Chapter 182 Caml beore a storm
Chapter 182: The Calm Before the storm
Damon's POV
Two weeks later
The morning light filtered through the curtains, painting Milo's sleeping face in soft gold. I have been awake for the past hour, just watching him sleep like a baby, searching for any sign of that cold calculation I had glimpsed last 2 weeks ago. But there was nothing. Just peaceful sleep, his chest rising and falling in steady rhythm, the purple glow beneath his skin soft and warm, like a slumbering beast waiting to explode
Maybe I had imagined it after all.
As if he felt my stare, he stirred, eyes fluttering open, and immediately smiled when he saw me watching. "Good morning, stalker."
"Good morning, beautiful," I replied, brushing a strand of hair from his forehead. "Sleep well?"
"Better than I have in months." He stretched languidly, the sheet sliding down to reveal his bare chest, still marked with the fading love bites from the night before… I smiled, tracing the faded teeth scratches at the base of his neck, I couldn't help it, Milo was the wildest wolf on bed i have ever seen.
"What time is it?" His words snapped me out of my daydreaming.
"Ohh,em…Early, We have a few hours before the pack meeting."
"Then why are you awake?" He snuggled closer, pressing his face against my chest. I was always amazed at how natural and right it always felt. Sometimes I began to wonder if it was supposed to be right from the beginning.
"Just thinking." I ran my fingers through his hair, savoring the simple intimacy of the moment. "About how lucky I am."
He pulled back to look at me, eyebrows raised. "That's surprisingly sappy for this early in the morning."
"Can't I appreciate my mate?"
"You can." He kissed my jaw softly, his once blushing flustered self was slowly erasing as time goes by. But it comes with him being more persistent on matters I don't want him to know of, like this one.
"But it's making me suspicious. What's really on your mind?"
I hesitated, studying his face. Those purple eyes were clear, open, completely guileless. Whatever I'd seen that night… or thought I had seen… wasn't there now. Maybe the stress and exhaustion had played tricks on me. Maybe I had been looking for problems where there were none.
"Nothing important," I said finally, deciding to let it go. "Just... grateful. For this, For you."
The smile he gave me was radiant, chasing away the last shadows of my doubt. "I am grateful too. For all of this." He gestured around the room, our room in the alpha house. "Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe it's real."
"It's real," I promised, pulling him close again. "And it's ours. Nothing's going to change that."
We spent the next hour wrapped in each other, talking about nothing and everything. He told me about the children in the nursery, how little Emma had finally mastered her first shift. I told him about the supply routes James was trying to establish with the neighboring packs. Normal things. Domestic things. The kind of life I had never thought I could have.
We were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Eventually, duty called, and we had to leave our sanctuary. The pack meeting was routine… territory boundaries, training schedules, preparations for the upcoming full moon run. All of it were mundane pack activities that required an alpha. Milo sat beside me throughout, asking intelligent questions, offering suggestions that showed he had been paying attention to how the pack operated.
Afterward, as pack members dispersed, I found myself at a distance, still searching his face for any hint of deception. But I saw nothing. He was engaged, present, genuinely invested in our pack's wellbeing.
"You are doing it again," Daphne said quietly, appearing like a ghost behind me.
"Doing what?"
"Staring at him like you're trying to solve a puzzle." She crossed her arms. "What's going on, Damon?"
"Nothing. I just..." I trailed off, not sure how to explain to her that I was suspecting my mate. "Do you think he is happy? Really happy?"
Daphne's expression softened. "Look at him."
I did. Milo was crouched down, listening intently to something one of the younger wolves was saying, his face lit up with genuine interest. When the pup finished, Milo laughed, bright and free, ruffling the kid's hair affectionately.
"He is more than happy," Daphne said. "He's home. Stop looking for problems, Alpha. Just cherish your mate, and enjoy what you have."
Guilt gnawed at my soul.
She was right. I was being paranoid, letting one fleeting expression color everything else. Milo was here, he was mine, and he was happy. That was all that mattered.
Days blurred into weeks in blissful normalcy. We fell into routines, morning runs, pack duties, quiet evenings in our home. Milo threw himself into learning everything about the pack, and the pack fell in love with him in return. Even the most traditional warriors had stopped questioning his place at my side. They had come to accept him as their Luna, although most of their acceptance came with Milo volunteering to heal those that were wounded during the war.
But i was happy regardless, it has never been heard of a male Luna, hence their hesitation.
He started a small garden behind the alpha house, spending hours coaxing flowers and herbs from the soil. I would find him there in the evenings, dirt under his fingernails, talking to the plants like they could understand him. Maybe they could… The garden flourished under his care in ways that seemed almost magical.
"You are nesting," I teased one evening, after standing close to 39mins, watching him arrange stones around a new flower bed.
"I am not," he protested, but his blush told a different story.
"You totally are. Next thing I know, you will be reorganizing all the kitchen cabinets."
"I already did that last week."
I laughed, pulling him close despite his dirty hands, my hands instinctively landing on his waist, grabbing a handful of his ass. "Classic omega behavior. Daphne called it."
"Well, maybe I like making our home nice," he said, slightly defensive. "Is that so wrong?"
"It's perfect," I assured him, kissing his forehead, while continuing towards his neck. Milo squirmed under my hold, melting immediately, and baring his neck in the sexiest way possible.
“Fuck” I groaned, forcing myself to pull away.
“What happened?”
“You are sore Milo, I don't think you can go another round.” I said worriedly, but became confused when Milo burst out laughing.
“Shut up, big alpha and kiss me like you mean”
My eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, as without hesitation I claimed his mouth, savoring his sweet taste, that only he could bring. After a while. We broke apart, our foreheads silently touching together.
"...Everything about this is perfect."
And it was. For two glorious weeks, everything was going perfectly well, until I heard the sound of footsteps.
“Alpha,” James voice broke our little intimate moment,
“You need to see this.”