Chapter 44 LOVE OVER LOYALTY
DAMIEN’S POV
I open my eyes, and I’m greeted with darkness; my head throbs, and my chest feels sore.
I sit up in the bed I’m on and look around, trying to figure out where I am.
It doesn’t look like my room, and I don’t feel like myself. My mind feels fuzzy, and I have to focus hard to get bits and pieces of everything that happened.
Fauna came to my room and began pestering me, Amber came to my room and chased me, and I told her that I love her and she kissed me, I was on cloud nine, holding her and savoring every second of the kiss until –
“Derek!” I exclaim, instantly standing up, but the sharp, piercing pain in my chest has me staggering; this doesn’t stop me.
I realize that I’m in the sick ward, so I start heading towards the exit, aiming to find her, grasping my chest in pain with each step I take.
Considering the pain is still this prominent, severe damage must have been done because my wolf was supposed to heal me by now.
The memory of him approaching us with fury and impaling my chest with his hand and digging his claws through my ribcage, grabbing onto my heart and squeezing it.
My worry now settles on what he might have done to Amber. I wasn’t surprised by the way he reacted. I know I’m lucky to be alive.
The recollection of the things she said to him comes to my mind, how she called me a mistake, how she said she belonged solely to him and never to me. This floods my mind, but I push the thought down, choosing to believe that she said all that because she was trying to soothe him and save my life.
Most importantly, I’m alive, so mere words would not shake the faith I have for both of us. My concern now is to find her unharmed.
I don’t know exactly what my plan is for us, honestly. Besides the fact that I am helplessly in love with her, I have nothing else figured out.
Not the fact that she is someone else’s mate or that this mate happens to be my Alpha, and more importantly, a brother to me.
I have no idea of the plan for the future. Would we leave here together and become rogues, maybe live in the human world, and forever lose the comfort and depth of connection of being tethered to a pack?
Would she want to leave with me, stay with him, or go back to her family?
He makes her unhappy and treats her poorly, so the only solid consideration is her family. Would she be willing to cut these ties for us?
It’s almost amusing how I skipped the part of getting Derek to let us leave the pack alive; maybe he’ll be merciful.
This thought almost makes me smile due to its ridiculousness, but once I sense a familiar presence, every iota of humor fades.
“Damien,” I hear Derek call me, and I turn to see him sitting beside a window inside a sick ward, my heartbeat instantly picks up in fear of what he did to her.
“Did you hurt her?” I ask him immediately, walking into the ward to see her lying unconscious on the bed, “What did you do to her?” I ask, sending him a quick, sharp glare before looking back at her.
“Nothing. I’m not a monster, she’s carrying my pups,” he says, and I look at him, surprised.
“Pups, plural?”
“Yes, I found out yesterday just after I saw you sticking your tongue down her throat,” he says, but his voice doesn’t hold spite or fury; he sounds exhausted.
“What happened to her?” I ask, my concern still fixed on her, I need to make sure she’s alright first before he decides my punishment, which I know is inevitable.
“She fainted, the medic says it’s stress and an eating disorder,” he says, and worry fills my aching heart. “They say she’ll be fine. She just needs time to rest and needs to start eating more,” he says, and I nod, feeling more at ease and able to take my attention off her.
“I’m sorry, Derek, I never meant to betray you. I just – I didn’t know how deeply I cared about her,” I say with an apologetic tone, and his face remains an emotionless mask.
“Do you remember the plan we made when we were 18, about how the pack would be when we are in charge?” he asks, and I nod.
“Absolute power, that no other pack would be able to contend with to attempt going to war with us, and maximum security of the pack from any form of threats,” I say, remembering the day we sat down and planned this vividly.
“Yes. I still want that,” he says, standing up and walking towards me.
“I want that too,” I say, and he smiles, stopping a few feet away from me.
“Good, because I’m assigning you a very important task, to prove your loyalty to me, our dream, and the pack,” he says, and I nod eagerly.
“Anything.”
“I want you to go to purgatory, find the ancient relic, and bring it back to me. This is the only way you can prove your loyalty after what you did,” he says, and I stare at him, stunned. The stone-cold eyes staring back at me let me know that he isn’t joking about this.
No one for centuries has found the relic that gives ultimate power to a werewolf; many werewolves have died searching for it, and most don’t step foot out of purgatory once they step in.
“And if I don’t find it?” I ask him, accepting that I have to do this, maybe a year of searching would win his trust again. I don’t mind doing it.
“Then never come back here, Damien, consider yourself unwanted,” he says, and I stare at him in shock as the realization of what’s happening dawns on me.
He is simply getting rid of me without making a mess of killing me himself.
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EVIL DOESN’T COMPARE