Chapter Forty

Finley

My eyes were still closed as Calvin breathed dangerously close to my neck. My heart was hammering in my chest and I heard a car pull up the long driveway and faint voices but they were too far away and I opened my eyes. Calvin’s eyes glazed over for a second and then returned to their normal brown.

“Do you know what marking is Finley?” Calvin asked me.

“Yes,” I said to him. I had described it countless times in my books.

“Then tell me who was stupid enough to mark you?” he asked. His voice was much calmer now but I was still afraid.

“Nobody marked me,” I said to him. I’d know if someone marked me.

“Don’t fucking toy with me Finley!” he yelled again and I jumped when he slapped the wall next to me.

“I’m not,” I said to him nearing the point of crying.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he lifted his head towards the door.

I took the opportunity with him being distracted as I lifted my knee into his groin and pushed him away from me. I turned and ran for the bedroom door and I pulled it open, his hand suddenly appeared and he slammed the door shut as I scrambled backwards and tripped over my own feet.

“You can’t escape,” he said to me.

“Whatever it is you think you want from me, it’s never going to happen,” I said to him.

“Then you better hope you survive the marking process with me, I’m not sure if a human can survive being marked twice,” he said as his canines extended and I screamed in fear as I crawled backwards to get away from him.

He grabbed my foot and pulled me towards him as he straddled me and pinned my arms down with both of his hands. I was so afraid as I looked at his teeth that I screamed again and the door was kicked down.

I saw a flash of something familiar and then Calvin was lifted off of me and thrown to the other side of the room. I heard him crash against the wall and when I sat up I saw Damon holding him by his throat against the wall.

“Alpha Damon,” Calvin said through his ragged breath. Alpha Damon?

“Forcefully trying to mark someone is punishable by defanging,” Damon growled at him.

“I didn’t know she was yours,” he said, sounding desperate.

“It doesn’t matter who she belongs to,” Damon yelled as he squeezed harder and then let Calvin fall to the floor in a fit of coughs.

Calvin didn’t move from the floor as Damon turned around and walked towards me. He didn’t say anything as he picked me up and walked out of the room. I didn’t trust myself to speak and all I felt was the tingling sensation where Damon touched me and I was starting to relax.

“Finley!” I heard Archer’s voice and I moved my head to the side.

Another man stood with Finley and about twenty men stood on their knees with their head bowed as Damon released me and I ran towards Archer. He picked me up in a hug and it felt like he was crushing my ribs.

“Easy Archer,” Damon said and Archer loosened his hold on me.

“Get me out of here,” I whispered as Archer picked me up and Damon gave him a growl. My whole body shuddered at that liking his possessiveness but also feeling odd at knowing he was something else.

We were in the car and Damon sat in the back with me while Archer had just let me climb into the backseat and then climbed into the front with Jared. I couldn’t really understand why Archer was here and Jared was driving the wrong way, towards Newport.

“Come here,” Damon said softly as I sat as far away from him as possible, shivering.

“Don’t touch me,” I said as he moved closer to me.

Damon ignored me and pulled me closer to him as my body visibly relaxed and I hated that I responded to him in this way. There were too many things happening at once and it felt like I wanted to just shut down and sleep and never wake up again.

“Somnum,” Damon whispered as he lightly stroked my arm and I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

I could feel myself being lifted and carried and plenty of hushed voices, one of them being Archer and I felt better. Damon’s scent remained with me and as much as I wanted nothing to do with him, his presence kept me calm enough to try and make sense of my situation.

“Is putting her in your room the best idea?” Archer asked.

“Here she’s surrounded by my scent,” Damon said.

“I don’t want to be here,” I whispered as I struggled to open my eyes.

“I think it’s best if you both leave and let me talk to her,” Damon said as I sat upright in his bed and pulled my knees up to my chest.

“Maybe it’ll be better if I talk to her first,” Archer said.

“Okay, I’ll be right outside,” Damon said.

I remained quiet, wondering if Archer would have anything to say to me that would clear this all up. How could he? I hadn’t seen him in almost four months, although we spoke regularly, he wouldn’t have any clue about what I just went through.

“It’s all true Archer,” I said to him the moment the door closed, “I saw his teeth elongate!”

“I know Luce,” he said and gave me a small comforting smile.

“What do you mean you know?” I asked him.

“Damon and Kat, well everyone here, they’re all jaguars, well they change into them,” he said as he looked at me and I started laughing. I always laughed at the wrong times.

“How could you possibly know what they are?” I asked him.

“We were waiting for the right time, but Kat and I are engaged. She told me the truth about them and then I asked her to turn me, because I love her and I want to spend my life with her,” he said as my mouth opened and closed.

“So you turn into a cat now?” I asked him, sounding half hysterical even to myself.

“A jaguar, but yes I can shift. Damon is the Alpha here, you’re in their packhouse, where it’s safe, anything pertaining to Damon you’ll have to ask him about everything that happened, but what I can tell you Luce is that you’re his bonded half, you’re meant to be with him and he does love you,” he said.

“He was watching me, he had cameras in my house!” I almost yelled.

“I know, you’ll have to discuss that with him, all I’m saying is, he’s not a bad guy, keep an open mind, I did and I don’t regret it for a second,” he said and stood up.

“Where are you going?” I asked him.

“To give you and Damon a chance to talk, hear him out,” he said and opened the bedroom door.

Damon stood on the other side, leaning against the wall in the hallway and they spoke softly to each other before Archer gave him a slap on the back, as if he was giving him a pep talk. Archer left and Damon closed the door behind him and walked towards me.

“This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you,” Damon began and sat down on the bed opposite me.

“Were you going to tell me?” I asked him.

“It kept me awake on the jet the whole way back. I was planning to tell you everything,” he said as I looked into his eyes.

“So tell me everything,” I said to him.

“On my twenty-first birthday I imprinted on Iris, she’s Jared’s sister, she was seventeen at the time and I waited for her for a year. On her eighteenth birthday we had her acceptance ceremony, which is basically like a human marriage, bonding us together forever. A few months later we were attacked by rogues and Iris was injured. The doctor told me she was pregnant and that’s how I uncovered the truth about Iris. It wasn’t my child and she was never my bonded half, it was all a trick to weaken my clowder. It was orchestrated by the same rogue that killed my father, Iris gave me all the information and we were ready for their final attack and we killed them all. What Iris did was treason and she was sentenced to death but I couldn’t do it, so I broke her out of her cell and told her to run. Two days later she was in a car accident and we brought her back here, she was on life support for three years until Jared switched the machines off,” I said to her.

“Why were you watching me?” I asked him.

“As an Enforcer we get assignments, sometimes to take super naturals out and other times we’re assigned protection duties. I was assigned to protect you. Wolf packs were getting antsy with the books you were publishing, because it was so close to the truth that the Council thought someone was talking to you. Axel was protective of you from the first time we saw you…” he said and I interrupted him.

“Who’s Axel?” she asked.

“Axel’s my jaguar,” he said.

“So when your eyes change color, that’s Axel?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Was sleeping with me part of your assignment?” I asked him.

“Finley, whatever happened between us was because of my feelings for you. I fell in love with you before I realized we were bonded halves,” he said to me.

“So when you found me in the basement that was because you were told to protect me,” I said to him.

“No, I stayed with you because I love you,” he said.

“You don’t lie to someone if you love them, you have no idea what love is,” I said to him.

“I never expected that my bonded half would be you but when I realized it I was already in love with you and nothing else mattered except keeping you safe and spending all my time with you,” he said looking hurt.

“So what’s supposed to happen now?” I asked him.

“I’d never force you into anything you didn’t want. It’s your choice Finley. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you but I’d never do anything to hurt you. You can choose to stay with me, become my equal in this clowder or you can leave. I don’t want you to leave,” he said.

“What happens if I leave?” I asked him.

“I’ll ask the Council to assign someone else to your case because we still don’t know who wants you dead, but if you really want to leave then I’ll let you go, although it won’t be easy. Everything inside me is screaming at me to just be close to you, keep you safe and happy and yes it’ll physically hurt if you leave me,” he said.

“Why?” I asked him.

“Because of the bond we share. Everything you feel and experience I experience too. Like how my presence calms you, you calm me. When I’m with you it feels like I can breathe again, losing you will be like losing half of my soul and you’ll feel it too,” he said.

“Did you mark me?” I asked him.

“Yes, Axel took over in the shower in St. Barts and marked you. He didn’t want to lose you,” he said.

“I’m tired,” I said to him and turned on my side facing away from him as tears formed in my eyes.