Chapter 3: Messing up all the time.

The rest of the pack leaves immediately we get back to the packhouse.

Anger hangs heavy in the air and the worst of it is directed at me.

I linger near the treeline, muttering under my breath. I know what I smelled. There was a rogue in the woods.

Heavy footsteps sound all around me but I don't turn. No one’s going to be looking for me tonight.

My skin prickles with goosebumps when Damien's raspy voice growls close to my ear, "You cost us the hunt tonight."

The shiver that walks down my spine is uncalled for, but I take a deep breath and turn to face him. 

Damien's eyes are filled with a kind of disappointment I didn't see in the eyes of the other pack members. He looks annoyed and angry, but he was there wasn't he? 

He was there when they all started dismissing my signals and doing what they wanted.

My jaw clenches stubbornly and I stand my ground, "I smelled a rogue in the woods.

Garrick lied about not getting anything. If I'd just followed the scent I tracked..."

"The objective of the hunt tonight was not to find a rogue. It was to hunt deer!" 

Damien's eyes flare with anger and he steps closer to me, voice dropping to a low growl, "You raised a false alarm and broke the focus of the whole pack.

And honestly, I'd like to know what you're trying to prove."

Damien’s eyes narrow with deep-seated malice and I feel every bit of that emotion hit me as he says, "This pack cannot afford to have a Luna who jumps at shadows because her guilt is eating her alive."

I roll my eyes at that. I don't want to and it doesn't help me right now, but I can’t help it.

Damien's eyes narrow when he sees and I look away, staring at the floor as I get a hold on my temper. 

No matter what I feel, I can't be disrespectful to the Alpha.

When I speak my voice is low and apologetic, "I wasn't jumping at shadows."

I look up, staring into Damien's eyes and trying to beg something in him to see I'm saying the truth, "I only wanted to keep the pack safe, Damien. That’s all I was trying to do."

Damien meets my gaze and in the blink of an eye, my back is up against the rough bark of a tree, my hands pinned above my head by his rough palm.

The low leaves dangle behind his broad back, hiding us in shadow, but all my senses are trained in one place. 

Damien's other hand is at my throat, wrapped tightly around my neck. He’s not choking me, he's just holding me in place, hard.

I can feel the tension rolling through his body and his scent hits me. It carries frustration, the heat of anger, and something else.... Something that makes my body react instantly.

Heat floods every part of me.

It runs through every inch of skin on my body and settles heavily between my legs.

I hate it. I hate it more that he knows I feel this way. That he makes me feel this way.

"You want to keep us safe?" Damien murmurs, eyes dropping to my mouth for a heartbeat before rising back up. The look in his eyes is a mixture of desire and pure spite, "Then stop seeing rogues where there are none and messing up all the time.

First, it was the report for the patrol at the border, and now, some imaginary rogue on a run meant to calm everyone in the pack. Stop it!

And stop looking at me like you're starving for sex. I'll never give it to you."

Damien does something that makes my body tingle with need. 

He plasters his waist closer to mine, towering easily over me as he moves skin to skin, his hip grinding tightly against me.

It's the skintight fabric of my pants that makes me feel him pressing against me. I feel how hard Damien is right now and the sensation sends heavy shivers through my spine.

"You're never going to get it, Sabrina. 

I'm never going to touch the thing that murdered the woman I loved."

Damien lets me go with a push and walks away sharply, disappearing into the shadows of the packhouse.

My chest is heaving, and I slide down the trunk of the tree until I'm sitting on the ground, the bare dirt beneath my hands.

Tears of frustration fill my eyes and I'm about to let a sob burst out when my phone vibrates in my jacket pocket. I fish it out with shaky hands and as I blink back the tears, I frown.

There's a text message but it's from an unknown number.

The message they sent is… confusing, "He's going to head out alone tonight along the ravine road.

Stop him or he won't come home, ever again. You've been warned, Luna."

My heart slams into my ribs.

Who... Who could have sent this? And who could they be talking about? It can’t be Damien, right?

I scramble to my feet and run toward the packhouse.

The storm that's been building up all night starts. 

The rain begins to fall in cold, hard drops. It's pouring sheets by the time I get inside.

I burst through the doors of the packhouse and go up to Damien's office, "Damien! 

Damien, where are you?!"

No response comes back and I run around, searching the other rooms. None of the maids or guards are around tonight so there's no one else I can ask. I can only scream into the empty house, “Damien, where are you?”

The sudden purr of engines make me stop right in my tracks and I run back to the front door.

Damien's luxury black truck is already pulling down the driveway. 

The car’s headlights are the only source of light in the heavy downpour as he drives off.

"Damien!"

I scream his name and get into the rain as I run after him, but the wind and thunder rips the sound away.

I shift into my wolf and chase the black car down.

Thea is strong and fast, but Damien is driving faster like he's trying to escape something. His car slices through the roads and he doesn't slow down.

For a moment I run fast enough to be at the side of his car. 

I run fast enough to see the hard, stony set of his face through the driver's window, but Damien doesn't slow down.