Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Damien
“That’s it, beautiful, come all over my cock.”
The words escape my lips as I erupt, my vision blurring as thick ropes of come splash onto Luna’s window.
I watch her fall apart so fucking beautifully beneath her covers, rocking and writhing in sync with the movements of her fingers.
Hips lifting off the bed, her thighs trembling, and her mouth falling open as pleasure rolls through her in waves.
This private moment belongs to me now.
The splashes of viscous, milky ejaculate slip down the glass as my thighs tremble. My cock jerks in my hand, my fingers shaking around my shaft as the last of my orgasm fades. My vision clears, and I see the cat sitting in the window, watching me with unblinking eyes.
A witness to my depravity.
I meant only to peek in the window and watch her sleep for a few minutes. Her open curtains were an invitation I couldn’t resist. But imagine my surprise when I climbed up the side of her porch, onto the balcony, looked between those open curtains, and found her with her fingers buried in her cunt.
I give my cock a few last jerks, debating whether I should wipe the window, but I decide against it. It’s my gift for her, a token of my obsession. When she looks out her window again tomorrow, she’ll find proof of my desire.
Let her wonder what it is and how it got there. She’s brilliant from what I’ve seen and heard of her so far. She’ll figure it out.
The only question is, will it frighten her to know someone was outside her window, someone who left their come on the glass while watching her?
Or will it thrill her?
My eyes return to Luna as her hips lower to the bed and she throws her arm above her head, gasping for air. What was she thinking about as she touched herself? Was she picturing me, her billionaire neighbor she ran into yesterday?
My thoughts are so vivid, I can almost touch them.
Her yielding to me, melting under my hands, begging me to claim her, to show her how completely I can consume her.
I imagine her pleading, thighs wrapped around my hips, nails digging into my back as I fuck her.
Rough and hard and deep, stealing her breath and her voice as she screams herself hoarse, coming on my cock over and over.
There’s no gentleness. Only punishing, unrelenting need.
Fucking at its most primal as I claim her until she surrenders to me, offering me her life along with her body.
Fuck! I’m getting hard again just thinking about it.
My gaze lingers on her for a few more minutes, not wanting to leave. She’s panting, her breasts rising and falling under that little scrap of fabric she considers a top, her arm still thrown over her eyes.
Then she rolls onto her side, facing away from the window, pulling the sheets around her. My hands grip the window frame. I want to tear through the glass, shred those sheets, rip that fabric off her skin, and bury myself inside her.
I could watch her forever, but I pull myself away.
As I land on the ground in front of the porch, I spot Luna’s wolf watching me through the front window.
He growls, the sound vibrating the glass, but he stops short of howling and doesn’t alert his mistress to the man who just watched her come apart by her own hand.
We regard each other with mutual recognition, two predators acknowledging each other.
I allow him his territory for now. Soon enough, he’ll understand that Luna belongs to me.
I slip into the woods, the dense trees welcoming me back into the darkness as my phone vibrates in my pocket. It’s Cade. He’s the only one who has this number.
“Report.”
“Background check complete on Luna Foster.”
“You’re four hours late.”
“Cleanup last night took longer than normal. You left quite a mess.”
“Fucker deserved it. Now give me the info on Luna.”
“Thirty-two years old, wildlife rehabilitator for the past five years. Attended CSU Fort Collins for undergrad and D.V.M. doctorate. Inherited the sanctuary land when her maternal grandfather died during her second year of residency. Clean record, pays her taxes on time, no significant debt besides a fifty-thousand-dollar mortgage on the property for which she used the proceeds to expand the sanctuary two years ago, and a little over one hundred thousand in student loans. Payments are in deferment status until next year.”
I navigate through the underbrush. “And before? Family history?”
Cade pauses. “Orphaned at ten. Parents died in a pedestrian bridge collapse outside a Celtic festival in Wyoming. She survived only because her father’s body broke her fall.
She was hospitalized in the ICU for several weeks with a broken arm, broken collarbone, two broken legs, and a brain bleed.
Two years of intensive rehabilitation. After recovery, she lived with her grandfather, an eccentric wildlife photographer, until college. ”
Fuck! I almost lost her before I even found her.
“Anything else? What about men?”
The question sends fire through my veins. I picture gutting every man she’s been with, every bastard who dared lay hands on her skin.
“A couple of high school boyfriends. Nothing serious. Appears she lost her virginity on prom night junior year.”
Hot, quick rage surges through me.
“What’s his name?” I grit my teeth, failing to appreciate the modern technology that allowed Cade to gather this intel, despite it being my primary business.
“Billy Smith.”
“Smith? Are you fucking serious? Where is he now?”
“Joined the Navy after high school graduation. Currently stationed in Guam. Married with two kids.”
Fuck! That means I can’t kill him. I don’t like to leave children orphaned, unless their parents are pieces of shit abusers, and their kids are better off without them.
I want to tear Billy fucking Smith’s throat out for being the first to touch Luna, but all that matters is that no other man but me will ever touch her again. I halt in my tracks as that fundamental truth takes root inside me.
Luna Foster is mine.
“Any others?”
“A couple of hookups in college, but no serious boyfriends that I could find. After she opened the sanctuary, she dated a Caleb Hunter for two years but broke it off last year when he became abusive. There’s a current restraining order in place.”
“He laid his fucking hands on her? What kind of abuse?”
Now, Caleb Hunter, I will kill. Without batting a fucking eye, even if he’s Mike fucking Brady from the Brady Bunch.
“One hospital visit with a couple of broken ribs and several bruises a few times before she kicked him to the curb. He only seemed to become abusive later in their relationship, after developing a cocaine problem.”
“Where is he?”
“That’s the million-dollar question. After Dr. Foster ended things, he lost his job, reputation, law license, and went off the grid. No technological presence for over a year. No credit cards, no banking, no phone. Nothing. I’ll keep looking.”
“Find the fucker, Cade.”
“Damien, remember your code. Only those who deserve it.”
“He fucking deserves it.”
“Damien—”
“We’re done talking about this. Anyone else?”
Cade sighs. “A one-night stand a month after she ended things with Hunter. He was fifty-nine and married. She hasn’t seen or spoken to him since.”
“I want all their details, every fucking one of them, uploaded to my private server.”
“Damien, I won’t help you kill every man who has ever touched Luna Foster.”
“I don’t need your assistance, Cade, just the information. Now what about the abusers?” I need an outlet for my rage. “Any locals?”
“I’ve identified eleven individuals who’ve been reported for animal abuse in the county in the last six months.
The most recent is Daryl Rawlings, age forty-one.
Three prior arrests for animal cruelty, released each time with minimal consequences.
Latest victim was…” He hesitates, and I know what he’s going to say.
“A shepherd mix found starved and beaten. Local authorities issued only a fine.”
Daryl Rawlings has just become my next kill.
“Dr. Foster nursed him back to health a few months ago, and a family in Platteville with a menagerie of animals adopted him. They’re frequent fosters for Luna and often keep the animals she sends their way.”
Of course, she finds the best homes for her damaged souls.
“Rawlings frequents the Broken Antler Bar most evenings. Lives alone on an isolated property three miles northeast of town. I’ve sent the details to your secure server, along with the information on the other ten subjects.”
“He’s next on the list. Have any of them threatened Luna?”
“A few. Though she’s well-liked and respected in the community, she’s not favored by the local abusers.”
One more reason they deserve to die.
“Pay off her mortgage and student loans tomorrow. Make sure it can’t be traced back to me.”
“Done.”
“Now find me Caleb Hunter.”
I end the call, then stop at the forest’s edge and glance back at Luna’s house one last time, though it’s too distant to see.
What is it about her that draws me so powerfully?
Is it her gentleness with creatures others would fear or discard? The hint of hidden pain behind her smile? The way she moves through the world as if she believes in its essential goodness, despite evidence to the contrary?
Perhaps it’s all of those things. Or maybe it runs deeper, a crack in her that matches the fractures inside me.
Something in her calls to my darkness, not to shy away from it, but to recognize it as a necessary counterpoint to her light.
I want to surround her with my shadows until she understands its power and protection.
I want to watch her eyes as she realizes that true freedom comes not from hiding from the monsters, but from belonging to one.
Tomorrow, I’ll hunt for her and remove one of the stains from her world. But tonight, I carry the image of her pleasure with me, the sound of her ecstasy on her lips through the thin glass, and the beauty of her face as she came.
My beautiful Luna, so unaware of the wolf who now has her in his sights.