Waiting

20

Damien POV

The blood had done nothing.

That realization came slowly, settling over me with the same inevitability as the cold night air pressing through my fur. I stood over the elk with my jaws still wet, my chest heaving beneath a coat matted with blood and dirt, and waited for the violence inside me to loosen its grip.

It didn’t.

The forest around us had gone unnaturally still. The pack remained scattered behind me, far enough away that I could feel the distance even without turning. Their caution hovered at the edge of my awareness, another irritation I had no patience for. I had run them hard. Harder than necessary. I had driven the hunt beyond hunger, beyond ritual, beyond any purpose I would have accepted on any other night.

And still the rage remained.

It had changed shape, but it had not weakened.

Earlier, it had been wild and directionless, a storm tearing through everything in reach. Now it had settled lower, deeper, coiling beneath my ribs with enough heat to make every breath feel tight. My wolf paced inside the body we shared, restless and unsatisfied even as he stood in full control of it. His irritation pressed through me with every twitch of muscle.

The elk lay motionless beneath my paws.

Normally, a kill like this would have quieted him. It would have quieted me too. There was something ancient in the completion of a hunt, something orderly. Strength proven. Prey taken. The pack fed. The world restored to a balance older than any human law.

Tonight, there was no balance.

Only blood.

And Summer.

Her name moved through me like a blade.

At once, the forest disappeared.

I saw the beach instead.

Her face turned toward him. Her laughter. The way she had looked at Arie with a softness that had no business being there. The way she had leaned into the moment as though nothing about it was wrong.

That smile.

That f*****g smile.

My wolf surged forward so hard that my claws dug deeper into the earth.

Ours.

“Yes.”

The answer escaped me without thought, without hesitation.

Because there was nothing to argue about.

Summer was ours.

Mine.

She always had been.

Maybe she had never understood that as clearly as she should have. Maybe I had let too much time pass assuming she eventually would. I had treated our future as something inevitable, something so certain it did not need to be defended.

That had been my mistake.

I had assumed there would never be anyone else.

Then Arie appeared.

A stranger with no history, no claim, no place in her life, and somehow Summer had allowed him near enough to make her question everything that should have been settled long ago.

My wolf growled low in agreement.

She belongs with us.

“She does.”

There was no conflict in that. None at all.

The conflict was only in what we did next.

My wolf wanted simplicity.

Find her. Take her. Remove the threat. End the problem.

He did not care about timing or consequence. He did not care about trust or patience or the thousand invisible threads that bound people to one another long before teeth and blood ever became necessary.

I did.

That was the difference between us.

I was not only a beast.

I was Alpha.

And an Alpha who acted on every impulse was no Alpha at all.

Control mattered.

Timing mattered.

A bad move made in rage could destroy what patience might secure permanently.

I would not lose Summer because I had been too angry to think.

The shift back came hard.

Bone contracted beneath skin. Fur receded. My body folded in on itself until the wolf released me and I dropped to one knee beside the elk, naked and breathing hard as cold air moved across sweat and blood.

For a moment, I stayed there.

The rage came back with me.

That almost made me laugh.

Apparently, neither half of me had any intention of letting it go.

Behind me, the pack kept their distance. I could feel their attention. Their unease. Simon’s especially.

I turned enough to find him.

Even in wolf form, I knew him instantly. He stood farther back than usual, watching me with the kind of cautious focus that made my irritation sharpen.

Questioning.

Assessing.

I looked away before the impulse to challenge him became stronger.

I did not need another problem tonight.

I needed to think.

My wolf disagreed.

There is nothing to think about.

I pushed to my feet and started walking.

There was always a strange overlap between us after a shift. He was not a separate creature trapped inside me, not really. He was instinct stripped bare. Hunger without apology. Protection without restraint. Possession without shame.

Everything I felt, sharpened to its most primitive edge.

Everything I had learned, as a man, to control.

Most of the time.

She is ours.

“Yes.”

The word came again, and this time it settled something between us.

Not the anger.

That remained.

But the argument itself disappeared.

Summer was not the question.

She was the answer.

She had always been the answer.

I moved through the trees with blood drying against my skin, my wolf pacing just beneath the surface.

She should not have been with him.

“No.”

She should not have looked at him that way.

“No.”

The memory returned in detail.

Her expression. Her body angled toward Arie. The ease between them. The way he watched her as though he had already decided she mattered.

That bastard had appeared from nowhere, and Summer had allowed him into a place that should never have been open to anyone else.

My wolf snarled.

He touched what is ours.

“He got too close.”

Remove him.

That was where I pushed back.

Not because Arie had any right to remain.

He didn’t.

But because attacking him without understanding who he was would be stupid.

And I was not stupid.

I did not survive by throwing myself at every threat with my teeth bared.

I studied them.

I learned where they were weak.

Then I decided how they were removed.

My wolf hated patience. I could feel it in the way he paced beneath my skin, agitated by every second that passed without action.

But patience was what would win this.

We wanted the same thing.

Summer.

Only our methods differed.

“She is already angry with us.”

My wolf snarled.

Because of him.

“Yes.”

That answer came easily.

Because before Arie, Summer had never challenged me like this.

She might argue. She might roll her eyes. She might accuse me of being overbearing or stubborn or impossible.

But eventually, she always gave in.

She always let me have my way.

That was how things worked between us.

Until him.

Now suddenly there were boundaries where there had never been any before.

Opinions she refused to bend.

A sharpness in her voice when I pressed too hard.

She had looked me directly in the face and told me no as though the word had only recently become something she believed she could use against me.

My jaw tightened.

Arie had done that.

He had walked into her life and somehow made her question everything between us.

Made her think she needed distance.

Made her believe she should resist me.

Made her think the future I had always known belonged to us was something she could simply reconsider.

My wolf growled.

He is changing her.

“He is confusing her.”

That made more sense.

Summer was not suddenly a different person.

She was still Summer.

Still the girl I knew better than anyone.

The girl who had always trusted me.

The girl who had always listened when I told her what was best.

This new defiance had come from somewhere, and Arie was the only new thing in her life.

There was no reason to look any further than that.

I knew her.

Really knew her.

I knew the way her voice changed when she was trying not to cry. The way she went quiet when something hurt more than she wanted anyone to know. The way she laughed when she forgot to guard herself.

I knew what foods she hated, what songs she replayed, what places made her feel safe.

I knew her childhood.

Her family.

Her grief.

Her weaknesses.

Her heart.

What did Arie know?

Nothing.

A beach.

A sunset.

A handful of conversations.

And somehow, after only that, she had started looking at me as though I were the one who no longer belonged.

No.

That was not Summer thinking clearly.

That was his presence.

His influence.

Whatever hold he had already started building over her.

My wolf pushed harder against me.

Remove him.

My fists tightened.

“He is the problem.”

The moment I said it, the rage inside me shifted.

It did not disappear.

It settled.

For the first time all night, it had somewhere to go.

A target.

A purpose.

Summer was supposed to love me.

Not eventually.

Not possibly.

She was supposed to.

I was supposed to be the first man she gave herself to completely. Her first real love. Her only real love.

I would be the first man she trusted with everything.

The first man she gave herself to without reservation.

And once she did, there would never be anyone after me.

There should never have been anyone before me either.

There better not have been.

My jaw tightened at the thought.

She better not have betrayed that.

Maybe she did not understand what she had done. Maybe she did not realize that laughing with him, opening herself to him, allowing him to look at her that way was already a betrayal of me.

Of her Alpha.

Of the man who was supposed to be her mate.

She was my future Luna.

That was what she was supposed to be.

And if she had forgotten that, I would remind her.

My wolf surged.

Correct it. Now.

I stopped walking.

The command sat heavily between us.

Not because I disagreed.

Because I understood exactly what he meant.

Summer had begun moving away from the life that belonged to us.

The life I had spent years slowly shaping around her.

She had allowed another male too close. She had given away attention that should have been mine. And worse, she had done it as though none of what existed between us mattered.

As though I did not matter.

As though everything could simply be replaced by some stranger with a pretty face and perfect timing.

No.

That was not going to happen.

“She needs to remember.”

My wolf rumbled in agreement.

Ours.

“Yes.”

The word no longer felt frantic.

It felt clarifying.

The rage inside me was still sharp, still violent, still waiting for the slightest excuse to erupt again.

But now I had it by the throat.

At least enough to think.

And thinking gave me something my wolf alone did not possess.

Strategy.

I had been approaching Summer the wrong way.

Confronting her made her defensive. Demanding answers made her pull away. Showing my jealousy gave her something to fight against.

I had let the rage control the situation instead of using it.

That would change.

No more outbursts.

Not in front of her.

No more giving her reasons to call me possessive.

No more letting her see how badly I wanted to tear apart anything standing between us.

I could be patient.

I could be kind.

I could be familiar.

I could remind her of the Damien she trusted. The Damien who had always been there.

If an apology lowered her guard, I could apologize.

If she wanted space, I could pretend to give it to her.

If she needed to believe I respected the boundaries she thought she was creating, then I would let her believe exactly that.

For now.

The old saying came back to me with almost irritating simplicity.

You caught more bees with honey than vinegar.

Tonight, I had used vinegar.

Anger. Demands. Jealousy. Pressure.

All it had done was make Summer dig her heels in harder.

Fine.

Then I would use honey.

Flowers.

Breakfast.

Patience.

The version of me she knew how to trust.

I would work my way back into every place she had started closing to me. Her routines. Her conversations. Her family. Her confidence. Her trust.

Until my presence felt normal again.

Necessary.

Until Arie became the intrusion instead of me.

My wolf hated the waiting.

Take her now.

The images he pushed at me came fast and dark. Summer beneath us. Claimed. Marked. Ours.

Then the vision twisted into something uglier.

Her fear.

Her resistance.

The animal certainty that refusal meant nothing if strength could overcome it.

The thought should have repulsed me.

Instead, what disturbed me most was how long part of me lingered on it.

“No.”

The word came hard.

A growl vibrated through my chest.

“Not like that.”

Why?

“Because I want her to come willingly.”

That mattered to me.

Not because her refusal would change the ending.

But because I wanted her to choose what she should have chosen from the beginning.

Me.

I wanted her to look at me the way she had looked at him.

I wanted that smile directed at me.

That softness.

That curiosity.

That heat.

And when it happened, I wanted Arie erased so completely from her heart that she wondered how she had ever mistaken him for anything worth wanting.

My wolf quieted.

That appealed to him.

She comes back to us?

“She will.”

There was no if in my mind.

Only when.

She would come back because there was nowhere else she truly belonged.

I would make sure she remembered that.

And Arie—

The rage flared again so violently that my vision sharpened.

I stopped beneath the trees, his face suddenly as clear in my mind as if he stood in front of me.

The way he sat beside her.

The way he watched her.

The way Summer smiled.

My hands tightened until my nails bit into my palms.

The control I had gathered strained under the force of it.

My wolf surged.

Kill him.

For one brief moment, I wanted nothing more.

The thought came too easily.

Find him.

Tear him apart.

Make certain he never looked at Summer again.

The human part of me hesitated.

Not from sympathy.

From caution.

I knew nothing about him.

Who he was.

What he was.

Where he came from.

Something about him felt wrong, and I still did not understand why he had appeared in Summer’s life now.

I could not destroy a threat I did not understand.

Not efficiently.

“Not yet.”

My wolf snarled.

He is taking her.

“No one is taking her.”

My voice came out low and dangerous.

“She is mine.”

The forest seemed to absorb the words.

Behind me, several members of the pack immediately lowered their heads. A few bared their throats. One whimpered.

Shit.

My Alpha aura had spilled out again, pressing across the bond hard enough to force submission.

I dragged it back under control.

The rage had not subsided.

If anything, admitting the truth made it burn hotter.

But now it had direction.

That was the difference.

I knew what I wanted.

I knew what stood in the way.

And I knew what came next.

I would learn everything about Arie.

Where he lived.

Where he came from.

What he wanted with Summer.

Who he spoke to.

What weaknesses he carried.

Everyone had weaknesses.

Once I found his, I would know how to remove him.

My wolf pushed forward again.

And if he refuses to leave?

I smiled.

The expression felt cold on my face.

“Then he makes the decision for us.”

That satisfied him.

I felt the beast settle slightly deeper beneath my skin.

Not calm.

Never calm.

Waiting.

There was a difference.

For several moments, I stood beneath the trees, listening to the distant movement of the pack behind me.

Then my thoughts shifted back to Summer.

Not Arie.

Summer.

I pictured the anger in her face when I confronted her. The way she had looked at me as though I were the problem.

Heat crawled up my neck again.

She had no idea what she was doing.

That had to be it.

Summer was vulnerable.

Grieving.

Lonely.

Arie had appeared at exactly the right moment.

Perhaps he had taken advantage of that. Perhaps she simply liked being distracted from everything hurting inside her.

Either way, whatever she thought she felt for him could not be real.

It could not compete with us.

With history.

With everything I knew about her.

Everything we had already survived together.

She was confused.

That was all.

And once I removed the confusion, she would see clearly again.

The explanation fit so neatly that I did not question it.

My wolf accepted it immediately.

So did I.

That was what love was, wasn’t it?

Knowing someone so completely that you could see what was best for them before they could.

Protecting them even when they were too angry to understand why.

Holding on when they tried to walk away because eventually they would realize you had been right.

The thought soothed something inside me.

Not the rage.

That still pulsed beneath every heartbeat.

But the uncertainty was disappearing.

I knew what I had to do.

Control the anger.

Not eliminate it.

Use it.

Hide it when necessary.

Let Summer see patience instead.

Let her see safety.

Let her remember why I had always been the one beside her.

And while she remembered, I would make certain Arie became something she could forget.

The idea came together so naturally that I almost smiled.

Tomorrow morning.

I would go to her house.

Not too early.

Summer had never been a morning person. Getting her moving before nine required either an emergency or an unreasonable amount of caffeine, and even then there was no guarantee she would be pleasant about it.

Ten would be better.

Late enough that she would be awake.

Early enough that I could catch her before she made plans for the day.

I would surprise her.

Flowers.

Something beautiful enough to make her smile when she opened the door, but not extravagant enough to make it obvious I was trying too hard.

Then breakfast.

Just us.

No arguments.

No accusations.

No Arie.

I could already picture it.

She would answer the door with sleep still clinging to her, hair slightly disheveled, probably barefoot, wearing that irritated little expression she always gave the world before she had decided she was ready to deal with it.

Then she would see me.

See the flowers.

Maybe roll her eyes.

Maybe sigh.

But she would take them.

I knew she would.

And once that first wall came down, the rest would follow.

I would ask how her night had gone. If she was still upset, I would let her talk. If she was sad, I would console her. If she needed reassurance, I would give it.

I would be whatever she needed me to be until she remembered what I had always been to her.

Home.

Safety.

History.

Hers.

And she was mine.

My wolf shifted approvingly beneath my skin.

She will remember.

“Yes.”

She would.

Tomorrow, we would fix this little misunderstanding.

That was all tonight had been.

A misunderstanding.

I had gotten angry.

She had gotten defensive.

Arie had complicated things.

Nothing that could not be corrected.

My chest loosened slightly at the thought.

Not enough to call it peace.

The rage was still there.

Still burning.

Still waiting for the slightest reason to flare again.

But now I had something else beside it.

Hope.

A plan.

Movement sounded behind me.

Simon.

I felt his attention before I turned.

He had shifted back somewhere beyond the trees and was watching me with the same unease he had carried throughout the hunt.

I did not like it.

For half a second, my wolf surged again, and a warning growl vibrated low in my chest.

Simon stopped.

Good.

Then reason returned.

Simon was loyal.

Useful.

He had always been loyal.

There was no reason to create another problem tonight.

I forced the growl down.

Control.

That was the lesson.

I turned away from him and headed toward the pack house.

The lights appeared between the trees as I crossed the clearing. No one stopped me. No one asked questions.

Good.

Inside, I climbed the stairs without acknowledging anyone, leaving the lower floors behind until I reached the third level reserved for the Alpha.

My suite was quiet when I entered.

Exactly how I liked it.

I closed the door behind me and stood there for a moment, finally alone.

The night clung to me.

Blood.

Sweat.

Dirt.

The metallic scent of the hunt.

I went directly to the bathroom and turned on the shower.

Steam slowly filled the room, softening the edges of everything around me. I stepped beneath the hot water and watched blood spiral from my skin into the drain.

Elk.

Boar.

Deer.

I did not care which anymore.

Eventually, the water ran clear.

The anger did not.

But beneath the heat, my thoughts returned to tomorrow.

Flowers.

Breakfast.

Summer.

Ten o’clock.

The image was almost enough to make the night feel fixable.

My wolf shifted inside me.

For the first time since the beach, he was no longer clawing at the edges of my control.

He settled.

Not asleep.

Not peaceful.

Content.

Because we had a plan.

Tomorrow, we would see her.

Tomorrow, I would remind Summer who had always been there.

I would remind her of my place in her life.

And hers in mine.

For the first time that night, something almost hopeful moved through me.

Everything could still be fixed.

Arie was a distraction.

The argument was a misunderstanding.

Summer was confused.

That was all.

Tomorrow, I would bring her flowers.

I would take her to breakfast.

I would listen.

I would make her smile.

I would remind her of us.

My wolf gave one final, satisfied rumble beneath my skin.

Ours.

I smiled.

“Yes.”

Tomorrow, we would fix everything.