Chapter 41 The Drive Home

Chapter 41 The Drive Home
Luna's POV
The SUV felt too small on the drive back, the air thick with everything unsaid.
My mind kept circling Vivienne's trap like a wolf chasing its tail. Every option led to pain. Help Sarah and submit to Vivienne's manipulation. Refuse and watch a child die while the world called me a monster.
There was no clean choice, only different kinds of damage.
Damien drove with his hands tight on the wheel, his jaw clenched hard enough I could see the muscle working. His eyes flickered gold every few seconds, the Lycan close to the surface and fighting to stay controlled.
I recognized that look because I wore it myself when my wolf pushed for dominance and I had to shove her back down.
"Why didn't you tell me about Vivienne before?" I asked finally. "Before the mate bond, before any of this started. Why let me walk into this war blind?"
He was quiet for a long moment, the city lights passing outside making shadows move across his face.
"I didn't know she would target you specifically," he said. "I thought if Vivienne resurfaced, she would come after me directly. Challenge me publicly or try to destroy my business." He glanced at me briefly. "I didn't expect her to attack through my mate."
"You underestimated her."
"Yes." He said it simply, no excuses. "I thought in terms of direct confrontation because that's how Lycans operate. We're territorial and aggressive and when we have problems, we face them head on."
"But Vivienne isn't a born Lycan."
"No. She was human first, which means she understands manipulation in ways pure-born supernatural beings don't." His hands tightened on the wheel. "She thinks like a human who gained power, not like someone born into it. That makes her more dangerous than I gave her credit for."
I looked out the window at the city passing by, all those people living normal lives without ancient obsessed ex-lovers engineering hybrid pregnancies to use as weapons.
"You made assumptions," I said.
"I did. And you're paying the price for my mistakes." His voice was rough. "I'm sorry for that."
The apology surprised me because Damien didn't seem like someone who admitted fault easily.
We pulled into the parking garage under his building, the heavy door closing behind us like sealing a vault. Damien put the SUV in park but didn't move to get out.
"I'm afraid," he said quietly.
I looked at him. "Of Vivienne?"
"Of losing you before I ever really have you." He stared straight ahead. "The mate bond showed me what I could have after two hundred years of waiting. A partner. An equal. Someone who understands what it means to rebuild yourself from nothing."
He turned to face me and his eyes were still gold but softer now.
"Vivienne's attacks are designed to make that future impossible. To destroy you so completely that even if you survive, you'll never trust me enough to accept the bond." His hand moved toward mine on the console. "And the worst part is she's succeeding. Every day you pull further away."
I didn't offer comfort because I was too exhausted and too angry at all of this. At Vivienne and Marcus and Sarah and everyone who'd turned my life into a battlefield without asking permission.
But I didn't pull my hand away when his fingers brushed mine briefly before he withdrew.
We got out of the SUV and took the elevator up in silence.
The penthouse doors opened to chaos.
My mother was there, which surprised me, trying to calm Theo who was pacing back and forth in the living room. His face was pale and his eyes were too wide and he looked like he'd seen something terrible.
"Theo?" I crossed to him quickly. "Baby, what's wrong?"
He saw me and launched himself into my arms, his whole body shaking. "Mom, I had a nightmare but it wasn't a nightmare it was real, it was real and I saw her—"
"Saw who? Slow down."
"Sarah. I saw Sarah and there's something wrong with the baby, something really wrong." His words tumbled over each other. "It's not a regular baby, Mom. It's got wolf parts and something else, something dark and wrong and it's going to hurt people—"
My blood went cold. "Theo, how do you know that?"
"I saw it! In my dream but not a dream, I saw inside her and the baby is wrong, it shouldn't exist!" He pulled back to look at me with eyes too old for ten years. "And Dad doesn't know. He thinks it's his son but it's not, it's not his son at all—"
My mother made a small sound. "Luna, what is he talking about?"
I ignored her and focused on Theo. "Tell me exactly what you saw."
He described the hybrid in detail, things he shouldn't know, medical details a child couldn't understand but he was saying them anyway. He described the genetic abnormalities and the supernatural components and the danger it posed.
Everything Vivienne had shown me in those medical reports, my ten-year-old son was describing from a nightmare.
Damien moved closer, his expression grim. "How long has he been having dreams like this?"
"This is the first one," my mother said. "He woke up screaming about thirty minutes ago and hasn't stopped talking about it since."
I looked at Theo's face, at the fear and confusion there, and understanding hit me hard.
His Blessed Wolf bloodline was manifesting just like mine had, but differently. I got healing abilities and enhanced strength.
Theo was getting prophetic dreams.
My son could see things before they happened or things he shouldn't be able to know, and his first vision was
about the hybrid weapon Sarah was carrying.