Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Damien
Having Raven in my bed did little to erase the apprehension that had a steel grip on my heart since she’d collapsed at the office.
Stirring between my sheets, Raven slept fitfully, a tiny frown between her eyebrows and a small whimper escaping her lips. My fingers twitched as I burned with the need to hold her as though my touch would magically ease all her aches.
As I clenched my fingers into a fist, pushing against the insane urges of my wolf, I had to admit to myself that placing Raven in my rooms instead of the numerous vacant ones in the pack house might not have been the most logical decision.
Raven let out another whimper, and my illusion of control shattered.
Reaching out, I smoothed a lock of hair away from her heartbreakingly beautiful face and behind her ear. Letting out a breath, Raven sleepily leaned into my touch, her anxious expression immediately easing. That singular motion sparked a depth of protectiveness within me that I didn’t dare examine.
Frowning, I pulled away. What on earth was wrong with me?
Raven and I had built an unexpectedly solid partnership over the past month from getting stuck in the elevator to talking her through the ultrasound to all those many hours working and training together.
But it didn’t explain the intensity of my feelings. Raven stirred, emerald green eyes fluttering open and slowly focusing on me.
“Damien?” Her voice was husky with sleep as she cast a confused glance around my room. “What happened?”
Unclenching my fist that burned with the heat from touching her, I didn’t bother with any pleasantries.
“You will not be going back to work.”
Raven’s confusion cleared instantly, indignation sparking in her gaze.
“You can’t just dictate—”
I cut her off. “Nor will you be going back to that cubicle you call a home. It’s not safe.”
The fact that it had taken Raven’s collapse for me to discover the state of her accommodations bothered me. I’d had closets that were bigger than that place. Not only was the security system nonexistent, but the place was literally a walking health hazard.
I’d known her falling out with the Ivory Moon Pack had repercussions, but for an alpha heir to live in such squalor was simply unthinkable. I hated that I’d been so desperate to keep up the boundaries between Raven and me that I’d missed such an essential detail about her life.
And for the first time, I wondered what else I’d missed about the specifics of Raven’s exile and the loss of her inheritance. I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever it was, Elias had a substantial role to play in it.
“My home is perfectly fine,” Raven snapped. “You are just used to living in larger-than-life buildings.”
I didn’t blink.
“And you are ill.”
Raven rolled her eyes as though I was overreacting.
“It’s just a cold. I’m fine.”
But she hadn’t been fine when I caught her midfall at the office or when I waited for the doctors, my every breath laced with terror as Raven lay small and still in my arms, her temperature steadily rising.
“Werewolves don’t have colds,” I bit out more harshly than I’d intended. “Do you know how compromised your immune system has to be for you to catch a cold like a human? Do you even attempt to look after yourself?”
Raven shot me a belligerent glare, her lips parted to give what would have undoubtedly been a colorful retort, but I didn’t give her a chance.
“You will be staying in my pack house till I can trust you to live unsupervised,” I informed her.
“Trust me to live unsupervised?” Raven bristled, letting out an enraged gasp of disbelief as she ripped the duvet off her body. “I dare you to stop—”
Her words choked off into a stunned silence as she noticed.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, but I would,” I didn’t bother to hide my smirk, folding my arms as I watched Raven grapple to comprehend her current situation. “I have too much experience with your hardheadedness not to, Raven.”
The cuffs attaching Raven’s wrists to the headboard were lined with soft downy feathers designed with enough give in the extending chains that Raven could move around freely in bed without being hindered or getting injured.
“You can’t just cuff me to your bed!” Raven hissed viciously.
“I just did,” I deadpanned, standing on my feet to retrieve the breakfast tray that had just been delivered to my door. Raven’s glare didn’t falter as I brought the tray over to the bedside, so naturally, I couldn’t help but tease her.
“Say ahhh,” I said, offering her a warm piece of toast.
Raven didn’t even look at my hand; rather, her glare intensified for a moment, then her expression went carefully blank.
“Damien.” Her voice was smooth and devoid of inflection. “Once you take these cuffs off, and you will take them off eventually, I will make you pay for this.”
I shrugged unbothered.
“First, you’ll have to beat me in a sparring match. A feat you haven’t accomplished in…” I pretended to struggle to remember. “Was it one, two months of training?”
Raven’s sober facade fell apart, a brilliant flush rising to her cheeks as she snatched another piece of toast from the tray, her eyes still sparking with anger as she ate, and I could barely hold back a smile at her belligerence.
It wasn’t until Raven was half asleep after clearing the tray of food and having her medication that she spoke again in a small, hesitant whisper.
“Why did you defend me at work?” Her eyes struggled to stay open. “I know you don’t like me.”
Once, I would have agreed with that statement, but now her words felt like sharp edges of broken glass twisting beneath my skin. I drew the sheets over her body, tucking her in gently.
“We are a team, Raven,” I whispered, the truth of every word resonating within me. “I’ve got you.”
“The Silverstone Pack has changed a lot since the last time I was here,” Raven remarked offhandedly as we walked through the marble foyer.
Slightly surprised, I turned to look at her.
“You’ve been here before?”
Officially, Raven and I were at the Silverstone Pack, one of the Shadow Thorn Pack allies, to attend the mating ceremony of its alpha heir, Kane Everfrost.
Unofficially, I was scouting other alphas in attendance, hoping to forge alliances that would prove vital for the increasingly probable war against the humans, with the serial killer’s whereabouts and identity still unknown.
“Small packs like the Ivory Moon Pack have allies too, you know?” Raven rolled her eyes, her tone light and teasing. “I used to visit all the time as a child.”
Raven and I had a ceasefire of sorts these past six weeks, where she was yet to forgive me for cuffing her to my bed that first day, but reluctantly accepted my imposed break, taking the pack doctor’s recommendation on the necessity of a stable pack environment for a successful shifter second and third trimester as well as birth.
“Really?” Curiosity sparked within me at her words. Raven’s recollection of her childhood always seemed dark and bleak. I felt relieved that she also had some good memories. “You never mentioned it. Alpha Mark and Luna Christy must be so excited to have you over today.”
Raven stumbled, a shadow settling over her features.
“I wouldn’t be sure about that,” she said stiltedly. “The last time we spoke, I asked them for help with getting back home, and they refused to stand with me against my uncle unless I mated with their son, Kane, and handed my pack over to them.”
Raven’s airy tone sounded a touch forced as she laughed softly.
“Glad to see he finally got a bride, though.”
My wolf rose to the surface, outrage warring with a primal urge suddenly rising within me at the thought of Raven being manipulated into getting mated to someone else. She was mine. Who would dare try to take her from me?
“Damien?”
Raven’s voice was soft and uncertain, the feeling of her hand on mine a warm brand that bespelled me. I took a step towards her, my mind a dark haze as I backed her up against a column in the desolate hallway.
“Damien?”
Raven’s full red lips parted, confusion apparent in her darkening emerald green eyes, her pulse racing beneath the pads of my fingers as I stroked over her nape and the patch of skin that would bear my mark. Once I marked and claimed her as mine, no one would dare steal her from me.
I felt Raven shiver, her breath hitching as her gaze found mine, and when I inhaled, the intoxicating scent of her arousal hit me hard. A harsh breath left me. I reached for her.
“Alpha Damien?”
At the abrupt sound of Luna Christy’s voice, my mind steadied, clarity slowly trickling back into me. What on earth just happened? Did my wolf just try to mark Raven?
Chilled, I took a step back from her, my body trembling from the effort as I let go of her to face our hosts. Alpha Mark and Luna Christy were uncharacteristically stiff, wearing identically appalled expressions as their gazes settled on Raven behind me.
Distantly, I recalled Raven’s words that had set me off. Apart from their failed attempt to take over Raven’s inheritance through a betrothal, the Everfrosts seemed to be unaware of the change in Raven’s situation, including our new relationship.
Raven broke the silence first, a diplomatic mask I’d never seen before settling across her face.
“Alpha Mark, Luna Christy,” Raven smiled formally. “The place looks stunning. Congratulations on your son, Kane’s mating ceremony.”
“Alpha Damien,” Luna Christy’s voice trembled with uncertainty, her quizzical gaze still on Raven. “I wasn’t aware you were…associated with Raven.”
My wolf’s territoriality made a resurgence with a burning intensity.
“She is my fiancée,” My words came out as a low growl, a soft gasp escaping Raven as my arm slipped around her waist. “The mother of my heir.”
Alpha Mark and Luna Christy exchanged a nervous glance, paler than they had been mere seconds ago.
“We heard…we had no idea Raven was…”