Owned By The Possessive Alpha, Bounded To My Mate novel Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Denise POV

The charity auction occupied that particular kind of room where everything meant two things simultaneously.

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On the surface, there was the usual appearance of philanthropists, billionaires and various business entrepreneurs who graced these kind of events and underneath: bloodlines and alliances/that was clean to anyone trained to read it.

I had spent years being an outsider and now I found myself in the middle of the structure I had spent years avoiding. Needless to say, all eyes were on me.

Rosaline was beside me. Callum had arrived earlier and was at one corner of the room. Reyes moved around with an amused glimmer that told me he found it genuinely amusing.

I had my freedom to move around. I noticed that and filed it alongside the other things I had been noticing about how Kieran’s people treated me..

I saw Lyra within the first fifteen minutes. She was composed, socially fluent and elegant as always. Her elegance looked effortless because enormous effort had gone into creating that illusion. She was speaking with two women I recognized from her usual circle and a third I didn’t know. The third person listened too attentively for what looked like a discussion among friends.

Our eyes met across the room. Lyra’s expression didn’t change as mine didn’t either.

I moved on. The first incident happened at a table far away from me. It was a voice that was deliberately raised for me to hear say something about background and provenance. Nobody else said anything but I knew it had done what it was intended for. The woman it reached happened to know someone from St. Mira’s. There was the slight dart of her eyes as she struggled to process the information she had received.

“Don’t react,” Rosaline said beside me, quietly.

“The thought never crossed my mind.

She looked at me. “Good.”

She turned back toward the room. I knew it was just the warm up. The main act was going to come sooner rather than later.

The photograph appeared an hour in. Someone had circulated an old distorted picture through a social account that was enough to make people wonder why it wasn’t public knowledge.

I saw it on someone’s phone at the adjacent table. I was thinking about my line of action when Callum appeared beside me.

He looked at the image, took his phone out and made a call without saying a word to me. He made two brief calls in quick succession. I caught the words “legal concern” and the name of a platform but nothing

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Chapter 109

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else.

“It be gone in ten minutes,” he said.

“Who.”

“I’ll handle the source. You should go bid on something. The Aldric Foundation is apparently/supporting two of the lots.”

I looked at him. “Callum.”

He met my eyes. “Denise. I’ve got it.”

I went and bid on something.

The photograph was gone in eight minutes. Rosaline later told the person who had circulated was served a lawsuit before the evening ended.

I stood near the auction display and engaged a woman in a conversation. She worked with a wildlife conservation agency, we traded questions and answers as more people joined in on the conversation.

I laughed at something; I had already decided nothing was going to spoil my day.

I noticed Lyra watching me from across the room.

Her eyes betrayed the calculation of a move gone bad and how to readjust. She looked away when she realized my gaze was fixed on her.

Cyrus found her near the side of the room. Cyrus spoke animatedly to her while she was just the epitome of coolness. She looked at him once, then back across the room toward me, then said something brief that ended the conversation.

Lyra remained exactly where she was for a moment then made a round as she said her goodbyes before taking her leave.

She didn’t look at me again on her way out. The rest of the auction went without a hitch. I bid on two more lots, won one, lost the other to a man who made no attempt to hide he wanted it more than I die. Rosaline joined me for the last portion of the evening. Reyes found us near the end and said something about the canapés that I laughed at despite myself.

In the car on the way back, Rosaline turned to me. “You handled that well.”

“I didn’t handle it. Callum did.”

“Callum handled the photograph, he didn’t handle the room.

I thought about that.

“Someone had briefed her.”

Rosaline was quiet for a moment.

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Chapter 109

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