Chapter 37
Chapter thirty-seven
Luna
The room steals my breath, but not for the reasons I expected. My stomach had been twisted in knots, braced for something horrific. Blood-stained trophies. Gruesome mementos.
Instead, I’m surrounded by life.
Thousands of photographs line the walls, each showing an animal in various stages of healing.
Dogs with missing limbs learning to run again.
Cats with burned fur growing back glossy and thick.
Livestock, once emaciated, now healthy and well-nourished.
The images blur together as my eyes fill with tears I didn’t know I had left in me.
“What is this?” The words escape as a whisper. I move closer to examine a photograph of a pit bull, scars crisscrossing its muzzle like a roadmap of pain, but its eyes… God, its eyes are so trusting as it gazes at the camera.
“She was my first Athena.” Damien’s voice comes from the doorway, quiet and careful. “And why I do what I do. Every animal that hadn’t already died was rescued after I dealt with its abusive owner.”
I move around the room on unsteady legs. Some of these faces are familiar. Not just from my own cases, more than I knew about, but I’ve seen many of their recovery stories shared online and in veterinary circles, celebrating their transformations.
“You fund their rehabilitation?” My ribcage feels too tight. Air moves in and out but doesn’t seem to reach my lungs.
“Yes, through the foundation.” He steps into the room but keeps his distance, as if I’m a wounded animal he might spook. “I follow their progress and make sure they get whatever they need. Medical care, behavioral therapy, special equipment.”
My fingers find a small silver tag beneath one photo. The engraving reads “Jasper—March 16, 2022.” The metal is cold against my skin.
“And these dates?”
“The dates I delivered justice.” No euphemisms, no softening of what he’s done. Just brutal honesty that makes my pulse skip.
A chill races down my spine, and I wrap my arms around myself. The methodical nature of it all—the planning, the execution, the documentation—should terrify me.
Instead, heat builds in my chest. Not horror, but something far more dangerous.
The warm satisfaction of seeing monsters finally face consequences.
The fierce pleasure of knowing someone fought back for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.
Someone willing to become the monster so others don’t have to.
“How do you find them?”
“Various ways. I’ve developed algorithms that monitor social media and police reports for animal abuse cases. Sometimes the foundation receives tips from rescue organizations.”
I pause at a photo of a gray wolf, its intelligent eyes reminding me of Shadow. “This is why he trusted you.” I remember how my wolf had sat before Damien’s masked figure. “He sensed what you do for them.”
“He also knew I’d never hurt you.”
The words wrap around me, loaded with meaning, like a promise written in blood.
But he did hurt me, even if it wasn’t intentional.
I continue my journey around the room, each photograph a testament to lives saved through violence.
In the far corner, a small table holds a collection of masks. Earlier versions of the silver wolf mask I’ve come to know so well. They trace an evolution, becoming more refined and distinctive with each iteration.
“Why the mask?” I pick one up, running my fingers over the rough edges.
“Practical reasons, at first.” He moves to stand beside me, close enough that his warmth seeps through my clothes to my skin. “Concealment, intimidation. Later, it became something more. A separation between the man who runs the Wolfe Group and the one who hunts in the night.”
“A separation that became complete when you met me.” Understanding dawns, bitter and sharp. “Two personas for two relationships.”
He nods, those dark eyes never leaving my face. “I didn’t plan that. It just happened. As I fell in love with you, I needed a way to spend more time with you. Accepting your masked stalker as a killer was one thing, but accepting him as your new neighbor was another completely.”
“So, you lied.” The words taste like ash. “For months.”
“Yes.”
At least he doesn’t try to deny it.
“You stalked me, manipulated me. Made me think I was losing my mind.”
My voice cracks despite my efforts to keep it steady. We already had this conversation the other night, with no resolution, but I can’t let it go. Tears threaten, hot and angry, behind my eyes. I’m so fucking tired of crying.
“Yes.” Still no excuses. No justifications. “I did. But I never meant to hurt you.”
I want to scream at him. Want to throw something. Want to make him feel even a fraction of the betrayal tearing through my chest. But I also want to touch him, press my face against his neck, and breathe him in until this ache in my soul subsides.
“It wasn’t about trust, Luna. Yes, there was concern at first that if you knew my true identity, you’d be tempted to turn me in. But what I feared most was your rejection. The thought of losing you caused me to make some bad decisions.”
“Bad decisions? Is that what we’re calling psychological manipulation now?”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t flinch from my sarcasm. “What would you call it?”
“Fucked up.” I replace the mask, and my fingers brush against his as I withdraw my hand. The contact sends electricity up my arm. “So fucked up I don’t have words for it.”
“And now?” The question emerges wrapped in false calm, but tension coils through his frame like a spring wound too tight.
“Now that I know everything? I do know everything, right?”
“Yes. I have no more secrets from you. And now you have a choice. Stay and accept all of me, or leave and forget you ever knew either version.”
“As if I could forget.” The words slip out bitter and raw. “Do you think I haven’t tried? Do you think I haven’t spent sleepless nights wishing I could scrub you from my memory?”
Pain he’s unable to hide without his mask flickers across his face.
I turn away from him, surveying the room once more.
All these animals were given second chances because of Damien’s brutal actions.
Lives saved through the taking of other lives.
The contradiction should be impossible to reconcile, but looking at these photographs, feeling the weight of all that suffering transformed into healing…
But haven’t I already accepted it? That morning I found the first body on my porch and felt that flicker of savage satisfaction once the terror had faded.
The way I responded when I confronted him on my porch, when he entered my bedroom, mask and all.
My decision to help cover up what happened with Caleb.
“I’ve never felt this way before, Luna. I didn’t know I was capable of it. Of wanting someone so completely. Of needing them. Needing you.”
I spin to face him. “But you always told me I was yours. How is that not needing me?”
“I thought all I needed was your body and your surrender, but you gave that so willingly.” His voice grows rougher. “It was such a beautiful gift. I wanted more, and before I knew it, the heart I didn’t think I had was beating only for you.”
I can't breathe. He's standing here undefended, has stripped away the armor he wears like a second skin, and it's everything I've ached for and everything that terrifies me.
“What are you saying, Damien?”
He moves toward me. “I thought my parents killed that part of me a long time ago, the part that could feel something real for another person. The part that could love.” He takes my hand, placing it over his heart.
The rapid beat pounds against my palm. “But this is real, Luna. You changed everything.”
The warmth of his chest seeps through my fingers, and I hate how right this feels. How safe his touch makes me feel. It always has.
“How can I trust anything about you now?”
“You can’t. Not yet. But I’m standing here without masks, giving you all of me. Showing you all of me. The good and the monstrous. Giving you the knowledge to destroy me. That’s something I’ve never offered anyone.”
“You broke my heart, Damien.” The words shred my throat on the way up.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.” His free hand comes up to cup my cheek. His thumb moves across my skin in slow strokes. “But if you give me another chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you that your heart is the most sacred thing in my life. Even more than your body.”
His mouth quirks. That damn smirk trying to break through. Heat blooms in my core.
Unbidden. Unwanted. Undeniable.
“Your priorities are showing, Mr. Wolfe.”
“Can you blame me? Have you seen yourself?”
The ease between us returns, as natural as breathing. My heart still aches, but the edges of the pain soften.
I study his face for a long moment, then step back. Distance. I need distance to think. My chest feels too tight, my thoughts too loud. I need room to breathe.
“I can’t walk away from you.” My throat tightens. “I love you, Damien, despite everything. I think I have from the first moment you touched me.”
Relief floods his features, so powerful I can see it in the way his entire body seems to exhale.
“But I don’t know if I can be what you want. If I can accept all of this.”
He takes my face in both hands. “You don’t have to decide everything right now.
But I need you to understand one thing, Luna.
” His eyes sweep across my face before finally locking with mine.
“I love you. And I won’t let you go. Not now, not ever.
I’ve claimed you, and you’ve claimed me in return. Whether you realize it or not.”
I hate that my body responds to the possessiveness in his voice, even as my mind rebels. “That’s not your decision to make, Damien. Love isn’t possession.”
“Isn’t it?” His thumb traces over my lower lip, and I can’t stop the tremor that runs through me.
“Tell me you don’t feel this connection between us.
Tell me you don’t wake in the night, reaching for me, wishing I was there with you.
Tell me you haven’t thought about me every minute since that first moment I touched you. ”
Damn him!
His arms encircle me, pulling me against him, and my breath hitches at the feel of his body against me. I bury my face in his chest and let out an exhale.
“I want to trust you, Damien. I want to believe that you love me.” I pull back just far enough to see his face, searching for truth in his eyes. “But I need to understand something.”
“Anything.”
“If you love me the way you claim, how could you lie to me for so long?”
He goes quiet. His gaze drops, lifts, and drops again. “Because I’m selfish. I wanted more time with you before you had to make this choice. I was terrified that knowing the truth meant losing you, and that was unbearable.”
“So you took my choice away.”
“Yes. And I was wrong.”
I search his face for any hint of deception. All I find is honesty bleeding through his features, regret carved into the lines around his eyes.
“Then no more lies. No more masks. If we do this, if we try to make whatever this is between us work, I need the truth, Damien. Always. Whether you think I can handle it or not.”
His eyes go dark, intensity radiating from them in a way that steals my breath. “I will never lie to you again.”
The ferocity in his voice, the way his gaze locks onto mine like an oath—I believe him.
Maybe I’m a fool. Maybe I’m signing up for more heartbreak. But as he lifts me into his arms and carries me from his room of rescued souls, I know I’m crossing another line I can’t uncross.
The darkness I’ve kept contained for so long has found its mirror in him. And God help me, I’m done fighting it. I’m choosing him, choosing us, with everything I am.