Page 1 of Demon Valley Marked

Prologue: Reject Me Twice, Shame On Me

~ALPHA MALIFER~

“Master, you’ll need to leave if you want to make it to the deal on time.”

Could one’s heart thrum as fast as mine was in this prime moment of uncertainty?

My mind was a swirling tornado of spiraling thoughts that craved my sole attention, and yet my unstable emotions were just as desperate to be acknowledged.

In five years, I’d never felt as “human” as I did in this moment. The numbness of my emotions on the surface were but a façade to cover how I truly felt in the depths of my soul.

Those plentiful rows of treasure chests tucked deeply within me were beginning to unlock, one by one, and it was with a feverish haste that I was attempting to shut them before they fought to rise to the surface and be acknowledged by the rest of my crumbling world.

What a time to be alive...

When was the last time I had been on the verge of losing control of my own sanctuary?

This sacred haven was created to protect me from the real monsters and demons who didn’t deserve an ounce of my mercy and yet did everything in their power to destroy me at my weakest.

My years of peace, precaution, and solitude were finally coming to an end, all thanks to one pretty little monster. I was about to be forced to face everything I’d been putting off, all because my enemies feared one individual.

My Sweet Lex… who had almost been stolen from me thanks to that traitor of a bitch.

I should have been focusing on the urgency in Wallas’s voice, and yet even that didn’t seem to make me fear the worst, which was surely brewing above the surface. It was crystal clear that from this moment onward, things would be moving swiftly, and we really only had two options.

To be cowards and falter or to rise to the challenges ahead and finally make our mark in society.

This was going to be the kickstart to my revenge—the catalyst to what I’d desperately craved to taste for years since that fateful day that changed me forever. My survival, leadership, creations, and planning would finally be seen by the enemies who thought I was but a lost threat to the valley. But was I ready to reveal the truth to those I trusted?

Do I even have a choice?

“Alpha, Shade Pack can’t sign that alliance agreement. That Fox bitch isn’t clean,” Fynn stressed.

“No shit,” Felix snapped. “She’s a fucking psycho! Look at her damn sister! Why the fuck would she betray Alpha and steal the familiar? It makes no damn sense.”

I was forced to tune back into the conversation, my eyes briefly glancing over to my Beta Commanders, Felix and Fynn, as they attempted to figure out Lauren’s true motives.

To be brutally honest, I never truly trusted her.

With her constant attempts to be the Lady of Demon Valley Pack as if she truly deserved to carry the title of Luna and her unnecessary advances to try to become my concubine and bring me an heir for these forbidden shadow lands, I’d marked her as my daily entertainment whenever I went down to the Residences to assess who was alive and who was dead.

Her behavior these few years was fucking laughable but the thought that her desperation would lead her down this new path of betrayal was impressive.Not completely surprising, but impressive.I’d give her credit for having the balls—or in this case, pussy—to betray me, Malifer Nightshade, but she’d certainly ruined any chance of avoiding my ultimate wrath thanks to her bringing Lexianne Heartwell into any of this.

I should be questioning how the fuck she knew Lexi was still participating in the trials to reach the Residence.

“They want Lex,” I declared loud and clear because I really didn’t want to waste much time.

If a deal was about to occur, we needed to get out of here and make real mafia moves, for time was money and my empire needed all the money it could earn with these random deals that would empower us further.

To make us ripe and ready to create our own public display of alliances for these foolish, self-centered packs to witness with their own eyes.

The attention fell on me as I attempted to keep my expression rather neutral in nature, but I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up with how my levels of anxiety and spiking bouts of anger were going into a competitive match with one another.

Meanwhile, my own tendrils of fear were sitting down and eating some good old popcorn in wait for their grand rise to the stage of emotional catastrophe.

“Why? They sacrificed her. They’ll believe she’s dead,” Felix pointed out.

“They had no faith in her abilities of survival. Why do they now seek her or even know she’s alive?” Fynn added.

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