Chapter 28
After sensing Malakai trapped beneath the ground of the Ancient Springs, hidden away like some animal, something unsettling came over me. It wasn’t the fear of Damien or Malakai refusing our bond… it was the magic that seemed to sweep through me now.
And although I was a human, since the portal and the little glittery tea-party inside which Damien said was created through my own illusions and dreams… I felt different. Now, this portal seemed to have its own opening in Xavier’s wardrobe.
Almost every night I’d sneak into my little Wonderland, just enjoying the moments by myself. But there were so many things going on inside me, some of them making me question way too many things at once.
Now, I stood in front of Damien’s room, debating whether I should knock at his door.
But I wanted to talk with him about what had happened…
about the portal… about the Ancient Springs, and how I found Malakai.
I felt selfish, because as much as I had almost lost him and Xavier, he had lost a brother for so long.
And I wasn’t ready yet to ask Malakai about all of the things he was going through. I knew his streaks and scars carried a story—a dark one and somehow, I was afraid that they were the reason he refused to be near me.
And that’s why I had loved our time in the portal… how we were all so rested and happy, not thinking about all of the things awaiting us.
But unfortunately, the experience caused Damien to distance himself from me… it almost seemed he was afraid of anything changing between us. Especially since it was now well-known that our bond was the reason his powers have shifted, and he found the strength to create a portal.
“Gwendolyn,” came his voice from behind me.
I turned around to see him standing at the wall and swallowed hard, my heart hammering against my ribs like it wanted to burst from my chest. Even in the dim light, he looked almost unreal.
Terrifying and magnetic. He must have noticed the flicker of uncertainty crossing my face, and he stepped toward me.
The closer he came, the more I felt an almost aching tenderness inside me.
“I knew from Xavier that you think I have been avoiding you… it isn’t the truth,” he stated and stroked over my shoulders with cautious movements.
“Then why haven’t you made any effort to see me after we got back?”
“After what happened with my brother… I couldn’t control this thing inside me… it wants rage, only rage and destruction. I could never allow it to hurt you.”
And now, watching Damien, I realized he carried that same battle inside him again.
The dragon part of him wasn’t born from destruction, but from an overwhelming desire to defend the people he loved.
And that’s why he tried keeping a distance between us, why he didn’t want us to share more than a kiss when we were in the Ancient Springs.
Because he knew if I let him all the way in, if we truly bonded, there would be no going back.
Damien’s rage, his growls, his sharpness... it wasn’t senseless violence. It was fear. A primal instinct, fighting to protect himself from a world that had always tried to cage him.
“Gwendolyn, if I bond with you, you’ll be bound to me and my dragon forever. Even if you beg me to, I would not be able to let you go. I don’t know what my powers will do and how much they will heighten when I bond with you.”
He took a shaky breath, his hands clenching at his sides as if he was restraining himself from reaching out.
“I’m afraid of hurting you,” he whispered. “Of losing control.”
The vulnerability in his voice shattered something inside me. Because he wasn’t afraid of being hurt. He was terrified of hurting me.
I placed my hands lightly on his chest, feeling the thunder of his heartbeat under my palms.
“Damien,” I whispered back, voice trembling, “I’m not afraid of your dragon. Or you.
I’m afraid of losing you before we even have a chance to bond.”
His whole body tensed as he pressed a kiss against both of my hands.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for Gwendolyn,” he murmured against my skin.
“Maybe I don’t,” I replied with a smile. “But I do know one thing for sure. I don’t want to carry this feeling of missing you around me. I’d rather have you here with me.”
Something flickered in his eyes then, something raw and ancient and hungry. And for the first time, I didn’t see just the man standing before me. I saw the dragon too.
Both of them were protectors and predators, and they wanted me. And both of them were afraid they didn’t deserve me.
I tightened my hands against his chest, grounding him, grounding us.
“Bond with me, Damien,” I whispered. “If you’re ready. I trust you. All of you.”
For a heartbeat, he stayed still, trembling under my touch.
Then he dropped his forehead against mine, exhaling a long, shuddering breath that felt like a surrender and a promise all at once.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Damien didn’t hesitate as he ravished my lips like a moth drawn to a flame.
I barely had any oxygen left in my lungs when he abandoned my lips.
His gaze was capturing mine, searching for any signs of regret.
He gripped both sides of my face in his hands and brushed his lips against my forehead, my cheeks, my nose and ultimately my lips again while he carried me into his bedroom, closing the door behind us.
“You are perfect, my love,” he said as he laid me on his bed.
Then he slid his blouse off, and I could see his dragon tattoo shimmering silver on his chest. I watched raptly as he unbuttoned his jeans, and lowered the zipper, revealing abs I never knew existed.
His fingertips brushed against the material of his waist band and then he shoved his pants, along with his boxers, down.
That man was the most ethereal creature I had ever laid my eyes on, like he was crafted by immortal hands. His features were godlike and unique, from the shape of his scar to the sharp lines of his chin. Then I remembered, he had controlled the water and wind to save me.
He was a God.
Damien stood directly in front of me, presenting me his body in its entire glory. Although I’d already caught a glimpse when I came to the Ancient Springs, I hadn’t been able to see everything as he sadly noticed my presence at the same time. But, now seeing him right in front of me…
His body was mastered to perfection, slender but toned and the tail of his dragon tattoo ended down by his right thigh. Damien was painfully, cruelly beautiful. There was no other way to describe him. I didn’t want to ogle him, but my eyes forgot how to close themselves.
Then I felt his fingers trailing all the way down from the jaw to my neck. “Look at me.” I heard him say and turned my gaze to him.
“Shyness is not necessary, love. Everything I get to see now… I have dreamed of a thousand years before.” I didn’t know what to say or if this kind of man in front of me was even real to begin with.
But then his lips touched mine, and it felt like the realest thing ever.
Damien’s hands caressed my shoulders and then he gradually pulled off my dress, which left my upper body completely exposed to him.
Before I could cover myself up, he gripped my hands and kissed them.
“Relax, sweetheart. You should never feel shame with me.” I began to loosen up and then he kissed circles over my left breast with my hands still firmly gripped in his.
Then he kissed our entwined hands before moving over to the other breast.
“You are breathtaking,” he said, causing my skin to heat. Damien lifted me up so I was on top of him on the bed, my dress still covering the lower side of my body. His fingers trailed down my stomach and then in seconds he had ripped the dress to shreds. Pity, since I’d really liked that dress.
Damien must have been reading my thoughts, or the words came out loud, as he murmured, “I’ll buy you new dresses, love.
Very likely also in duplicates, because I can’t promise that I will always have the patience to undress you properly.
” He gazed at me, his fingertips brushing from my cheek to my collarbone.
He cupped my breast and pinched one of the nipples, causing a little bit of pain.
A moan escaped my lips. Gripping my face, his lips captured mine with an intense hunger, like he needed to claim every inch of me.
Then he trailed kisses down my stomach setting off wildfires all over my body.
His eyes met mine for a second as he parted my legs, kissing the inner side of my thigh.
The closer his mouth got to my heat, the less I breathed.
My legs clenched together to comply with the pressure down there but Damien stopped me.
“No, no sweetheart. Don’t move.” His fingers began to tease my outer lips, lightly rubbing circles in soft figure-eight around my clit, pulling soft moans from me.
He turned me around, my naked body laid out on the bed, trailing his fingers down to cup my pussy and causing a whimper to slip from my lips.
“You are a marvelous beauty. Your features are ethereal, more than any elven queen that has ever ruled. No one comes close to your grace.” And then he kissed me, soft and slow before moving his glorious naked body lower, to my heat.
“Your whole being made to kneel for. My inner dragon knew from the first moment that you were made for me.”
That man was really making me blush like no other. I really thought that I would never be worthy of love—real love like in the books I read—and then I fell into the hedge of roses and received more unconditional love than I could ever imagine.