The Alpha King's Reluctant Bride (Ava and Grayson) novel Chapter 209

Chapter 209 Chapter 209

-Grayson’s POV-

Kiss

69

The debt I owed to Luther Pierce-one I never wanted to acknowledge-had been paid, and because of that, he would live to see another day and in a twist of fate I never could have predicted a year ago, he and I were now allies.

Because now, we had a common enemy.

Damien Cross.

I would have never seen it coming. If someone had asked me to try to pinpoint the mastermind behind the chaos, the killings, and the destruction, Damien wouldn’t have even made the list.

He had been insignificant. Unnoticed. A shadow lurking in the background.

The only reason I had ever acknowledged his existence was because of how close he had been to Ava. That alone had been enough to make me hate him, but I hadn’t thought much beyond that. I hadn’t seen him as a threat. I hadn’t considered him capable of anything beyond being an annoyance.

Little Dove, my foot

But I had to give him credit. He was good. Extremely good. He had played his insignificance well, so well that he had managed to orchestrate everything without anyone suspecting him. He had taken calculated hits, and Liam, who had now vanished off the face of the earth right alongside him was just one if his foot soldiers.

So while Liam had been a pawn, Damien was the mastermind.

For the last week, I had worked tirelessly to reclaim my position, to solidify my power. And while the climb back to the top hadn’t been as difficult as I had imagined, it carried an unfamiliar weight–a touch of vulnerability.

Because the entire realm knew I didn’t have my wolf.

They knew I wasn’t at full strength.

But I was still King—and that wasn’t going to change. Wolf or not, I was going to find Damien and make him regret the moment he decided to interfere in Ava’s life from the very second she was born.

Ava.

I didn’t think there would ever come a time when just thinking her name wouldn’t affect me. But I also knew- anyone

be Ava.

But no one could be Ava Pierce.

And I had been right. She hadn’t forgiven me.

Not like I had expected her to even though she had gone through all of it just to get to me. The moment she regained consciousness after being unconscious for five days, she was gone.

could

And every night for those five days, I had sat by her bedside, watching her sleep, knowing that the moment she woke up, I would lose her again. Knowing that when her eyes finally opened, I would see the truth–the realization that she would never forgive me for what I had done.

But I hadn’t gone after her.

14:24 Fri, 14 Feb

Kiss

69%

Whatever she needed to deal with, I would let her.

Because deep down, I knew that when the time came, I would have to beg–grovel, if necessary–to earn back even a sliver of what I had lost.

For now, I had to focus on fixing my own shit.

“You okay?”

The voice snapped me out of endless thoughts and I looked up from the company files scattered across my desk, my eyes meeting Elaine’s as she stood at the doorway.

She was hesitant-unsure if she should step inside.

I forced a small smile. “I’m fine. Just trying to-”

“Flush Liam out?” She sighed, stepping further into the office.noveldrama

I nodded. “Easier said than done.”

Things between us had changed. We hadn’t spent much time together, but since the vault, something had shifted.

She wasn’t just Elaine anymore. She was someone I had been trapped with, someone who had endured the same horror I had. And that changed things. The family bond that had existed when we were little had clicked back into place even though neither of us were sure of how to approach it now that so much had happened between both of us.

My gaze flickered to her hand, which rested against her stomach-a subconscious act, no doubt. A mother’s instinct to protect her child.

A child that had never existed.

“I’m really sorry, Elaine.”

Kings don’t apologize. But I had found myself saying those words more times than I cared to count.

She sank into the chair across from me, her eyes drifting downward, “I guess I can’t really be sad about a child I never had,” she murmured, “Besides, after everything he’s done, maybe it’s better this way. It would’ve made things so much harder.”

She shook her head, her expression unreadable. “I still can’t believe it.”

I said nothing. Because, honestly, I didn’t know what to say.

What could I say? That Liam had been a monster? That I would make sure he suffered for what he did? Because he would and when I found him, it didn’t matter our history, I would make his suffering excruciatingly painful due what he had done to Elaine.

And so, we sat there in silence, the weight of everything pressing between us.

Finally, she broke it.

“I actually came to ask if it’d be okay for me to move back in here,” She said, her voice quieter now. “Monica says I can stay as long as I want, but with her new boyfriend, I feel like I’m intruding.”

Monica.

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