Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 108

POV: Damian

The final bidding session for the ‘Heart of the Deep' project was held in the grand auditorium, a cavernous space filled with a tense, electric silence. The preliminary rounds were over. It had come down to this: a head-to-head battle between the old guard and the new blood. Blackwood Industries versus Vance Capital. The fate of the world's largest untapped energy reserve would be decided in the next hour.

My team went first. Our lead strategist, a sharp, seasoned wolf named Marcus, laid out our proposal. It was a textbook Blackwood plan: aggressive, dominant, and utterly unapologetic. We would fund the entire multi-trillion-dollar project ourselves. We would build and control the deep-sea drilling platforms, the refineries, the shipping lanes. In exchange for access to their territorial waters, the host nations and smaller packs would receive a flat, fixed royalty fee. It was a non-negotiable, take-it-or-leave-it offer. It was a plan built on the unshakeable foundation of our immense wealth and military might, a declaration that we were the only power strong enough to pull this off, and therefore we would be the ones to reap the rewards. It was, in its own way, a masterpiece of arrogant, monopolistic power.

As Marcus concluded, a polite but cool applause filled the room. Our offer was strong, but it was the offer of a king, not a partner.

Then, the floor was given to Vance Capital.

Killian Vance did not take the stage. Instead, a single figure emerged from the wings, walking into the spotlight with a calm, unhurried grace.

It was her. Seraphina.

"Vance Capital is not here to offer you a royalty check," she said, her voice resonating with a quiet power that was utterly captivating. "We are here to offer you a seat at the table. Our proposal is not a monopoly. It is a collective. We will create a new, jointly-owned corporation to manage the Heart of the Deep. Every pack whose territory we operate in will be granted a founding equity stake. You will not be our employees; you will be our partners. We will share the risks, and we will all share in the unprecedented profits. We will not build an empire for one. We will build a commonwealth for all."

The room erupted in a chaotic buzz of excited, shocked whispers. She had taken my chessboard and flipped it over, changing the game from a one-on-one duel into a collaborative enterprise. She had transformed my potential clients into her partners, my subjects into her shareholders. She had armed the sheep against the wolf.

I stared at the woman on the stage, at her poise, her brilliance, her absolute command of the room, and I could not reconcile her with the silent, broken woman I had kept locked in a guest room. Who was this queen? And what, by all the gods, had I done?