Page 21 of His Blue Moon Princess (The Silver City #1)

“Pretty? She is stunning!”

Claims Tonia.

I don’t know what to say, so I just whisper some shy thanks. Now I’m starting to feel anxious. Seeing myself all ready and dressed up reminds me that I am about to have a date with Damian. My very first date! I’m both excited and nervous... I have no idea what he prepared. I feel like I barely know him already; how could I guess what plans he made for tonight?

As I suspected, Tonia is driving me to the rendezvous. In the car, I’m as anxious as one can be, and no one speaks. The girls from the Jade Moon Clan always argued about romantic moonlight strolls, going to the movies, or candlelit dinners. It’s a bit hard to imagine Damian doing any of these... Tonia puts some music on the radio, and I try to relax.

About half an hour later, it’s already dark outside when we stop in a location I can’t recognize. It is pretty quiet, actually, except for the sounds of the seashore. Why are we at the waterfront? The last time I came close to the sea didn’t end well... But the atmosphere is quite different this time. Tonia covers me up with a large white fur coat, and we walk a couple of steps to face a large boat.

It’s actually a superb white yacht with its lights on and elegant wooden floors. Pushing me gently, Bobo helps me get on board while I’m still in awe. I have never been on a boat before! A private yacht to boot! I take shy steps inside, but the siblings don’t follow me, staying on the dock, waving with big smiles on. Oh, well...

My wolf detects five... No, six people inside while I slowly walk in, though I don’t see anyone. My heart is already thumping loudly. My wolf feels his presence, and that’s all she can focus on for now. A romantic song is floating in the air, coming from the deck, so I head that way. This is so intriguing...

Once I finally reach the deck, I’m left completely speechless.

As if in a dream-like setting, the deck is decorated with white flowers and fairy lights all over. On the floor, there is a thin layer of snow, perfectly even and white. In the middle of it, a wooden table was set for two, with white napkins, crystal glasses, and silverware, with a centerpiece composed of candles, sand, and seashells. All of it is arranged in an elegant, but intimate, and unbelievably romantic setting.

Everything is absolutely perfect.

And in the frame of this incredible sight, stands Damian.

I find him more handsome than ever. As always, he is wearing only dark clothes, but this time it is a jet-black suit, with a silver tie matching his glowing eyes. He appears effortlessly handsome standing there, and I find myself falling for him once again. His muscular figure, the marble-chiseled traits, his thin lips... He even got a fresh haircut and a clean, short stubble beard.

...How can one be so handsome? I’m tearing up when I walk up to him. He catches my hand, entangling his fingers with mine as our faces come close. Our eyes meet, and I feel happier than ever. My heart is so warm and loud; I feel like it will explode any time now. Damian’s eyes lock onto mine, sheening love on me. How can such an icy gaze make one burn with feelings at the same time?

Before we say a word, his lips find mine, and we lose ourselves in a long, tender, and passionate kiss. He is intense but gentle. I follow his rhythm, answering his kiss with more confidence than before. This taste on my lips is addicting, and I don’t want to stop. Ever. I kiss him back, putting my free hand on his chest. I don’t need air. I just want this man’s lips against mine.

I feel Damian’s hand sliding into my hair, his fingers playing with my curls like he loves to. He grasps and holds it, keeping me close enough to melt under his embrace. Winter means nothing. I feel myself burning from this man’s delightful kiss, almost like I could get drunk on it.

When our kiss finally comes to an end, Damian holds me close against him, and his lips slowly slide all the way to my ear to whisper.

“Happy Birthday, Nora.”

I blush again, uncontrollably, because of those three words. Damian’s voice so close to my ear, it makes me crazy. I can even feel his breath softly brushing my neck. How can one endure that! I avert my eyes, the blood rushing to my cheeks. He chuckles softly from my reaction and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Blushing already, Nora? So cute...”

“You’re the one making me like that!”

I protest shyly.

“Then I must be doing something right because you look adorable that way,”

he whispers while putting a slight kiss on my forehead.

I try to push him away from me a little, or I will never be able to regain my composure otherwise. He smiles and stops with the kisses, though he has no intention to let go of my hand. Instead, he takes a step back and observes me from head to toe with a smile. He even raises his arm and makes me take a slow spin.

“You are beautiful tonight...”

I smile at him and step closer to him again. “You, too. I love the beard,”

I whisper, brushing my fingers against the little spikes on his chin.

“I’ll remember it,”

he says, kissing my fingers when they get close to his lips. “...Come.”

Holding my hand, he takes me to the table and helps me to my seat like a gentleman. I take my arms out of the sleeves of my coat, but keep it laying on my shoulders. Next to us, a small brazier is burning, slowly warming up the air around us, but it’s not enough. Damian grabs a blanket that was on a side and covers my legs with it. I love this.

We are having a candlelight dinner on the deck of a boat in December! I hadn’t realized the ship had started moving, but we are slowly getting farther and farther away from the port. We are headed toward the vast sea, leaving Silver City’s night lights behind us. I wonder if we have a set destination? Either way, I’m just overwhelmed by all of this. Even the most romantic movies I’ve watched with Tonia never had something like this! This is something out of a Fairy Tale, and I feel like I might wake up any minute.

I’m still very much awake when Damian opens up a bottle of French Champagne. Gosh, I hope there aren’t too many alcoholic beverages planned. I don’t have any experience with it... All I have is the few times Elizabeth made me try the beer at her father’s pub, and I hated it. And now I’m being served a glass of fancy Champagne... However, Damian purposely gives me only half of what he pours for himself; he knows I can’t drink too much.

He raises his glass, and we clink the crystal glasses together before taking a sip. It’s actually quite good! It’s a bit sweet, and I love the fizzy feeling on my tongue.

“So, how was your first day?”

“It was great! I loved it. The restaurant is amazing, and the team was really nice, too.”

I start telling him about how the day went, from my arrival at the La Rose de L’Aube to the end of the service, so happy to share this with him. I tell him about the service, how I helped as much as I could, and even about a few memorable customers. Damian’s eyes don’t leave me for a single second all this time.

“So, I take it you want to continue then?”

“Of course! Nathaniel said I could keep working as a busser for now.”

“And then? What do you want to do?”

My goal? I never really thought of any professional perspective before... Not that I could dream about any from Robert’s dirty bar I used to work in, anyway. But I guess I could start if this is to be my first real job! I think for a few seconds, but the answer is suddenly crystal clear to me.

“I want to learn the ropes about the catering business.”

“Cooking?”

“Not just that. How to cook, make menus, plan things, manage the staff, handle customers, and oversee it all. When I was young, I dreamed of having my own restaurant someday. If I can still try...”

I realize he is smiling, and I blush a bit.

“What?”

“...You remind me of my mother.”

Wow. This is the first time Damian has ever mentioned their mother. I wait a bit to let him speak. He puts his hand on mine, slowly drawing circles with his thumb.

“She was always a dreamer, despite her sickness. She missed France a lot, so she wanted to have her own restaurant to serve French cuisine there. The flavors of her childhood. Nate gave his restaurant her name.”

“Do you mean La Rose de l’Aube?”

He nods. “It means the Dawn Rose, literally, but another word for Dawn in French is Aurore, our mother’s name. Roses were her favorite flowers. Nate inherited her passion for cooking.”

That explains why he is the one in charge of almost the restaurants of the Clan, though they are not all French.

“What was she like? Your mom?” I ask.

He smiles softly. “The sweetest person you could think of. She always saw the good in anyone, a real pacifist at heart. Everyone in the pack loved her. And she was beautiful, too. Blonde, with blue eyes and pale skin. Her eyes were much lighter than yours, though. She had very soft traits and always looked young. Nate got her blonde hair and blue eyes, but Liam is the one who most looks like her.”

Which means Damian takes after their father... I wonder what their childhood was like with such parents. Their dad probably wasn’t so violent at the start, like Liam said. What kind of brother was Damian to Nathaniel and Liam?

“Liam said you were studying together,”

he says, changing topics.

I nod and tell him about all the books I go through at the apartment, how I somehow started taking Liam’s homework. I’m only seventeen, after all. Not going to school was really something that bothered me for a long time.

“Don’t you want to take classes?”

Asks Damian.

“Maybe private lessons... Just so I could get a diploma. It feels too late to start school now, though. It’d be awkward.”

“You can think about it, Nora.”

I nod, but I’m still not too confident about this...

A young waiter suddenly appears to serve the appetizers. Damian went with an entirely French menu to please me. I wonder if chef Michel participated? Some of the dishes look familiar. Anyway, it’s delicious, and we talk about more trivial matters as we eat.

After a while, I notice the boat has actually stopped, and the view is fantastic. We are a few miles away from the coast, and, more importantly, we have the most incredible view over Silver City’s night lights. It’s breathtaking. Below the starry night sky, all the skyscrapers assemble, shining with colorful lights and neons. Yet, we are far from the noises of the city. This scenery is so peaceful, with the soft ambiance of waves and the piano in the background.

I take a moment to stare at it. My city.

Damian notices that I stopped eating and follows my gaze. How does he feel, as the silent King of this modern realm? No title, yet the most feared wolf in town. Sometimes I forget he is not just my fated mate or an Alpha. He is Damian Black, the most powerful man and werewolf of Silver City.

For so long, I thought I wasn’t a good match for him, that we were too different. I had no idea about my Alpha potential or my heritage. If I really am a Royal, then it turns out I might be much more useful than I thought to him. And I want to be. I don’t want to leave him to fight on his own. The brothers went through so many hardships already, and who knows what’s next? We live in a dangerous world.

“Damian?”

“Hm?”

“What happened to your father?”

He turns to me, frowning a little. He probably never thought I would ask. For a while, he remains silent, and I wonder if he will answer me at all. He might not. I heard about the Black Brothers’ story from others, but I don’t believe that’s something they would spread themselves.

Damian sighs and starts talking while looking at the city. “Our father was never able to handle his Alpha compulsions. Alphas are born to dominate. We have strong fighter instincts and don’t react well to orders. That also means we experience stronger urges to fight and are more prone to violence. My father was such a man. If he was annoyed, he would hit. If he was bored, he would fight. The constant fighting with the Vampires made it worse, and our mother’s Luna power was too weak to help. He was addicted to this.”

He stops for a minute while the waiter takes away our plates. When he resumes talking, his hand is on mine again, though his eyes are fixated toward the city.

“...Addicted to all that violence. It might have been okay if he was only fighting vampires or rogues, but he just didn’t know when to stop. He killed ruthlessly, even members of the pack. No one could stop him at the time. He was way too strong. He even beat up some of his closest friends, even the Beta. Even us. His sons were Alphas, so why shouldn’t he fight them, too? We were just kids, but it made no difference. Anything that upset him was a good enough reason to hit us.”

“What about your mother?”

I can’t help but ask. “Wasn’t she around to protect you guys?”

“No, she was already at the hospital at that point. We never said a thing, but she knew. That made her worse. She couldn’t endure being powerless, but her sickness was... Anyway, she couldn’t do anything for us. We had to endure it for years, tiptoe around our father or wait for it to pass when he used his fists. I still have so many memories of when he suddenly got crazy and hit anything around him... Even his own children. ‘Werewolves are fighters,’ he always said. He almost killed me several times. He sent Nathaniel to the hospital once. I had to carry my brother on my back all the way there. He broke Liam’s arm when he was just eight. I hated that man so much, Nora, you have no idea. Just the thought of being of the same blood as that asshole made me want to puke. We were too young to fight back, but Nate and I trained. As time went on, we stopped being passive and started hitting back.”

I can’t even imagine what kind of life they had growing up... And they were only children! It’s a miracle the three of them got to where they are today with this kind of story behind them.

“What about Liam?” I ask.

Damian shakes his head. “He was too young. We did what we could to keep him out of it. Nate and I knew how it would end, and we didn’t want Liam to be in the middle of this mess, too. I didn’t even want Nate to be part of it, but of course, he didn’t listen. So we trained, and we waited. We waited for an opportunity to kill our father.”

I can’t act scared or even shocked by Damian’s words. With what the brothers went through, they might have been the ones to die if things had gone differently. Also, I realize that what Damian did was also his way of protecting his brothers. How could he endure seeing his younger siblings hurt for so many years while holding his hatred in? Back when Alec beat me, I had no one to hold dear, no one to protect. Things were different for the Black Brothers. Liam knows his older brothers shielded him from their father’s madness, yet he still couldn’t escape it.

“His Beta knew what we were planning, but he didn’t say a thing to our father. He had come to hate him, too, yet he had to obey. Our father even beat up his son once, to punish him. How could he not despise him? That’s when I understood I had more allies than I thought.”

A faint smirk appears at the corner of his lips for a split second. He helps himself with a glass of wine while I drink some water. The dishes between us are getting cold, but neither of us cares. I’m too immersed in his story to think about my plate.

“So, Nate and I got ready, taking our time. We allied with rogues like the Mura siblings.”

“Bobo’s family?”

“Yes. Our father was so harsh, he never wanted to take in new wolves in the pack, even some desperate families that stood at our borders. It was almost too easy. When they saw how strong Nate and I were getting, and our Alpha potential, many submitted without a fight. They didn’t ask for anything as long as I wasn’t like my father. The pack got so big so quickly, we couldn’t believe it. Until then, we had thought we would have to wait for years until we could take my father head-on!”

“Why? Wasn’t it only about dueling him for the Alpha position? What does it have to do with the size of the Blood Moon pack?”

Damian stays silent for a while, and I wonder what he is so reluctant to say. Eventually, he sighs and looks at me straight in the eye. “We wanted to be sure that, no matter the outcome, my father wouldn’t be able to survive.”

“...What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t sure to win, Nora. If I died during the fight, Nate and I wanted to be sure someone would finish the job. And if someone did, we had to be sure my father’s wolves wouldn’t take him out.”

It takes me a few seconds to realize.

“...It was about Liam. You wanted to be sure that even if you died, Liam could kill your father and take his place.”

Damian nods. “I knew I could hurt him badly enough, but I wasn’t sure I could win. Nate came up with that idea. That even if he and I died, we would make sure Liam killed him. We also had to make sure no one would kill our little brother before he could get to our father and that people would support him afterward.”

“Hence the Blood Moon Clan. It wasn’t just a branch clan; you wanted it to be able to take on your father’s pack.”

Damian chuckles. The waiter comes back to take away our empty plates. My mate grabs my hand once again, intertwining my fingers with his.

“Back then, it was still called the Black Moon Clan, but yes, that was the idea. However, it didn’t even come to a real fight between the two groups. When I turned nineteen, I defied my father while we were alone. He didn’t take me seriously and attacked me. We started fighting in his office. We made so much noise that a lot of people came. Nate, Liam, the Betas, and about twenty people each from the Black Moon and Blood Moon Clans. But it turns out, most people from his pack were actually cheering for me.”

They once again underestimated how despised their father was. Or maybe people felt Damian already had what it took to be a better Alpha. In any case, I’m not even surprised.

“The only people still rooting for my dad were holding onto the fact that he was the one that had chased all the vampires away. I can’t really blame them for that, though. He was an insane and violent man, but as an Alpha, he was still the strongest wolf around.”

“But you did beat him,” I said.

“Not easily, trust me. People were shocked by how adamant I was about finishing him off. Most of them had no idea about what he had done to us all those years. If anyone tried to intervene, Nate, Neal, or Seamus killed them on the spot.”

“...Seamus?”

“My father’s Beta, Seamus Graves. I told you, he had our back. He couldn’t attack our father directly, but he did kill anyone from the Black Moon pack who opposed us. Lots of people were shocked, but Seamus had made up his mind years ago. When I finally won, I wasn’t in good shape, but he killed two wolves who tried to attack me. He was a traitor, the one who helped us the most to take over the Black Moon Clan.”

“What happened to him?”

Damian shakes his head. “He left the territory, saying he should have died with his Alpha, but he still had his sons, and he didn’t want to do that to them. So, he asked me to banish him. We don’t know about his whereabouts. Maybe he joined another pack or is still alone.”

I feel a bit sorry about the man. If we look at the bigger picture, he helped the Black Brothers in so many ways, for the sake of protecting his own. Yet it cost him so much: betraying his Alpha and leaving his family. Now that I think about it, Bobo did say one of his sons was now Nathaniel’s Beta. Isaac Graves, was it? I suppose the Beta genes run in their family...

“Anyway, after the fight, many other packs that were fed up with the Black Moon tried to attack us. It was chaotic for a few days.”

I remember that. The word that the “Black King”

had fallen spread quickly, and many packs got crazy, hungry for power. The Black Moon’s Alpha had overshadowed so many people for years. As soon as he was gone, many seized the opportunity.

However, the Black Brothers quickly made it known that the Blood Moon Clan could take on anyone and was not to be underestimated. The former pack had become even more significant, and all of that had been done secretly, to boot. Clans that tried to fight were wiped out, and opposing werewolves were submitted in no time. Just like that, the previous territory established by their father got even larger in only a few weeks.

“I can’t believe this all happened when you guys were still teens...”

I whisper.