My feet scraped against the concrete as he pulled me up the front steps. The drug was making everything feel dreamlike and distant, but the panic was crystal clear. I tried to scream, but the sound that came out was weak and pathetic.
“That’s it,” Michael said approvingly as he fumbled with his keys while maintaining his grip on my wrist. “Just relax. Let it happen. Fighting just makes things worse.”
“Help!” I tried again, putting everything I had into the word, but it came out as barely more than a whisper. The neighborhood remained silent and dark, as if the whole world had decided to look the other way.
He got the door open and dragged me into a living room that smelled like stale beer and something else -something that made my wolf recoil in instinctive disgust. The furniture was arranged to face a large television, and I could see camera equipment set up in one corner. My blood went cold as I realized what that meant.
“Please,” I whispered, my vision starting to blur at the edges. “Please don’t do this.”
“Shh,” Michael said, his voice taking on a mockingly gentle tone as he pushed me down onto the couch. “It’ll be over before you know it. And hey, at least someone will want you after tonight, even if it’s just for a few hours.”
His hands moved to the straps of my dress, and I tried to fight, but my body wouldn’t respond properly. The drug had stolen my strength, leaving me trapped in my own uncooperative flesh while this monster prepared to violate me.
Just as I felt the first strap of my dress being pushed off my shoulder, a sound split the night air that made my heart leap with desperate hope. A howl -deep, furious, and absolutely murderous -echoed through the darkness outside.
Michael froze, his hands still on my dress, his head snapping toward the sound. “What the hell -“
The howl came again, closer this time, followed by the sound of something large crashing through the front yard. Michael’s face went white with terror as he realized what was coming.
The front door exploded inward with a crash that shook the entire house, wooden fragments flying in every direction. Through the wreckage stepped a massive silver wolf with eyes that burned like blue fire, his lips pulled back to reveal fangs that could tear a man’s throat out without effort.
Even through the drug-induced haze, I knew those eyes. I knew that magnificent, terrifying creature.
Damien’s POV
The moment Valerie’s venomous words left her lips, I felt like my brain was being consumed by a toxic mixture of jealousy and rage. The scent of fear and tension radiating from my mate hit me like a physical blow, making Alex snarl with protective fury in my mind.
Valerie had always been a repulsive creature. Ever since her wedding to my half-brother Gabriel -a pathetic excuse for a wolf who was nothing more than my father’s bastard son -she’d pursued me relentlessly. Gabriel himself was utterly worthless, a man I barely acknowledged beyond providing him with enough money to stay out of my way and out of trouble.
But Valerie’s appearance today, first insulting my mate in my own office and now this public humiliation, ignited something murderous in my chest. Her words were like poison injected directly into my bloodstream. Sera -my mate -had been with that useless waste of space Gabriel? The brilliant, beautiful child she’d spoken of with such fierce love… was he Gabriel’s?
I watched security drag Valerie away, her shrieks echoing through the restaurant like the cries of a banshee.
Standing there with every eye in the restaurant fixed on us, I stared into Sera’s face -those magnificent emerald eyes now blazing with hurt and fury -and waited for her to deny it. All she had to do was say no, and I would have believed her without question. I would have torn Valerie apart for even suggesting such filth.
Instead, Sera’s face went through a series of expressions -shock, pain, and finally, a rage so pure it made my wolf whimper with regret. When she turned her back on me and walked away with her head held high, every instinct I possessed screamed at me to follow her, to beg her forgiveness.
“You’re an idiot,” Lucas said quietly, appearing at my shoulder as the crowd began to disperse with obvious disappointment at the end of the show. “A complete and total idiot.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” I growled, my eyes still fixed on the spot where Sera had disappeared.
“Well, you’re getting it anyway.” Lucas’s voice carried the particular tone he used when he was about to deliver harsh truths I didn’t want to hear. “That woman just organized a flawless dinner party in under twenty-four hours, handled your impossible demands without breaking, stood up to your sister-in-law’s public humiliation with more grace than most alphas could manage, and you repaid her loyalty by immediately believing the worst.”
Each word hit like a physical blow, and I knew he was right. The moment Valerie had started spewing her poison, I should have shut her down completely. Instead, I’d let jealousy and possessiveness cloud my judgment.
The other dinner guests were beginning to disperse. I could already imagine how this story would spread through the werewolf social networks.
“I need to go after her,” I said, finally breaking free of whatever paralysis had gripped me.
“About damn time,” Lucas muttered, but there was relief in his voice.
I pushed through the restaurant’s revolving doors into the cool night air, my eyes scanning the street for any sign of that emerald dress. The scent trail was faint but discernible -vanilla and jasmine tinged with the salt of tears and the sharp bite of adrenaline.
She’d gone left, toward the business district. I followed the trail on foot for several blocks, my wolf growing increasingly agitated as the scent began to fade. When I reached my car, I was already pulling out my phone to call every contact I had.
That’s when I caught a glimpse of emerald fabric getting into a silver sedan six blocks ahead.
My blood turned to ice. Even from this distance, I could see that it wasn’t a taxi. I gunned the engine, weaving through traffic with reckless abandon as I tried to keep the sedan in sight. My wolf was going completely feral, pacing and snarling and demanding blood as we followed the car through increasingly deserted residential streets.
“Faster,” Alex urged, his mental voice tight with panic. “Something’s wrong. Can’t you smell it?”
The sedan pulled into the driveway of a modest house on a quiet side street. Through my windshield, I watched the driver get out and move around to the passenger side. Even from a distance, I could see that Sera’s movements were sluggish, uncoordinated. When she tried to pull away from his grip, the motion was weak and ineffective.
Drugged. The bastard had drugged my mate.
White-hot rage exploded through my system, so pure and intense that my vision actually tinted red around the edges. Alex was howling for blood, demanding we shift and tear this pathetic excuse for a wolf into pieces small enough to feed to ravens.
I watched the man drag Sera up the front steps, watched her stumble and nearly fall, watched her mouth open in what had to be a scream for help that was too weak to carry.
The moment he got her inside the house, I was out of my car and shifting before my feet hit the pavement. Bones lengthened and reformed, muscles expanded, and my human consciousness merged with Alex’s primal fury until we were one creature driven by a single, burning purpose.
*Protect. Mate.*
The shift from human to wolf form took less than ten seconds, but it felt like an eternity when every instinct was screaming that Sera was in mortal danger. Alex’s massive silver form hit the ground running, powerful legs eating up the distance between the street and the house in great bounding leaps.
Through the front window, I caught a glimpse of movement -Sera slumped on a couch, the bastard’s hands on her dress, camera equipment set up in the corner. The sight sent such a surge of murderous rage through me that I actually saw stars.
I threw back my head and howled -a sound that carried every ounce of fury and territorial claim I possessed.
The front door was solid wood, but it might as well have been paper. I hit it at full speed with my shoulder, and it exploded inward in a shower of splinters and twisted metal. The frame cracked, the hinges tore free from the wall, and the entire door went flying across the living room to crash into the far wall.
The pathetic excuse for a wolf -Michael, spun around with terror written across his face. Up close, I could see exactly what he’d been doing. Sera’s dress had been partially torn, her hair disheveled, her beautiful emerald eyes glazed with whatever drug he’d used to incapacitate her.
She was alive. She was breathing. That was all that mattered in that moment.
Michael stumbled backward, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender that would have been laughable if I’d been capable of humor. “Alpha! I… this isn’t… I was just…”
His voice died in his throat as I stalked forward, every predatory instinct I possessed focused on him like a laser. In wolf form, I stood nearly four feet at the shoulder, my silver coat rippling with muscle and my eyes burning with supernatural fire. My lips pulled back to reveal fangs designed for tearing flesh from bone.
“Please,” he whimpered, pressing himself against the wall as if he could somehow disappear into it. “I didn’t know she was your mate! I swear I didn’t know!”
I shifted back to human form with fluid grace, my expensive suit somehow remaining intact despite the violent transformation. The change left me standing naked from the waist up, my chest heaving with barely controlled rage, my hands already curling into fists.
“You didn’t know?” My voice came out as barely more than a growl, each word dripping with the promise of violence. “So you make a habit of drugging and assaulting women, do you?”
“No! No, I…” Michael was babbling now, terror making his words come out in a rush. “It was just… she was so beautiful, and after what happened at the restaurant… I thought maybe she needed some comfort…”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence. My fist connected with his jaw with enough force to lift him off his feet and send him crashing into a bookshelf. Books rained down around him as he slumped to the floor, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.
“Comfort?” I asked conversationally, flexing my knuckles as I advanced on his prone form. “Is that what you call drugging someone and setting up camera equipment?”
His eyes went wide as he realized I’d noticed the recording setup. “I… that’s not… I wasn’t going to…”
I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and hauled him to his feet, slamming him against the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. “You’re fired,” I said simply, my voice carrying enough alpha authority to make him flinch. “Clear out your desk by Monday, assuming you can still walk by then.”
I drew back my fist again, fully intending to break his nose this time, when a soft sound from the couch made me freeze.
“Help me…” Sera’s voice was barely above a whisper, thick with the effects of whatever drug he’d given her. “Please…”
In an instant, every ounce of my attention shifted from the worthless piece of garbage in my hands to my mate. I released Michael, letting him slump to the floor gasping and forgotten, and crossed to the couch in three quick strides.
Sera was conscious but clearly struggling against the effects of the drug. Her beautiful emerald dress was torn, her hair had come loose from its elegant updo, and her eyes were glazed but aware. When she saw me approaching, she tried to sit up, her movements unsteady and weak.
“It’s alright,” I said softly, my voice automatically gentling as I knelt beside the couch. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”
Without another word, I slipped my arms beneath her and lifted her against my chest, cradling her like something infinitely precious.
“Hospital,” I said, already calculating the fastest route to Silver Moon Harbor General. “We need to get you checked out.”
I carried her out to my car, settling her gently in the backseat and buckling the seatbelt around her with careful hands. As I slid behind the wheel, I caught her reflection in the rearview mirror -eyes still slightly unfocused but fixed on me with an intensity that made my chest tight.
I’d barely put the car in drive when her hand shot out and grabbed my tie, her fingers tangling in the expensive silk with desperate strength. The gesture pulled me half over the center console, bringing my face close to hers.
“Help me,” she whispered, her breath warm against my skin. “Please…”
Damien’s POV
The moment Sera’s fingers tangled in my tie, pulling me close with desperate strength, every rational thought in my head simply… stopped. The scent of her hit me like a physical blow.
Her emerald eyes, still glazed from whatever drug that bastard had given her, were fixed on my face with an intensity that made my chest feel like it was being crushed in a vise.
“Please,” she whispered again, her voice barely audible but carrying enough desperate need to make my control snap like a breaking chain.
“Hospital,” I managed to rasp, though the word felt like broken glass in my throat. “We need to get you to a hospital, make sure you’re okay.”
But even as I said it, I was already pulling away from the curb, my hands shaking on the steering wheel as I fought against every instinct that was screaming at me to pull over right here, right now, and claim what was mine.
“No,” Sera’s voice came out breathy and unfocused, her words slightly slurred despite her obvious effort to speak clearly. When I glanced in the rearview mirror, I saw her leaning forward, her emerald eyes dilated and burning with an intensity that had nothing to do with clarity. “Not the hospital. Please, Damien. I’m burning… I need…”
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply