The Alpha's Mate (8 Sexy, Powerful Shifters and Their Fated Mates) Page 20

  Sure. That would go over really well. Julia fell onto her bed and sobbed into her pillow, muffling her cries as best as she could. The long day of hiking and sun had tired her out, and she cried herself to sleep, her bathing suit still on.

  When she woke up, it was nighttime and Granny Dee was knocking on the door. Julia fumbled for the switch and turned on her lamp.

  "Julia? Julia, it's time for dinner."

  "I'm not hungry," Julia called.

  "Are you okay?" The sympathy in Granny Dee's voice only made it hurt more.

  "I'm fine," Julia said. "Just tired."

  There was a pause.

  "Okay," Granny Dee said. "If you want to talk, let me know."

  "I will," Julia said. She sat up, dizziness rushing through her head. Her phone had six missed calls from Damien. Only one message. She dialed into her voicemail, her hand trembling as it held the phone up to her ear.

  "Julia..." Damien's voice sounded tired. "I need to talk with you. Just once more. I—I can't leave here without talking to you. I hope to see you soon. Call me, please."

  Julia deleted the message and lay back on the bed. The night air in summer had always been soothing, but tonight it stifled Julia's breathing. She stared at her ceiling. One crack in the plaster had always captured her imagination, the lamplight playing shadows over it and creating all manner of faces and creatures in the twists and turns of the cracks. Now she saw a wolf's face staring at her from the ceiling crack, the line of its tail extending out. She rolled over and out of bed.

  Granny Dee left Julia alone when she needed it, and now when she tiptoed down the stairs, she could hear her grandmother in the downstairs bedroom listening to one of her jazz records. Quietly, she slipped out of the back door and into the meadow behind the house.

  Fireflies everywhere. Julia walked forward, arms outstretched, feeling as though she was floating across the field. She looked up at the sky, and the stars and the lights of the fireflies seemed to blend together, white and yellow dots of light swirling around her.

  Then she felt it.

  The same feeling that she had gotten when she first saw Damien in the library. Her eyes swept across the woods, looking for something, anything. The sense that there was somebody near her made her whole body vibrate with anticipation instead of fright, a strange reaction.

  It was nothing. She was imagining things. She turned to go back inside.

  "Don't go." The voice came from out of the darkness. His voice. She spun back and saw Damien walking slowly across the field, as calmly and gracefully as if he had not been blind. The dim moonlight showed only the outline of his figure, but as he came closer Julia saw that his eyes still glowed with a golden hue, and his white shirt reflected blue in the light of the moon. Although her brain told her that she should be scared—he was a monster, after all!—she wasn't in the least bit afraid.

  "Damien." Julia lost her voice as Damien stopped in front of her. She'd forgotten what she wanted to say, or maybe she had known all along that there were no words that could describe what was in her heart at that moment. The longing, the desire, and the blunt agony of knowledge that no amount of either would bring him to her. Yet there he stood.

  "Julia, I need to talk to you."

  She cleared her throat.

  "Then talk."

  "I should have told you earlier. I don't want this to come between us more than it already has."

  "You've already chosen someone else," Julia said. "That's clear enough."

  "I don't want her," Damien said. "Not now. Not after—"

  "After what?"

  "Not after I've found you. We were only together by necessity. Neither of us had mates."

  "She must love you, though?"

  "She owes me her life, and I am the leader of the pack. Truth be told, she would rather be with someone else. The only binds she has toward me are feelings of obligation. Not love."

  Julia saw the sorrow in his eyes, and she knew that he was telling the truth. Her heart ached.

  "I can't, Damien," she said. "Not after you lied to me about so much. Your girlfriend. Wanting to buy my house. Are you even blind? How do I know that's not a lie too?"

  Damien cringed at the word girlfriend.

  "Please," Damien said. "Ask me anything. I'll answer honestly. Ask me any question in your mind and I'll tell you the truth."

  "How can I ever trust you again?" Julia whispered.

  Damien was silent for a moment. The breaths between them were filled with heat.

  "You have to choose to trust me," he said. "It's a hard choice to trust somebody. Always. Every day is another choice, and you will have to decide again and again whether or not to trust me."

  "You lied."

  "From now on, I will never lie to you. You have my word on that."

  "You lied about your...your condition." Julia shivered, thinking about how he had changed form. Thinking about how rabidly he had come between her and danger.

  "I didn't want to scare you away. I'm sorry. Everything I've said I said to protect you."

  "I don't want you to protect me," Julia said. Her mind echoed with the unspoken next sentence: I want you to love me.

  "Whether you want it or not, I will protect you. You are the one I'm supposed to be with," Damien said. "You're my true mate."

  Without warning, he stepped forward and took her hands in his. Julia gasped at the touch. Passion thundered through her nerves and for a moment she was dizzy with the thought of the two of them embracing. Damien reached up and caressed her cheek softly, and his fingers traced lines of desire across her skin. Every one of her senses was jumping at the slightest touch, and around them fireflies danced and winked in the darkness.

  "I know you're scared of me. You're scared of all this. Who wouldn't be? But I know I'm supposed to be with you."

  Julia struggled to argue against him. "If you were supposed to be with me, then why would you already have a...a mate?"

  "We're not true mates," Damien said firmly. "She was bound to me because it's my pack. She was the only female we had."

  Julia thought that she might go insane just thinking about what all of this meant. His pack. Mates. This was nuts. One hundred percent crazy. She thought that bring crazy might be preferable to the truth here.

  "I can't just let you go," Damien said. "You're mine and I'm yours. Can't you feel it?" His thumb stroked her cheek and she leaned into his touch involuntarily. She wanted to pull back but couldn't, as though a magnetic force held them together.

  "Yes," she said quietly, trying to piece together her thoughts. "I feel it. I didn't know what it was when I first saw you, but I feel it too. Is it possible?"

  "You're what I've been waiting for my entire life, Julia," Damien said. His hand traced the line of her neck, and a small gasp found its way between her lips. "I know we're meant for each other."

  "But I'm not like you," she said, her eyes flickering down over his body, thinking about the way he'd shifted into something else. Something animal.

  "That's true." Damien paused. "I don't understand it. Maybe we'll figure out someday, but if we don’t...I understand. The way I am." He shrugged. "I'm blind. I'm broken. And I'm not human."

  Julia wanted to scream that it didn't matter, to throw her arms around the man in front of her and promise that everything would be alright. Her entire being was pulled towards Damien. His eyes locked onto hers, and for a second she swore that he could see her. Damien brushed a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. His fingers continued to move across her face, and he sighed.

  "I don't know if one of us will outlive the other. I don't know if we would be able to have children. Or if we did, if they would be like you, or...or like me."

  "Children?" Despite the seriousness of their conversation, Julia laughed. "Isn't that a bit, uh, premature?"

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that you don't feel the way I do."

  "Damien, I am attracted to you. I am. It's just—"

  "It's not j
ust attraction," he said. "I feel your emotions. I sense them. Like radio waves I can pick up on. We're connected."

  Julia's jaw dropped.

  "You're saying you can read my mind?"

  "No, not really," Damien squeezed her hand. "Not your thoughts, not unless you're feeling them very intensely. Just your emotional state."

  "How?"

  "I don't know how it happens. I've heard about it but I've never felt it before. Not until I met you," he said.

  "What exactly do you feel, though?" Julia frowned. The idea of having someone able to sense her mental state was a little disquieting.

  "I can feel your presence as something in my mind. When you're angry or happy, I feel it too. Like now, you're confused. A little scared. Curious. I feel it all inside of me, like the emotions are radiating outward from you."

  Julia swallowed. It was hard to think when you knew somebody was thinking the same thing right along with you.

  "So you feel my confusion now, like you're confused? You get angry when I'm angry? Is that how it works?" she asked. So many questions floating around in her mind.

  "No, it's more like...imagine hearing your favorite song. Imagine it now."

  Julia closed her eyes and imagined. The lilting strains of the ballad her mother used to sing to her while playing the piano. Her mother's soft voice. Then Damien spoke, breaking through the song.

  "You see? You're not actually hearing it, but you are. In a way. Your mind is playing it so that you can almost hear the notes."

  "That's how you feel my emotions?"

  "Right. I don't actually feel them, but I sense them. They're not perfectly clear, and I don't know why you're feeling what you're feeling. It's more of a shadow of what they really are. Like you imagining the shadow of a song."

  Julia looked into the soft yellow glow of Damien's sightless eyes. For the first time, she felt as though someone was actually looking at her. Not her outer body, not her face. Looking into her true self. A sense of peace washed over her body.

  "Forgive me for coming back here," Damien said. "I just couldn't leave you without saying goodbye."

  "Don't," Julia said.

  "Don't what?"

  "Don't say goodbye."

  She stepped forward and he met her lips with his in a fervent kiss. A sharp shock echoed through her body. The shock of raw desire, of brutal lust. Blinding white shocks of light exploded behind her eyelids, and even when she opened her eyes she saw nothing but bursts of light. The air around her grew warm and pressing, and she put her hands against Damien's chest, not knowing whether she was pulling him in or pushing him away. Desire. Desire. I want you. Julia—

  She tore away from the hot kiss, gasping for breath. The sky spun above her and she held on to Damien's arms to steady herself.

  "Julia," Damien said. "Are you alright?"

  "What? Yes. Yes, of course." Her breath came fast, all of the air in the field not enough to fill her lungs. "I just...this is all happening so fast. I don't understand it."

  He pressed her hands between his. His forehead rested against hers, his breath hot on her lips, smelling like pine and wilderness. They stood there together, feeling the rush of desire swim through their minds and bodies, one to the other. Around them fireflies danced and shone, their lights calling out for their own mates.

  "It's late," Damien said finally. "You should sleep."

  "I don't want you to leave," Julia blurted out. She was thankful that Damien could not see the hot flush on her cheeks.

  "I'll be back tomorrow," he said. "Like you said, we're moving quickly. I don't want you to regret any decision you make tonight."

  "But—"

  "Sleep on it," Damien said. His lips curved into a soft smile. "Don’t tell anyone about all this.”

  “Of course not.”

  “And I promise I'll be back."

  Julia sighed.

  "I have to work tomorrow," she said.

  "Call in sick."

  "I can't—"

  "Tomorrow morning, then. I'll come at nine. You'll only be a little late. Trust me."

  Julia opened her mouth to say that she couldn't, that she really needed the hours, that she couldn't afford to be late, but the words evaporated from her lips before she could speak them. She had no idea why, but she trusted Damien.

  "Okay," she said.

  "I'll be back tomorrow morning," Damien said. He leaned forward and kissed her again, a gentle kiss that brushed her lips so softly she wondered if he might not be a spirit instead of a werewolf. "Goodnight, Julia."

  "Goodnight."

  Julia returned to the house, tiptoeing back up the stairs. The desire in her body sent her muscles weak with shivering every time she thought of the kiss they had shared. She climbed into bed and looked out of the window. The fireflies had all but gone, fading quickly as the coolness of night set in. Only a few flickers of light remained. The thick white roundness of the full moon rose slowly behind the dark pines, its halo casting a ghostly ring around it in the clouds. She closed her eyes and slept, and in the darkness the howl of wolves reverberated through her dreams.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Damien

  Jordan was still stitching up the other shifter’s wounds when Damien returned.

  “He’s doing much better,” Jordan said, as soon as Damien entered the room.

  “Still unconscious?”

  “He’d better be,” Jordan said. “I gave him enough morphine to last until tomorrow morning.”

  “I just got back from the bank,” Damien said. “Wrote them a check for that property.”

  “What about the girl? She knows about us. It’s not safe.”

  “She won’t tell.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know.”

  There was a pause, and Damien could hear the wolf’s struggled breathing as he lay on the makeshift operating table.

  “You’re still taken with her,” Jordan said. “The Calling isn’t something that you feel with a human.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s dangerous to let her live.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re not just putting yourself at risk here, Damien,” Jordan said, his voice rising. “You’re putting our pack at risk. And what about this shifter? What pack is he part of?”

  Damien shook his head.

  “I have no idea. There are a lot of questions I want to ask him when he wakes up.”

  “But you still think staying here is a good idea?”

  “Are you questioning my judgment?”

  “Damien, I followed you when nobody else did. I trust you. I love you. But this...this infatuation—”

  “It’s not just an infatuation,” Damien said quietly.

  “Whatever it is, it’s putting our lives at risk.”

  “You say you trust me,” Damien said. “Then trust me.” Despite his confident tone, he had doubts of his own. But the shifter had said that he was there for Julia. As prey, or something else? There would be a lot to figure out in the coming days, but his gut told him that this was the place they needed to settle. It just felt safe. A good place to start a family. A family—

  He sniffed the air. “Where’s Katherine?”

  “She and Kyle went to scout the borders of the town again,” Jordan said. “To make sure there weren’t any more shifters from the same pack as this guy.”

  “When did they leave?”

  “About an hour ago.” Jordan’s surgical tools clattered as he gathered them up from the table. “Should be back soon.”

  “I’ll wait for them outside.”

  “Do you want something to eat? There’s leftover pizza in the fridge.”

  “No, I’m fine,” Damien said. He walked to the hotel door.

  “Are you sure?” Jordan asked.

  “Yeah, I had something to eat earlier,” Damien said.

  “No, I mean, are you sure about this?” Jordan said. “Staying here. Staying on that property.”

  “Yes,�
� Damien said, and as soon as he answered he knew that it was the right answer.

  “And the girl?”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Damien said. “Don’t worry.” He closed the door behind him before Jordan could object again.

  Damien walked across the parking lot and stood at the edge of the woods, waiting. In the darkness that had enveloped him for the past two years, he could replay the memories of what he’d seen back when he still had sight. Now, he remembered the last night before the fight that had taken his eyes and driven him away from his main pack.

  The stars had been bright in the sky, the smell of the forest as sweet and cool as it was now. He remembered the pale white moon, and now as he stood by the trees he lifted his head and held the memory in his mind so that he could almost see the bright circle above him.

  A smell brought him back to the present. Katherine, her sweet musk on the air. Damien licked his finger to test the light breeze. They must be upwind of him. He could hear both of them now, their paws crunching the branches and pine needles underneath, their laughter lilting on the wind, carried to his ears.

  They stopped well before reaching him, and Damien tensed, thinking that something had happened. The sounds that came to him were of a scuffle, perhaps a fight, but there were no yelps or growls to indicate anything amiss.

  Then he heard Katherine’s low whine, the whine of a female in heat desiring the attention of a male. Kyle yipped and whined back, and Damien could almost see in his mind their rough, flirtatious play. He froze, unsure of what to do. A week before, he’d have had to challenge Kyle and fight the young wolf, but now there was a lot more at play.

  A lot more. Even though he didn’t want Katherine as a mate, this flirtatious behavior insulted his status as alpha male, even in as straggling a pack as his was. He thought a moment before calling out in their direction.

  “Katherine! Kyle!”

  He immediately heard their play stop, their voices silenced. He waited. They might run now, leave the pack. It was up to them.

  He heard their footsteps growing louder. They slunk out of the trees and shifted back into human form. Damien could hear Katherine’s breath coming fast, and Kyle’s heart pounding.