Danny POV
I can move around with the crutches; my hip is still painful, and I'm able to speak. It's been over a week since the incident and since I moved in with Terry and Aunty Mae.
Julius is with me every night; both he and Terry walk on eggshells around me, but this must end today.
I sit in the living room, trying to stop the shaking of my hands and raising panic. They will be here very soon to ask all the questions which I don't want to answer, no matter what.
"Danny, don't be sad" Pearl is trying so hard to cheer me up, giving me sweets or her drawing or patting my head. I appreciate it with all my heart. Although it's not working, nothing can actually make me calm and not sad today.
"Danny, they are here," Terry says and walks into the living room, accompanied by Natasha, Chen, Julius, and to my horror, also Preston. I try not to panic; I don't want him here.
"This is the official pack's hearing, so I must ask you, Terry and Mae, to go downstairs with girls, alright?" Natasha says.
Terry nods but says that if I shout for him, he will come in a minute.
"Alright, Danny, I and Chen are here to ask questions, Julius is here on your request, and Preston is here on Brandon's request. Julius can speak on your behalf if you need him to, and Preston on behalf of his son. Do you understand?"
I nod, happy that they made sure that Julius is as close to me and Preston as far as possible.
"If you need the break, say it. Danny, as your Alpha, I command you to give us the honest answer." Her voice is dripping with dominance, which I can feel.
I avoid looking at her; I don't want to do it; I don't want to talk about Brandon and me. I want to be left alone. I wonder if I will be able to make any voice leave my mouth.
"Danny, Brandon said that what happened recently had never happened before. That he was never violent towards you before. Is it true?"
I shake my head; I don't dare to look at Julius or Preston; I stuck my eyes on Natasha.
"Okay, Danny, when was the first time it happened?"
Somehow, although my heart is beating so fast and I feel dizzy, I speak. I speak about the first time Brandon hit me and about, the first time he whipped me with his belt, and the second time, and what happened after I caught him cheating, but when I tell them that Preston knew, he instantly says:
"I deny it; it's true I pulled Brandon away from Danny, but I didn't think it was that serious. I'm sorry if Danny understood my words as a threat, but my intention was to help them to work it out and let's be honest, there is no other option for them than working it out. "
"Preston, for now, you are not a witness, so stay quiet," Natasha growls and looks at me.
"Danny, what happened after Brandon came back to the pack?"
"I was scared, he behaved differently, but Bruce was very agitated, and for some time, I could mostly feel anger, enormous anger from Bruce. But Brandon was very calm all the time. He was so calm even when he kept asking with who I slept. But he was also trying to force me to tell him."
"How?"
"He kept me for hours under the cold shower and made the cuts on my legs and..." my voice is shaking so much I have difficulty with speaking. "Please, I don't want to talk about it. He also told me that he is still seeing Fiona, and..."
Julius takes my trembling hands in his, and they gave me a moment of rest.
"And what happened recently? Can you tell me about that," Natasha asks
I gulp and close my eyes and start counting in my head, I want so much to get a grip, and yet I feel like standing on the edge.
"Brandon came home; he was angry; I didn't know why. He dragged me to the bedroom and told me to strip and lie on the bed..." I take a huge breath" I did what he'd said, and he stripped too and get on top of me and... and... he used his claws to slash directly into the semi-healed cuts on my legs; I was screaming... he told me to shut up, and then he entered me and made me bleed... he was holding me by the throat."
I don't look at them; I can't. I know it's not my fault; everybody keeps saying that, but I can't stop feeling disgusted with myself; I just can't.
"Okay, Danny, I know it's personal, but how has been your sexual life with Brandon since you mated?"
"We slept together regularly, but only because Brandon initiated it. Sometimes he used to lose control during sex which made it painful. He didn't seem satisfied with me," I say in a small voice.
"And you, Danny, have you liked having sex with Brandon?"
"No, from the beginning, something was odd, and it has never felt good with him," I whisper.
"Okay, Danny, when your mark started to be painful?"
"Soon... Right after I cheated on him."
I dare to look at them. Julius looks devastated, Preston has a smirk of satisfaction on his face, and Natasha... hard to say.
"With who did you make my son a fool and..." Preston spits, but Natasha doesn't let him continue.
"Who it was, it's not important for the course of this investigation; it's Danny's private matter. Cheating isn't against the law. But Danny, because Brandon's wolf could feel it and Brandon insists that the pain made him lose control, I need to know how many times it happened."
"Just once," I say, not daring to look at Julius, but at least he hasn't let go of my hand.
"Okay, the last question Danny, can you tell me if your marking was gentle? Has Brandon used any force on you that time?"
I gulp, and for a long moment, I can't utter a word.
"I don't know. I don't remember anything from that night. We stopped to eat something, and I drank a lot, and I woke up the next morning with Brandon next to me, and I was already marked."
Julius POV
Danny was cheating on Brandon; Danny slept with somebody else. I feel a painful sensation in my chest, but I don't move an inch from him. He doesn't need my judgment. Whatever he did, he didn't deserve what Brandon had put him through.
I don't care if Danny was cheating thousands of times; that's not a fucking excuse for Brandon, no matter what. And yet it hurts, it hurts so much that someone was touching him, that someone was so important to him.
Natasha finishes the questioning, but Danny asks her to stay because he needs to tell both her and me something important.
Preston, of course, protests, but since it has nothing to do with Brandon, I'm so happy when he leaves the flat. He knew about everything; he knew and let Brandon do it.
I can't believe that Danny went through this much hell and hasn't said a single word to anybody. How bad a friend I turned out to be that not only I didn't notice anything but also because Danny didn't feel with me safe enough to trust me.
"So Danny, what else do you want to tell us?" Natasha asks gently as Danny takes his hand away from mine.
"I hide something else from all of you, especially from you, Julius. I'm sorry I was scared that you would have problems or be in danger."
I have no idea what he is talking about; I'm so confused, but what he says next makes me almost petrified.
"Drake moves around without your knowledge, Julius, he takes full control when you sleep, and you are not aware of it," he whispers and next start telling when he witness this for the first time, how Drake was coming to him, how he took him to the waterfall, how...
"I should have here the bite wound," Danny points to his shoulder." Bruce bit into me, but then Drake consoled me and licked my wound, and it healed. But that's not all. Drake can also take control of you in your human."
"How often did you witness it?" Chen asks, totally dumbfounded.
"Just once, but, but during that time..." his voice shivers, for some reason, he seems more scared than before, "that night when you slept in my house after you had told me about Luke's death, I woke up in the night, and you, or rather Drake in control of your body came to me... and... and... that's when... when I slept with him and with you. I cheated on Brandon with you."
He is crying, and the tears go down his beautiful face, but he doesn't look at me. I'm so shocked and numb, so I just move away. I shift and run down the stairs and next into the direction of the pack. I'm so shaken that much later, when I stop in the middle of the forest, I actually think that someone from the town might've seen me.
That's impossible, impossible; Drake can't be in charge; that's just impossible! But Danny would never lie, he would never lie, he would never! Fuck, that couldn't have happened. I slept with Danny, but I would remember if... Fuck, the dream, the memories of that dream which haunt me. Oh, Goddess, that wasn't a dream; that was a memory?
I shift back into my human form and try to connect with my fucking wolf, but although he is close, he is still out of my reach. I pant hard, trying to force myself closer to him, but it feels as if I am banging into the big glass wall. Drake can see me but can't hear me.
What have you done, you fucker! Have you forced him, threatened him, or maybe Danny wanted to? But if he wanted it, why he didn't say anything sooner? Why, fuck, why?
Oh Goddess, it was because of me, because of me, Brandon was torturing Danny!
Because of me! Because of me! Because of me!
I punch the nearest tree. I punch it so long and so hard that my fists are covered in blood. I howl in pain and sorrow; what the fuck have I done to the one person who means the world to me!
Hours later, I trot in my wolf form to the packhouse. Natasha waits for me on the porch as always, she nods to me, and I follow her to the library. I shift and get dressed in what she has prepared for me, and she just calmly waits. I feel the importance of the conversation we are going to have.
"First of all, I'm sure that you are not getting feral. Getting feral doesn't look the way Danny described it. Do you agree with me?" she says, and I nod.
"Julius, I have no idea what to say because, till today, I wasn't aware that something like that could happen. But I think it has started recently. I think Drake started moving the moment Danny set a foot in our pack."
I nod once again, and I think she is right. If Drake was taking control during the last ten years, someone must've noticed it by now. When Danny came, that was the moment I started feeling Drake again, I started healing, and I started getting my strength back. For whatever reason, Danny managed to make my wolf leave the place he had locked himself over a decade ago.
"I remember having sex with Danny, but I thought it was a dream. Goddess, what the hell did I do to him? I... I... Natasha, what should I do with it?"
She reaches to hold my hand, and I accept her touch and her comfort, but I'm still on the edge of breaking down.
"Julius, we need to know what and why happened with Drake, why Danny was a trigger for it, and..."
"I love him," I just say, sitting straight and facing her" I love him with all my heart, I..."
"Julius, I wish I could say I'm happy, but this won't be easy. Danny is still bonded to Brandon..."
"He will not come back to him," I growl dangerously.
"I do everything in my power not to allow it, but still, Danny is marked. It may be impossible to change it. But first things first, we have to know what happened with Drake and you, and for that, we need help; we need the Spirit Catcher. And good for us, the one is living in Ravenswood Pack, and their Alpha is very interested in a treaty with us, so I asked for his help in this matter."
"And what about Danny?"
"For now, Danny is safe where he is, but Preston has already spoken with some of the pack members, and I know what he intends to do. First of all, we have Brandon's word, but because he is on trial right now, I can't use my Alpha's voice on him and forced the truth out of him. I used it today on Danny, but because Danny doesn't have a wolf, we can't be sure that it worked, and Preston will try to convince everybody that Danny lied and was regularly cheating, and Brandon is pitiful in this. But don't worry, after what happened; I'm sure that Brandon won't become Alpha, no matter what."
"I will kill him myself if I have to; I can challenge him and..."
"Until the end of the trial period, Brandon can't be challenged. Nobody can also demand retribution based on the Bloodline Law, not even Danny's parents, because technically, they don't share the blood. And it's against law to challenge somebody and kill him to break the bond. The biggest problem is we can't force Brandon to break it because it can kill him and his wolf, and as an Alpha, I can't demand from him something that can mean his death."
"Both Preston and Brandon will focus now on their alpha's dream," I say lowly" I do trust Alexa. She is ready; she will be an Alpha. Till the end of the trail, we must make sure to find a way to keep Brandon away from Danny permanently."
"That I agree. I've already called Ravenswood; we are leaving here tomorrow for three days. Chen will be in charge of the pack. Julius, but for now, I think it will be better if nobody knows about the fact that it was you who slept with Danny."
For those who have read the previous stories in the BLACK MOON series, I have a little surprise in the next chapter. A return of the long not seen character :)