Chosen By The Cursed Alpha King (Emilia) novel Chapter 222

DAMIEN’S POV

Matteo stood rigid beside me, blood still drying on his split lip from where I’d hit him. He didn’t complain. Good. I wasn’t in the mood to hear excuses.

“Show me,” I said. My voice came out flat. Dead. Like someone else was speaking through my mouth.

Matteo tapped a few keys. One of the larger monitors flickered. Timestamp: 2:47 p.m. Gymnasium interior.

Basketball practice in full swing.

There she was.

My Rose.

Number 7 on the blue team, curls bouncing every time she ran. She looked… happy. Focused. Alive. The way she always looked when she was doing something new, something brave.

Then the rough play started.

Some blonde bitch slammed into her side. Elbow to the ribs. Stepping on her foot. Another girl joining in, kneeing her thigh.

My blood boiled slow at first, then hot and fast.

“What the fuck is this?” I whispered, leaning closer.Matteo shifted uncomfortably. “Looks like they targeted her. We don’t know why yet.”

Targeted. My mate. In a goddamn gym class.

I watched Rose take hit after hit-shoulders, hips, elbows.

She held back, I could see it—her wolf wanting out, but she kept it leashed. Good girl. But every wince, every stagger, twisted something deep in my gut.

Then the shove.

Blonde bitch pushing her hard. Rose flying back. Ankle twisting-bad. The crack echoed through the speakers, loud and sickening.

She screamed.

My world stopped.

I gripped the desk so hard the wood creaked. “Damn it.”

The video kept rolling. Rose on the floor, pain twisting her face. Then-fuck-the healing. Bone snapping back. Right there. In front of everyone.

“She shouldn’t have even been hurt in the first place,” | snarled, voice shaking with rage. “Why the hell didn’t you step in?”

Matteo swallowed hard. “We were watching from outside.

Discreet, like you said. By the time we got the feed-”

“Discreet?” I slammed my fist on the desk. The monitorrattled. “She’s screaming on the floor, and you’re playing spy games? I told you to protect her!”

He didn’t argue. Smart.

I rewound the footage, watching it again. The girls’ smirks.

The way they ganged up. This wasn’t random. This was planned.

“Did you wipe this from the system?” I asked, voice low and deadly.

“Yes, boss. Every campus cam, every phone that might ve recorded-gone. But…”

Iturned slowly. “But what?”

He pulled up another screen-blank. “Everything after she left the school clinic… it’s wiped. Completely scrubbed.”

The room went cold.

“How the fuck is that possible?” I stood up so fast the chair toppled. “Unless-”

My sweet, strong Rose. Out there somewhere. Scared.

Alone. Calling for me in her head.

The mate bond—it was quiet. Too quiet. Like she was far away. Or drugged. Or-

No. Don’t go there.

She’s alive. She has to be.

l’d’know if she wasn’t. I’d feel it-like a piece of my soul ripping out.

My phone buzzed on the desk.

I snatched it up without looking. “What?”

A voice came through-male, familiar, but I couldn’t place it right away.

“Hello?”

I froze. “Who the hell is this?”

A pause. Then: “I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Leon.”

Leon. The human kid from Rose’s school. The one who d been too close, too interested.My blood turned to fire.

“I don’t have time for this,” I snarled, thumb hovering over the end call button.

“Wait-wait!” His voice shot up, desperate. “I swear, you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.”

The line went tense.

My finger froze.