"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 just 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 morph**e 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.”