Chapter 28: His true purpose

Dominic silently anchored his silhouette within the shadows, his amber gaze locked onto Clara as she spun beneath the dim perimeter lamps, catching the falling frost flakes within her palms.

She was robed in a thick, midnight-wool trench, paired with stark white over-knee leather boots; a crimson velvet scarf was coiled loosely around her neck, framing her delicate face and making her emerald-infused features appear exceptionally sharp and vibrant.

The raw, unguarded ecstasy reflecting within her gaze was a frequency he had completely failed to intercept during their previous confrontations.

Whenever her aura aligned with his presence, she transformed into a hostile little hedgehog, aggressively raising every quill across her spine. Her emerald eyes were consistently saturated with lethal vigilance, deep suspicion, or freezing detachment—eternally denied the vulnerability she unmasked at this exact breath.

Deep within his primordial registry, the supreme Alpha King experienced a phantom trace of reluctance to step from the shadows and compromise her peace.

"Your vanguard breached the perimeter; for what motive do you stall your march outside?"

It was only when the crystal storm intensified, dusting Clara’s dark lashes with a pale layer of winter frost and forcing her fragile system to unleash a sequence of sharp sneezes, that Dominic finally permitted his massive frame to breach the shadow lines.

Clara violently swiveled her head. The exact second her eyes processed his towering form, a flash of pure shock ignited within her gaze, before instantly freezing over into a dense shield of tactical defense.

"Your presence was anchored at these coordinates throughout that entire interval?"

Dominic felt a passing prick of agony slice through his inner wolf, wounded by the immediate barrier she raised against him. His thin lips parted to deliver a clinical, freezing baritone. "Negative. My boots merely exited the inner sanctuary a single breath prior."

Clara released a visible, physical wave of tension from her chest; her pride was profoundly relieved that her playful, unbonded behavior had bypassed the Alpha King's calculations.

Yet Dominic’s facial planes hardened, his expression dropping into a deeper tier of absolute zero.

He offered zero further syllables, pivoting his powerful frame to throw the heavy oak barrier open, before casting a demanding glance back over his shoulder at her position.

Clara registered that his massive arm was holding the gateway open exclusively to grant her transit. She swiftly glided past his chest into the interior. "My gratitude."

She had calculated zero preparation for the reality that greeted her across the threshold; the exact second her boots cleared the frame, the aggressive, piercing gazes of over a dozen high-tier pack members shot forward, pinning her position like silver arrows.

"For what motive does your scent cross our perimeter again? Fascinating; your rogue spirit truly possesses a parasitic nature, refusing to vacate our tracks."

Lady Anna was the primary entity to react, aggressively rising from her velvet seat as her arms locked across her chest, her visage contorted with absolute disgust as she locked onto Clara’s profile.

Intercepting her hostile frequency, the surrounding pack executives shifted their positions, casting ravenous, intrigued stares toward the intruder.

"Anna, does your registry track the lineage of this female?"

Anna let out a low, mocking snarl. "A formal introduction is unwarranted. This rogue is merely a delusional, infatuated stalker tracking our Alpha King's majestic throne."

The moment the remaining wolves processed the gossip linking the intruder to Dominic Vance's bloodline, a chaotic wave of telepathic whispers rippled across the hall.

"Preposterous. Are low-born females of this cycle truly so feral and undisciplined when tracking an elite predator's scent?"

"The Alpha King executed an absolute vault-lock on this entire tavern for our council feast tonight; by what bypass loop did she breach the borders? We must summon the territory enforcers to purge the room immediately."

Clara stood anchored at her coordinate, her emerald eyes darkening into sheets of absolute, freezing ice.

She had calculated that Dominic's text summons was a direct alignment response to the text ledger she had transmitted earlier.

She had failed to decode the reality that his sovereignty merely required her presence to serve as a chess piece to balance his numbers?

"Listen well, rogue; by what right does your shameless spirit remain anchored within our defensive lines? Has your snout failed to track the notification explicitly stating tonight is an exclusive tribunal feast for our operational division? You are an unaligned outsider; execute an immediate retreat from our territory."

Anna unleashed her venomous mockery without restraint. From the initialization cycle of the dawn, her inner wolf had been panting with anticipation for her private, intimate coupling feast with Dominic Vance, only to receive a high-priority mandate near twilight announcing that the entire executive department was commanded to attend.

"My presence shall decline the outer invitation; the Alpha King has long since locked a fated engagement to run alongside my lone trail tonight."

She had joyfully flashed that digital text across the pack communication channels only a sub-cycle prior. Yet, the consecutive second, Dominic Vance had explicitly tagged her profile within the grand registry, releasing a deadpan command: "Did your sensory nodes fail to intercept the tribal mandate?"

Anna had frozen into absolute stagnation, her intellect requiring several heartbeats to decode the brutal reality—the Alpha King's compliance to share a feast with her line was executed by dragging his entire military cabinet along! It completely invalidated the definition of an intimate coupling date!

Ultimately, her pride had been forced to submit, transmitting a hollow "Understood" across the link before dragging her feet to the tavern, her paws forced into a pair of ten-centimeter crystal heels she had meticulously harvested exclusively to entice his wolf.

She was highly skilled at soothing her own ego; regardless of the chaotic matrix, she could still anchor her presence within close proximity of Dominic’s dominant pheromones, evaluating the feast as an extra cycle to track his movements.

Yet she had calculated absolute zero probability of tracking Clara Thorne’s scent at this table.

Following their past clash at the ancestral stronghold, her scouts had deployed high-tier surveillance to decode the female's background, yet the results unmasked an absolute, terrifying void; the ledger merely displayed her entry through the territory borders a few sun cycles ago.

Her professional title, seasonal cycles, and past residential strongholds were completely wiped into a blank sheet, as if a supreme, untouchable power had intentionally deployed an iron vault to mask her lineage.

Initially, Anna had suffered a wave of psychological panic, calculating that Clara commanded the backing of a massive, shadow "Benefactor"—an elite predator whose wrath her own line could not survive.

But her arrogance swiftly reasserted its dominion, concluding that a pathetic rogue like Clara had simply surrendered her flesh to be kept as a hidden, unbonded plaything by some distant lord, who had executed the security wipe merely to protect his own name from scandal.

"Does your voice represent the Alpha Commander of this division?"

Clara maintained an unyielding, pristine composure, her vocal cords vibrating with a slow, lethal calm. "My ears captured the rumor that your presence is merely an unverified, newly recruited initiate undergoing training within the public relations sector; the authority to command my movement has far from reached your paws."

Anna’s breath hitched, completely choked by the sharp counter-strike, yet her eyes aggressively swiveled to petition the division commander for leverage.

The Alpha Commander was a middle-aged, battle-worn wolf who traditionally favored silence to bypass territorial friction; far from merely tolerating Anna, the entire public relations pack held absolute zero respect for his low-frequency sovereignty.

Anna had breached the firm’s borders only half a moon cycle prior, yet utilizing her family's massive wealth, her hands had already bought the allegiance of the majority of the cabinet. Although the Commander had rejected her material bribes, his public addresses consistently abstained from unleashing harsh discipline against her arrogance.

"Alpha Commander, my declaration is executed exclusively to preserve the honor and security of our firm's borders. Furthermore, she has indisputably tracked our movements to execute a stealth breach; otherwise, how could her rogue presence secure these coordinates before the Alpha King has even presented his aura?"

Clara’s internal instincts experienced a sharp ripple. Dominic had explicitly sworn he had just vacated the inner halls, yet Anna’s tongue unmasked the reality that his shadow had not yet been recorded by the table; the supreme monarch had unleashed an authentic falsehood to her face.

"A passing clarification... honored guest, my apologies for the disruption, but this sector is indeed locked for a private military feast, and your presence generates a distinct strategic inconvenience." Driven into a corner by Anna's direct petition, the Commander was forced to raise his frame to negotiate a retreat with Clara. In truth, his inner wolf had long detested Anna's insubordination, yet his intellect recognized her ancestral bloodline was exceptionally heavy, forcing his authority to endure her behavior within the firm.

"Identify the entity claiming her presence creates an inconvenience."

Right at that explosive threshold, Dominic’s deep, velvety baritone cut through the tension from the outer vestibule.

His massive frame had been anchored within the entry corridor from the initialization of the clash, completely obscured by the architectural barriers of the gateway, preventing Anna and her subordinates from tracking his presence on the field.

Consequently, from the absolute baseline syllable, the supreme Alpha King had devoured the entire confrontation with his own ears.

He had initially designed to evaluate Clara's psychological resilience and defensive capacity under pressure, yet Anna's reckless tongue had accidentally exposed his own tactical cover, triggering a violent surge of dominant wrath within his chest.

"Alpha King!"

Processing his majestic aura, the entire assembly violently threw their frames upright, bowing their necks to hail his vanguard.

A radiant spark of absolute triumph ignited within Anna’s gaze, her form executing a rapid sprint to secure the primary position by his side. "My Alpha, what motive delayed your grand arrival? My inner wolf has suffered an agonizing wait for your presence."

Dominic executed a cold, fluid shift of his stance, completely evading her extended hands as she attempted to anchor her claws into the tailored sleeve of his garment. His amber eyes cast a freezing, lethal look down at her face. "The delusional, infatuated stalker... the title fits your profile flawlessly, does it not?"

That singular, clipped syllable caused the absolute current of blood within Anna’s veins to instantly freeze into solid ice.

He... his supreme senses had captured every word?

No, the matrix was failing—how could his royal tongue deploy such a devastating insult against her own name!

The triumphant mask upon Anna’s face shattered beyond repair. Forcing her system to simulate a desperate, trembling stability, she rasped, "Alpha King, what definition does your speech imply? Your physical form commands such magnificent prowess and immense wealth, and your hand rules our pack workers with such profound benevolence—is there a single wolf across the corporation who denies your majesty? The entire herd harbors absolute adoration for your name."

"Mm. As long as your intellect registers the reality that your existence is merely limited to the rank of a subordinate pack worker, the boundaries are preserved." Dominic looked down at her with a dark, mocking smile, his amber eyes completely drained of human emotion—a predatory stare so terrifying it forced Anna’s boots to execute two involuntary paces backward in absolute submission.

Anna’s eyes instinctively darted to evaluate Clara Thorne's standing nearby, and within a single, horrific breath, her intellect decoded the ultimate design.

The entire tribunal assembly was a illusion. Deploying a formal mandate to drag her here alongside the cabinet was merely a shadow play; forcing Clara Thorne to cross the threshold was Dominic Vance's authentic, sovereign purpose!