Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
Luna
I’m curled up on the sofa in the enclosed porch, Shadow’s head resting across my lap.
His warmth seeps through my pajama pants, anchoring me while my thoughts threaten to drown me.
Juniper, Willow, and Sage have arranged themselves around me in a protective circle.
Juni is pressed against my hip, Willow is draped across the sofa behind my head, and Sage is kneading biscuits on the blanket covering my legs.
They can sense the fragility of my emotional state, the way animals always can.
The frigid morning air outside seeps through the outdated, single-pane glass panels, which need replacing, but the cold inside me overshadows it.
Everything hurts. Every tender spot on my skin and heart whispers something I don't want to hear. My body remembers what happened, my heart knows what it means, but I’m not prepared for either truth.
The tea in my mug turned cold hours ago. I haven’t moved much since dawn broke, since the moment I sent that rambling text to Maren at five-thirty in the morning.
Me
Need you. Come when you can. Everything’s fucked.
My fingers stroke through Shadow’s thick fur as my mind replays the moment over and over like a broken record stuck on the most devastating song ever written.
That kiss. That fucking kiss that unraveled everything I thought I knew about my life, about myself, about the man who’s been claiming my body and soul for months.
Damien.
How could I have ignored my instincts and been so blind? I’m so goddamn stupid. A mask and a disguised voice were all it took to fool me.
Or did they?
From the start, I’ve had these nagging suspicions.
But it was so ludicrous that my billionaire neighbor was the same man who stalked, watched, and fucked me.
I should have listened to that niggling voice in the back of my head, the one that said it was too coincidental.
The timing, their physicality, and that goddamn wolf mask.
Why did I insist on thinking I was just imagining it? Why didn’t I recognize his fingers and tongue when Damien…
Shit! I have to be the stupidest woman on the planet.
But that kiss tore through every lie I’d been telling myself.
He kissed me the way Damien did, his lips moving with that same reverence and unbearable tenderness.
And I knew. Everything I’d been ignoring or burying or refusing to believe slammed into place at once.
Each piece of evidence I’d overlooked or ignored burned through me, impossible to deny, and I nearly fell off my kitchen table.
Shadow lifts his head, ears perked forward, but settles back down when he recognizes the familiar rhythm of Maren’s footsteps as she opens the front door without knocking.
Her boots squeak on the hardwood floor as she strides through the house.
I can feel her energy radiating through the air, that fierce protectiveness that makes her such an incredible friend and such a formidable enemy to anyone who crosses the people she loves.
I look up when the kitchen door opens, and she steps out before dropping into the chair across from me. She looks fresh and alert in her scrubs, her dark hair pulled back in a messy bun that somehow still manages to look effortlessly beautiful.
Her eyes widen when she sees me. “Jesus Christ, Lu, you look like absolute shit.”
She kicks off her boots and props her feet on the coffee table. I shift and try to look less like the emotional wreck I am.
“Hello to you too, sunshine.”
“Don’t you ‘hello sunshine’ me.” Her voice takes on that dangerous edge when she hasn’t gotten enough sleep or when she and JT are fighting.
“What’s going on?” She gestures at my general state of dishevelment with a sweeping motion.
Her expression hardens, that protective fury I know so well flashing in her eyes.
“What the fuck did he do? Do I need to kill him?” I swallow hard, and whatever she sees on my face softens her.
“And don’t you dare try to downplay it or make excuses for him. ”
I nod, feeling the sting of tears behind my eyes. “I know who he is.”
Maren sits up straighter, feet dropping to the floor, and her face goes through about seventeen different emotions in the span of three seconds. “Seriously? Did he finally take off that fucking mask?”
“No.” I run a hand through my tangled hair, trying to order my thoughts. “But I know. He kissed me last night. And I just knew.”
“Knew what?” Maren shifts forward, elbows dropping to her knees. “Luna, who is he?”
I meet her eyes, seeing my devastation reflected at me. “It’s Damien, Mar. You were right. I was right. It’s been Damien this whole time.”
The silence stretches between us, suffocating, filling every corner of the room. Sage meows and kneads my thigh under the blanket, sensing my distress.
“Holy fucking shit. That motherfucking manipulative, lying son of a bitch.”
She launches to her feet, pacing the length of the porch, muttering curses that are so inventive, they could only come from Maren Rodriguez.
“I fucking knew it. I knew there was something there!”
She spins to face me, eyes blazing. Shadow’s head jerks upright, Juni hisses, and Sage burrows under the blanket on my lap in response to her furious energy. Willow stretches behind my head, unfazed.
“You have such great instincts, Lu. We both should have listened to them. And the fucking timing. How he showed up in town right when your stalker started watching you—”
“My instincts suck.” Bitterness coats every word, matching the white-hot pain in my chest. “I didn’t listen to them. I mean, how could I ignore those moments when something felt… familiar? How could a mask and his disguising his voice fool me so completely?”
Maren drops back onto the seat with a sigh, her Aries rage burning out as fast as it ignited. “Because you wanted to be fooled. Because there was something freeing about not knowing, wasn’t there?”
The truth of her words shatters my illusions.
“With my wolf, I could be uninhibited. Surrender control. Let myself be vulnerable in ways I never allow with anyone else. And with Damien…” I trail off, memories flooding back.
“With Damien, I was letting my guard down in a different way. He was patient and attentive. He never pushed for more than I was ready to give.”
“Two sides of the same fucking coin. He gave you exactly what you needed in both personas. That fucking manipulative bastard.”
“You said that already.”
“And I’ll say it again.” She grabs one of the throw pillows and launches it across the room. It hits the window with a soft thud. “That motherfucking manipulative rat bastard.”
“He lied to me.” Pain and fury tangle in my throat, making each word sharp.
“For months, Mar. He’s been living this double life, manipulating me, and playing this sick game.
Owning my body as my wolf while courting my heart as Damien.
He watched me tear myself apart with guilt over ‘betraying’ him, and he enjoyed every second of my suffering. He loved punishing me for it.”
“What do you mean, punishing you?” Her eyes narrow to slits, and her breathing slows. “Luna, I thought you said he didn’t hurt you. Because if you’ve been lying to me about that, if he’s been hurting you and you didn’t tell me, I’m going to kick both your asses.”
Even with the threat directed at me, the fierce protectiveness in her tone makes my chest ache with how much I love her.
“He doesn’t hurt me, Mar. Not physically. But after I spent time with Damien, he was always different. Rougher. He never hid that he knew about Damien because he was always watching me. I just refused to put it together. I thought it was jealousy from my stalker, not him being jealous… of himself.”
“That’s pretty fucked up, even by my standards.”
A bitter laugh bursts out of me. “He played me for a fool. Making me want both sides of him and then punishing me for developing feelings for his daylight persona.”
Juni headbutts my elbow, her purr rumbling like a small motor. My fingers sink into her soft fur, and I focus on the rhythmic motion of petting her instead of the chaos in my head.
“Have you considered that maybe this wasn’t some elaborate, cruel game?” Maren’s voice loses its razor edge. Her jaw unclenches as she pushes past her rage to consider something else. “Maybe he didn’t know how to tell you the truth once things went beyond just crazy monkey sex?”
My jaw drops. “Are you seriously defending him right now? After everything I just told you?”
“Fuck no, I’m not defending him.” She throws her hands up in protest. “What he did is completely fucked up, and he deserves to have his balls cut off and fed to him for it. I’ll be the first in line to do it.
But I’m trying to see the whole picture here, Lu.
I’ve never seen your masked stalker, but I’ve seen how Damien looks at you. That man is completely gone for you.”
“He let me grieve alone. He knew I lost our baby, and he just watched me suffer.”
“Did he, though?” Maren leans forward. Her gaze pins me in place.
“Because what I’ve seen is him bringing you lunch every damn day for the last couple weeks, checking on you, making sure you’re eating and taking care of yourself, even though you didn’t ‘technically’ tell Damien about the miscarriage.
I can’t even imagine how many miles he’s put on that helicopter bringing takeout from Denver.
Wait, do helicopters use miles or… never mind.
Point is, he’s been showing up for you this whole time.
Just not as the version of himself you expected. ”
I go still. The righteous solid ground under my feet just turned to quicksand.
Thanks for that, Maren.
“I don’t know what to do.” My voice cracks. “I’m so angry with him, Mar. What he did… the lies, the deception. He betrayed me, but I’m—”
“Still in love with him.”