Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
Damien
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
Cade strides into the room, his eyes blazing and bulging, his usual calm demeanor now replaced with the rage beast that rarely comes out to play. He stalks right up to the front of my desk as my office door slides closed.
The glass walls of my Denver office reflect the city’s late afternoon light, casting sharp angles across the polished surfaces. Screens surround me, on both the desk and walls, a digital fortress of my own design. Multiple monitors display Luna’s sanctuary from the micro-cameras I hid this morning.
“You left the body on her front porch. Like a fucking gift. We have protocols for disposal, Damien. This is not how we operate.”
I glance toward Tiffany’s desk on the other side of the glass. She’s already gone for the day.
“How we operate?” I lean back in my chair and glare up at him. “Last I checked, I’m the one who decides how this works.”
Cade crosses his arms, his military bearing never faltering, even after all these years out of the service. “You’ve been watching her for over a week. Stalking her like she’s prey instead of—”
“Instead of what?” I surge to my feet, letting him see the beast beneath my surface. “She’s not prey, Cade.”
“Then tell me what she is to you. Because this isn’t you, Damien. You don’t get obsessed. You don’t get reckless. You sure as hell don’t drop bodies like twisted love letters.”
Love letters. The words don’t sit right. I walk toward the window and look out over the city.
“He hurt one of her rescues. She needs to know he paid for it.”
“And you needed to be the one to tell her?”
“Yes.”
Cade shakes his head and moves to stand beside me. “You’ve never been this way about a woman before. What do you really want with her?”
Her face flashes in front of my eyes, and my pulse changes rhythm.
The thought of her makes my chest burn with something that shakes me to my foundation.
That night I stood outside her window and watched her touch herself in the moonlight.
The hunger that tore through me wasn’t simple lust. It was deeper.
Darker. The need to mark her. Keep her. Make sure no one else can touch what’s mine.
“I want all of her. I want to claim her. Own her. Brand her.”
“Jesus Christ, Damien. Are you listening to yourself?” Cade stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have. “You need to get laid and leave the doctor alone.”
The words are barely out of his mouth before I have him by the throat, slamming him against the window. His eyes widen, but he doesn’t fight back.
“This isn’t about fucking her.” My grip tightens.
Though I will. I’ll fuck her until she screams and begs me never to stop. But it’s more than that.
“Damien—”
“Yes, we have protocols for disposal, but Luna, what I do for her is off-limits. You don’t get to question it.”
I release him, and he rubs his throat. “You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I’ve never been clearer in my life. For over twenty-five years, I’ve lived in shadows, Cade. Hunting. Killing. Then I saw her, and it’s like someone turned on a light I didn’t know I needed.”
Athena jumps off the sofa where she was napping and ambles over, her brown eyes taking in the tension between us.
“Hey, girl.” I kneel, and she nudges my hand with her head. I stroke the fur around her ears.
Cade watches the interaction in silence, his expression unreadable except for the slight relaxation in his jaw. We both know Athena is my weakness. My connection to something pure in a world I’ve painted in shades of violent gray.
Her tail wags as she looks between Cade and me, sensing the conflict but trusting me to handle it.
The office is silent except for her contented breathing. Cade studies me with the calculating gaze that’s kept us both alive for decades.
“Are you sure you left no DNA evidence behind?”
I give him a withering look. “Have I ever left DNA behind?”
“No. But that’s because I clean up after you.”
“From this point forward, I’ll handle the entirety of the kills, including cleanup, related to Luna’s sanctuary. You’ll handle all the others.”
He’s silent for a long time, debate warring in his eyes over whether he should fight me on this.
“Just be careful. Whatever this is, don’t let it destroy everything we’ve built.”
My hand stills on Athena’s head. “It won’t destroy anything.”
Cade leaves my office. I stand up and look out the window again. Athena remains by my side, her presence a comfort I’ve never found with another living being.
Until Luna.
I was only in her presence once, for mere seconds, but that single encounter with her was enough to know her power both to arouse and calm the beast within me.