Chapter 25 #2
Damen glowered at him, fury rolling off him in waves, but Miles only tilted his head slightly, as if weighing something.
“Besides,” he added, his voice quieter now, almost conversational, “she’s the one who initiated the bond. I only followed.”
“You know damn well what I meant!” Damen snapped.
Miles rubbed the back of his neck, his posture loosening, as he wearily asked, “Do we really need to do this now?”
“Yes!” Damen turned his attention to me, and my muscles tensed.
Physically, he looked the same, but a shadow lurked in his eyes—enough to send the dragon in me on high alert.
Damen was unraveling, and it had nothing to do with Miles.
“You can’t do the Soul Bond with her!” he told me. “She’ll break.”
“I would never hurt her.” My jaw tightened. “Mu and I have bonded before—what makes you think this time would be different?”
“Mu has never been your mate ,” Damen pointed out. “Things are already different. You’ve never been able to hear her thoughts. You don’t know what else this link might awaken.”
He had a point. One I didn’t like.
“I can only hear her when I’m shifted,” I admitted. “But my father felt my mother, even from a distance. He knew the second she was in danger. So, no, I don’t know what might change.”
And when she’d died… he’d known without physical confirmation.
“Exactly,” Damen nodded.
“That would actually be helpful,” Julian cut in, unimpressed. “You’re just looking for excuses because you know that after Titus, you’re next.”
Damen glared at him. “I will, under no circumstances, do a Soul Bond.”
“You will if she needs it,” Julian replied.
“Mu has never needed it,” Damen argued. “So it’s a moot point.”
“She’s hiding things—physical limitations, and skills she shouldn’t even have,” Miles interrupted. I tensed as Damen’s attention jumped back to him.
“Explain,” Damen commanded.
“She knows how to hunt,” Miles replied. “Stole my knife and killed a squirrel without missing a beat. That’s not something she’d have learned with Eric Richards. They never would have given her the opportunity to defend herself.”
“She identified specific species of venomous snakes too,” I added. “Ones that are not local. She didn’t grow up here.”
“Eric Richards operations are nearby, only an hour or so out.” Damen frowned, looking between them. “But we’re getting closer to a location. I’ve asked her once, but she won’t answer.”
“Which brings up my original point,” Miles sighed. “She doesn’t communicate a lot of what’s happening—like the fact that she’s in physical pain. Julian’s mentioned it before, but I want to reinforce that I can actually feel it. It’s severe.”
Damen scowled.
“She’s in more danger than she realizes,” Miles added, quieter now.
Julian nodded, jaw tense. “And thanks to his interference, now Bryce is aware too. They might have only done superficial treatments and scans, but who knows what they’ve concluded.”
“They had no right to do that,” Damen stated. “I told them to stay out of it.”
“You didn’t seriously think he’d listen? He’s a Dubois,” Julian cut in. “She’s their only daughter in generations, and he’s the heir. Plus, he’s obsessed with her. We won’t have long until he intervenes further.”
The mood turned darker. A heavy silence hung in the room.
Bryce had looked pissed the entire way home, texting nonstop. Brayden hadn’t stopped fidgeting.
Damen frowned.
“We can’t push medical intervention without her consent unless it’s a last resort.” Julian looked at Damen, frowning, as he added, “A Soul Bond between you might solve everything. You have no idea what it would reveal—you’ve never been open to it.”
“It won’t help,” Damen replied, expression deepening into something more profound. “It will only make her even more of a target. I will not do it.”
My heart jumped even as Julian leaned forward. Meanwhile, Miles stared at the onmyoji.
“You know what it does,” Julian accused, brows furrowing. “How?”
Damen’s eyes were dark, and my nerves prickled as the room grew hot. “You’re forgetting who I am.”
Julian didn’t back away. Instead, he grew even more still as they watched each other. Finally, he began to tap his finger over his knee and grumbled, “ Fine . I’ll drop it—for now.”
Miles met my eyes, mouth twisting, before he interrupted them. “Then what?” he asked. “You can’t refuse Titus anymore. He needs to be with her—they are mates.”
“I will not hold back if she wants it,” I reassured him.
Damen looked between us before he finally let out a low breath. “I will not stop you—”
“You can’t,” I reminded him. Not on this.
“—but…”—Damen exhaled, raking a hand through his hair—“this doesn’t change the fact that she needs treatment sooner rather than later. Soul Bonds are not the answer, and should not be relied on. We still have to convince her. It has to be her choice.”
A heavy silence followed.
Julian glanced toward the door, his expression unreadable. “You saw how she acted in the helicopter. You know she won’t agree to an exam,” he said, voice softer. “So then, what else can we do?”
“You can’t force her,” I frowned at Damen.
“I have no intention of forcing her.” Damen glanced at me. He sat forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “Although, eventually, I will have to intervene. In the meantime, we have to stop assuming she will tell us when she needs help.”
“I don’t think that’s the only problem,” Miles said softly. “At least not when it comes to her health.”
Damen’s gaze flickered between them, his voice lowering when he looked at Julian. “What are you talking about?”
Julian tapped his fingers against his knee, his gaze briefly flicking to Miles. For a second, neither of them spoke, and I recalled the private conversation they’d shared the night before.
They were comparing notes.
My stomach began to sink. They knew something.
Damen caught the look and narrowed his eyes. His voice came quieter now, but sharper. “What’s the problem?”
Miles exhaled, running a hand down his sleeve before finally meeting Damen’s gaze. “She doesn’t notice.”
Damen frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She moves like it’s nothing,” Miles said, his tone level. “I absorbed some of the pain, but there was a massive transfer before anything changed. I’m surprised she’s functioning, but still, she hardly reacted.”
Damen’s expression turned blank.
“He’s right,” Julian murmured. “And since we can only feel it through touch, we’re limited in how often we can check. I can’t block the pain forever—it will only mask the underlying issue. But…” He hesitated, then added, “She will collapse.”
Damen had grown eerily silent. He’d leaned forward in his seat, linked his fingers over his mouth, and moved his attention to the floor. But I knew him—he was thinking, which meant that a long-term plan was already being formed.
Meanwhile, I could hardly breathe. My muscles grew tight with tension. I usually never intervened in these conversations. But right now, I wanted nothing more than to step in.
To tell them that we should make her listen. I couldn’t let her push herself.
I’d already suspected something was off—the way she moved through the forest and showed no signs of exhaustion when even Damen wouldn’t stop whining when he thought no one else could hear.
She was used to pushing herself past her limits.
I had no idea it was this bad. I had to fix this.
But I’d promised her we wouldn’t pressure her.
“We have to do something,” Miles said. “We can’t just let it go.”
“We’re not going to let it go.” Damen’s words were quiet—absolute—and the room stilled when he spoke. “But we will not bully her into doing something she doesn’t want, either.”
Julian frowned. “Then—”
“We prepare,” Damen continued. His gaze turned to each of us. “Right now, we don’t even understand what we’re missing, but we do know this: she cannot go back to a hospital; it would destroy her. We cannot talk to her about it—she will deny there is a problem. So, we plan.”
I lifted my brow. “Plan for what?”
I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
“For when she needs help,” Damen continued. “We need to be better at reading her. We move before she asks. If she needs something, we’ll have it ready before she even has a chance to think about it.”
Julian gave a sharp nod. Miles didn’t respond, but the tension in his shoulders loosened.
“We do this before Bryce does,” Julian said. “Because if he gets to her first, it’ll be forced.”
Miles exhaled. “And if she feels cornered, she’ll run.”
Damen didn’t argue. He sat still, too still. His shoulders had gone rigid again, his jaw tight. His hands were still steepled in front of him, unmoving.
I should have felt relieved. I should have been glad we had a plan—that Damen had done what he always did: take the reins and tell the rest of us what came next.
But I didn’t.
Because something was off. And for the first time, I didn’t know if he could hold it together.
Then Damen finally looked up.
Not with authority. Not with anger. But with fear.
“We’ll do it,” he said. “Quietly. Subtly. She won’t even realize.”
He exhaled, low and steady. “She won’t ask for help. So we make sure she never has to.”
His voice softened. “We do the things no one’s ever done for her,” he said. “Even if she doesn’t know how to accept it.”