“N – no,” I stuttered. “No, no need for that. It’ll be much worse for him if he sees you take me away. He’ll be humiliated.”
Devin nodded. Damon stirred again.
Open your eyes! Come back to me, Damon!
Both of them snapped open at once, his piercing green irises shot through with gold.
“Give up, Lily... just give up.”
He grabbed my shirt, yanking me toward him, but a split second later, Damon’s eyes focused. His first vision was of Devin’s clawed hand squeezing my throat.
The air in my lungs burned.
“Let her go,” he growled.
Where a second before he was on his back, staring, he had somehow got all the way to his feet and was crouched, ready to pounce.
“Oh, brother, you fool, I—”
Energy exploded as Damon’s legs propelled him ten feet across the room. He drove his shoulder straight into Devin’s gut, and slammed him against the concrete wall, crushing the air from his lungs. Devin let out a loud, mocking laugh that was tinged with a little bit of blood in the corner of his mouth.
Damon drove his elbow into Devin’s wrist, and the long knife clattered to the floor.
“How do you expect to win?” Devin cackled, blood on his teeth.
It didn’t take long for me to realize the blood was from him, not from Damon.
As my beautiful Damon’s shoulders grew wider, his shirt split down the middle. His legs swelled, tearing his dark jeans until they hung in tatters from his trim waist.
“I... won’t... let... you hurt...” He drew a ragged breath and turned to me. “Lily.”
Underneath his ripping clothes, gray – no, more like mercury, quicksilver – fur grew from his skin, his face elongated, but still looked like Damon. They were both massive, both lined with hard, flexing muscle, but compared to Devin, who was twisted and horrible and full of rage, Damon looked calm.
This is what Poko told me about for the story. How the clans split, one half giving in to rage and hate while the other refused. Carak and Skarachee.
My stomach turned as the two alphas finally met each other’s eyes.
“You’ve changed, brother,” Devin said with a sneer. “About time. What did it? What finally got you angry enough? Was it seeing me with Lily?”
“No,” Damon replied, calmly. “I don’t hate you. I’m not angry. I... I feel sorry for you.”
Damon’s gaze was cold, dispassionate. Devin’s was full of hellfire.
“You sound like a boy scout,” the wolf crushed against the wall spat.
One punch, then another, turned Devin’s head back and forth. His cackling laugh turned into haunting, insane babble. Damon threw a third one, but Devin moved away at the last moment and Damon’s fist slammed into the wall, sending a spray of concrete in a ring around it. He grunted and recoiled, but not before his brother slashed his chest with his dagger-like claws.
Damon threw back his head, roaring in pain, but when Devin tried to throw another punch, Damon grabbed his hand in mid-air.
A sickening crunch sent the rage-filled brother to his knees. “Is that enough, Devin?”
Devin threw another punch. Damon easily grabbed that hand too, and pushed down so hard the floor creaked and dented. But still, he struggled. “You will... never win... Damon,” Devin growled. “Not without... giving in.”
“No,” Damon said. “I’m not like you.”
Devin’s hand moved around, scrabbling for something. His fingers close around the hilt of that huge dagger and I surged forward, knowing Damon hadn’t seen.
“Lily! No!” he shouted, but I was already in the air. Devin’s hand flashed, silver moonlight bouncing off the blade.
Right where my collarbones met, I felt pressure, but no puncture.
I fell. A grunt of pain escaped me, and my hand went to my throat. A long, thin, shallow cut trailed from the center of my chest to my shoulder. “The tooth,” I said, sucking air. “It stopped the knife. I—”
“Enough!” Damon roared, lifting his brother off the ground by the throat, then slamming him to the floor again. The knife clattered near the entrance to the cellar, ten or fifteen feet from where the giants clashed.
Muscles flexed, Damon gritted his teeth, squeezing Devin’s throat so hard that the cords in his massive, silver-lined neck and forearm went tight.
Then, a groan escaped the slightly smaller, black half-wolf, and his hand relaxed.
“Damon!” I shouted. “No! Don’t kill him! You know what Poko said, he—”
Devin thrashed again then went limp. He was still breathing, but only barely. “Damon,” I said, “I love you. I’m safe.” I ran to him, wrapping my arms around his massive shoulders and collapsed against his burning hot skin. “There’s no need for this.”
A shudder crept through Damon, and he clenched his eyes tight for a moment.
I kissed his neck, I kissed his cheek. “Please,” I whispered. “Be stronger than him.”
He tightened up one more time, one last squeeze. And then he released his grip.
“Oh my God I can’t believe you’re here,” I said, falling across him and letting my emotions completely overwhelm me. “This is all so... I can’t... I just...”
Wracked with sobs, I couldn’t speak anymore. I could hardly think. The rush of pain from the long cut across my chest throbbed, but I hardly noticed.
“He cut you,” Damon said. When he spoke softly, his lupine voice wasn’t very different from his normal one.
“No, don’t worry about that,” I said, placing my hand on his face. “You’re incredible Damon, the tooth, that thing you gave me, it somehow deflected the knife. It’s just a tiny cut.”
He grabbed the shredded collar of his white t-shirt and ripped it off, fashioning an around-the-chest bandage for me before cradling me in his arms. “It’s only for you,” he said. “If not for you, I would have laid there and died. Or I would have killed...”
I kissed him again, feeling the hard hairs on his face retract under my lips. When next I opened my eyes, he was fully human again, and looking very, very tired.
“Hello? Is everyone okay?” Cat’s voice came from the stairwell. I’d almost forgotten about her in all the activity. “Devin?” she said when she saw him lying on the ground. “Is he...?”
“No,” I said, “he’s alive.”
“Good,” Cat replied. “I wanted to do this myself. After everything this asshole did to me, I’ve been waiting for this.”
She let out a high pitched wail and charged.
“Cat! No!” I screamed, but too late to stop her from leaping.
At exactly the last possible second, Damon turned and saw the knife in her hand. Instinctively, he stuck his arm out, catching the blade with his own hand.
“Ah! God, it burns!” he cried out, squeezing the knife and howling in pain.
The blade screamed against his flesh for a split second, smoke filling the air. When Cat came to her senses, she let go and fell backwards.
“Oh no,” she whimpered. “Oh Jesus, Damon I’m so sorry, I... I didn’t mean to... that bastard deserves to die for what he did to me.”
Damon held his hand with the other, then opened it and flexed his fingers. That’s when I noticed that the mark on his face had faded to a trace. The one on his palm went from black to angry red, and obviously hurt.
“That’s silver,” she said blinking at him. “Devin said silver was the only way to kill one of you.”
He shook his head. “I thought so too, but...”
Cat was shaking, trembling, and crying. Damon stood up and went to her, plucking her off the ground and yanking the leather jacket Devin had been wearing off the tabletop and wrapping it around her shoulders. “Everything’s fine,” he said. “I’m okay.”
He turned his palm, showing it to her as the wound healed. “Just hurt for a second. The most important thing is that you didn’t do anything that you’d regret. I can live with some pain, but I doubt you could live with ki
lling someone.”
I couldn’t believe the things coming out of his mouth. Such soft strength; such quiet power, and such tender caring even though he was, well, a giant.
Caitlyn grabbed his big forearms, and he held her against his chest. “Shh,” he said, calming her like he would a scared child. “You’re fine. Everyone’s safe.”
Beside me, Devin groaned. I had to restrain myself from kicking him in the head. He was so close that it wouldn’t have taken anything more than a step and a punt...
“You,” Damon said, turning his attention to his brother. “Leave.”
“L... leave? Why didn’t you kill me?”
“Skarachee do not kill. You’re not one of us, not anymore. Leave.”
Devin’s mouth was shaking as he sat up. “Leave? Where will I go? Where—”
Damon waved his hand. “Doesn’t matter. You and your people will leave and never come back. You have two days to get your message to your clan. As for you,” he bent down, grabbed Devin’s hair and pulled him to his feet. “You leave now.” He pressed something into his brother’s hand.
“What’s this?”
“Keys. To my motorcycle. Take it and go.”
Devin started laughing. Of course he started laughing. “You can’t do that, you can’t control my clan,” he said. “You’re not their alpha. I am.”
“They won’t have an alpha if you don’t do as I say.” Damon’s voice was flat. His eyes were narrowed to slits. “Now.”
“This won’t stand,” Devin said as he finally decided on a tactical retreat. “This won’t last. I’ll be back, and when I do, it’ll be with an army. You won’t take the territory without a war.”
“You won’t take it with one,” Damon whispered as Devin started the bike and the tires whipped a muffled path into the distance.
Overhead, the light bulb that had been swinging on a chain popped. The silver moonlight spilling through the west-facing window was our only light, but it was enough for me to see the resolve on Damon’s face.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I love you Lily, with all my heart,” he answered. “But don’t question my decisions when it comes to my people. I am as sure as I’ve ever been. There aren’t many Carak, and they’re territorial. If Devin somehow gathers them, we’ll deal with it then. Understand?”
God I loved it when he talked like that. His gentle strength made me ache and burn for him, even with all that happened. It kinda made me blush that the only thing I could think of was having him underneath me. “Yes,” I said softly. “Yes, I see what you mean.”
He grunted. “Come on,” he said. “People will be worried. People have missed us.”
Outside, Cat ran to the back seat and buckled in as fast as anything I’ve ever seen. Damon turned to me when we had a moment alone.
“You saved me,” he said, pulling me close to his chest. “Without you, I’d have killed him.”
I brushed his long, black hair out of his face and kissed as high up his neck as I could manage on my tip-toes. “I’m not the only one who got saved. You were amazing, Damon. You’re everything I ever wanted.”
“Even if I don’t talk about my feelings enough?”
He kissed my neck, his lips trembling against my goose-bumped skin. Somehow I didn’t care much about a protracted discussion right then. “We’ll... mmm... we’ll work on it.”
Damon laughed that solid, resonant laugh he had and held me tight. “I want to do horrible things to you right now,” he said.
I blushed so hard I think my toes turned red. “Did you just say that, Damon?” I giggled wildly.
“You heard me,” he growled in my ear, kissing my neck again. “Right here, under the moon. Seems kinda fitting, doesn’t it? Although I guess it’s rude to do this with Cat in the car.”
A sly grin went across Damon’s lips. “Unless you think it’s too dark for her to see?”
“Oh stop! Let’s hurry though,” I said. “You’re not the only one with thoughts like that. I need you worse than ever. I need to feel you, I guess, to make sure all this is real.”
“It is,” he said, tilting my eyes to his moonlight-lit face. “As unbelievable as it is, this is all real.”
I let a long, drawling breath slip out of my mouth. “Let’s go,” I said.
He nodded and turned to the car.
“And Damon?”
“Huh?”
“I wasn’t joking about you hurrying. I mean it. I want that foot on the gas pedal. Get me?”
Damon reached under the steering column and effortlessly sparked the ignition.
“I’m so glad you know how to do that,” I said with half a smirk.
His smile flashed in the moon, and as I climbed into the car beside him, and took his hand, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to last even the hour it would take to get back home.
Twenty
“Poko seemed happy,” I said, lying back on the blanket that Damon laid out and stared up through the trees into the stars above. “Relieved may be a better word.”
“I can’t believe he was at your grandpa’s house the whole time, and I can’t believe that you somehow knew more about me and the clan than I did. How did you manage that?” Damon reclined beside me and slipped an arm under my neck.
I rolled to face him, and breathed him in. “I’m an investigative journalist,” I said with a feigned pout on my lips. “That’s what I do!”
He laughed softly. “Well, that’s good. I’m glad you’re making your way. That story’s gonna be great,” Damon said, kissing me softly, and pulling a deep breath through his nose. “All your stories are great. Can’t wait to read it.”
“Yeah? You already know everything it’ll say. What’s the fun in reading something when you already know the ending?”
Damon’s chest shook with a soft chuckle. He hadn’t bothered to replace his torn up shirt when we got back to town. We just dropped Cat off, went back to grandpa’s house to check in, and found him and Poko sitting there waiting. We had a really short little chat with them that involved a lot of people saying how proud they were of others, but the only thing on either of our minds was getting out of there and to our special place in the forest, the place we first made love as the moon rose.
“Do I know the ending?” he asked, stroking my neck with his fingertips. “Or is all this just starting?”
Just being near him filled me with warmth. “You’re the big alpha who marked me, aren’t you? I’m bound to you for life. Hard to say the ending isn’t already written, isn’t it?” I leaned against him, laying my head on his shoulder. “Why did it take so long for us to get here?”
“Too much in the way,” he said. “And fate isn’t an ending. Destiny is just... a word.”
“You’re a poet too now? What happened to stoic, unfeeling Damon? What happened to the boy who wouldn’t say more than three words at a time?”
“You did.”
In one smooth motion, Damon swept me to a side and slid himself between my knees, making me giggle uncontrollably. The cargo shorts he put on before we came out here barely held the long thickness that brushed my leg when he arranged himself. He propped himself up on his elbows and stared straight into my eyes.
“I’d be dead without you, Lily,” he said. His voice was low and rumbling and made my whole body ache. He ran his fingers around my face, down my chest, and let them settle on the soft skin just underneath the bottom of my shirt.
Carefully, he undid the bottom button.
“And you’re thanking me by not tearing this shirt apart?” I smiled and ran my hands through his hair. “You saved my life Damon. I don’t know why you keep telling me it was the other way around.”
He kissed my neck, then my collarbones, then my chin. “I don’t mean what you think I do,” he said before sucking on my bottom lip and letting his teeth clack together in a gentle bite. “You made me realize I was better than him. If I’d have killed Devin...”
“No,” I whispered. “Don’t t
alk about that. It’s over. It’s the past. He’s gone.”
“For now,” he pushed my shirt up my belly and lowered his head to kiss around my navel in a circle. “He’ll be back.”
I leaned my head left, then right, relishing the tingles that crept up all the way to my neck, prickling my nipples. My whole body, every nerve, seemed to flare to life at once. Electricity eased through me, pulsing pleasure in waves that radiated from my core out.
The stars burned, twinkling silently, and a meteor streaked across the sky as Damon’s tongue painted a slow circle around my bellybutton. His fingers trickling along either side of my torso sent chills up that his tongue turned into waves of slick heat when they went down and wrapped between my legs, around my thighs, cascading down my legs.
“We’ll worry about him then,” I gasped, grabbing his hair and making him look at me. “For now it’s just us,” I said. “Us alone.”
I moaned quietly as his fingers crept up my legs, underneath my short-cuffed shorts. “You going to write about this in your story?” He asked, pressing against my softest skin with a sweet brush of his fingertip. “Or would that make it seem like you had an unfair bias?”
That got me giggling furiously. “No, I think I’ll leave this bit out. The Times is a respectable paper, you know.”
Smiling, I let him take me away; away from the pain and the fear. In his arms, I was whole, we were whole. We were one soul with two bodies. I never wanted this blissed moment to ever stop, not even for a second.
His fingers pushed deep, then blazed a trail around me. I felt my slick, expectant heat warm me through. By the time his first fingertip entered me, there was nothing I could do but look at the moon and breathe his name. “Damon.”
“It sounds so beautiful when you say it like that. Everything you do sounds beautiful.” He pushed deeper, slowly rotating inside me, curling his finger against my sweetest place. I wondered if the noise I just made sounded as pretty as Damon seemed to think the others did.
Fated Mates: The Alpha Shifter Boxed Set (12 Book Bundle) (Insatiable Reads) Page 44
