CELESTE
I stared at Damon unblinkingly as soon as he finished speaking. I wasn't the only one stunned to silence; I believed everyone in the courtroom was.
Mate? That was the first time I'd heard him say such words aloud, in the presence of everyone. I didn't know how to feel about it. To be honest, I didn't hate what he said. If anything, I was delighted.
Damon considered me a mate, and for the first time in my life, I felt the walls that I had built around me crumble entirely. He had done what Alpha Kieran couldn't even do the day that I found out he was my mate. Or maybe this was pity, I mused.
He had been aware of most of my trauma. I had told him anyway, except that my father was killed for something he didn't do. I didn't think that fact mattered anyway, because I had no evidence to show that what they had judged him for wasn't true.
“Mate?” Elder Zara hissed, breaking the silence in the room. She scowled in Damon's direction, her body trembling with a rage she was trying to hol
