Chapter 14: Deep, deep trouble

~Elara~

My brain stopped working completely. Just... stopped, like I was incapable of making coherent thoughts.

His words had been nothing I'd expected at all, knocking all the air from my lungs, and all the thoughts from my head. I stood there, frozen, staring up at him while my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest.

He was looking at me. No, not looking. Gazing. Like I was the only thing in the world that mattered. Like I was the sun and he had been living in darkness his entire life. Like I was precious, important, and worthy of fighting for.

No one had ever looked at me like that. Not even—

Oh, come on Elara, I scolded myself internally, slamming the door on that thought before it could fully form

But I couldn't slam the door on what was happening to my body. The heat spreading through my veins. The flutter in my stomach. The way my skin seemed to tingle everywhere his gaze touched.

I found myself noticing stupid and irrelevant things. Things that I'd never bothered to think about.

Like the way his lower lip was fuller than his upper lip, soft and slightly parted.

The way his Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed, the column of his throat strong and tan.

The way his hands hung at his sides, large and capable, beautiful, eye catching veins running beneath the skin like rivers on a map.

He looked like his brothers. Identical, they had said. Triplets, to be precise.

But he didn't look identical anymore now that I was really seeing him. There was a small scar at the corner of his left eyebrow that Rhys didn't have. His jaw was slightly sharper than Kaelan's. The way he held himself was different, looser, more relaxed, like he was comfortable in his own skin in a way the others weren't.

I could pick him out of a lineup now. I could find him in a crowd even with just his scent.

Why did that thought make my heart race even faster?

"You're blushing."

His voice snapped me back to reality. I blinked, disoriented, like I was waking from a dream.

Damien was grinning now. That infuriating, knowing grin that said he knew exactly what effect he was having on me.

“W-what? N-no I'm not!”

"You're turning the color of Santa's suit, little human." He leaned even closer, his lips nearly brushing my ear. "Are you having immoral thoughts about me?"

The spell he had on me suddenly shattered. I jerked backward, my face burning so hot I was surprised I didn't spontaneously combust.

"I— No— You— That's—"

I was stuttering. I never stuttered. I had faced down angry customers and aggressive debt collectors and doctors who told me my daughter might die, and I had never once been at a loss for words.

But this man. This stupid, arrogant, unfairly attractive man with his stupid perfect abs and his stupid knowing smirk had reduced me to a stammering mess in under five minutes.

"Relax." Damien's grin widened. "I'm just teasing. Mostly."

"Mostly?" I finally found my voice. "You're standing there half-naked, saying things like…like that, and you're mostly teasing?"

"Would you prefer I was completely serious?" He tilted his head, and his eyes darkened slightly. "Because I can be. I meant every word, Elara. You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And I have seen many, many women in my lifetime."

"That's not the compliment you think it is."

He laughed. A real laugh, warm and surprised, like I had genuinely delighted him.

"Fair point." He held up his hands in surrender, finally stepping back and giving me room to breathe. "I'll work on my delivery."

I sucked in air, trying to steady my racing heart and to understand what the hell had just happened to me.

This wasn't normal. I didn't react to men like this. I had spent five years building walls so high that no one could climb them. I had turned down dates, ignored flirtation, shut down every man who tried to get close. I was immune to charm. I was immune to pretty faces and smooth words.

So why did this stranger make me feel like I was seventeen again, blushing at a boy for the first time?

"I need to get back to my daughter," I said abruptly, taking another step back. Then another.

Damien didn't follow. But his eyes tracked my movement intently.

"She's still sleeping," he said. "Helena checked on her an hour ago. Her vitals are stable. She probably won't wake until afternoon."

"How do you know that?"

"Wolf hearing." He tapped his ear with a casual finger. "I can hear her heartbeat from here. She's dreaming, I think. Happy dreams, from the sound of it."

I stared at him, speechless again.

Wolf hearing. Right. Because that was a thing now. Because apparently everything I thought I knew about the world was wrong.

"This is insane," I heard myself say. "All of it. Werewolves. Princes. Half-bloods. It's not real. It can't be real."

Damien's expression softened. For a moment, he almost looked sympathetic.

"It's a lot to take in," he agreed. "Especially for someone who didn't know our world existed until yesterday."

"I still don't believe it exists." I wrapped my arms around myself. "I think you're all crazy. I think there's some rational explanation for everything that's happened. I think—"

"Would it help if I showed you?"

I froze. "S-showed me what? If you're thinking that I'm such an easy woman who would jump into bed with you because you have perfect abs then you must be crazy because I would never–"

“Ooh, hold your horses, human,” he interrupted, cocking a brow. “You're jumping ahead of yourself. The fact that I complimented you doesn't qualify you to have access to my bed. You need to work for it. But, thank you for thinking about my perfect abs.”

I blinked, genuinely mortified now. I could feel my cheeks heating up once again.

“So what were you going to show me?”

Damien smiled, but it was gentler now. Less teasing, more genuine.

"What we are," he said simply. "What your daughter is becoming. Would it help if you saw it with your own eyes?"

My mouth went dry.

Part of me wanted to say no. I wanted to run back to that beautiful bedroom and lock the door and pretend none of this was happening. I wanted to grab Lily the moment she woke and flee this place, flee these people, flee back to the normal, mundane world where the scariest thing I faced was an overdue electric bill.

But another part of me, the part that had kept me alive through five years of single motherhood, the part that had held my daughter through fever after fever, searching desperately for answers no doctor could give., the part that needed to understand what was happening to my child, no matter how impossible it seemed; that part spoke before I could stop it.

"Yes," I whispered. "Show me."

Damien's eyes gleamed.

"This evening," he said. "After the council meeting. Meet me in the gardens."

Then he turned and walked away, all rolling muscles and casual confidence, leaving me standing alone in the corridor with my heart in my throat and my world tilting on its axis.

I watched him go and I couldn't help but notice the way his back muscles flexed with each step. The way his sweatpants hung low on his hips. The dimples at the base of his spine, just visible above the waistband.

I am definitely in trouble. Deep, deep trouble.