Chapter 17 - Damian
I blink my eyes open, and as soon as I do, a distant ache washes over me.
Hissing through my teeth, I clench my hands into fists at my sides, determined to wake up when the first memory that hits me is standing between Poppy and the wolves, and my initial instinct is to protect her.
But as soon as I sit upright, I’m shocked to find that I’m on a hospital bed, in a room I hardly recognize.
“Finally,” Dorian’s voice comes from the left, layered with irritation and relief.
I turn my face to the side, my neck cracking and popping as I do, a sliver of pain coursing down my right shoulder.
“What happened?”
Dorian sighs as he walks toward the bed, handing me a glass of water and a handful of pills.
“Drink that,” he says with a nod. “It’ll help with the pain.”
Dorian pulls up a chair closer to the bed as I pop the pills and chug the water. He’s watching me intently as if he’s studying my expression before he begins.
“Poppy attacked you, Damian,” he says quietly, hanging his head. “Something is wrong with her, and—”
“It was her…” I whisper, horrified when I recall what happened in that warehouse. The last thing I saw was her blood-red eyes, but perhaps I woke up wanting to believe it wasn’t her who put me here.
“Yes,” Dorian confirms, then proceeds to tell me how the wolves charged into the warehouse. Poppy put up a fight, but eventually, she collapsed, allowing the group to move in and capture her. After they found Daniel, they took us back to Fort Smit for Poppy and me to recover.
“Where are they now?”
“You’ve only been in the clinic for a day,” Dorian reveals. “Poppy is in the room next door recovering, and Daniel is with Mom.”
I gulp hard as I notice Dorian’s brows lift expectantly.
“Care to tell me how you have a ten-year-old son?”
Turning my face to the ceiling, I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I begin. At the very beginning, when Poppy and I first started off as friends, and then became so much more.
“…and when I went looking for her, she was gone,” I sigh.
“A few days ago, I saw her here, in Fort Smit, entering the pack center, and something in me snapped. I found her, and realized she was my fated mate, and I had to have her. I had to mate her. So I took her to Cedar Valley and forced her into a mating ritual—something I’m not exactly proud of, but I couldn’t control myself.
She didn’t tell me about Daniel. She wasn’t gonna tell me. ”
Dorian nods thoughtfully. “You found out just yesterday morning,” he whispers gravely. “We all did.”
“I don’t blame her, brother. I acted like an asshole when I took your place—”
“No, Damian. You’re not going to blame yourself, either. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. For leaving you with all that pressure.” Dorian huffs, running a hand through his hair. “If I’d known it would cause so much trouble in your life, I wouldn’t have left. I wouldn’t have been so fucking selfish—”
“It’s not your fault, Dorian,” I chuckle dryly, the sound lacking humor.
“For a long time, I blamed you for everything that went wrong in my life. But it’s my own fault that I lost Poppy in the first place.
” I turn my head when a lump forms in my throat.
“I wasn’t strong enough to deal with it all. And I failed her.”
Dorian clicks his tongue. “You are stronger than you realize, Damian. I saw it yesterday, when you took control and led us to Fayetteville.”
“It doesn’t change the damage that has been done already,” I sigh heavily, and that’s when Dorian places a hand on my shoulder.
“You can’t rewrite the past, but you can decide what your future will be like,” he says with a reassuring smile.
“That’s something Dad would have said,” I scoff, and Dorian chuckles.
“Yeah. For all his iron-fist rules, he sure had wisdom in some of the things he said. And while he isn’t here to give me shit for marrying a human, or you, for mating a former omega, there’s one person who doesn’t care about any of it.”
“Mom.”
Dorian nods. “Yeah. And she’s outside, with your son. If you’re ready to meet him.”
My eyes widen, brows raised as I immediately whip my head in the direction of the door.
“He’s here?”
“Yeah. And Poppy asked Ingrid to tell him that you are his father.”
I frown. “She did? She’s awake?” I throw my legs off the side of the bed, but Dorian stops me with a hand on my shoulder.
“Wait, Damian. There’s something you need to know.”
“What?”
“Poppy was poisoned by the witches who caught her. That’s why she became rabid and attacked you at the warehouse. She believes that Daniel’s kidnapping wasn’t because he’s your son, but because they wanted to use her as a weapon against us.”
“I need to see—”
“Not yet. Aoife and the coven are working on an antidote to remove the poison from her system. She’s not herself, and if the dark witches used her as a weapon by turning her into a rogue wolf, we need to tread very carefully.”
“I don’t care. I—”
I’m interrupted when the door opens, and my mother stands in the doorway, worry seemingly aging her face.
“Oh, Damian!” she exclaims, sauntering forward. “You’re awake!”
“I am, Mother.” I smile tersely as she wraps her arms around my shoulders, weeping quietly as if she’s relieved I didn’t die.
I’m just about to close my eyes and bask in my mother’s warm embrace when a pair of smaller feet patter into the room.
Mother lifts her head, cheeks streaming with tears, but her eyes glowing with awe. “Daniel wanted to finally meet you…”
She steps toward Dorian and waves Daniel over, and the young boy nods at her as he slowly advances to her side. My heart squeezes as I watch him walk in slowly, each careful step attesting to the traumas he faced out there.
He seems to be comfortable with my mother and moves toward her as he comes closer. I can’t even imagine what he’s going through: being kidnapped, being rescued, seeing his mother in the hospital, and now, meeting his father for the first time.
I can’t even take my eyes off him, because it’s like staring at a reflection of myself when I was younger. Just as I suspected, Daniel is the boy from the other day. And since I met him only a few days ago for the first time—a chance encounter—so much has changed.
“Hi, sir,” he says curtly, standing tall next to my mother.
I glance at her, in awe and surprise, then bring my eyes back to him.
“Hey, young man,” I grin, stretching out my hand. “I remember you from the other day.”
He nods slowly. “I remember you, too. They’re all saying you’re my dad.”
“That’s right. I am,” I concede with a gentle nod.
Daniel gulps, then glances at my mother. “All of this is very new to me.” He points at my mother. “A grandmother.” He points to Dorian next. “An uncle. And now, a dad. My ma never told me about any of you.”
I chuckle nervously. “Well, it’s a long story, son. But we’d like for you to be a part of our lives. I would like to be the father you need me to be. If you will have me.”
Daniel’s eyes brighten. “Are you kidding me?! Of course, I’d want that! I get a whole family. That’s pretty cool!” he beams, and to my surprise, he asks sheepishly, “Can I…hug you?”
My heart stops for a moment, guilt returning because he has to ask at all.
I open my arms immediately, and Daniel rushes forward and throws his arms around me.
My mother simply watches us with starry eyes illuminated by her smile, and I wrap my arms around my son, my heart squeezing inside my chest as the awareness of the mate bond hums with longing.
“Is Ma gonna be okay?” Daniel asks as he pulls away slightly. “Those bad women did something to her, didn’t they?”
The furious glint in his eyes feels so familiar, but it’s not because he’s my son and a carbon copy of me on the outside.
No…
He has a spirit deep within him that matches his mother’s. Even though he looks like me, he has a personality like Poppy. I can already see it.
“We are going to do everything we can to ensure your mother gets better, okay, Danny?” Dorian says, and Daniel nods at him with firm conviction.
Dorian turns to me then. “I’m going to check on Aoife’s progress. I’ll be back later.”
He takes his leave then, and that’s when I turn my attention back to my son.
Ten years…
Ten birthdays…
Countless milestones I wasn’t present for, and yet, having him here with me takes all those regrets away.
“I’m so sorry that I couldn’t protect you, Daniel,” I say as I hang my head in shame.
That’s when Daniel steps forward and shakes his head, offering out a hand. When I look up, he opens his palm, showing me his mother’s necklace.
I recognize the pendant with a gold bird spreading its wings and a rose quartz crystal bead forming its eye.
Gasping, I reach out toward his hand and touch a single fingertip to the pendant.
The mate bond hums stronger than it has been since I woke up, and tears fill my eyes as Daniel explains that the witches who snatched her tossed the necklace aside when they took her to the warehouse, chanting strange words he couldn’t understand before they left her on the cold, hard floor and disappeared.
The necklace fell on the side of the cage he’d been locked in, and he grabbed it and held it close to him.
“I haven’t let go of Ma’s necklace since then. It’s what gave me strength, Dad, and it still gives me strength,” Daniel whispers, and I instinctively reach for him, my chest tightening when my heart fills with remorse.
I turn my face to my mother and see her eyes welling with more tears.
“I have to see her,” I say to Mother. “I need to see Poppy.”
Mother nods slowly as she swipes a hand across the corner of her eye and sniffs. “Go, Damian. Go check up on your mate.”
As Daniel pulls away slowly, he holds out the necklace for me. “Do you need this, Dad?” he asks, and I shake my head as I wrap my fingers around his and lift it to his heart.
“You hang on to it for now, okay? You’re gonna give it back to your mother when she’s better,” I promise him, and he smiles wistfully as he returns to my mother’s side.