My Only Sunshine

Chapter 12

Damien POV

Aelia hadn't spoken, nor moved for the past ten minutes, she moved only to look away from me.

I had failed her as a mate, I know it and so did my family the moment they saw just how pure, kind and amazing she was, even if they didn't say it, I could hear some of their thoughts through our bond.

When Aelia turned eighteen two months ago, it took everything in me to not lose myself to the pull that was dragging me back to the hometown I grew up in, the closer I got to the town, the easier it was to find her.

It wasn't hard, she looked the same as she did when she was eleven years old, the first time I saw her, only now she had blossomed into a fiery, funny and beautiful women.

I had watched her for weeks until I worked up the courage to talk to her, an opportunity fell onto my lap, and I took it without a second thought, it got me close to her, it was a blessing and a curse to be around her, and not tell her who I was.

I was so fucking selfish.

She didn't deserve me as her mate, I had left her on the grass that night, her lungs filled with smoke and the house of her foster parents up in smoke, I didn't know until I overheard the firemen talking about how she was locked in there, by her foster parents.

It was too late to get to her once I learned that they had already found her and I had shifted into my wolf form to get to her in time with people a few steps outside the building.

That night I felt something sickening in the pit of my stomach, I was out with my friends doing what any guy at 26 would be doing, it was a weekend and I wanted to let off some steam from work with some friends, there were girls and I gave in that night and slept with someone for the first time.

It was one of my biggest regrets, until I could feel the mate call telling me to 'save her', I had never been so scared the moment I could feel this young, eleven-year-old girls fear, as the smoke filled her lungs, unable to escape.

I had got to her just in time, I wasn't sure if she saw the real me and once I left the scene, I tried not to think about it, she was a child, not even old enough to feel the pull, and I felt sickened that she was so young, and I was already a man.

The mate bond came too early because she called out to me, it never should have happened so early.

"Aelia, please say something." I begged her, I could feel what she felt in jumps.

We had slept together but without marking her, I couldn't know what she was thinking, or feeling right now, but the look on her face was painful to my very soul.

She didn't feel safe with me anymore, and it was the worst possible feeling for any wolf, to let your mate down.

I had failed her as a child, I had lied to her, and now I am scaring her.

"Aelia-"

"I... want to go home." She said so quietly that I almost didn't hear what she said.

Home? "I can take yo-"

"N-Not you." She said, her voice shaky as I saw the fear in her eyes, unable to look at me.

I expected this, I knew it would come, but I didn't think it would hurt this much.

I was already a grown man at 33 and a strong wolf, I had fucked up so many things in my life, made so many mistakes, but this... this I didn't want to fuck up, if anything, I would take my very life to ensure she was protected, even if she hated me.