Chapter 312 Let me do the introductions

Chapter 312: Chapter 312 Let me do the introductions

Aria’s POV

Damian, on the other hand, barely reacted to the insults. He stood beside me, calm and unreadable, as though Rose’s words weren’t even worth his attention.

Every time Rose threw another barb at him, I found myself stepping in before I could even think about it.

I could feel Damian’s eyes on me, and when I glanced at him, he looked almost amused.

But I knew Damian well enough to understand that his calm didn’t mean he wasn’t protective.

He could tolerate people insulting him.

But if they insulted me?

That was different.

"Aria, a little orphan like you." Rose wasn’t done. "In this whole city, where were you ever going to find a better man than one of ours? Let me tell you something. Even if Ethan was only ever playing with you, that was still the luckiest break of your worthless life!"

She clearly hadn’t expected me to bite back the way I had, and she nearly choked on her own breath. Someone at her side had to steady her before she went over.

"That’s more than enough, ma’am. Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?"

Even the head of security couldn’t stomach it anymore. He got there before I could.

"I’m talking to a shameless little—"

"You—"

My chest was heaving. She’d genuinely gotten to me. And then the arm around me drew me in tighter.

"So this is how the Holt family sees the world," I said. "Trapping someone in a fake marriage. Cheating. Fraud. Insulting people to their faces. All of that, to hear you tell it, is some kind of blessing. So how about I hand a blessing like that right back to you? How would that suit?"

Damian gathered me all the way into him, the way you’d scoop up a small, bristling cat. His arm slid up, and his hand pressed lightly over the back of my head, as though he could shut out every filthy word aimed at my ears just by holding me there.

Might because he’d marked me,I felt what moved in him then—the ache when he thought about the years I’d spent living the way I had, and underneath the ache, the anger.

The last trace of amusement left his mouth. He lifted his eyes and looked at the old woman, cold as deep winter, and Rose felt her spine go rigid all on its own.

But she was staring at him glaring, staring at him holding me, and her breathing only grew rougher. "I’m talking to Aria. Nobody asked you to open your mouth!"

"You’re saying Ethan paid for this place?"

"That’s right! That woman on your arm, she’s keeping you on my family’s money!"

Rose’s voice rang out, righteous and shaking. She meant to shame us both into the ground.

"..."

Damian let out a low scoff, and a dark, jagged little smile touched the corner of his mouth. The look he cut toward Rose was like a blade drawn slow across bone, cold enough to sink into the marrow.

And then his Alpha aura exploded through the courtyard.

The change was immediate.

Every werewolf in the courtyard went rigid.Then their bodies began to betray them.One by one, heads lowered.Shoulders dropped.Knees weakened.And throats bared.

It was instinctive. Involuntary. The kind of submission no wolf could consciously fight when faced with an Alpha whose power stood so far above their own.

Their chins lifted, exposing the vulnerable line of their necks.

Rose’s face drained of color.

Her body trembled beneath the weight of Damian’s presence, her own instincts forcing her into submission even as she fought to keep her dignity.

But me?

Nothing happened.

I stood there in Damian’s arms, breathing normally.

His Alpha pressure rolled over me and simply... stopped.

"My wife keeps me. As she should." Damian bit each word off clean. "But keeping me on Holt money? You’re selling my wife far too short. And you’re grossly underestimating the Blackwood name."

Rose’s face had gone completely bloodless."Blackwood...?"

Her voice was barely a whisper.She looked around at the guards, at their lowered heads and exposed throats, and finally back at Damian.

"Which Blackwood?" she asked, her voice thin with fear. "Don’t think you can pull one over on an old woman. What Blackwood family is there around here anymore?"

I stayed tucked against Damian’s chest.

For once, I didn’t feel the need to defend myself.

I simply listened to the steady beat of his heart and felt his power wrapped around me.

"There’s only one Blackwood family in this world."My voice was quiet and flat."The Blackwood Pack."

Rose’s lips parted.Rose’s lips parted.

I watched the color drain from her face, and for the first time since she’d arrived, she looked like she was beginning to understand just how badly she’d misjudged the situation.

"Since you’re so desperate to know who my husband is, let me do the introductions."

I lifted my eyes to her."My husband is Damian Blackwood."

The room fell completely silent.

"Alpha of the Blackwood Pack."I felt Damian’s arm tighten around me."King over every last one of us."