His Shadow, Her Leash

Chapter 2

Damian was born into old money in Manhattan—Blackwood Enterprises was a giant in the tech and real estate industries before he was even a twinkle in his father’s eye. His father, Victor Blackwood, was the quintessential hard-nosed patriarch: charming in the boardroom, icy in the home. Victor viewed his son as a continuation of the family business, not as a child. From the time Damian could walk, it was a curriculum in mastering the art of domination—chess at age four, books on corporate strategy by age eight, no place for "weak" emotions such as fear and sadness. "Control is power," Victor would tell him. "Everything else is a liability."

His mother, Victoria, was the complete opposite—warm, creative, the type of woman who took in stray dogs and gave second chances. She adored Damian, sneaking him extra hugs whenever Victor wasn’t around, reading him stories about knights and dragons instead of balance sheets. She was the only soft spot in the entire household. Damian grew up learning that love was something to be cherished and protected at all costs.

And then there was Victor leaving when Damian was 14 years old. Not exactly a divorce—no public scandal or media attention. He just left one morning with his mistress half his age and half his fortune embezzled through various dummy corporations. He didn't even have the decency to leave a note or say goodbye. He just left. And that's when Damian's life changed.

Damian found his mother crying in the library that night, holding one of her Afghan hounds that she had adopted years ago—this being the beginning of Bella and Beau's lineage. For the first time in her life, Victoria looked small.

And that's when Damian's switch flicked on. Damian, barely a teenager at that time, took control of things. He spent his nights going through his father's books, firing his father's crooked accounting team, learning how to scare off lawyers twice his age. At 17, Damian was already calling boardroom meetings in his mother's name. He built Blackwood Enterprises bigger and better and more ruthless than his father had left it. He made sure that no one would ever again dare steal from his family. No partners. No weaknesses. No trust. But the damage was done. Victor's abandonment had taught him that people left when you needed them most. His mother's sorrow had taught him that love makes you weak, makes you vulnerable—a target for exploitation. He had locked all his vulnerable emotions away long ago. Relationships? No problem. One-night stands with women who knew the score. Emotions? Forget it. He had become the man his father had always wanted him to be: untouchable, in control, always one step ahead of the competition.

There was another side of him, one he did not share with anyone, not even himself most days of the week. When he was 19 years old, during one of his early hostile takeovers, one of his competitors had tried to blackmail him using information he had gathered on Victoria: old photos, rumors of her "instability" after Victor had left her. Damian had not hesitated. He had destroyed the man. Completely. Bankrupted him, ruined his family, sent him into a mental institution. The guy ended up in a psych ward. Damian tells himself it was necessary. Protection. But at night, when the city glows through the windows of his penthouse apartment, he thinks about the look on the man's face when he finally understood that everything was gone. And part of him liked it. Liked the power. The finality.

That's why he stalks Elena. Not because he's insane (although he might be), but because she's the one thing he never had. Real. Unguarded. Warm. The way she laughs with the dogs, the way she doesn't shy away from his darkness, the way she just exists without needing to control or be controlled. She's the light in a world he's designed to be dark. And once he decides something or someone is his to protect, he doesn't let go. Ever.

He tells himself it's because he's curious about her. Then because he's fascinated by her. Then because he needs her. Deep inside, however, it's because he's afraid. Afraid she'll slip away from him like all the others if he doesn't make her his. And he's already decided the world can burn before he'll let that happen again.

This gives him depth: the persona of the cold CEO, the protectiveness towards his mother that explains the visits and the importance of the dogs, the shame at the lengths he's gone to in the name of "protection" of something that's his, and the all-consuming need for Elena that's because she makes him feel human again... and that's frightening.