Wolf Bound

12 - The truth

River

After everything I’ve told Damian today, I’m exhausted. I shouldn’t have been scared to tell Damian the truth from the beginning; I know that now.

But when does logic ever win over fear?

I love Damian; there has never been a doubt in my mind or heart. From the moment I saw him while I slept, I knew that one day, we’d be together forever.

I’ve said so much already, and there’s no point stopping now. Damian asked me a question, and I will answer. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain if this goes my way.

I know some would say that I’m crazy. Some, not all, wouldn’t want their rapist’s baby. But I can’t stop my heart from loving my child.

“Yes,” I sigh. “I’m worried. Damian, they’re going to experiment on him.”

Damian’s eyes widen. “What the hell?”

“Norma. When she came to tell me that she was pregnant, I’d already transformed. My body couldn’t take any more torture, and Saltan wanted to protect me. I don’t even remember when he took over, only that he told me to sleep.

“Saltan glared at Norma through his cage as she knelt down in front of it.” I take a deep breath. “She mocked us, laughing how she was pregnant with my child, the child of a woman locked in a man’s body.

“I was too shocked to do anything, and Saltan just sat there looking at her. I was awake, so I could hear everything she said. Norma told me that as our “mating” was a success, as soon as I transformed again, more women would be brought in. More women for me to impregnate, and I could refuse all I wanted, but it was going to happen regardless.”

“They were going to use you as a breeding machine?”

I nod my head as my stomach rolls. Just thinking about Norma’s words that day makes me feel sick.

“I was so scared. I didn’t want that to happen to me. Norma didn’t seem to care how distressed Saltan was, and he was, Damian. Saltan wanted to tear the woman apart, baby or no baby. I had to beg him to calm down, that the child was innocent, and I would find a way for us to be free.

“Norma carried on telling me about her plan as if she had nothing to fear in doing so. Of course, Norma didn’t believe I would ever be leaving that place. She said that once the baby she was carrying was born, others would be pregnant by me, meaning everything she’d worked for would be on its way to success. Then, I’d have to sit back and watch as those doctors used my children for experimental purposes.

“Doctor Dever believed there was something about me that meant any child I had would have incredible abilities. Norma said that Dever had never seen the likes of me outside the Royal family, which made me special. They wanted to use my DNA to make super shifters.”

I have no idea why he thought my curse made me special. It felt anything but, and I didn’t have any incredible abilities. But the fool thought otherwise.

“Goddess!” Damian hisses, making me cringe. I can feel the anger rolling off of him.

“I got out of there before any of that could happen, Damian. I would never have allowed what they wanted, even if it meant I found a way to kill myself.”

Damian’s eyes widen, but I hold his hand to my chest and kiss his knuckles. I don’t want him to be angry over something that can’t be changed.

“Please, calm down. Norma is the only one having my child, Damian, I swear. No one else was brought before me, and I wasn’t taken anywhere outside of my room. But Norma doesn’t care about the baby, only what she can use him for.”

“Him?”

I nod.

“Saltan could sense the child was ours, so Norma hadn’t lied. He could also sniff out the gender, telling me that we were having a son. Something inside of me changed with that knowledge, Damian. I could feel so much love for a baby who wasn’t even born yet.”

I hang my head for a second. My heart aches for the child I will never know, and the mate I have lied to.

‘Everything will be okay,’ Saltan tells me.

‘I don’t know how it ever can be, Saltan.’ I tell him.

‘Trust Damian, River.’

I swallow hard and look at my mate. There’s such sadness in his eyes, and it hurts deeply.

“I’m so sorry that I lied to you, Damian. I know that I should have told you the truth from the beginning, but I was so fucke.d up. So much had happened to me, and I just needed to be with you for a while. But I can’t stop thinking about my son and what will become of him. He’s going to be used and abused all his life, never knowing love or kindness,” I lower my head again and pull back a shuddering breath.

I know my son was conceived because Norma is a sick bitc.h who raped me. But my child is innocent, and I am terrified of what will become of him. No kid deserves to be used for scientific purposes. Every child should know loving parents who put them before anything else in this life.

To my parents, my brothers, and I are everything. Yes, they had me later in life, ten years after their twins, but that meant nothing. Actually, it meant they loved me that much harder. I could never say that my childhood was awful because it just wasn’t. I had the best of everything, and I was raised to love hard and live well.

I want those things for my son. I want him to know that he is everything, no matter how he came to be, and I want to be the one to show him all the good in life.

I know I’m asking a lot of my mate. But I pray that he’ll let me rescue my baby boy, and that Damian will find it in his heart to let me keep him. I know I can’t do this without Damian, and if he doesn’t want my son, then we could find him a loving home. It would break my heart into a million pieces, but I would do what was best for my baby.

“River?” I look at my mate. “Norma doesn’t love the child.”

I nod. I know that she doesn’t because no loving mother would ever carry her child to term just to use them the way Norma intends to.

“I know.”

“But we do,” I narrow my eyes, searching Damian’s face as he smiles at me. “I can feel how much you love him, River. It doesn’t matter how he came to be, does it?” I shake my head. “You are my world, River, and if you love the child, then so do I.”

I swallow the lump in my throat.

I know what Damian is saying, and I can’t deny that this is what I wanted. But I’m finding it a little hard to believe it could be this easy.

“What happened to you was awful, vile, and that bitc.h deserves to lose her head. But our son deserves to be home with us, where we can show him all the love in the world.”

“Our son,” I suck back the sob threatening to escape me as Damian takes my face between his hands.

“Our son. You are his mother, and I am his father,” I suck back another sob because Damian didn’t hesitate to refer to me as Mother and himself as Father. “Whatever we have to do to bring him home, we’ll do it, River.”

“Daniel,”

“Daniel?”

I nod. “Daniel Dalgaard, our son.”

“You want to give him my name?”

I nod with a smile on my face. “I love you, Damian. What you just said about Daniel, wanting to be his father, meant everything to me. I want the three of us to have the same name, a family, just the three of us.”

Before I realize what’s happening, I’m sitting between Damien’s legs, with his arms tightly around me. I rest my head on his shoulder.

“We will be a family, baby, and you’re going to be a wonderful mother.”

I close my eyes with a smile. I’m going to be someone’s mother, and my heart is bursting with love.

“How are we going to find him, Damian? I don’t think he’s even been born yet, but I can’t be sure. I know that Norma intends to give birth and then put Daniel straight into the unit to be experimented on. She’s hoping to force him to shift before he’s a week old.”

“That’s impossible.” Damian grumbles.

It should be. Shifting into our wolves isn’t possible until we’re over the age of fourteen. Some transform earlier, Supreme’s can transform by the age of eight if they’re lucky. But most don’t get their wolves until they’re at least eighteen. However, every child is born with their wolf; it just takes time for the wolf to awaken.

“Not with the drugs and equipment they have in that lab, Damian. They have ways to force Daniel to shift, and if they do that to our boy, he won’t survive.”

I am so scared for my baby. I just want him here with me, where he will always be safe.

Is that too much to ask?

“I’m going to talk to my grandfather. Orrin will know what to do. Don’t worry, River. Daniel will never know the horrors of what those bastards want to do. Nothing and no one will ever harm the two of you, River, I swear it. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.”

All I can do now is pray that we can save our son before it’s too late.