The Shadow's Inheritance

Chapter 4: The Cost of Humiliation

Chapter 4: The Cost of Humiliation

The moment Salvatore relayed the counter-demand, the air in the command center turned toxic. The Beta, usually pale, went several shades whiter as Jungkook Alessio Deluca's dominant Alpha pheromones flooded the room. It was not the controlled, authoritative scent of cedarwood he used in negotiations; it was the raw, unrestrained rage of a territorial Alpha whose pride had been violently assaulted—a choking cloud of burning pine and iron.

"What did you say?" Jungkook's voice was a low growl, barely recognizable.

Salvatore, despite his training and years of service, stumbled back a step. "Capo, they want Deluca Luxury Holdings. The entire subsidiary. Every asset. They stated that this is not a negotiation for money, but... for humiliation."

The word hung in the air, a stinging indictment. Jungkook picked up the heavy crystal decanter of twenty-year-old whiskey and hurled it across the room. It exploded against the armored wall with the sound of shattering glass and shattering pride.

Humiliation. Taehyung had chosen the single target that exposed Jungkook's deepest insecurity: the fact that his immense wealth and Alpha power could not buy true connection or contentment, forcing him into a decade of empty playboy conquests. Deluca Luxury Holdings was the financial manifestation of his emotional failure.

"He knows," Jungkook whispered, his breath ragged. He wasn't talking about business strategy; he was talking about his soul. "He knows exactly where the soft tissue is."

He knew, because Taehyung, his former Omega wife, had lived five years watching Jungkook retreat into that decadent shell, attempting to outrun the silence of their empty marriage. The rage suddenly solidified into cold, lethal focus.

"Salvatore, cancel the defensive maneuver on Banca Vecchia," Jungkook commanded, wiping a bead of sweat from his temple. "Acquire the bank. Overpay if you must. But treat it as a distraction—because it is."

"And DLH, Capo? They are waiting for our response."

Jungkook walked to the digital map, which still showed the elegant flourish of Taehyung's signature. "DLH is non-negotiable. I will lose everything before I hand that snake my shame on a silver platter."

He turned to his Chief of Security, a silent, granite-faced Delta named Giannis, who was waiting by the door. "Giannis, corporate intelligence is useless here. This is familia business now. I want every asset in the ombra—the shadow network—mobilized. I don't care about Terra Nova. I want the ghost. I want the Omega. I want Taehyung Rossi."

His voice dropped to a primal snarl. "Locate the funding. Trace the personnel. I want eyes on every major city in Europe, focused specifically on a five-year-old boy. Alpha scent. Cedarwood and cinnamon. Use the pheromone mapping technology. Find the child, and you find the Omega."

Giannis nodded once, recognizing the gravity of the shift in command. This wasn't a hostile takeover; it was a kidnapping operation ordered by an Alpha whose sanity was frayed.

Jungkook then pulled his phone, his thumb hovering over a contact marked ENZO. He had been ignoring the current Omega husband's calls all morning.

He had been the one to discard Taehyung, his true mate, for his supposed infertility, replacing him with Enzo, a proven Beta-Omega capable of carrying the Deluca heir. Now, the fear—that Taehyung had returned, not only with unimaginable wealth but with a trueborn Alpha son—threatened to destabilize his current foundation entirely. If the word got out that Taehyung, the discarded wife, bore a stronger Alpha than Enzo's child, Jungkook's entire reputation for cold, decisive Alpha control would shatter.

Jungkook put the phone down. He couldn't face Enzo's passive, cloying compliance right now. He needed to hunt. He needed to hurt.

"Salvatore," Jungkook said, his Alpha scent hardening to pure venom. "Prepare a statement for the media. Tell them Deluca Holding Group is initiating a worldwide counter-acquisition campaign against Terra Nova. I want every journalist asking: Who is The Shadow? I will expose him. I will ruin him. He wanted humiliation? He will receive it tenfold."

Jungkook looked at the signature on the screen, a dark, possessive longing mixing with the pure malice of his rage. You played your hand, Taehyung. Now I play mine.