Page 5 of Howl For A Kiss (Rebellious Mates #3)

FOUR

DAMON

D amon watched as Elena inadvertently pressed herself against the cavern wall, her chest rising and falling rapidly beneath the tactical vest that hugged her curves perfectly.

The scent of her arousal mixed with defiance created an intoxicating cocktail that made his wolf pace restlessly under his skin, demanding he claim what was his.

When she lifted her hand to push him back, he caught her wrist with gentle but unyielding fingers. Her skin burned against his palm like silk over flame, and the mate bond hummed between them with electric intensity.

"Let me go," she whispered, but she didn't pull away from his grasp. Instead, her eyes searched his with a mixture of anger and something far more troubling.

"Not until you listen," Damon replied, his deep voice rougher than intended. Standing this close, he could see the gold rings around her pupils flare with inner fire and could count each individual freckle across the bridge of her nose. His wolf growled possessively at the sight.

"My father wouldn't lie," Elena insisted, her chin tilting upward in challenge. "He has his quirks, sure. And yes, we had plenty of fights during my rebellious teenage years. But he's no liar."

Damon forced himself to maintain his composure despite the primal urge to pin her against the stone wall and kiss her senseless. Her scent wrapped around him like invisible chains, making rational thought nearly impossible.

"Elena, tell me more about your childhood," he said, his logical mind pushing through the haze of desire. "Your father's behavior. How you lived."

She frowned, clearly reluctant to share personal details with a man she'd known for barely an hour. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Humor me." His thumb traced across her pulse point, feeling her heartbeat stutter beneath his touch. The simple contact sent fire racing through his veins.

"Fine," she snapped, though she still made no move to escape his grip. "My father raised me in an isolated cabin. Homeschooled me. Taught me survivalist skills like we were preparing for war."

Damon's suspicions crystallized into certainty. "He was paranoid."

"Overprotective," Elena corrected, but doubt flickered across her features. "He always seemed to be looking over his shoulder and keeping me within arm's reach. I just thought he had some kind of anxiety disorder."

"Or he was hiding something," Damon said gently, his heart clenching at the pain he was causing her. "Something that would put you both in danger if discovered."

Elena's breathing quickened again, her breasts pressing against her thermal top with each rapid inhalation. The sight tested Damon's control to its breaking point.

"Well, I have no proof of my mother's true nature since I never knew her," Elena continued, her voice growing smaller. "But my father would have told me if she was human. That's a pretty significant detail to leave out when he told me stories about her."

"So, your father always made it seem like she was a full wolf shifter?" Damon asked, watching her carefully.

"Yes." Elena's free hand clenched into a fist at her side. "He wouldn't just fabricate her entire identity."

Damon stepped impossibly closer, eliminating the last inch of space between them. His imposing frame created a cage around her against the cavern wall, and he felt rather than saw her sharp intake of breath.

"Unless her human heritage would have meant death sentences for both of you," he said quietly, his voice dropping to a whisper that made her pupils dilate with unmistakable arousal.

The traditional pack laws were brutal regarding human-shifter unions. Imprisonment or worse for the shifter parent and execution for the hybrid offspring. Elena's father had been protecting them both through an elaborate deception.

"No, I don't want to believe that," Elena breathed, but her protest lacked its earlier fire.

Damon's wolf snarled with the need to comfort his mate and to ease the pain of this revelation. But he also recognized the importance of her accepting the truth about her nature. Her survival might depend on it.

"Your isolation, your father's paranoia, and your late manifestation," he continued relentlessly, though each word felt like a blade in his chest. "The pieces fit, Elena."

Her scent shifted, primal fear mingling with the arousal that still perfumed the air between them. Damon's control hung by a thread as his wolf demanded he protect and claim her simultaneously.

"He wouldn't have lied to me my entire life, would he?" she whispered, but tears gathered in her eyes like morning dew.

Damon's resolve nearly crumbled at the sight of her extreme pain. His free hand rose without conscious thought, his knuckles grazing her cheekbone with feather-light touch.

"Sometimes love requires deception," he said softly, his own voice thick with emotion he hadn't allowed himself to feel in fifteen years.

Damon watched as tears started to stream down Elena's face, and his wolf howled with the need to take her pain away.

Every instinct demanded he gather her against his chest and shield her from the harsh reality crashing down around them.

His thumb traced the moisture on her cheek with infinite gentleness, marveling at how such a fierce warrior could look so devastatingly fragile.

"The Council," Elena whispered, her voice breaking. "If they find out I'm a hybrid..." She pressed her back harder against the cavern wall, as if trying to disappear into the stone itself.

"They'll kill me without question," she breathed, understanding flooding her features with stark terror. "Not just imprison me like regular rebels. Since I'm a hybrid rebellion leader, they'll make an example of me that echoes across all four pack territories."

Damon's jaw clenched with murderous intent. Over his dead body would anyone lay a finger on his mate. The protective fury that surged through him made his wolf scratch violently beneath his skin, demanding blood from anyone who would threaten what belonged to them.

"Elena," he said, his voice dropping to that commanding tone that made hardened enforcers snap to attention. "Look at me."

Her tear-bright eyes met his, the gold rings flaring with fear and something deeper—trust she wasn't ready to acknowledge.

"No one will touch you," he promised, the words carrying the weight of a Beta's vow. "I won't let them."

She searched his face with desperate intensity. "You don't understand the magnitude of what we're dealing with. I'm not just any hybrid and not just any rebellion leader—I'm a hybrid rebellion leader who just stole ancient Council records. They'll hunt me to the ends of the earth."

Damon forced himself to step back, though every fiber of his being protested the loss of contact.

"I need to make a call," he said roughly, his control hanging by threads. "Wait here."

Elena nodded, swiping tears from her cheeks with shaking hands. "Don't go far. I don't... I don't want to be alone right now."

Her vulnerability gutted him. This woman who faced down Council operatives with unflinching courage was shattered by the revelation of her true nature.

Damon memorized every detail of her face in that moment—the way her lower lip trembled slightly, how her blonde hair gleamed in the dim cavern light, and the rapid pulse visible at her throat.

"Five minutes," he promised.

Damon stalked through the narrow cavern passage until Elena's enhanced hearing couldn't detect his conversation. His fingers trembled slightly as he dialed Kieran's number, something that would have embarrassed him under normal circumstances. But nothing about finding his fated mate was normal.

The phone rang twice before Kieran's authoritative voice cut through. "Damon. Status report."

"I need temporary leave from my Beta duties," Damon said without preamble, his words clipped and precise despite the emotional storm raging inside him.

Silence stretched across the line before Kieran's sharp laugh echoed through the speaker. "You're joking. The Council's escalating their hybrid hunts, we're dealing with increased rebellion disputes, and you want vacation time?"

"Elena Walsh is a hybrid," Damon continued relentlessly. "She's in extreme danger. Her rebel base was compromised today, and she needs immediate protection."

"I'll send Logan and Zoe back to extract her," Kieran replied dismissively. "I need you back here now."

Damon's grip tightened on the phone. "That's not an option," he growled.

"Since when do you argue with direct orders?" Kieran's voice carried dangerous undertones. "You're my Beta, Damon. Act like it."

The accusation hit hard. Damon had spent fifteen years proving his worthiness of the Beta position and sacrificing personal desires for duty and tradition.

He'd enforced laws that made his stomach turn and followed orders that went against his conscience.

But this—protecting his mate—transcended everything else.

"She's mine," Damon admitted, the words tearing from his throat like a confession from a dying man.

Another prolonged silence. When Kieran spoke again, his tone carried shock and something that might've been understanding.

"Your fated mate."

"Yes." Damon closed his eyes, feeling exposed. "I felt the mate bond the moment we touched today. She's everything, Kieran."

Kieran's exhale crackled through the phone connection. "Fifteen years without showing interest in any female, and you find your mate in a hybrid rebellion leader. Your timing is spectacularly inconvenient."

"I didn't choose this," Damon replied, though relief flooded through him at Kieran's shift in tone. "But I can't walk away from her."

"The Council will crucify you if they discover you're protecting her," Kieran warned. "Your position as Beta, your reputation, everything you've built—it'll all burn."

Damon thought of Elena's tears, her courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and the electric connection that made his wolf sing with completion. Some things were worth burning for.

"I'll keep posing as a Silvercrest rebel fighter," Damon said. "Keep my identity as Beta hidden while I protect her. She doesn't know what I am yet."

"This deception won't hold indefinitely," Kieran cautioned. "Eventually, you'll have to tell her the truth about your position. And about the mate bond."

Excitement and nervousness warred in Damon's chest at the prospect of spending extended time with Elena. His entire adult life had been structured around duty and pack hierarchy. The thought of existing in her world, even temporarily, felt like stepping into sunlight after decades underground.

"Two weeks tops," Kieran decided. "That's all I can give you before the pack starts asking questions. And Damon? Don't make me regret this."

"Thank you," Damon said, gratitude making his voice rough.

"Just be careful. Fated mates make us do stupid things," Kieran said bluntly.

The line went dead. Damon stared at his phone for a moment before heading back toward the cavern where Elena waited. His heart hammered with anticipation and terror in equal measure.

His mate was a hybrid rebellion leader with a target on her back the size of the sun. She didn't know he was the Beta of the most powerful pack in the four territories. And she certainly didn't know they were destined to be together.

This was going to be complicated.