Damien

Strength

I was going to kill him. I couldn't breathe. My whole body was aching. I knew I needed a break. 

"Damien. I. Can't. Run." I told him, stopping between each word. He just shook his head motioning me to continue after him. Black sports had appeared in front of my eyes. 

"Damien," I told him again and this time he ignored me. My head started spinning. I needed to stop, I tried to stop but my body wasn't responding to me. 

"Shadow," I used all my energy to scream, and slowly but surely fell to the ground with a small thud. The last thing I saw was Shadow's face crouched next to me, looking at me with a worried expression.   

* * *

My head was killing me, every time I tried to move a muscle, my head would feel twenty times as heavier. I difficultly opened my eyes but shut them quickly from the sunlight. 

I tried again and was met with a heartbreaking sight. Damien sitting in an uncomfortable chair with his head between his heads. His hair was all over the place, he must have run his fingers through it from frustration. 

As if sensing me looking at him his eyes snapped towards my direction. 

"Parker, baby, I'm so sorry," Damien said while rushing towards the hospital bed.

"I don't deserve you,  I have seen you more times in a hospital bed than in my bed. I hate myself for pushing you to your limit. I don't deserve you, I don't deserve a mate. But I can't let you go, I'm too selfish. Baby, please forgive me," he said all in one breath.

I smiled weakly at him.

"It's fine, it's not your fault, my body is still recovering," I tell him with a small smile while holding his hands, however my words don't really calm him down, but instead they get his eyebrows to cease once again.

Just as I opened my to tell him to not worry about me, the door is slammed opened and Shadow gracefully walks in holding a bouquet of roses and a smile permanently stapled onto his face. I swear this has happened more times than I can count.

"PARRKKKK, Bestie, I missed you," Shadow screams as he practically barges into the room. 

I let out a small laugh. This man could make me smile when no one else could. 

"She hasn't been gone that long, she was asleep for two hours, you big baby," Damien growls out while covering me from Shadow as if that man could hurt a fly. 

"Damien it's alright, let him be. I missed you too Shadow," I say while trying to give him the best smile I can manage. Damien starts to tense up at my words. Not liking the light banter Shadow and I had going. This man has got to be bipolar, one minute he is apologizing for being so cold towards me and the next moment he looks as if he is going to rip off Shadow's head, I roll my eyes at his behavior making Shadow smile from a distance.                                                                                                      

He takes a seat on the bed not bothering to look at the chairs placed around the room for guests. He totally ignores Damien and pretends as if he isn't there at all and continues to make me laugh by making corny jokes and telling me ridiculous stories about Damien and him growing up. I steal glances towards Damien and see small smiles grace his handsome face from the stories shared by Shadow.

* * *

My days at the hospital were short lived, my body was responding to the treatment the pack doctors were offering, which surprised me. Damein was glad to see me up and running errands around the pack. 

He looked so proud when I would willingly approach pack members and start conversing with them. I was growing out of my shell the shell that never truly was me. I never had the courage to speak my mind in my father's pack, even though I was the Alpha's daughter I never had the willpower to speak my mind, but Damien was changing me. 

Of course, he didn't treat me as regular mates would, we were still awkward towards each other. Yes, it hurt not to be treated like I saw other mates treated, but I was just grateful to have someone in life.

Shadow and I were sitting outside the pack house, he was keeping me guard, even though if I asked Shadow what he was doing with me when he had pack issues to deal with he would change the topic right away. 

He wouldn't shut up about a new show he was watching but I couldn't stop looking at this young  couple in front of me. The young man in his early twenties was looking at his mate with so much love that made me look at them with longing. I wanted that. I wanted love. I wanted some one to look at me with love.

God I sound so selfish. I let out a dry chuckle at my idiotic self. I felt an arm around my shoulder. I turn and see Shadow looking at me with a sad expression.

"Don't worry, he'll come around," he tells me and pulls my body towards his chest and I let my tears fall freely down my cheeks. He tightens his arms around me and places a chaste kiss. 

"I'm sorry, I probably look ridiculous," I tell him chuckling dryly again while lifting my head from his muscular chest. Shadow opens his mouth to tell me something, but his body goes rigid and he stands up suddenly without saying anything else. He growls loudly making me shiver from his authority.  

He looks as if he is mid linking, I am not connected to the pack's mind link because I haven't been introduced as the pack's Luna, which was weird to the Elders, but hey who was I to tell Damien what to or not to do if the man didn't even try to have a three sentence conversation with me. I knew he was tryin but it still hurt. 

As I am still lost in my thoughts, I don't see Shadow turn to me, but I'm snapped out of my daze when he stands in front of me and growls at me his wolf had taken over now. I raise an eyebrow at his growl and I see his eyes widen when he realizes that he growled that his future Luna. 

"My apologies Luna," a gruff voices echos my thoughts. He must have been Shadow's wolf. I nod my head at his words.

"You need to go with all the women and children into the safe room, we are under attack. Rouges," he tells me going back to his Beta mode.

"Where is Damien?" I ask without another thought, my mates' wellbeing is the only thing on my mind.

"We can't reach him Luna," Shadow says looking at me waiting for me to tell him something. 

"Shadow get some men and cover all the borders around the pack house, ensure safety around the north and east borders, and protect each other at all costs until we  hear from Damien. Go Shadow, I would be there alongside with you but I don't have my wolf with me," I tell him without a second thought he nods and shifts into his wolf and takes off. I quickly jog towards the pack house and gather all children and women and we enter the safe room. My mind isn't at ease. My heart feels as if it's being cut out of my chest. I drop to the floor, clutching me chest. Some of the elderly women rush towards me, massaging my forehead.

"Oh dear, it's her mate, something's wrong," one woman speaks out, as another pang hits me with great force. I clutch my lower abandon when the safe room's door is suddenly smashed into  four pieces as three full grown male wolves stand there growling at the women and children.

I hear a small voice in my mind, 

Get up.

They are trying to hurt your pack

Show them who their future Luna is.

"Maggie is that you?" I try to reach out to my wolf.

Yes it is but you need to get up and make these wolves wish they never stepped a paw into your land your pack.

I use all the strength I have in my body to stand up.

"You will not touch a single member of this pack, do you understand me? I'm the Luna if you have an issue then deal with me."