Damon's POV;
I never intended to be this happy. Never thought Id be with someone who could make me so happy and feel so ridiculously stupid in her presence. I was a fool to ignore what was given before me for some ego and now Im trying to make every wrong right.
I began with every bias, sexist and discriminative law I had enforced. It costed me in the millions but to loose a few sheets of paper was nothing to make up for what I forcefully broke. Trust. My Pack was always about divide and conquer, the lording Beta's making their entitlements upon on the lesser members and spreading this corrupt net of power I never knew existed. It ceased to be of course, but the amount of backlash was tiring.
There'd be times when Id not see Nora for 2-4 days. She'd call and sometimes show up to the office but Id have her ushered her quickly before another lording Beta could come barging in through my doors. It was never a pretty sight, something the mother of my children should never have to witness.
Kaden was having it the roughest after me, decapitating heads more so often than doing inquiries. The Heads were always fighting new members who challenged our authority, we feared an riot or worse but this had to come to a stop. We rallied allies in case, those who'd be in favor of our change rather then choose those street thugs. Being the biggest Pack of North America did have its setbacks and now I'd have to face them.
I kept most of it all hidden from Nora's knowledge, feeling the guilt like a stabbing pain. She wouldn't have want violence, ever, especially since it was reason her parents fell. The uprising, oh gods. Though, back then, my Pack was never apart of that fire, I cant say we weren't responsible. To stir the crowd of SilverRoses Beta Ranon was the one to spark that kernel of doubt among them, deploying spies to become members and begin it all. That traitor Gamma to lead the SilverRose into rebellion was on a direct payroll by no one other than my father. The previous Alpha of the RedBlood's wanted to gain child custody of the children and seize the land. He was going to kill them all, Nora my Mate included and had killed his best friend Alpha Nathan to gain some material land.
I cant bring myself to tell Nora. Or her brothers or anyone. When I had found the old Pack border outlines and documents did I realize they were of the SilverRose Pack and confronted Ranon who told me everything. The way he manipulated it into my 10 year self's mind was disgusting, he made it sound like I was doing a favor to my parents if I got a hold the land because it's what they would've wanted. I'm glad Kaden dealt with him, by using Leila as a mean though I knew she was resentful to Kaden about it.
Nora is the one thing left to be alive for, to risk everything for but to barter her and our twins in doing so is not something Ill do. Ever. Today marks a whole month of her pregnancy, her swelling stomach worrying me too much to think of anything else. Pregnancy could heighten a Mate's need to serve and protect and make us on the edge like no other. I swore Id lay my life down for her if need be. Heartwarming as it may be to know we'll be parents in a while, its terrifying to think she'll need to be in this Pack for me to be protect.
And what happened with Stephanie that day and her role when Nora went missing, it only made me eager to end all those low-life bastards.
...
Nora's POV;
I was famished, and in dire need of a snack. Damon was away like always, this time to train with Kaden and Hunter but made no hesitation to leave me with an army of guards. Loyal Warriors he said, some of Carter's men. I only rolled my eyes, I didnt see why he was so paranoid. Nothing major was happening, maybe besides the a few handful of laws changed but that's about it. I didnt get the fuss and hadnt bother to say anything. We even moved back to the capital for awhile he promised, something to do with the Heads committee even as I snorted at its name.
I did miss him at night, he'd do alot of night work. Paperwork, Damon would grumbled with a yawn usually before kissing me at first light. Mornings he'd be here no matter what, no doubt to ease with the morning sickness. It was so bad, it even become a schedule for Rossi to show up at 9:25 sharp to check up on us for the morning. Although Damon and I were interlocked and bound by the soul, something neither Rossi or Damon never cared to explain to me despite me asking, Damon had never shared the toilet bowl vomiting with me. Instead he'd be weak and feel the undying heaviness I was dreading a lot more, day by day. He had been like this for days, feeling groggily and the aftermath of the sickness, and insisted today he train to keep it at a bay. He promised to not overwork it, knowing I could share his tiredness too.
Last night though I had fallen asleep on the rocking chair Damon insisted we keep in our room by the glass door to the balcony. Around 12-ish when I had just began to feel the sleep tug on me to rest, I heard the door open. A fresh breeze of pines warmed the nighttime air and I felt someone with that scent of sickle pines radiating off them, hoist me up and lay in bed, kissing my forehead before drawing the sheet and coming under.
I appreciate all he did. I gave a idle stroke over my rounding stomach when I taken the final step off the staircase, remembering how it felt when Damon would be caught staring down at our twins. Rossi had said our twins were developing faster than most, most likely because of the Alpha gene inherited by both Damon and I. He waved it off as nothing to worry for, even as Damon nearly choked him for the truth.
Padding to the kitchen I was wearing grey sweats and a long sleeve grey shirt with 3 buttons luckily to accommodate for my swelling small chest, hair swept to a side unbound and feet lined in socks of wool. I was opening cupboards in search of potential food. Leila did a good job of keeping supplies up even as I devoured two cupboards worth of snacks a day. Taking a bag of pretzel and bowl of chopped strawberries, I sat on the table eating and going through the squad groupchat when I heard a tap on the door.
I gave a heavy sigh through my nose, mouth full still like a chipmunk's, rubbing my salted fingers on the back of my pants as I strode to the door. Feeling tired already by the time I got to the door, it opened to reveal a Stephanie in a grey sequenced clubbing dress, halter neck and cupping her breasts and ass before stopping an inch from her crotch, black hair straightened as a pin. Her heavily patted eyes surveyed me from head to toe before she reached out and yanked my hair. "You bitch."
I attempted to shut the door on her, but she was faster to slam it open and inviting herself in. My screamed herded Carter's men by the front as we descended the staircase to the house and rounded the SUV. They growled, half in wolf form with many still as humans, all glowering at Stephanie with teeth bared. She scowled, drawing a single nail to hold at my neck to representation how much of a hostage I was and threat she was. I could fight her but it could endanger my survival and most all, my children's. No, I wouldnt.
So I allowed her to throw me in the car driven by someone else. "You know the drill, say a word and Ill torture you like never before and then string your babies up by their umbilical cord."
I allowed it all, being kidnapped, being thrown into a car, to be injected with WolfsBane, to be taken to a secondary location which happened to the training ground. I spotted the assessing tower first, the sky darkened with storm clouds and a howling wind. I was hauled out by an elbow, wondering how her silver pencil tipped heels managed to keep up her weight, the frail woven ties crossing around to the back where they tied off as bows. "Damon!"
I wince at how his name sounded on her lips.
"Damon!"
The SUV left, and she got me into a head lock just as the first few members spotted us. I gasp, my vision already spotting. "Damon Romano!"
A growl pierced the cold, a growl that should've sent men and this cow running, from behind the tower. Racing down the staircase was a fuming Damon flanked by a murderous looking crew of Kaden, Carter, and Jace. "You let her go, RIGHT NOW!"
"Damon, mio amore" she purred as if they were about to make out. I cringe the best I could from within her grab. From my peripheral sight I saw how she donned Damon. Her posture shifted becoming more relaxed, her eyes going wide as if she hadn't seen him in ages and with lustful eyes, Stephanie was marveling the sight of him.
Damon seemed to have become more enrage with the use of his affectionate name for me by someone else.
I was suddenly feeling out of place between these people who knew one another for years. "You came?'
"Let your Luna go Stephanie," Kaden roared, fists white.
"You think you'll get my attention by threatening your Luna in front of all the Heads, Stephanie?" Damon seethed, baring teeth. His orbs were a storm like the one brewing above, the wind howling like how Dylan was inside Damon's body. June sensed as much.
"Ill kill her Damon," She clucked her tongue, hearing the fear falter her voice just the slightest when Damon didn't drop this darkened eyes. "Ill snap her if you banish me and make into a rouge or I could rip the twins out right now. Though it shouldn't matter, she was never to come between us anyway. You were mine to belong too, you loved me! You were with me! In my bed, in my life, in my past and should be in my future, I should be your Luna, you promised! I called you mio amore."
I knew we shouldve turned her hairy werewolf ass into a fur coat when we had the chance, June taunts me.
June! I exclaim with disbelief. Shes holding our throat in a headlock and threatening to carve our twin babies out and you're here caring about beating her ass into a coat?
Well, Im just saying we should've done something back then, She shrugs.
"And that was before Stephanie, the title belongs to Nora. She's my Mate, not you anymore. Never you."
Youre unbelievable June, I shake my head.
"You bastard," She growled, earning louder growls from everyone surrounding. "You said you were to kill your Mate when you got the chance but instead here I am doing the job for you like the loyal servant I am of yours! I love you Damon, you were always my priority!"
My eyes met Damon's, and he turned away. "Stephanie listen to me."
"Ill snap her neck, Ill do it, and it'll be your fault," She bellowed, letting go my neck and extending a hand's worth of razor nails to my stomach. "Or Ill just carve them out, kill them like the bitch their mother is," Stephanie spat, turning her venomous eyes to Damon. "And like how your mother was too Damon. You choose this path! You ruined my life with your promises-"
She stilled, going rigid as the hand she held to my stomach pressed gently. I give a whimper of a cry, holding my ground with a hand to my mouth to cover another cry when Stephenie's body thudded the ground vulgarly. With a single matte black arrow with golden feathers embedded in her neck. Blood was draining from her at an alarmingly rate, my stomach lurched.
I felt the blood gush first and saw it pooling out when Damon had appeared besides me, holding me and surveying the gash through the torn shirt. His black shirt was beginning to glean with a darker colour in his mid section, the scarlet colour of blood coming when my grey shirt accidentally was pressed with his. Blood, both us were in it. Kaden was behind me when the world spun, and both males darted to hold me as I lost balance.
Damon's eyes were spiteful and raging, worrying even as he took a hold my sweat cover face to kiss my forehead murmuring something. I was so tired I couldn't stand. My stomach was throbbing, and my eyes grew heavy lidded.
Kaden said something that sounded distorted. "It's just a scratch on the outermost skin and a little into the second layer. It's already starting to knit back together."
His voice was the last I heard before my head slumped into a hard shoulder.
...
Damon's POV
Nothing happens. Since what occurred in the training ground with Stephanie, it was silent. Nora had recovered within a day, the weakness leaving her in about 3 days after. She hadn't mentioned anything of what Stephanie said in her final hours and neither had I bother to contradict whatever she made of it.
It was now July, and Nora is in her 6th month. The worry I have her is so very cumbersome that it distracts me from every task I do. Her belly was the size of a watermelon, it was almost like Christina's who was currently in her 8th month.
I didn't batter an eye in having Nora sent back to the Villa on the outskirts of the Pack where her brother's territory began.
The second she passed out in the training fields, I carried her to a car I had Carter bring up and made him, Jace, and Hunter all come along to drive Nora back. We picked Rossi on the way from the hospital and upon examining her, she wasn't serious but she'd will be weak for days to come, maybe or maybe not have an everlasting scar of the Stephanie incident. She looked so frail and ghastly pale in my arms, sweat matting her hairline.
Stephanie was dead, the thought a heavy weight to my heart although I hadn't been with her for awhile. We hadnt spoken to one another for so long, maybe if I had I could've all avoided this.
Hunter was leading a team of young Warriors into shooting practice in the nearby woods that day when he had heard everything from both his own ears and the mind-link. He was always the most skilled archer, this his second time in saving Nora with the aid of his bow.
Maybe I didn't regret that he got the killing strike, even if to kill the person who meant something profound to me. But I was so tired of deaths in name of change. Stephanie I should've known would have created a scene, I should've planned for this even when the thought had crossed my mind. And it had but what did I do?
I had sighed heavily, hating myself even more for not remembering that she called me her mio amore for years. And now I knew Nora by that title.
When laying her in bed, Leila had her changed into something more comfy and clean. I took the time to contact Kaden to tell him I'd be gone for a few days. He merely disconnected the phone with a grunt.
Nora awoke and then we lived our life and did our thing for the months to come. Rossi lived among us, Leila always sharing a room with Nora whenever I was out to have business meetings in nearby office I had constructed recently for both Nora's and Leila's sake.
The tension between Rossi and Leila wasn't pretty, they kept ignoring one another's presence though I knew it made her uncomfortable to think that the man who raped her when she was younger lived in the same house. I had taken her aside one day to ask her if she'd prefer that I settle matters with him, punish him for the injustice if it helped, not because Nora had told me but rather because of what Leila had for my Mate and it was my duty to serve as Alpha. It was the least I could repay too, but Leila refused the offer. As tempting it was she admitted, she rather forget and move on. Leila wasn't short of gratitude either.
Months faded, and time resumed the same. Members of the RedBlood, SilverRose and neighboring Packs still went missing despite the upgrade in security. It was always the people forgotten which made it hard to keep count of who went lost or when. Bodies burnt of their flesh and with alternations kept showing up, taken from one end and disposed in another. The burning rings in their arms kept my Pack the most vigilant as it was an unsettling reminder of my failure in reprimanding those responsible.
One day, some time in mid July Xavier had called for a meeting. Them and me to meet at Alpha Ryan's office by the borders. I felt bad for lying to Nora for the day, but it necessary she not be told of this as Xavier asked for the utmost discretion.
I got dressed early this morning and left, kissing her sleeping head and belly on my way out and called Hunter to keep her company with Leila.
By the time we had got together to discuss it was midday. Ryan's office was ten floors high, us on the highest level in a conference room with a roaring fire and four large armchairs in a circle at the center where the table should've been. A large tainted glass over a two sides of the walls have a clear view of the forest and borders beyond.
"As all of us know, the rogues have been acting odd as of lately," Xavier said, leaning back in his chair, leg propped over another with a drink in his hand.
Since it was informal we were all in dress shirts with rolled sleeves, vests loosened and coats slung over the chair abandoned. Xavier only remained formal, suit still done without a crease out of line. I had opted for Nora's personal favorite, a full black suit she admitted she adored from the first time I wore it.
I waved off the Omega bowing to refill my drink. Xavier waited for the Omega to shut the door on his way out, sighing gravely before saying lowly, "I got this letter, when I went to inspect the latest body that turned up on the edge of my land by the local high school. It was encased in a ziplock and shoved in her mouth."
We all exchanged glances as he pulled out a neatly folded paper from his inner pocket and handled it to Ryan's on his right to read out loud.
He read and shortly after he was done, we were silent. Thinking and reconsidering the threat it proposed on us all. An uprising, like the one almost 17 years ago my father had stirred within the SilverRoses but this time upon both Packs SilverRoses and RedBloods, and with rogues. Rogues with heavily done modification no regular would stand a change against. They had taken theses months to perfect their alternations, to make sure this species of werewolves would be able to survive and fight like the vicious beast it was turned into.
"What do you propose we do?" I find myself asking in a low whisper, not weak.
Xavier stir the contents of his glass from in front of me. "We fight," he blinked, shifting. "Before them and this is how I propose we do it."
Xavier took the next bit explaining this strategy, empathizing what needed to be done before at the end, even when I protested. "You can't expect us to follow out on this!"
Ryan massaged his temples. Zayn snarled, his darkened eyes shifting with dislike between Xavier and I. "I don't happen to like this either Damon, but we don't have much to a choice."
"Doesn't mean we'll settle with this! This is cold blooded betrayal, and I've sworn to never repeat that mistake again," I grow, gritting the armchairs leathers with my talons.
It was Ryan to speak. "Damon it must be done. I agree it's not in their best interest but we have too."
Xavier took this moment watching us all over before settling on me. "It's for them all, for the change you proposed to bring into your Pack. For Nora and her children and the future they'll have in your Pack, and their children after that and generations to come. It's not fair that we uproot their life's by not forfeiting our own."
Xavier drew a breathe, his glare softening just the slightest when his voice dropped. "I'm going to be become a father too Damon. If anything, think of this for your children's sake."
...
Happy Spring break!
Just about to finish the book To All The Boys I've Loved Before, and yes. I know there's a movie, 20 people reminded me on the first day, but I can't help it when there's a book out! Only 95 pages left, and I SHIP it!
Maybe I should write letters and cross my fingers in hope that the same thing happens to me.😂😅
Your girls got a job too!
Also, anyone read Falling Kingdoms? Ima start tonight and read til 3 and start again the morning at 11. Dying to start😭
By the way, I'm not dead yet. I've been writing another story, cause this one about to end soon. And no, they (Alphas) don't all die at the end. I'm different than that,😉
The Author;
xbookgirlx15