The Moon's Legacy

Unavoidable

Damian POV

Onyx surged forward the moment she collided with me. The bond snapped tight again, a hot pulse running straight through my chest and into my wolf. 'Mate!'

I clenched my jaw. 'Not helping, Onyx,' I growled.

He snorted, ignoring me. My eyes were probably glowing slightly gold with his presence.

She froze for a split second before trying to step back. My hands closed around her arms automatically, steadying her before she could stumble. Or run, which seemed to be a distinct possibility.

Her head snapped up, those deep blue eyes meeting mine with a mixture of annoyance and something far more dangerous. Resignation.

The bond pulsed again, a low, insistent tug beneath my ribs. I blocked it—and my wolf—out. "You really should stop running into me," I said quietly.

Her eyes narrowed. "I wasn't running." She yanked free from me and crossed her arms over her chest. "And last time, you were crowding me." She stepped back, putting careful distance between us. The movement was deliberate. Calculated. Like she was trying to draw a line between us.

Onyx huffed in irritation. 'She's trying to leave us.'

'She's working. Relax.'

Willow didn't look away from me, even as Doc Blake stepped out of the break room and took in the scene. "Everything okay here?" he asked.

"Fine." Willow didn't take her gaze from mine as she said it. He studied us for another second before he shrugged and turned toward the treatment rooms. The moment he disappeared around the corner, she exhaled slowly.

"I thought you were going to get food," she said. Her eyebrow lifted.

"I was." I watched as she put yet another step between us. Her eyes glowed for a moment—so brief I almost missed it—before fading back to that deep royal blue.

“And yet,” she said.

“And yet.”

The bond stirred again, a steady warmth under my skin that refused to fade now that it had been awakened. Onyx pressed forward. 'Mate.'

'I know.' The word was becoming extremely irritating.

“Relax,” Willow muttered suddenly.

I blinked. “What?”

“You're glaring.”

“I’m thinking.”

“Try doing it without looking like you're about to interrogate someone.”

I almost smiled. Almost.

“You're unusually comfortable speaking to an Alpha like that.”

“You're unusually comfortable interrogating people in their workplace.”

Fair point.

"Why are you still here?" She asked, then stepped around me and started towards the lobby, as if I were just another annoyance in her day.

I sighed. "I am. I just wanted to leave my number in case something changed with Archer." I handed her my card. "I know Caine's staying with him, but…" I trailed off. She already knew we were werewolves, and that I was alpha, so it shouldn't matter. "He's my beta," I told her, voice low. "If he needs anything, just call me."

She stopped and turned to me. Her eyes softened, just a touch, as she took the card. "He's going to be okay. I promise you that."

The words settled on my shoulders with an almost tangible weight. Her confidence in Archer's survival was more than that of someone who had seen injuries or helped in surgeries. It was as if she had some inside knowledge about his situation, and my thoughts jumped back to that pulse of power I'd felt in the operating room.

"Thanks. Now, I'm leaving after I check in with Caine."

She smirked. "Good." Her tone was dismissive. Her entire demeanor toward me was contradictory. As my mate, she should be trying to please me, not push my buttons.

That tug beneath my ribs tightened again, and Onyx rumbled softly in my head. 'She’s ours.'

'Not yet.' And maybe not ever. That thought sat heavier than I liked.

“I’ll be back later,” I said. Her shoulders relaxed instantly. Interesting again.

She turned away, already focusing on something else. The bond didn’t like that. Neither did Onyx. But for now, distance was the smarter move.

I stepped back through the hallway door and returned to the exam room. Caine looked up from the chair beside Archer’s table.

“How is he?” I asked.

“Alive,” he said.

That was good enough for now. I looked over at my beta. Archer lay stretched across the table, his breathing steady, the worst of the bleeding finally stopped, the lacerations Doc had sewn up turning into pink scars. It was too fast, considering how badly he'd been injured. It wasn't natural, even considering our advanced healing. There was only one reason I could think of. Willow.

“Did she come back in here?” I asked. I didn't have to specify who.

Caine nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“And?”

He tilted his head slightly, studying me in a way that made me immediately suspicious. “She did something.”

Of course she did. “What kind of something?” I asked.

“I’m not sure.” His brow furrowed slightly. “But I felt it. A low surge of power.”

That confirmed what I’d already suspected. Caine leaned back in his chair as he watched me. “She’s not human.”

“No. She confirmed it for me a few minutes ago. She's a wolf.”

He snorted. “Not just a wolf.”

I looked at Archer again. “No,” I said slowly. "There's definitely something special about her."

His eyes narrowed slightly. “There's something there…between you two, I think.”

I stilled. Caine rarely missed things like that.

“What do you mean?” I asked evenly.

He shrugged. “Hard to explain.” His gaze drifted toward the door Willow had left through. “You're not reacting to her attitude. And you're finding excuses not to leave, even though you need to go eat, too.”

“I'm reacting to the situation, and my injured beta. It's my job to ensure my pack is okay, and this town is an unknown.”

Caine held my gaze a moment longer. Then he let it drop. “Right.”

Evander appeared in the doorway a second later. “The bus is settled,” he said. “Town doesn’t seem to care we’re here. How’s Archer?” he asked.

“Stable,” I said.

Evander nodded. “Caine staying with him?”

“Yeah,” Caine said.

“Good.” Evander jerked his head toward the door. “Come on, Alpha. Let’s grab food before you chew through the furniture.”

I followed him outside. My thoughts were spinning. Caine was obviously picking up on the bond between Willow and me, so I needed to be careful. They didn't need to know that she was my second-chance mate yet, not when I wasn't sure whether we could trust her. She was clearly hiding her own secrets.

The last time I'd trusted the mate bond blindly, it had nearly destroyed my pack. Nearly destroyed me. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

The late afternoon sun peeked out from the trees, casting shadows over the sidewalk as we headed for the diner. The town looked like the kind of place people disappeared into. All the streets were quiet. Old storefronts were a study in the town's history. The smell of grilled meat and frying oil drifted toward us, and my stomach rumbled. We stepped through the doors, and I could smell her—that heady scent of night-blooming jasmine that she'd let me get a breath of earlier—faint, layered under coffee and sugar.

We ate quickly, not wanting to linger, and stepped back into the fading light. We were only a few feet away from the diner before Evander spoke. "You remember what the rogue said earlier?"

This morning seemed like a lifetime ago. "He said a lot of things."

"About the bounty. The missing daughter of an alpha?"

I stopped in my tracks. Puzzle pieces clicked together. "You think it's her. Willow."

Evander shrugged. "Maybe. This is the kind of place people go to disappear. Off the beaten track, not a lot of outside traffic. Add that they were sniffing around the edges…the logic makes sense."

He wasn't wrong.

He continued, "She's a lone wolf with strange power hiding in a human town. If she is the one they're looking for, she may not realize how much danger she's in right now."

I felt that stirring beneath my ribs again. Onyx was snarling. Damn it.

"Either way, we should do something. She didn't bat an eye when we needed help today. Jumped right in. And I don't think Archer would have made it if she'd turned us away."

I turned it over in my mind for a minute, then started walking again. "We watch and we wait. We can use Archer's recovery as an excuse to stay here for the night, maybe again tomorrow night."

"That's not your usual strategy."

"No. But she's already spooked. Pushing her won't help." If Willow really was who Evander suspected, she'd only run. And I'd hate to have to chase her.

'Alpha, Willow's left the office. I heard her tell the doc she was heading home,' Caine linked me.

I turned, the move instinctive. Evander stopped. "Where are you going?"

"Caine said she left, headed home. I'm going to go talk to her."

Evander smirked. "Watch and wait, huh? Well, I'll head back to the bus. See you when you get there."

I caught sight of her crossing the street two blocks ahead of me. She was heading for the general store. I saw the steps on the side of the building and realized there was an apartment on the second level. She'd reached the top of the stairs just as I stopped at the bottom.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, key in the lock. "Seriously?" she muttered.

The bond flared the moment I stepped onto the stairs.

"We need to talk."