The Alpha’s Daughter Chapter 08
When I found Cassian, he was practicing calligraphy.
“You took Selene?” I asked directly.
From beginning to end, Cassian had no real feelings for Selene.
He kept Selene only because he knew the heroine disliked this cousin. Selene was a tool to humiliate her.
At the end of the original novel, after the heroine died and Cassian regretted everything, he also crippled Selene to vent his anger.
“Yes.” Cassian smiled at me. “Isn’t she your cousin? If she stayed in a place like that, I was afraid it would damage your reputation.”
“I bought honeyed berries. Have one.”
As he spoke, he picked one up himself.
He did not seem to mind the syrup staining his long, pale fingers. His mouth curved with a gentle smile.
I had to admit, he deserved to be the core male character.
He looked excellent. Clear-eyed, handsome, with the clean grace of an upper-class gentleman.
His smile was warm and sincere. No wonder the heroine had foolishly treated him like a real brother. Even after being sold out, she would still count money for him.
Just take these honeyed berries.
For ten years, without fail, they were always there whenever the heroine came.
How many people had that kind of patience?
No wonder he succeeded.
When I did not take it, Cassian’s smile softened.
“Are you unhappy because I saved your cousin?”
“Then I will send her back. I only did it for you.”
I smiled. “No need. Since you brought her here, keep her well for me.”
I glanced at his desk. “Cassian, were you practicing?”
Without showing a trace, Cassian put away a letter on the desk.
“Yes. I haven’t cleaned up yet. It’s a little messy. Would you like to join me?”
“Sure.”
So I sat at his desk and watched him write.
Cassian was extremely cautious.
Every day, he drank wine, read books, attended pack gatherings and full-moon gatherings, playing the part of an untouchable young aristocrat so well that even Alpha Rowan had been fooled.
Even in front of the heroine, he hid himself flawlessly.
I went to him for a month straight and still found no evidence of his rebellion.
Fortunately, I knew the plot.
By looking at the people he promoted after taking over the pack in the original story, I could roughly guess who was already connected to him now.
I began drawing closer to my father. Every day, I made soup and brought it to him.
At first, Father was cold to me.
The heroine had been weak, introverted, and unremarkable. He had little affection for this daughter.
After all, he had many lovers, and those women had given him many pups.
Only a few survived.
Still, I kept going every day. I specially learned massage techniques from the private doctor and rubbed Father’s temples whenever he had a headache.
People’s hearts were made of flesh.
After enough time passed, warmth began appearing in Father’s eyes when he looked at me.
Once, after reading ledgers and intelligence reports, he swept everything off the desk in a rage and gasped, “Insolent bastards. I will kill them all sooner or later.”
Alpha Rowan was old and muddled, and the pack council was chaotic. Otherwise, Cassian would never have had an opening.
Now there were rebellions in multiple territories. Former subordinate packs were watching like wolves. Gunfire kept breaking out in the streets.
The elders were forming private alliances, each supporting the heir they favored.
Every pack meeting turned into an argument.
The more they argued, the more Father hated the subject.
“They all want me dead sooner,” he said. “Aurora.”
He turned to me, his expression dark. “Do you also think I should name an heir soon? Who do you want me to choose?”
My heart tightened, but my face did not change.
“Father is still in his prime. Why rush to name an heir? Each of my brothers has his strengths, but they are still too young. How could they shoulder such a burden?”
I walked over and gently massaged his head.
“They are only stubborn old fools. Why listen to their nagging? They are anxious because they want to fight for power. But the Blackwood Pack only trusts you. You do not need to discuss succession so early.”
Father was silent for a while. I could feel his tense body finally relax.
He sighed.
“Daughters are better after all.”
From then on, Father’s health worsened day by day.
He did not know that his most trusted confidant had long been bought by Cassian and was slipping drugs into his meals every day.
I did not tell him.
I had no sympathy for a father who could tie his own daughter to a watchtower to force someone else to retreat.
Besides, a sick Alpha Rowan was far more useful to me than a healthy one.
After Father began suffering dizziness and blurred vision, he stopped reading the ledgers and intelligence reports himself. Instead, he had me read them to him every day.
Sometimes he even let me handle them.
I was his daughter. He did not suspect me, because he believed women posed no threat.
Quietly, I began to control everything in the pack.
I thought no one had noticed.
Then one day, Luna Evangeline called me to her room.
“Aurora, what exactly are you trying to do?”