“Come on, Damian, aren’t you going to give me one kiss?” Vivian purred. Damian rolled his eyes at the act, shrugging her arms away from his shoulders.
“Not now, Vivian, I’m busy,” he told her, taking a look at his watch. They had been journeying for hours now, and Damian just wondered when they would arrive at the pack. He had been away for months, working on a business deal in Canada, and was now returning to check on his pack, see how things were doing and, of course, the mating ceremony was approaching—which was the main reason behind his return.
She gave a low hiss. “You are always busy, Damien. Sometimes I think you don’t have time for me anymore.”
Damien sighed. It wasn’t a new conversation, and it was one he definitely wasn’t ready for. “Not now, Vivian, you know you make it really hard for one not to get irritated by you.”
She frowned, going back. She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow, an angry expression now on her face.
“What are you trying to say, Damien? That I irritate you now? Are you seeing another girl? I would like to know this—”
“Enough!” Damien commanded. “Don’t push my buttons, Vivian.” She kept quiet after this. Moving away from him, she folded her arms, looking out the window with a stubborn pout on her face.
~
“Welcome back, Damien,” Luca, Damien’s best friend and the beta of the pack, greeted him as his friend approached him. They shook hands. “How was the ride?”
“Sour? Let’s just say I’m glad to be back. I didn’t exactly have the most interesting traveling partner.”
“What do you mean? Who came home with you?” Movements behind Damien caught Luca’s attention.
“Oh, I thought you were going to leave her in the city; you brought her back with you?” He let out a low groan. “Here she comes.”
“Luca,” Vivian said, stopping beside Damien. But he didn’t pay her any attention; rather, he proceeded to continue his conversation with Damien. “Didn’t you hear me call your name?” Vivian looked like she was losing her patience. “You know you should pay me respect, Luca. One day I’m going to be your future Luna, and I won’t tolerate this disrespect from you.”
Luca scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yes, this pack is going to have a Luna one day, who I am going to respect, but darling, it’s not going to be you. You are not Damien’s mate, what makes you think he is going to make you his Luna?”
“Luca,” Damien said softly. “Not now, please.” Damien wasn’t ready for one of Vivian and Luca’s fights.
Though what Luca said was the truth, Vivian wasn’t his mate, and he knew that because his wolf wasn’t attracted to hers. Deep down, even though he didn’t want to admit it, because he felt guilty doing that, Damien was glad knowing Vivian wasn’t his mate. He just couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life with her.
“Damien, did you hear what he just said to me?” If looks could kill, Luca would have been dead and buried at the moment. “Are you going to stand and watch him disrespect me?”
“Don’t listen to him, Vivian, how about you go back home and rest. I need to catch up on things with Luca.”
“But… Fine!” She began walking away, making sure to bump shoulders with Luca as she walked past him, though from her reaction it looked like she was the one who got hurt.
“Damien, I remember warning you not to go close to that girl. First, it was a one-night stand, then friends with benefits, relationship, and now she is already foreseeing bearing your future kids, Luna of this pack, my foot. Why haven’t you ended things with her already?”
“I know she’s annoying, Luca. Trust me, if anyone should know, it’s me. But Vivian is still human, with feelings and other stuff, I can’t just end things with her; it will seem like I only wanted her for sex.”
“But it’s true, you only wanted her for sex.”
“Don’t be an ass, Luca... and she doesn’t have to know that. Now, are you going to keep me standing under the hot sun, or can we finally go in?”
Luca grinned. “Sorry, you must be tired.”
“You wouldn’t even begin to imagine.”
~
“We have settled the dispute with our neighbor clan; they have released Michael to us,” Luca informed Damien.
“Michael again? I thought we’d warned him to stop trespassing onto their land. We’ve maintained a good friendship with the RoseBlood clan for seven years now, and we would like to keep it that way.” He turned to the man standing by his right. “Rain, tell Michael I would like to see him later today. I would like to remind him if he remembers the Pack he belongs to.”
“We all know why he is going there.” Luca chuckled and gave a low whistle. “Good, I just remembered. The stray wolf who wandered into our pack, Rain and I found her.”
“Yes,” Rain said. “Bluey. She is a troublesome one.”
“This girl you speak of, where is she?” Damien asked.
“She’s in the dungeons. She has been there for three days now. Her name is… well, we don’t know her name, but Lila calls her Bluey.”
“What do you mean by you don’t know her name? Haven’t you gotten it out of her?”
“Uh… We would have, but there is a slight problem. She seems to be suffering from a… what we hope is a short memory loss.”
Damien sighed, rubbing his brows. “Fine. Bring her to me, I don’t want to step my feet in the dungeons.” He nodded and hurried to do as he was told. Damien turned to Luca, who sat by the side. “This girl they talk about, have you met her? Does she look dangerous?”
“I was the one who found her. I had gone hunting with the guys when we saw her lying just by the border. She doesn’t look like a threat though, no, far from that, she looked more like she needed help.”
“Help?” Damien asked.
“Yeah, unkempt, poorly fed, like she needed help. I haven’t spoken to her though; Lila has… she has become friends with her.”
“Lila? She is friends with Lila?”
Rain shrugged. “Not sure. But ever since then, Lila’s been going to her cell daily and she takes food and treats with her.”
Damien sighed. “I wish Arya had just wiped her memory clean, then I wouldn’t have to deal with this.”
Luca chuckled. “Cheer up. If you’re tired, you could go rest and take care of it tomorrow.”
“Oh no, let’s just take care of this and finally—Oh, here they come.”
“Let go of me, you monkey!” Delphine shouted, beating hard at the chest of the guards bringing her into the meeting room. “You have no right to lay your hands on me!” Her tone changed suddenly when she saw they weren’t planning on leaving her. “Ok, I’m sorry, please let me go.”
Damien’s eyes hardened when he saw the struggling Delphine. “No, fuck no,” he muttered. Luca heard this and wondered what would have made Damien react like that. He was going to ask, but Damien spoke out before he could. “Take her back!” Damien shouted, placing an arm before his eyes and looking away, as the sight of Delphine was the most disgusting thing to ever behold.
“Alpha, but we—”
“Did you not hear me well? Take her back to the dungeons immediately!”
“W-wait, what?” Delphine was confused. “Why? I don’t want to—” The words were wiped off as heavy arms clamped down on her arms, dragging her away.
“Damien, what’s going on? You haven’t even…” Luca stopped when he noticed the state his friend was in.
Delphine kicked blindly, trying to free herself, but the hold the men had on her was strong. She didn’t want to go back to the dungeon, and couldn’t bear to spend another night there. “Please just let me go, I swear I won’t step foot in your land again, you will never see me—Stop touching me you fish!” Her cries went on deaf ears as the men took the instruction of their Alpha.
The whole pack watched as Delphine was dragged away, while some bit down on their lips to keep from laughing, others watched in pity. Lila was in the crowd and she looked really confused. She followed behind, to find out what was going on.
When Delphine saw the rusted doors of her prison, she almost lost them. “Why don’t you just kill me? Things were so much better back at the pack, I should have managed myself there.” They didn’t understand what she was saying, so no one paid attention to her.
~
“Damien, what happened? Why the sudden outburst?” Luca had never seen Damien behave in the way he just did. Damien was always calm and collected; no one ever let his emotions get to him. It was one of the admirable things about him and why people always trusted Damien’s judgment. He wondered if somehow, Damien had met the girl, and she had somehow offended him. But still, he believed what Damien displayed was uncalled for, unless he had a good explanation for it.
Damien, on the other hand, was trying his best to calm down. He knew the moment would be coming soon, but he didn’t think it would happen so fast. “Oh, Luca, that girl, that girl… she is—”
“She is what?” Luca was starting to get worried. “If she’s done anything, we could—”
“No, Luca. She is my mate. She’s my mate.”