“So, when I shifted for the first time when I was thirteen, not long after I actually met you for the first time. I started training with the patrol guards in secret. They wanted to see him fall. Then one night he beat me again and Darian lost it. Forcing the shift and ripped him to pieces. He wanted to kill my mother too, but I begged him not to. So, he didn’t. After that I took over and became angry, which is where the rumours come from. I hated Alpha’s. Wanted to kill them, convinced they were all like my father. My father’s Beta taught me how to run the Pack until I was seventeen, so when he retired the job went to his son”
I didn’t know what to say after hearing all that, but I wanted to know so badly. Knowing now, though, I kind of wish I didn’t. I couldn’t imagine living through that, I know Aria lived through some horrific shit from my father protecting me. But what his father and mother did was disgusting. I don’t even think my father back then would have been that cruel.
“What?” He says when I say nothing. I shake my head and I can feel Layla pacing in my head. She wanted to kill his mother and get revenge for him.
“Well, you make my childhood sound so much better after hearing that” I tell him, using sarcasm. I honestly didn’t know what to say and sarcasm was my go-to when I was left speechless. Damien chuckled softly.
“It wasn’t all bad, I have some good memories” He says.
“Like what?”
“They might upset you because they involve Tabitha,” he says. I used to hate Tabitha but now after knowing everything and how things had changed between her and I. I was grateful he had her, that he had one real friend who stuck by him and I could now understand why he was involved with her and I actually felt bad that I caused the rift between them.
“I want to hear them, Tabitha isn’t so bad,”
“She isn’t?” He said mockingly. I slap his shoulder.
“She has grown on me; I understand her better now. Besides, I have to like her now she named her daughter partially after me” I tell him. Damien smiles before lifting himself up and placing his arms on either side of my face as he moves closer. He brushes his nose on mine and I kiss his lips.
“I love you, Lily, and no I am not just saying that, so you sleep with me, but I won’t say no if you want to” He says chuckling softly.
I smile before kissing him and pulling back. “I love you too, but you can wait another night,”
“So tomorrow?” He asks hopefully.
I laugh before pushing him off.
“Where are you going?” He asks when I get up.
“To shower, you can join me if you like” His eyes light up before I see him get up following me to the shower.
Damien’s POV
Waking up the next morning to Max screaming through the mind-Link. They had a sighting of Kade Barclay near the eastern forest. Jumping out of bed, Lily stirred before I watched her sapphire and amber eyes flutter open and look up at me. “What’s wrong?” She asks.
“Nothing, go back to sleep” I tell her, Darian growling in my head wanting to take over. Pushing him back, I grab some shorts. When I come back out, Lily is getting out of bed.
“No, go back to sleep,”
“I want to come, something has you on edge. Tell me what’s going on Damien,”
“Nothing you need to worry about, I will be back soon” I tell her despite her protests. I manage to escape the house without her, feeling a little uneasy about not telling her. Lily hated secrets but she was under enough pressure. I didn’t want her to worry, besides, it is my job to protect her and the Pack and I wouldn’t be letting her anywhere near Kade. She was safer at the Pack surrounded by our warriors.
If I told her she would demand to come, and I really didn’t feel like arguing with her right now when we were sort of okay at the moment. I meet up with Max, who is waiting out the front beside my car.
He goes to speak when I raise my hand, telling him to be quiet. Looking up at the bedroom as I climb in my car, I see Lily watching from the window. I knew she would be listening.
“Where to?” I tell him when I jam the keys in the ignition.
“The nature reserve, forty Kilometres East of the pack, scouts were searching the area and came across a camp” In a dust of smoke we tore out of the driveway heading to the front gates. The gates open as soon as the border patrols see my car heading towards them. Beckett waiting next to the gate stops me and I lower the window.
“What’s up?” I ask him. He wasn’t rostered today, but since we lost three of our men, he has refused to have a day off and has been tightening the border patrols.
“I want to come” Looking at his outfit, I see he is only wearing a loose-fitting pair of shorts and a singlet instead of his armour.
“Come on Alpha, you know I am the best tracker, I can help” He pleads. My pack members have been on edge wanting revenge for their fallen members. One of the men that were killed was Beckett’s older brother, and I knew he wanted revenge for his death.
“Get in” Beckett jumps in the back and we head to the reserve, Max tries and fails to contact the scouts. I tried to force the link when suddenly I felt the first one drop. His teether snapping, the pack link breaking, and I pressed my foot down on the pedal harder. I nearly lost control of the car when I felt three more of my scouts’ links break.
Growling through the pain and I wondered if Lily felt it. My white-knuckled hands clutched the steering wheel as pain from my fallen pack members racked my body, then feeling their mate’s agony flood into me.
The only downfall of being an alpha, is the link I share with my entire pack. It can become a distraction or a curse when you have to feel your pack members die, feel their last moments on this earth, then feel the heartache of their loved ones grieving them.
Max looked at me. I had sweat beading on my forehead and ran down the back of my neck.
“You okay, Alpha?” I couldn’t answer as I felt another drop, the last one. Instead growling as Darian fought for control.
“I have tried to get hold of them; none are answering the pack link” Beckett said from the back seat.
“That’s because they’re dead” I tell him, and I see Max’s body start shaking at my words.
“Don’t you fucking shift in my car” I warn him. Hair spread across his arms as he fought for control. The car skidded to a stop at the back of the bush reserve. The normal half an hour’s drive is done in ten minutes.