chapter 88
Lily POV
Stepping inside, my heart rate hammers in my chest. Damien’s eyes darted to me as he looked down at me. Looking toward the stairs, I can see piles and piles of the padding all tied together at the foot of the stairs. Damien squeezes my hand softly, tugging me toward the stairs but I shake my head not wanting to be trapped up there again.
“If I remove the bedroom door, will you come up?” He asks and I nod, still unsure. Damien walks off, going to the cupboard under the stairs before retrieving something and walking up the stairs. Waiting I can hear the noise of a drill and I hear him moving something before he appears at the top of the stairs. I watch as he walks down the steps before he reaches his hand out to me.
I hesitantly place my hand in his and let him tug me up the stairs. Once on the landing, I looked to my prison and the door was gone.
“You can look in it if you want, it looks very different now” He says and I look at him before following him into the room. He was right, it looked vastly different. It had massive bay windows which must have been boarded up.
I could see where he plastered the tiny holes from whatever was used to hold the padding to the walls. I was also shocked to find another door. Moving toward it, I open it and find a small room. Only big enough to fit maybe a single bed if you were lucky.
“That used to be my room,” He says, making me look at him. It didn’t even have a light, it was that small. And wasn’t much bigger than the storage cupboard under the stairs. Our walk-in was bigger than this small room. Closing the door. I step back, Damien watching me from the doorway. The room was pretty big without all the padding, and with the door gone the entryway was huge.
“This was originally my father’s office” He says looking out the windows, a troubled expression on his face. I nod before walking over to him.
“Why do you stay here?”
“Because as much as I hate it, it’s still my home” He says, tugging me against his chest and wrapping his arms around me. I lean against him.
“You can help me paint it tomorrow? You can pick the paint” He asks.
“What, there is more than one shade of white?” I ask, the entire place was white.
“Well yeah, actually there is, but you can pick something different if you want?” And I can feel the unease move through him at the thought.
“You have some serious OCD problems,” I tell him.
“I don’t have OCD” He deadpans.
“Yeah, you do and I could hear your heart rate spike at the thought of the walls not being white” His heartbeat skipping a beat and I raise an eyebrow at him proving my point.
“Fine, paint it white. But I want that wall,” I tell him, pointing to the main wall that had no windows or doors attached to it.
“Why?” He asks, confused.
“Perfect canvas” I tell him, and I feel his unease, but he nods his head anyway.
“You like to paint?” He asks and I can feel his curiosity.
“I used to”
“As much as it pains me, you can have the wall then. Come, we should go to bed” He says, squeezing my hips. We walk into the room and I flop down on the bed, enjoying his scent that the room is filled with. Damien lays next to me, tugging me against him before pulling the blanket over us and I relax against him. Layla purring in my head at his closeness. Exhaustion taking over as I drift off to sleep.
The next morning, I woke to the sound of the drill. Damien secures the door back in place and I feel Layla on edge pacing and my heart skips a beat. Damien popping his head back in the room and seeing me awake comes over and climbs on the bed next to me.
He leans down kissing my head, “Relax, that door has kept me up most of the night knowing it wasn’t there” I can see the lines under his eyes and feel his exhaustion washing over me through the bond telling me he was speaking the truth.
“I won’t lock you up, Love. I swear,” He says, kissing my temple and pulling me on top of his chest.
Natalia then walks in, a tray in her hand. I try to hop off Damien, but he holds me in place and I give up. Natalia smiles before placing the tray on the bedside table.
“When suddenly the downstairs door bursts open and I hear running before Tabitha appears in the doorway with Trey, a look of relief on her face when she sees me.
“Oh, man next time warn us you’re leaving. I woke up, and you were gone.” Tabitha says.
“Good morning Tabitha, Trey” I chuckle. Both of them are still in pyjamas. Tabitha had a Hello kitty night dress on, and I smiled at her outfit.
“What it’s cute!” She pouts. Natalia shakes her head before walking out. Trey looks a little awkward, but I don’t feel any hostility from Damien.
“Since you’re okay, we will leave you to it” Tabitha says, raising an eyebrow at my position on top of Damien.
As they turn around though, Damien speaks, looking at Trey.
“Can you and Tatum come by later, I need help to get some stuff from the basement” Trey nods before answering.
“Yes Alpha” Damien nods to him and they both leave.
“The basement?” I ask, looking down at him.
“The paint is down there, but so is the original contents of the house, so I need help to shift things to get down there and grab the paint. Then I will take you to buy whatever weird colour you’re going to ruin my walls with him” He says kissing my face.
He lets me sit up, and I hop off him and reach for the tray Natalia brought up to us. I see a bowl of fruit, toast and coffee. I grab my coffee, handing Damien his. Taking a sip of mine, I moan at the caffeinated goodness. Before downing the cup.
Damien sips his while I bite into a piece of toast before getting up and rummaging through the walk-in.
“What are you looking for?” He asks when I don’t come out for a few minutes.
“Something I can paint in” I call back out. Finding a shirt of Damien’s and a pair of my denim shorts and walking out placing them on the bed.
“I like that shirt” He whines, “You have four of them, you’ll live” I tell him while munching on my toast.
“You’re not wearing those pants, Tatum and Trey will be here” He says, eyeing my shorts.
“They’re mated” I tell him before I realise what I said. I was unsure if Damien knew already.
“Regardless you’re not wearing them, they’re too short” Confirming he knew they had their weird love triangle going on.
“Yes, I am,” I tell him, refusing to be told what to wear. Damien glares at me before huffing in annoyance. A low growl escaping him. Ignoring him, stepping into the bathroom, and pressing the button on the wall and turning the shower on.
Stripping off my clothes, I step under the water, wetting my hair when Damien walks in and strips his off, my eyes trailing over his muscled body. Layla purring in my head.
“Stop it” I tell her as arousal floods into me from her. Damien sniffs the air, my arousal flooding the room embarrassingly from the steam. Damien steps in, his hands going to my hips and I shove them off, stepping away from him. He grabs my hand and places it on his chest as he steps under the water. I run my fingers down his chest and over the hard muscled lines of his abs.
Damien chuckles before pulling me closer against him. His hand runs over my breasts as he palms it. His lips go to my neck as he sucks on my mark, making me push myself against him as pleasure rolls over me. Layla purrs loudly in my head and I realise it is her arousal hitting me and I force myself back. Damien groans loudly, trying to tug me back to him, but I push him away.
“You’ll give in,” He says, chuckling.
“Not likely anytime soon” I tell him, his hand going to my hip and I turn around when he presses his chest into my back pulling me against him and I can feel his erection digging into my back.
“You seem so sure, but you’re forgetting something” He growls below my ear before sucking on my mark making me moan loudly, my hands going to my mouth in shock from my reaction to him, so tightly pressed against me.
“And what is that?” I murmur as he continues to assault my neck with his lips before he sucks my earlobe in his mouth, his teeth grazing, and I feel my stomach tighten and my core pulsating. He chuckles and I feel it rumble through his chest against my back.
“You will go into heat soon; we are both marked now” He says, and his words sink into me like he just chucked a bucket of ice water over me. I step away from him, instantly missing the contact of his skin.
“No” I gasp. Damien’s face lights up as he smirks.
“I’m surprised you haven’t already, but you will soon. Your scent is getting a lot stronger, addictive” He says, taking a deep breath, a sly smile on his lips.
I stared at him, anger boiling at his words. I wouldn’t have to worry about going into heat if he hadn’t marked me.
“Don’t be cranky, it’s a good thing” He tells me.
“Yeah, for you it is, I don’t want to complete the mating process. Not after everything, definitely not now”
Damien looked down at me sadly. “I told you I was sorry, Lily. What more can I say?”
“Yeah, until next time and your mother turns up, then what? You’re going to kill me next time,” I spat at him before storming out of the bathroom.
I heard him sigh and switch the water off. Drying myself, I got dressed. Damien walked out, his eyes going straight to my shorts. He growls low but doesn’t say anything before going and getting changed himself. Walking downstairs, I take the tray into the kitchen when I hear the doorbell. Damien answers it, and it is Trey and Tatum.
Walking out, I say hello and we all follow Damien back into the kitchen where he opens a door. The draft hitting us in the face the moment he opened it. The air was thick with the smell of dust and paint. Damien reaches in flicking a light on which lit the stairs up. When he said it was full, he wasn’t lying.
Once down the bottom of the stairs he passed boxes up which we stacked on the kitchen counter and table. After about half an hour Damien had enough room to get to the back where he stored the paint and Tatum went down to help him. Trey and I waited in the kitchen with Natalia. I noticed Natalia eyeing one of the boxes, which read photo albums. Curiosity got the better of me and I could feel Layla wanting to look too. Walking over to it, I opened the lid, pulling a black album out.
Trey, also curious, walked over looking over my shoulder. Looking through the photos, most of the photos were of the pack before I finally found one of Damien as a little boy standing next to a dark-haired woman with a stern face. His father glaring down at the photographer, clearly not wanting his photo taken. Damien looked like a deer in headlights, eyes wide and only around six years old. He was also sporting a huge black eye and had on clothes that were too big for his tiny frame.
I could feel Layla stirring in my head. “What is it?” I ask and I hear her growl.
“I have seen that woman before” She growls, making goosebumps rise on my arms. I could feel anger bubbling but could tell she couldn’t recall where she had seen her. “I just remember her face,” She tells me.NôvelDrama.Org owns all © content.
“Is that Damien’s mother?” I ask, verifying it with Natalia. She tilts her head and nods.” Yes, that is Estella” She confirms. At her words, Trey looked up.
“Did you say Estella?” I looked at him confused and Natalia nodded. Damien and Tatum come up the stairs with two big tins of paint, and painting equipment. I thought he would be mad that I opened the box, but he said nothing. Trey walked over and peeked at the photo and gasped.
“What” I ask.
“I know her, is that the Alpha’s mother?”
“Yes, she is. How do you know her?” Damien asked, curiosity flashing behind his eyes.
“She was one of the rogues I was running from when I came here. She chased me over the border”
“Why were you running from her?” I asked, and I noticed everyone was now intently listening.
“Like I said, I stumbled into the Pack, I really meant no harm Alpha. I was trying to escape her and her Mate.” He says looking at the picture.
“Impossible my father is dead, I killed him myself” He says pointing to the picture of his father. Trey shakes his head.
“No, that isn’t her mate. Horrid man, he tried to recruit the rogues I was with into some fantasy he had about attacking the Blood Moon Pack, said he needed to take down an Alpha so he can take over their Pack. Has some vendetta against the Luna of the Blood Moon Pack apparently they had him jailed for twelve years”
“And you are sure he is my mother’s mate?” Damien asks.
Trey nods. “Positive, apparently he was going to help her escape her old Pack but went missing for years. When he came back, she was already a rogue. Now he is obsessed with taking over someone’s pack. Said he wants to start a war with the Blood Moon and Black Moon. Scary bloke too, gave me the creeps, and he isn’t a typical werewolf either, some sort of Hybrid. I can’t explain it. That doesn’t even accurately describe him and he was always injecting your mother and himself with some green liquid”
Alarm bells were going off in my head, ringing loudly, and I could feel the same coming from Damien.
“What was his name?” My stomach turning upside down and twisting in knots. I had a feeling I was going to regret asking that.
“Kane, or Kabe”
“Kade?” I ask.
“Yes, that’s it, Kade, that is your mother’s mate” Trey says and I feel the blood drain from my face. Damien instinctually, pulling me closer as he wraps his arm tightly around my shoulders.
“I am going to need you to recall every little thing you know about Kade and my mother,” Damien tells him. Trey nods before taking a seat at the table.
“Why, may I ask?” He says, looking up at Damien whose jaw is clenched tightly and I can feel how tense his body is, his muscles rippling as he tries to remain in control. I could feel Darian fighting against him, wanting to shift.
“Because the Pack he wants to attack belongs to Lily’s sister, the Lycan queen. Kade is also the man responsible for hurting Lily” Natalia makes some coffee. Trey tells Damien everything he knows, which really isn’t all that much and similar to what he told us. Said that as soon as he found out their plans he ran, not wanting to be involved in any war.
When they leave I kind of wander around not really knowing what to think. Walking upstairs, Damien starts laying painter’s tarps on the floor.
“Will you be right here, I will run you to the Hardware store and you can pick out the paint you want. I just need to speak to my pack and tighten border patrol, and I want to send some scouts out. I think I should also ring Reid and let him know”
“I can come with you” I tell him. Damien shakes his head.
“No, you stay and relax. I won’t be long promise.” He says.
“I can get Natalia to run me”
“Do you know what you want? I can send Max”
I nod and tell Damien, his face going pale slightly. “You’re not going to paint it rainbow, are you?”
Laughing, I shake my head. “No, I want to paint a mural on it”
Damien looks a little taken aback but says nothing.
He kisses my head when his phone beeps. “I gotta go, but Max will be over with what you want in an hour. I will only be gone for a few hours.” He says. Before walking out.