tight hug.
"Welcome to the family, sweetheart," she whispered. "I know this was overwhelming, but I promise you—we’re going to take such good care of you."
Alpha Andrew clasped my shoulder warmly. "Tomorrow night, Aria. We’ll see you there. And don’t worry about a thing—your mother-in-law and I have everything handled."
*Mother-in-law* The word hit me like a punch to the chest.
I’d never had parents. Never had that kind of family structure, that safety net of unconditional support.
And now these two strangers were claiming me as their own without hesitation.
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