Damien’s Dilemma

by Cohen, Julie K.

  Her face blanched. She didn’t want to remember.

  Despite how she had taken control of the conversation, his shifters had specific questions; ones they couldn’t let her avoid. “Do you know where you are now? Or where the lab was?” Callen asked.

  Damien sat back to observe. He didn’t feel right questioning her. It was as good as saying he didn’t trust her. He did trust her. However she’d come to be in that cage, she was a good person… a human, but good nonetheless. There weren’t too many humans he could say that about.

  “I’m guessing northern U.S. One of the guards talked a lot about skiing.” She looked from shifter to shifter, waiting for someone to confirm a location. Then her eyes traveled to him. “Where am I exactly? How far from the lab?”

  The scent of fear rolled off of her, and the longer he took to answer, the thicker it became. She was afraid the WSSO would come for her.

  Damien couldn’t stand the thought of her being afraid, but he could use this moment to get her used to the idea of staying. “They won’t find you here. We’re off the grid. But if you leave, they will find you. You’ll stay until we figure out how to eliminate the danger.”

  She relaxed, but he didn’t. He wanted to pull her into her arms and tell her no one would get past him and his pack, but he couldn’t. His role was as alpha right now, and that meant getting answers. The more distance he left between himself and Tess, the better.

  “Why did the WSSO take you?” Callen prompted.

  “To experiment on.” She held up the inside of her right wrist, exposing a small bar code tattooed and an alphanumeric sequence there. “I’m lab rat CLS24.”

  The growl tore from Damien’s throat before he could rein it in, but he wasn’t the only one. His shifters had growled, snarled, or in Blade’s case resumed his frantic pacing. Only Frank seemed to take it in stride, likely because he’d seen worse in prison.

  “I saw the tattoo when I was treating you,” Pryce said. “I thought it was a regular tattoo, a statement of some sort.”

  “Oh, it’s a statement all right. It meant I had as much value as any of the other lab rats, the type with long, thin tails.”

  Damien winced.

  “Do you know what happened to the twenty-three before you? Or what CLS stands for?” Pryce asked.

  Softer than usual she said, “No.”

  Damien’s eyes shot up. She hesitated enough that he knew she was lying.

  “I still want to know why you attacked Ian and why he was in your room,” Blade said, his voice thick with anger.

  “I don’t know why,” she said as her hands clenched into fists at her side.

  Another lie. That was twice now. She knew what the tattoo stood for, and she knew why Ian was in her room. That had Damien reeling on three fronts.

  First, he didn’t like other males being in her room. Ever. Second, she had lied to him. Third, he didn’t like other males being in her room. Period. He really couldn’t overemphasize that last one.

  Hayden circled over to sit on the coffee table in front of her. The heavy wood table creaked beneath his weight. All eyes were on her. “Sorry, Tess, but we saw your back, the burns, the cuts. Why were they torturing you?”

  “I don’t know. They didn’t really talk to me or ask me any questions. Not even my name.”

  Hayden gave her one of his calm, sympathetic smiles, trying to put her at ease. “Did they talk when they were… sorry, there’s no gentle way to say this… when they were burning or cutting you?”

  The color drained from her face. Hayden was stirring up memories she wasn’t ready to confront.

  “She already answered this,” Damien said, barely containing his growl.

  “No, she didn’t,” Callen replied, giving Damien one of those looks that said he needed to hear this. “We need to know what they said to and around her.”

  Tess’s arms wrapped around her body, as if she were struggling to hold herself together.

  “Next question,” Damien said, raising his voice enough to get his shifters to back off. He didn’t care how much they needed answers, he wouldn’t have them badgering her.

  “Where are you from, Tess?” Pryce—always the one to step in when situations got heated—spoke, his voice gentle and easy-going.

  Her face and body relaxed. This was a topic she could talk about without reliving the horror. Thank goodness for Pryce.

  “Florida. Apopka.”

  Pryce held his left arm out. “Grab my hand.”

  Tess reached over with her left.

  “No, with your right.”

  When she started to reach toward him, she winced.

  “That’s enough, he said, gently tapping her right arm, which she tucked against her side. “Wear the sling I gave you.”

  “I’ll heal fine without it.”

  “Humor me, then.”

  When she said nothing, Pryce looked to Damien, who only raised a brow. He saw concern in his medic’s face, though he wasn’t sure if it was for her physical or mental health. Maybe both.

  Tess didn’t like showing any weakness. That Damien understood. Appearing weak only invited trouble. As alpha he always had to appear strong, even when he wasn’t. That’s why he was so grateful for the shifters around him. They’d never let him appear weak, even if he were on his last leg. Damien nodded to Pryce to continue.

  “You’re saying the WSSO sent people all the way down to Florida to kidnap you? Why would they do that?”

  She shrugged and pulled away from Pryce a fraction of an inch and sagged in the chair. Whether it was the strain of her deception or the fact that she should be resting instead of putting up with a bunch of shifters interrogating her, one thing was obvious; she was tired. Not that she’d admit it.

  “What makes you so special that they went that far for you?” Blade pressed, picking up on where Pryce was going, except charging in with the tact of a hundred bulls in a china shop. Blade and his suspicions weren’t going to help matters, but he had a point, and one Damien would get to the bottom of eventually, when she had a chance to recover.

  She thrust her shaking hands under her thighs. Damien’s gut tightened. Even if she wasn’t meant to be his, he had signed on as her protector. Which meant ensuring she had enough rest.

  “That’s enough for now. We’ll pick it up again tomorrow.”

  The relief on her face proved he’d made the right call.

  “The general meeting is in two nights,” Hayden reminded him. “And the other people from out of town are coming in two weeks.”

  Hayden had almost said ‘pack,’ but he’d caught himself. Liam and Drake, the alphas of the neighboring packs, wouldn’t expect to see a human here, which is why Hayden was reminding Damien of their upcoming summit while Tess was still in the room. He was emphasizing that they’d have to do something about her.

  “Understood,” Damien said, lifting his chin toward the door, dismissing them.

  As the shifters filed out, Blade stepped over to Tess and turned her wrist so he could examine the tattoo.

  Damien tensed at first, not thrilled with how Blade took such liberty in touching her when Damien had just ordered Blade to stay away from her, but Tess allowed the contact, so Damien held off from ripping Blade a new one.

  Blade’s thumb swiped over the tattoo. “I know a guy who can remove that, or if you prefer to own it so you never forget what the bastards did, he can hide it in another design.” He rotated his left forearm so she could see the tattoo of a wolf there. “You know, something with flowers and butterflies, something girlie.”

  The smile she threw Blade was huge, genuine, and had Damien straining to hold back a growl at how his scout was touching Tess’s wrist so intimately. Blade had accepted her, and she needed the pack on her side if she was going to stay here. But for Blade to accept her so easily… Maybe Blade’s wolf was getting desperate for a mate, and Blade liked what he saw in Tess, despite the fact that she was human… despite the fact they all knew Damien was interested in
her.

  At least Blade could blood-bond a human. Blood-bonding a human would weaken his shifter abilities, but it wouldn’t kill him as it would Damien.

  With the equivalent of a heavy boot, Damien stomped on the rising growl, causing his wolf to yelp. Though it had become increasingly hard of late, Damien still had control over his wolf. He wouldn’t take that smile away from Tess, even if it were meant for Blade. Seeing his Tess happy and free of the torment she’d suffered, even for a few seconds, was worth putting up with Blade.

  His Tess? When the hell had that happened?

  “Night, Damien,” Blade said as he smiled at Tess and headed out. Damien’s wolf growled as he stared at the closed door. Hell, he shouldn’t have to compete with his own scout for her.

  A slight cough behind Damien almost startled him, but in a pleasant way. The house didn’t have its usual empty feeling like it did every other time his shifters filed out. Her lovely scent filled the room, calling to him and his wolf in a way he hadn’t thought possible.

  She was human. He needed to remind himself of that, or he’d let her long hair and longer legs, which could easily wrap around him as he thrust into her lush body, fool him into thinking he could have more than a little fun with her.

  Light green eyes half-hooded with exhaustion, Tess rose and wavered.

  Before Damien realized it, he scooped her in his arms and was headed upstairs.

  “I bet you carry women up these stairs all the time.”

  He let out an exaggerated breath. “Only you.”

  They were halfway to the top when she started running a hand down his left arm, drawing a finger over his biceps torturously slowly. If he hadn’t decided not to touch her, he’d be heading to his bedroom right now instead of the guest bedroom.

  “Stop that,” he said, wanting to bite off his own tongue. Maybe he should see where this went with her?

  She moved in his arms and winced in pain, reminding him how fragile she was. A shifter would have healed by now, but she wasn’t shifter; she was human. One of the world’s greatest ironies, shifters could screw or do anything with humans without repercussions, except blood-bond. It was the blood-bond that stabilized the wolf, but a blood-bond also strengthened or weakened a shifter depending on the person to whom they bonded.

  That’s why weak shifters sought out strong shifters. It gave the weaker mates a chance to increase their strength. Unfortunately, the stronger mates risked losing a lot of their strength, speed, and ability to shift quickly and painlessly.

  Bonding with a human, well that was the worst, because it ensured the shifter became forever weak. For an alpha, it was fatal. As for the human, there were some benefits such as faster healing, but mostly the bonding tied the human to a shifter who’d likely regret the bond in time, even grow resentful.

  “You don’t like me touching you?” Tess asked as he set her down at her door.

  “I like it,” he said, while one hand settled on her hip. “Too much.”

  Pink bloomed in her cheeks. The way she blushed had his blood pumping and heading straight to his cock. Up against the door, he caged her with his arms. The rapid rise and fall of her chest caught his attention easily enough, but he wanted to taste her. Just a taste wouldn’t hurt. Before he could talk himself out of it, her lips parted in invitation.

  Soft, luscious, warm. That was the only way to describe how incredible her mouth felt beneath his. He took his time, languidly sweeping his tongue over her upper then lower lip, enjoying the plump curves and the incredible velvety feel of her. As if he weren’t already aroused by her taste, he envisioned how heavenly her lips would feel around his cock, as she looked up at him with those stunning green eyes that reminded him of a field of grass waving in the wind on a sunny day.

  A feminine moan escaped her, drawing his entire body closer until his hard chest pressed up against those very full breasts. He resisted the urge to grind his cock against her. He was fairly sure she wasn’t a virgin, but from the timid way her tongue explored his mouth, he could tell she wasn’t very experienced, either.

  “You taste really nice,” he said. “Like honey. Smooth, rich, decadent.”

  “I…” Her blush deepened, and her eyes remained wide.

  Damien had flustered her with a simple compliment. Oh, he could have a lot of fun with her, if a few words as simple as an honest compliment threw her off her game.

  Hell, he was already thinking of her as a potential conquest. Tess wasn’t ready for someone like him, and she had been through so much at the WSSO. He didn’t want to hurt her, his Sweetness.

  Already her hands were working their way up between them. She hadn’t pushed him away, but she would soon enough. Even if Damien got her into his bed, he could lose control and scare the shit out of her. His wolf had been testing him, pushing him to his limits and making control hard. In bed… that would be tricky. If he failed to rein his wolf in (or worse, released him fully) Damien could end up scaring or even hurting her. It would be best to keep his distance and stick to female shifters who could handle him physically, not to mention emotionally.

  Damien broke the kiss and backed up before she could push him away. He’d been afraid of overwhelming her, but the truth was she had already overwhelmed him. If not for her hands pressing against his chest, a subtle but very real signal that she wasn’t ready for more, he would have kept going until he was buried deep inside her.

  “And that’s why you need to be careful who you touch,” Damien warned as he pushed open her door.

  “I won’t break, you know.”

  Was that an invitation? His cock would never ease at this rate.

  “I have the burns and bruises to prove it.”

  That simple comment was like a punch in the face. How he could think of touching her after the torture she had been through was beyond him. He was supposed to protect her.

  She frowned and lowered her eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to compare you to my captors.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to you, Tess. And you don’t have to do anything for me in return.”

  “Is that what you thought?” she asked, her voice gaining a high pitch as she lifted her head, standing tall. “That I was offering to sleep with you for protection?”

  Damien had known enough females to recognize that tone. He’d said something wrong, and he had better fix it soon, or the situation would get worse, fast.

  “I’m not sure what to think when it comes to you. You lied to everyone, to me, downstairs.” There, he’d said it. After all, there was no sense ignoring the facts. He was planning to confront her eventually anyway.

  “What makes you think I lied?”

  “I don’t think you lied. I know it. I’m good at reading faces.”

  “Some say shifters can smell fear,” she said, scrutinizing him closely.

  Ah, hell. Was she guessing, or did she know he was a shifter? “Humans too,” he added, hoping to confuse her.

  “Now who’s lying?”

  Oh, she was good, trying to keep him from turning the conversation. “You weren’t in Florida when they took you, were you?” he accused outright.

  “No.” Light-green eyes shone. “My turn. You could have dropped me at a hospital or police station, but you brought me here. Why? And don’t give me some line that it’s for my safety. It’s a big world out there. I could disappear easily enough. All it takes is cash. Which I have. Though not here.”

  If only this mess were that simple. “We need answers. You have them.” And I’m not ready to let you go.

  He twisted a lock of her dark hair around his fingers. Silky, smooth, but strong, like Tess. With the sun streaming through the large windows above the front door, he could see the red highlights in her hair. If she were a shifter, she’d have a gorgeous brown and red coat, but he had to stop thinking in terms of what she wasn’t and focus on who she was. A beautiful, smart, sweet woman who, despite the hell of the past few months, had no trouble standing up to him and his shifters.
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  He tugged the back of her long hair, enjoying the feel of her smooth locks twined in his fingers. Her eyes flared, and the sweet scent of her arousal perfumed the air. Now all he could think about was keeping his hand wrapped in her hair, bending her over, and controlling her as he took her from behind.

  “Do you think I want those assholes to get away with what they did to me?”

  Hell, here she was talking about what they’d done to her, and his mind was in the gutter.

  “If I had information that would help, I’d tell you.” She opened the door behind her and slid in.

  He wedged his foot in the door. He wasn’t going to let her shut him out, like she was trying to do with whatever secrets she was keeping about that lab.

  “Am I your prisoner or guest?” she asked, her arms now crossed against those beautiful breasts of hers.

  His wolf was scratching at him, snarling at the sight of a challenge from a female. With his arousal and her challenge, Damien needed to put distance between himself and Tess, before his wolf forced him to do something he’d regret. Fighting against his desire for her and fighting his wolf at the same time took too much energy, and his wolf had grown incredibly strong of late.

  “We’ve been through this,” Damien said, unable to keep the bite from his tone.

  “And yet you seem to think you can come into my room any time you want, like a prison guard.”

  “It is my house.”

  “Then I’ll sleep outside. Or do you own the great outdoors as well?” Tess grabbed a pillow and the blanket from the bed and pushed past him.

  He was considering telling her he owned the property outside, so technically, yes, he owned the great outdoors.

  That’s when she grabbed the top of the railing overlooking the first floor. Her cheeks drained of all color.

  Enough was enough. He placed a hand on her side to steady her. “Tess?”

  “Dizzy.”