Chapter 9 - Damien

The second I step through the door, I know something’s wrong. Jade’s standing in the kitchen, looking like she’s ready to tear me apart. And that would be fine, except I can tell this isn’t her usual brand of irritation. No, this is something darker, sharper, and aimed directly at me.

Great.

“Something you want to tell me, Damien?” Her voice is ice-cold, and I feel it cut through me.

I frown, trying to keep up. “What are you talking about?”

“Jeremy. Trevor.” She spits their names out like poison, and suddenly, I have a pretty good idea where this is going. “They told me about the bet.”

The air leaves my lungs in one tight breath. Shit.

“Jade, listen—”

“Oh, I’m listening.” She stalks forward, and her eyes flash with a rage I have never seen from her. “Tell me, Damien. Was it funny for you? Did you and your buddies have a good laugh? Placing bets on whether or not you could get me into bed?”

I rub a hand over my face, trying to buy myself a second to think. That was three years ago. I didn’t think she’d ever find out, didn’t think it mattered. But of course it matters. It always mattered.

“Jade, that was a long time ago. I was stupid. I didn’t even—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” she snaps, stepping so close I can feel the heat rolling off her body. “Don’t you dare try to brush this off as some immature mistake. That wasn’t a joke, Damien. That was my life.”

Her words hit hard, and I feel the guilt rise like bile in my throat. She’s right. There’s no excuse for what I did. I was a cocky, arrogant asshole, and I hurt her in ways I didn’t even understand back then.

“I’m sorry,” I say, and even to my own ears, it sounds pathetic. Like it doesn’t even come close to what she deserves to hear. “I was a different person back then. I didn’t think—”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Her laugh is bitter, hollow. “You didn’t think at all, did you? Just Damien Lucas, the bigshot alpha’s son, doing whatever the hell he wanted and not caring who he hurt along the way.”

“I care now,” I insist, stepping forward. “Jade, please. I’m not that guy anymore. You know I wouldn’t hurt you like that now.”

“Now?” She arches an eyebrow, folding her arms tighter across her chest. “You’re telling me you wouldn’t do something like that now, but that’s not the point, is it? You did it, Damien. You made a bet about me, about whether or not you could sleep with me. And the worst part? I actually thought you might’ve liked me back then.”

There’s a crack in her voice, just for a second, and it slices right through me. She thought I liked her. Hell, I did like her—more than I knew how to deal with at the time. But I was too stupid to admit it. Instead, I treated her like a game, like something to win.

My eyes flit to the scar on her neck, the one I left during our mating ceremony.

“I did like you,” I say quietly, but she shakes her head.

“Don’t.” She turns away from me, taking a deep breath like she’s trying to hold herself together. “I don’t want to hear your half-assed apologies. I don’t want to hear your excuses. I just want you to stay away from me.”

“No.” The word comes out harder than I intended, and she whips around to glare at me again. “No, Jade. You can be mad at me, but you’re not leaving. You and Penny aren’t going anywhere.”

Her eyes narrow. “You can’t control me.”

“This isn’t about control,” I snap, dragging a hand through my hair. “This is about making things right. I know I screwed up. I know I hurt you. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re part of this pack now. You and Penny. I’m not letting you run off again.”

She stares at me, and for a second, I think she’s going to punch me. But then, without another word, she turns and storms down the hall toward the bedroom.

I follow, not entirely sure what I’m doing, but when I reach the doorway, I see her sitting on the edge of the bed, stroking Penny’s hair as the little girl dozes off. The sight tugs at something deep inside me, something raw and real. Jade might hate me right now, but she’s still here. She’s still trying, in her own way, to make this work for Penny’s sake.

Or at least, that’s what I think until she glances up and announces, “I’m getting her to sleep, then I’m leaving.”

“Where are you going?” I ask, leaning against the frame, trying to keep my tone casual even though I feel like I’m losing my grip on this whole situation.

“Out,” she says, brushing Penny’s hair back gently. “I need air.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No, you won’t.” Her voice hardens again, and she stands up, turning to face me with that same fierce determination I’ve always admired. “You’ve done enough tonight, Damien. Just… just leave me alone for a while, okay?”

There’s no room for argument in her tone, and I know better than to push her when she’s like this. So I nod, even though every instinct in me wants to follow her, to fix this somehow. But maybe that’s the problem. I can’t fix everything. Not tonight.

She leaves the room without another word. I stand there for a moment, staring at the spot where she stood.

I’ve made mistakes before, plenty of them, but this? This feels like the one I can’t come back from.

I glance down at Penny, listening to her soft breathing as it fills the room, and sigh. If I want to make this work, I have to start by being the father she needs. But more than that, I need to be the man Jade can trust.

And right now, I’m not sure if I know how to do either of those things.

The second Jade slams the door behind her, I know I can’t just stand here. Not while she’s storming off into the night, hurting, angry—again, because of me. I glance at Penny, who is fast asleep in the bed with her tiny fingers curled around the edge of the blanket.

Dammit. I can’t leave her here alone.

My first instinct is to chase after Jade immediately, but I know I have to think for once. I pull my phone out of my pocket and quickly text Alec.

Need you at the cabin. Penny’s asleep. Come now.

It only takes a couple of minutes before Alec’s response comes in: On my way.

I pace by the door as my mind races. The second Alec pulls up, I barely give him a chance to step out of his car before I’m out the door, throwing instructions over my shoulder.

“She’s in bed. Just keep an eye on her. I’ll be back soon.”

Alec raises an eyebrow, but he doesn’t question me. “Got it. Go do whatever alpha shit you need to do.”

I don’t waste another second. The night air is cool against my skin as I start running toward the woods. I know Jade, and if she’s upset, there’s no way she’ll just take a stroll down the road. No, she’ll disappear into the trees, thinking she can outrun whatever storm is brewing inside her.

As soon as I reach the tree line, the shift takes over. My muscles ripple beneath my skin, bones cracking and reshaping as the change sweeps through me. It’s not painful, exactly, but it’s intense—like every fiber of my being is stretching, pulling taut until the wolf emerges. My skin prickles as fur bursts from my pores, and silver streaks thread through the dark coat that marks me as one of the largest wolves in our territory. My senses heighten immediately—smell, hearing, sight—all sharpening in an instant.

The world becomes clearer, crisper, as I drop to all fours. The forest comes alive around me.

I suck in a breath and pick up her scent: earth, lavender, and the slightest hint of rain. My pulse quickens as I track her through the trees, each step carrying me closer to her.

The wind rushes through my fur as I run, my paws pounding against the soft forest floor. This is what I’m built for—the hunt, the chase. The predator in me thrills at the power coursing through my limbs, but tonight, it’s not about the thrill. Tonight, I’m not chasing prey—I’m chasing her.

I push myself harder, faster, weaving through the trees with the precision only a wolf can master. Every muscle in my body hums with energy, my focus narrowing until it’s only Jade I’m after.

And then, I see her.

She’s standing at the edge of a small clearing with her arms wrapped around herself as she stares up at the moon. Her brown hair was wild, tangled from the wind, and there’s something about the way she’s standing. She looks tense, like she’s holding everything inside.

I shift back before she notices me, and the transition feels raw as my body snaps back to its human form. My breath comes fast as I shake off the remnants of the shift. My clothes ripped when I shifted, so I’m naked as the day I was born, but I don’t let that stop me.

“Jade,” I call out.

She doesn’t turn right away. I step forward, crossing the distance between us in a few strides. “Jade,” I repeat, softer this time.

Finally, she turns, and her eyes catch the moonlight. They’re full of so much hurt, it stops me in my tracks. This isn’t just about the bet. This is about everything—the years of abandonment, the rejection, the lies I didn’t even realize I was telling.

“Why did you come after me?” Her voice cracks, and it’s like a knife twisting in my chest. “I told you I needed space.”

“Because I can’t let you walk away like this,” I answer honestly. “Not again.”

She laughs, bitter and broken. “Like you care.”

“I do care,” I insist, stepping closer. “That night… Jade, that night meant something to me, too.”

Her expression changes in an instant. In the blink of an eye, all that anger is back. “Are you serious right now?” she spits. “You think that’s what I want to hear? That it ‘meant something’ to you? It was a bet, Damien! A bet to see if you could get me into bed, and I was stupid enough to fall for it!”

“I know,” I say, my voice dropping. “I was an asshole. I didn’t think—”

“Exactly,” she cuts me off. “You didn’t think. You never thought about how it would make me feel, did you? You just saw me as a conquest.”

“That’s not true!” I shout, my frustration boiling over. “Yes, it started as a bet, but it became more than that. You were more than that. I was too damn stupid to admit it, and then when everything went to hell, I didn’t fight for you the way I should have. I was too wrapped up in becoming alpha, too afraid of screwing up, and I let you go.”

Her eyes blaze with anger, and she launches to her feet. “You let me go? You banished me, Damien! You didn’t just let me go—you threw me out like I was nothing! And now you expect me to believe that night meant something to you?”

“It did mean something. I just didn’t know how much it meant back then. I was scared. Scared of what you were and what I felt for you.”

Jade’s breathing hard now, and her chest is rising and falling as she stares at me, her anger warring with something else—something I can’t quite name. There’s tension between us, thick and electric, and I can feel it pulling us closer.

I reach for her and brush my fingers against her arm, and she doesn’t pull away. Not yet. There’s a fire in her eyes, but there’s something else, too. Something that feels like the spark we had all those years ago, before everything went to hell.

“Damien,” she breathes, her voice shaky. “Don’t…”

But I can’t stop. I move closer, until we’re standing chest to chest, and I can feel the heat radiating off her body. “I was wrong,” I murmur, sliding my hand up to cup her cheek. “I should have fought for you. I should have—”

Jade gasps, and suddenly, she’s doubling over in pain with her hands clutching her stomach as she cries out.

“Jade!” I shout as my heart slams against my ribcage. I grab her shoulders, trying to steady her, but she collapses to the ground with her face contorted in agony.

“Jade, what’s happening?” I crouch down beside her, panic rising like a tidal wave.

But she doesn’t answer. She just groans and digs her fingers into the earth as pain wracks her body, and I feel completely helpless.

The sound of her pain echoes through the clearing, and my mind is racing a million miles a second. I try to think, to piece together what the hell could be happening. I’ve never seen her like this, not even when we were younger and we faced some of the most dangerous things out there. But this is different. This is personal.

And I have no clue how to help her.