“You’ve never lied to me,” she said as she stepped inside Aloe’s house.
“Then stay, find me a mate, and create a home for yourself here. There is nothing to lose, for any of us.”
Tess couldn’t hide her shock as she nodded, accepting Damien’s proposal. He’d given her a motive to stay. God, he hoped she didn’t start parading females before him, but he’d put up with it if he had to… anything to keep her here. One step at a time.
“Good night, Damien,” she said, hanging onto the door. She was hesitating, as if she wanted to ask him in.
“Good night, Tess,” he said as he turned and walked away.
Within a second of the door clicking shut, he heard her crying. Soft, muffled cries, as if she had buried her face in a pillow. His inner wolf howled, but he couldn’t turn back. He was playing the long game here, and he could not give in, not with their future at stake.
As Damien tried to tune her cries out—which was perhaps the hardest thing he’d ever done—he checked around the outside of the house for Ty. He’d told the guard to meet them back here. No wonder she wasn’t thrilled with Ty. He wasn’t reliable.
Damien headed over to Callen’s house, to have a brief talk with his enforcer about how some of their guards were getting slack of late. He pounded on the front door, still agitated from the frustration of hearing Tess cry and not doing anything to comfort her.
“You break the door, you replace it,” Callen said as he opened the door.
“Why isn’t there a guard protecting Tess?”
“There is. Ty’s on duty.”
“He’s not there. I saw him at the ceremony and told him to meet me at Aloe’s, since I was walking Tess back.”
“I’ll go find him.”
“Good, because if I do, he won’t be in any shape to guard afterward.”
Callen glared at Damien, which was unusual.
“Watch yourself, Enforcer. You can best anyone in this camp, except for me.”
Callen lowered his eyes, barely enough to appease Damien. “Threatening pack members without knowing the facts is dangerous. I know you’re not yourself lately, which is why I’m trying to be patient, but I can only be pushed so far. You know this.”
Damien almost released his wolf, to answer Callen’s loosely veiled threat. He only restrained himself because he’d known Callen a long time, enough to know the shifter didn’t challenge anyone without good cause.
Damien thrust his hand through his hair and lowered his voice. “Find Ty.” He turned away before he could say or do anything stupid, beyond provoking his friend and enforcer for no good reason.
That’s when a howl reverberated through the camp. One of the perimeter guards sounded the alarm.
“Northeast,” Callen said as he shifted and ran.
Another howl sounded from the South. Callen stopped long enough to glance back at Damien.
“Take the direct path. I’ll approach from the ravine,” Damien yelled. Callen disappeared into the night, as Damien shifted.
Damien had only run three miles when he heard the screams and howls erupt back at the center of camp. The sound of gunfire echoed through the woods. Immediately, he reversed course. At opposite ends of the camp, two humans perched high in tall pines, shooting at everyone that moved. Panicked and screaming, shifters ran in all directions. A few of his shifters tried to climb the trees to get to the snipers, but the snipers picked them off. Blood trailed in all directions as shifters dragged the wounded into nearby houses or behind the cover of trees.
Hayden was lying in the open, his white fur soaked with blood. Damien ran to his friend’s side and parted the blood-matted fur. A chest wound. The alpha put his hand against the wound, applying pressure to slow the bleeding as a bullet whizzed overhead. Snarls and howls erupted in the direction of the shooter.
Blood seeped through Damien’s fingers. “Fuck, Hayden! You better not die on me. If I have to make Callen or Blade my second, I’m going to haunt your ass in the afterlife.”
The sides of the wolf’s mouth curled. Hayden was smiling. He hadn’t given up, but his breathing was faltering.
Pryce’s wolf pounced by Damien’s side, then shifted. As Pryce shoved Damien out of the way, another howl sounded. Aloe.
“Go! I’ve got him,” Pryce said.
Bullets hit the dirt in Damien’s wake as he bounded down the path toward Aloe’s house. He was close, but he couldn’t reach her in time. Even as he leapt those last twenty feet, a human bashed the side of his gun into Aloe’s head. Her wolf dropped, precisely as Damien’s claws sank into the man’s chest. Tearing into the human was easy, especially with his wolf’s rage fueling him. Pain erupted in Damien’s shoulder as more bullets targeted him and Aloe. He grabbed the nape of her neck in his teeth and pulled her to the side of the house, then edged his way through the trees.
The last barrage of bullets came from a sniper in the tree closest to Aloe’s house. Damien shifted to his human form and climbed, ignoring the blood running down his shoulder. The sniper re-trained his gun on Damien. Bark exploded near Damien’s head. A gun fired from below, winging the sniper who lost his balance and fell from the tree.
Brown-red hair flew in the wind as Tess stood in Aloe’s doorway, lowering the gun she had fired.
“Get inside, Tess!” Damien yelled as the sniper got to his feet, raised his gun, and aimed at her. Her door slammed as bullets chipped away at the wood.
Damien shifted and leapt from the tree. He landed on his mark and, within seconds, tore out his throat. The sound of gunfire in the distance ended, and the howls between patrols sounded, announcing the all clear.
After doing a quick sweep of the area, Damien raced back to where Pryce was leaning over Hayden. “How bad?”
“Bad,” Pryce said as he continued applying pressure to the wound. “The bullet’s in his chest, close to his heart. If he shifts, it could move and pierce his heart.”
One of the women dropped to her knees at Pryce’s side, opening a field kit. Together, the two worked on Hayden.
“Check on the others, Damien. This will take time.”
“Don’t let him die,” Damien said, making it an order. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t lose Hayden.
As Damien headed down the trail, two shifters were coming up, supporting Aloe between them. She had shifted from her wolf but was unsteady on her feet. Blood was gushing from her head. Damien pushed the blood-matted hair from where it was sticking to her face and gently kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry. I should have been there.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, her eyes closing, the pain in her face clear.
“Take her to my house,” he said to the two shifters holding her up. “And stay with her until Pryce can take a look.”
“Have Alex look at her,” Pryce called from where he worked on Hayden, cutting through fur and tissue, dumping blood-soaked gauze in the dirt as he worked.
As one shifter went to find Alex and another escorted Aloe to Damien’s house, Damien returned to Aloe’s house to check on Tess. The scent of death greeted him the moment he pushed open the door. In the middle of the living room lay one very dead human with his throat torn out. Ty hadn’t been anywhere outside. If Aloe hadn’t been here to protect Tess… Damien pushed the thought away for now. He was already furious at the invasion and worried sick over Hayden, but the thought that the intruders could have killed Tess nearly made Damien lose his mind, and he needed to focus on securing the camp.
“Tess?” he called out, but she didn’t answer. “Tess, answer me!”
The coppery scent of fresh blood filled the air. Damien’s panic shot through the roof as he followed her scent and found her in the kitchen, blood dripping down her arm as she cut her vein open with a kitchen knife. Damien grabbed the knife from her.
“No, Damien! I have to get it out!”
“Get what out?”
Then, he followed her eyes to the empty syringe lying on the floor. Tess was trying to bleed out whatever the ba
stards had injected into her.
Chapter Fifteen
TESS
“Tell me why I have Hayden upstairs with a hole in his chest, and in the next bedroom over, Aloe’s suffering from a concussion? Aloe who had to fight off, not one, but two humans because there was no guard at her house?” Damien shouted at Callen in the middle of the living room. Callen’s eyes remained hard, but unmoving, as he endured his alpha’s wrath.
“And then explain how the intruders got past your men in the first place and why they didn’t discover the intrusion in time to prevent another eight of our people from being shot or suffering broken bones!” Damien was in Callen’s face at this point.
Callen crossed his arms over his chest but didn’t back away despite Damien’s glare. Callen’s stance and the hard set of his eyes were perilously close to a challenge. How Damien was holding himself in check, Tess had no idea, but it couldn’t last.
“I can’t explain it. Not yet.” Callen’s voice remained even, though a vein in his neck was pulsing rather fast.
Damien’s claws came out, and the hairs at the top of his head were standing on end, his wolf’s hackles. Tess had never seen someone partially shift and hold it—mostly because of the pain involved with mid-shift. From the confusion in Damien’s face, she realized his partial shift wasn’t intentional. He was definitely losing control.
“Damien?” she called from where she sat on the couch, where Alex was taking yet another blood sample from her.
Damien didn’t respond to her. The way he was staring at Callen, she wasn’t sure he had heard her.
Tess jumped to her feet, sending the needle and blood-filled vials crashing to the hardwood floor. “Damien!”
With a growl, Damien turned from Callen. His eyes, more blue than gray at the moment—darker too—roamed from her to Alex, as if assessing the situation to ensure she was unharmed. Then Damien refocused on Callen.
“Please, Damien.” She clenched her fists, hating what she had to say, but it was the only way to break the mounting tension between the two males. “I need you.”
Damien’s claws disappeared into his skin. His scowl deepened when he looked from her to the broken vials on the floor and to Alex standing there waiting to collect more blood.
“Focus on what’s important, Damien. You need to secure your territory,” Tess said.
“The perimeter is secure,” he spat the words, and she had a feeling he’d only managed that because he’d heard fear in her voice.
He edged closer to Callen, trying to force the shifter to back away or lower his eyes, to show some sign of submission, but Callen didn’t move a muscle. “Get the hell out of here and don’t come back, until you have answers for me!”
The yellow overtook the brown of Callen’s eyes; the shifter was pissed off at the situation and at Damien. Callen shifted and bounded out the door.
Alex wisely kept his head down and his mouth shut. Tess wasn’t sure what to do, except sit down, extend her arm, and let Alex continue drawing blood.
“What did the bastards give her?” Damien demanded of Alex.
“I won’t know, until I get back to my lab. I don’t have the right equipment, here.”
“You’re not leaving.”
“Damien, you can’t hold him here. You’re not his alpha, and he hasn’t done anything but help.”
“It’s fine, Tess,” Alex said, about to pat her arm, but he stopped himself when Damien took a step closer, the alpha’s warning clear. “I’m a lone wolf, and I don’t mind staying, but I need my equipment.”
“Blade!” Damien yelled, his gaze still locked on Alex. Blade appeared inside the door in seconds. He’d been standing guard outside and had no doubt heard every word. “Take the truck and whoever you need. Bring back all the laboratory equipment Alex tells you. Tess, you’re staying in my house from now on and don’t even think of fighting me on this.” Damien shifted and bounded out of the house, much as Callen had moments before, angry and determined.
Tess bit back the cry that had welled up inside of her. “He’s barely maintaining control.”
“Believe me, it’s not easy at this point,” Blade said.
She wondered if Blade was speaking from experience. From the day she had met Blade, he’d been restless, agitated, but not as tightly wound as Damien. Damien was like a rubber band that had been pulled too far. It was only a matter of time before he broke.
“Strong shifters have the hardest time controlling their wolves,” Blade added, as he disappeared into Damien’s office and reappeared with paper and pen in hand. “All right, Doc, tell me everything you need and be precise with descriptions, so I grab the right stuff. Then I’ll be off.”
This pack was falling apart, and Tess had no idea how to help. She left the two shifters discussing what Alex needed and headed upstairs to check on Hayden and Aloe. Each had a shifter in the room with them, in case they needed help while their bodies healed. Shifters mended quickly, but it still took time. Occasionally there were complications that needed modern-day, medical intervention.
Pryce had removed the bullet from Hayden’s chest, and Damien’s second regained consciousness long enough to shift back to human form. All in all, his prognosis was good, until he slipped into unconsciousness, once more.
Aloe, on the other hand, was wide awake and sitting up in bed. When Tess entered, Paige, the shifter assigned to be at Aloe’s disposal, turned her nose up and left. Tess ignored the snub, since the shifter was here to help Aloe.
“Hi,” Tess said as she bent over and inspected the large bruise and gash on the side of Aloe’s head. The wound already looked better, since Aloe had been helped up the stairs two hours ago. “How are you feeling?”
“Like a mountain fell on my head. My head is pounding, but I’m not seeing double anymore.”
“All in the day of a hero,” Tess said, smiling.
“I’m hardly a hero.”
“You got those men off of me.”
“But not in time.” Aloe pointed to Tess’s bandaged arm.
Tess shrugged, like it was no big deal. “You’re still a hero. You have to work on your timing a bit, though. You know what they say? Practice, practice, practice.”
“I’d rather let someone else do the fighting. I prefer to be sitting by the fireplace repairing clothing for Damien, Callen, and the guards who risk their lives protecting us.”
“Well, the way the males around here fail to take the mere ten seconds to strip before shifting, your sewing skills will always be in demand.”
“Speaking of which, when can I make the blood-bonding robes for you and Damien? I have a great idea I’d like to try. Something that would be perfect on you, since you’re not going to shift.”
Tess must have paled, for Aloe said, “I’m sorry, Tess. I shouldn’t have said…”
Tess forced a smile. Aloe meant well, and Tess didn’t want her friends to be guarded with their words around her.
“It’s my reality now, and I have to get used to it. It’s going to take time. Damien and I won’t be blood-bonding, but thank you for thinking of me.”
“I thought you two had more time to work everything out, but now I’m not so sure. I heard all the shouting downstairs. Even without shifter hearing, I think I would have heard the argument, from my house. I’ve seen Damien mad before, but never out of control like that.”
“He’s struggling.” Tess’s heart felt tight. She hated that he was suffering. “He needs to blood-bond, but it can’t be me. Alpha and human… deadly combo.”
“We don’t know it won’t work. You’re still shifter.”
“I’m being realistic. I won’t take a chance with his life because I want it to work.”
“You love him, don’t you?”
“Love won’t keep him alive, if he blood-bonds me.”
“Tess?” Alex called from the steps. “I’m not done examining you.”
“Damn vampire will be the death of me.” Tess opened the door and stopped. She had a
thought that solved several problems, if Aloe agreed. “ Nothing about me is shifter anymore, Aloe. It’s a fact that everyone, you, me, and especially Damien, is going to have to accept.”
“He’ll go feral,” Aloe warned.
“Not if we convince him to blood-bond another shifter. You, Aloe.”
Aloe nearly choked on the water she was drinking.
“You’re strong, single, and I saw how Damien fussed over you when you were injured. He gave you more attention than anyone, except Hayden, but quite frankly, Hayden looked like he was on death’s door at the time.”
“Tess, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“You’d be perfect for Damien. Just think about it, okay?”
Tess left Aloe’s room, her stomach was churning at the idea of thrusting someone else into Damien’s loving arms. She wanted Damien, every delectable and frustrating square inch of him, but he needed a shifter who wasn’t broken. When it came down to want versus need, need always won.
* * *
DAMIEN
Damien was running the perimeter, scenting for any intruders the guards might have missed. It wasn’t like him to doubt Callen when the enforcer said he and his shifters had already run the perimeter, and it was clear. It also wasn’t like Damien to lay into Callen like that, at least not in front of others. Callen didn’t deserve to be humiliated in public, especially when the breach may have not been his fault. They had an insurgent in their midst. A shifter who’d turned traitor. The same shifter who killed Ian probably helped sneak the humans past the perimeter guards.
During the last sweep, two of Callen’s shifters found Ty’s body down near the lake. He’d been dead a while, killed just after the blood-bonding ceremony given his body temperature. There was no question that Ty had been targeted, and his throat had been cut with a knife, to make it look like humans had killed him. Damien scented wolf, not human skin cells, nearby. Unfortunately, many shifters had been in the area recently, destroying any chance he had of isolating the killer’s scent from the rest. Most likely Ty knew his killer. That was the only explanation for how anyone could kill an experienced guard like Ty so easily.
Damien’s Dilemma Page 21
