Ex-Alpha's Regret: Siren's Comeback novel Chapter 66

POV: Damian

The first reports of Jax Thorne's arrival on the continent came not as a whisper, but as a thunderclap. He didn't sneak back into the territories; he arrived with an armada, his family's vast overseas shipping fleet repurposed into a fleet of war. He made landfall in the neutral southern ports, and with him came an army of mercenaries and loyalists he had spent years cultivating in the cutthroat world of international trade. This wasn't the way of the packs. It was the way of humans—messy, modern, and infuriatingly effective.

He didn't send a messenger. He didn't ask for a parley. His first move was to send a single, unencrypted message to every Alpha in the Northern Alliance, a digital declaration of war that bypassed all tradition.

"Damian Blackwood has broken his vows, attacked an allied family, and left his Luna to rot. He is a dishonorable cur who hides behind his title. I, Jax Thorne, acting Alpha of the Silver Crescent Pack, hereby declare a blood feud. Any who stand with him will burn with him."

The declaration was an earthquake that shattered the fragile political landscape. Alphas who had been content to watch the Thorne family suffer in silence were now forced to choose a side. Jax's audacity was breathtaking, but it was backed by a tangible threat. His wealth and his foreign army were variables that no one had accounted for.

Then came the second blow. Jax's forces didn't march on my borders. Instead, he released a dossier to the entire alliance—a meticulously detailed account of my economic sanctions, my use of Fenrir, and the resulting devastation. He painted me not as a strong Alpha disciplining a vassal, but as a cowardly tyrant who outsourced his dirty work. He used charts and projected trade losses. It was insulting.

The news of Jax's declaration of war reached me through Elara's trembling whispers. It was a roar of defiance that echoed even in the crushing silence of my prison. My brother was here. He was fighting for us. A part of me, the part that was still a sister, a daughter, felt a surge of fierce, desperate pride. He was meeting Damian's ancient, brutal power with a modern, cutting intelligence, and it was working.

But the strategist in me, the cold, calculating mind that now shared a soul with my awakened wolf, saw it for what it truly was: the perfect diversion.

While Damian was scrambling to counter Jax's public war, he had forgotten about the private one. The war being waged in the silent corridors of his own home. He was looking at the chessboard, completely unaware that his queen was about to be taken from the inside. Jax's army was a shield, a wall of smoke and noise that drew every eye, providing the perfect cover for my real plan. The plan that would not just wound Damian, but cripple him in a way no army ever could. His grand performance on the world stage gave me the quiet, hidden space I needed to prepare for my own final act.