From Beta to Luna

Chapter 19 — The Surprise Guest

    “You did great,” Damien told me with a smile after we finally had a moment to ourselves. 

    I smiled, leaning into him as we walked side by side towards the packhouse. The last hour was spent introducing myself to some of the pack members, and I felt satisfied with how excited everyone was to meet me. I realized that I was worried for nothing. 

    “Everyone was so welcoming,” I responded as he opened the door of the packhouse for me.

    “What did you expect? It wasn’t just me who’s been waiting six years for you.”

    I smiled at this. I had been so nervous about what my life would be like if a random Alpha came along and just ripped me away from my pack, but I never would’ve imagined it would actually turn out okay— better than okay. 

    “You never told me you had siblings,” I mused thoughtfully, looking up at him. “You’ve never told me anything about yourself. I hardly know anything about you.”

    He laughed at this, and I found myself noticing how perfect his smile was and how brightly his eyes lit up whenever he laughed. Goddess, would the butterflies ever stop whenever I looked at him? Would I always feel this excited every time he smiled at me?

    “You never asked,” he answered cheekily, and I rolled my eyes at him. “How about this? Tomorrow night, we can go out for our first official date, and you can ask me all the questions you want. I’ll tell you everything you wanna know. How does that sound?”

    I smiled to myself, excited at the idea of getting to go out on an actual date with him. “I like the sound of that a lot.”

    “Good,” he responded, leaning in to kiss me before he stopped us suddenly. 

    I looked away from him to see that we were stopped in front of a door and turned to look back at him with a raised brow in question. 

    “I’ll give you a tour of the rest of the house later, but I wanted to show you our room first,” he answered my silent question, and I smiled in response. 

    Our room.

    This was our home now. I don’t think I’d ever be able to fully wrap my head around that. 

    He opened the door, ushering me inside with a sweep of his arm, as he excitedly announced, “Welcome to ou— Oof!”

    He was cut off by a woman suddenly launching herself into his arms, shoving me out of the way. I blinked in confusion for a moment, caught off guard by what had just happened. 

    “Welcome home, Damien! I’ve been waiting for you all day!” she exclaimed excitedly, giggling to herself. 

    I had controlled myself from losing my s**t for a moment, thinking that maybe it was one of his sisters or something, but after fully taking in the situation and noticing the skimpy lingerie she was wearing, I was suddenly blinded by rage. 

    Before I could think, before Damien could even try and defend himself, a loud growl escaped my lips, and I suddenly found myself shooting forward and snatching her off of Damien by her bottle blonde hair. I dragged her away by the hair and threw her out the door against the wall, where she landed with a loud thud. She slid down to the floor, cursing loudly, and I noticed the person-shaped hole now left in the wall, but I didn’t care about that. All I cared about was killing her for having the audacity to touch what was mine.

    I felt my canines protruding in anger, blinded by the fury I was feeling, and I launched myself forward, ready to rip her throat out. I heard Amelia howling loudly in my head, pushing forward for control. She was pissed. Pissed that someone had the gall to touch our mate, and it was all I could do to keep her from taking over me completely to kill the woman on the floor in front of me. 

    Before I could reach her, however, Damien circled his arms around my waist and pinned me against his hard chest. 

    I struggled to break free, yelling at him to let me go, before I twisted slightly in his arms to look back at him and snarl, “Let me go, Damien! Why are you protecting her? Who is she to you?”

    “I’m not protecting her, Raina, calm down!” he answered, struggling to keep a hold of me. 

    “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down!” I growled furiously, my face twisting in rage. 

    Why was he protecting her? Why didn’t he immediately tell her to leave? Why was he stopping me from killing her? 

    “How can you tell me to calm down when that tramp is barely wearing anything and throwing herself all over you! Let me go!”

    “Damien, who the f**k is this b***h?” the woman asked, standing up now and rubbing the back of her head. 

    My eyes widened as I snapped, “What the f**k did you just call me? Damien, let me go! Why the f**k are you trying to protect her?”

    “I’m not trying to protect her!” he repeated, barely able to keep a hold of me now. “I’m trying to stop you from killing one of your pack members before you’ve even officially been named Luna!”

    I could barely register his words to me. I felt like a feral animal on the verge of losing its s**t. What was happening to me? I was never one to get jealous or react like this over anybody. Was this what the mate bond did to people? Make them lose all sense of rational thinking wherever their mate was concerned? Was this the same feeling Damien had whenever he’d see Owen and me together?

    “She’s no pack member of mine,” I spat acidly, glaring at the woman. “No pack member of mine would be stupid enough to touch what’s mine.”

    “Yours?” the woman asked incredulously with a scoff. “Damien is mine! He’s my mate!”

    I froze suddenly, feeling like I had just been doused with cold water. What the f**k did she just say? What the f**k did she just say?

    “I’m not your mate, Claire, we’ve talked about this,” Damien replied, his voice icy. 

    I cringed slightly, not used to hearing him speak in such a cold tone of voice. 

    “I told you not to come around my room again, what the f**k were you doing in here?” he asked, keeping his gaze fixated on the woman—Claire.

    She pouted at him then, crossing her arms across her chest and effectively shoving her breasts up. I rolled my eyes. If Damien weren’t holding me back, this b***h would be dead already. 

    “I wanted to surprise you,” she replied in a sickly sweet voice that I’m sure was meant to be seductive. “I figured you’d be tired from the conference, and I wanted to help relieve some of your stress.”

    My eyes widened at her words as another growl erupted from my lips, and I began fighting to break free from Damien’s grasp again.

    “Damn it, Claire, get out of here!” Damien yelled, causing Claire to falter slightly at his angry tone. “If she breaks free, she really will kill you!”

    She frowned and jutted her jaw in defiance. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me who she is!”

    “Leave! Now!” he roared in anger, and she squeaked, having no choice but to listen to the direct command of her Alpha. 

    She scurried down the stairs with her proverbial tail tucked between her legs, and I stilled, the fury threatening to overtake me.

    “Damien,” I said, my voice steady and calm, a direct contrast to the rage I was still feeling, “let me go. Now.”

    “Not unless you promise you won’t go find her and kill her,” Damien answered, refusing to loosen his grip on me. 

    “Damien,” I repeated again, slower this time, “I’m really trying to be understanding right now. I‘m trying really hard to be understanding. But if you don’t explain to me who the f**k that was within the next five seconds, both of you are dead.”

    He sighed before kicking the door closed. After he set me down on my feet, he quickly turned and locked the door, leaning his back against it so I couldn’t escape. That was smart of him because I was 100% planning on running out the moment he released me to go and hunt her down. 

    Crossing my arms against my chest, I glared at him, waiting to hear his explanation. 

    “Claire and I used to hook up,” he finally answered, and a strangled cry almost escaped my lips. 

    My heart wrenched in my chest, and I suddenly found it hard to breathe. Was this how Damien felt when I had told him that Owen and I had slept together? Was this how he felt every time he saw Owen and me together during the conference?

    I suddenly felt extremely guilty, knowing now how hard it must’ve been for him to control his jealousy whenever I was around Owen, and I was thankful that he had tried so hard for my sake.

    “But I called things off when she started lying about feeling the mate pull with me and going on about how she was looking forward to being my Luna one day,” Damien continued, breaking me from my thoughts.

    He took a step towards me, tentatively placing his hands on my arms and told me almost pleadingly, “Please believe me when I say that there’s nothing between Claire and me now. There were never any feelings there. I didn’t know she was gonna try and pull that stunt today. I’ve told her repeatedly to stay away from me and worry about meeting her actual mate instead, but she’s been obsessed with trying to change my mind. I’m sorry that happened.”

    I stared him in the face, focusing my hearing a bit. His heart sounded steady, indicating that he was telling me the truth. After staring at him for a moment longer, I sighed. I had no right to be upset with him. Everyone had a past, and he had been so understanding of me despite the fact that I had slept with someone else literally the day before I met him; I couldn’t stay angry at him.

    “I believe you,” I replied quietly, and he instantly sighed in relief. 

    Staring directly into his eyes, I raised a finger to his face and snapped, “But if she ever comes near you again. If she ever touches you again. If I ever find her in our bed practically naked again, I’m killing her. You are mine, Damien Michaelis, do you understand me? No one else’s.”

    He smiled and pushed my finger away before leaning forward and claiming my lips in a fervent kiss, pouring his feelings into the entirety of the kiss. I melted in his arms, letting the electricity of the feeling of his body against mine consume me, as he walked me backwards until I felt my back hit the soft mattress.

    “I’m yours, Raina,” he murmured against my lips with a smile. “Only yours.”

————

    Panic. 

    I felt pure panic flow through me as I felt myself being pulled through a dimly lit corridor by two men with indistinguishable faces, the sound of chains dragging across the ground faintly resonating in my ears. 

    Where was I? Was this a dream? Had I been kidn*pped in my sleep and was only just now realizing it?

    I struggled to break free from the men’s grasp to find my hands bound behind my back by the same chains that I had heard dragging against the ground. I was suddenly aware of the faint stinging of my wrists, and I realized the chains must have been silver. 

    What was going on?

    I was shoved through a door and was blinded by the sudden bright light. The men who had been dragging me by the arms suddenly threw me to the floor, and I landed in a heap by someone’s feet. I struggled for a moment to sit up right, finding it hard to do with my hands bound so tightly, but I froze when I heard his voice.

    “My, my, what a surprise this is,” his voice sounded, chilling me straight to the core. 

    He gripped my chin roughly, forcing my head up to look up at him, and I found myself staring into the icy gray eyes of none other than Lucas Crawford. 

    “My beautiful Raina,” he sneered at me, bringing his other hand up to gently stroke the side of my face. 

    I jerked my head trying to break free from him, but he tightened his grasp on me, causing me to cry out in pain from his nails digging into my cheeks. 

    He sneered at me again, staring directly into my eyes, the cold gray almost glowing with excitement. 

    “You’re alive.”

    I shot up from bed in a cold sweat, panting hard. Damien bolted up in a sitting position next to me at the sudden movement and immediately began asking what was wrong. 

    I couldn’t answer him. My head was throbbing in a splitting headache, and I felt like no matter how hard I tried to breathe, I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs. I felt the beginnings of a panic attack rip through me, and I lowered my head into my hands, staring at the bed as I desperately tried to get a hold of my bearings. 

    Damien wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his body, his strong frame instantly offering me comfort. I melted into his embrace and felt the tears suddenly overwhelm me. 

    “What’s wrong, my love, what happened?” Damien asked in concern. 

    I could tell he was also feeling a little frantic but was struggling to keep his voice even so he wouldn’t worry me even further. Should I tell him about my dream?

    I fought for a moment with myself about whether I should tell him or not but remembered the promise I had made about never keeping anything from him again and realized that I had to. 

    “L-Lucas,” I stammered in between my tears. “I-I had a dream a-about Lucas. He was excited, e-excited that I was alive.”

    Instantly, I felt Damien’s body tense. I felt his heartbeat begin to quicken, and his skin felt hot against mine. I struggled to get my tears under control as my body shook uncontrollably. I’d never felt fear quite like this before. It felt too real to be a dream, almost as if I had actually been there, as if Lucas had actually been able to touch me. 

    “Raina, tell me everything that happened, exactly as it happened,” Damien ordered, his voice sounding desperate. 

    I recounted everything from my dream, from the two men dragging me down a hallway, to my hands being bound by silver chains, to Lucas grabbing me, to him excitedly realizing that I was alive, all of it. 

    “It all felt so real!” I cried, burying my head in his chest as he held me. “I felt his hands on me, I felt him grab me!”

    Damien quietly soothed me, holding onto me tightly as he stroked my hair while I continued to cry. 

    “I’ve got you, my love,” he comforted in a soothing tone as I felt my tears begin to slowly subside. “He won’t get his hands on you, I promise. I’ve got you.”

    After a few minutes, my tears finally quieted, a few sniffles escaping every now and then, and he pulled me to arms length so he could look directly in my face, his expression serious. 

    “From now on, I want a guard on you at all times,” he stated, leaving no room for argument. “If it’s not me, then Ethan, and if not Ethan, then Ricky, my Gamma, got it? I don’t want you by yourself, not even for a second. Not until we can figure out what to do about Lucas.”

    I nodded in agreement, reaching up to wipe my face clean of tears. 

    “Don’t worry, Raina,” he reassured me, pulling me so we were now laying back down in bed. “I promise you that he won’t get his hands on you. I’ll keep you safe.”

    I didn’t say anything. 

    Although I wanted to believe him, that he could protect me from this psycho, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that this would be a promise he wouldn’t be able to keep.