Winter Wolves Series
Dark Wolf Chapter 8

Damian marked Patrick's truck in the parking lot near the trailhead and grabbed the backpack from the backseat. Venus hopped out of the car and took a deep breath of the crisp afternoon air.

The sky was clear, and the sun was bright overhead. He felt so much happiness and fulfillment being with her that it almost scared him. She was everything to him. A chance at a new life; a chance to be reborn as a new man. He had taken his dose of potion before picking her up and wouldn't need another for quite some time, but he always kept a vial in his pocket.

He slung the backpack over his shoulders, and he took Venus's hand as they headed up the mountain path.

"It is so peaceful here," she said with a soft sigh.

Songbirds were singing in the brush and the branches of the trees above. As they rose in elevation they came to a clearing where they could see down into the valley and all the way to the ocean.

There was a little bench off the trail where they sat together, and he unpacked their picnic lunch. He poured her a cup of hot chocolate from the thermos and handed her a sandwich wrapped in butcher paper.

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I got this from River's Bakery next door to my brother's mate's bookshop."

"She's the witch who made your potion?" Venus asked.

"The very same," Damian said.

Venus sipped her hot chocolate and unwrapped her sandwich and he followed suit. The food was delicious, and the company was even more so.

"I told the shoot manager that I'm not going back with the rest of the crew tomorrow," she said. "I want to spend more time here in Selkie, with you."

The wolf inside him screamed for him to claim her. He rubbed his temples, fighting the pain. His wolf's instinctive howling for his mate was nothing compared to the inner torment of the curse.

It was something he never wanted her to witness again, but Damian knew that claiming his mate so soon was not the right thing to do. They needed time for the courtship-she needed to know that she truly loved him. Otherwise, how could they possibly build their relationship on a foundation of lust?

He wanted her to be happy and he wanted to do everything he could to ensure that happiness. It meant more to him than almost anything else. She was his saving grace. His angel. He wanted to be that for her more than anything else.

Finding Venus had been like replaceing a purpose, a reason to live after nearly a century of death.

He would serve her with every ounce of his strength as long as fate would allow, but he wanted her to be sure that she really and truly wanted him forever and always before he claimed her.

Claiming her would save him. It would bring him back to life and he would begin to live again like a true man. But he had to be careful. He had to make sure that it was right for her. It was the only thing that made any sense.

"These sandwiches are so good," Venus said. "It's too bad that I'm cheating on my diet right now."

"Diet?" he asked, looking at the slender woman sitting beside him.

"To maintain my figure for the runway I have to keep to a very strict regimen," she said with a sigh, folding up half of the sandwich and putting it away.

"And how do you feel about that?" he asked.

Damian already got the sense that Venus would be happy leaving all of that behind and living a simple life with him here in Selkie. But if she wanted to return to New York to continue her work in the fashion industry, he would follow her to the ends of the Earth if she let him.

"I don't know anything else," she said. "It's been a part of my life as long as I can remember. I'm not sure if I've ever really been full."

"That sounds terrible," he said. As wolves, he and his brothers hunted relentlessly; they gorged and devoured their prey. It was the most satisfying experience they could have.

His inner beast taunted him, sending him images of a wolf wildly writhing with his mate on the forest floor. It aroused him immediately, but he would never take Venus so barbarically. She deserved gentle loving kindness and tenderness, and he wouldn't give her anything else unless she asked for it.

"You deserve to be happy, Venus," he said. "It's all that I want for you."

"You make me happy, Damian," she said softly, looking down at her hands.

"Making you happy makes me happy," he said. "I don't know if I ever felt like I had a purpose in life until now. But now I do. It's to make you smile."

"I have never had anyone say things like that to me before," she said. "Sure, I've had men promise me things, give me gifts and flatter me. But it all rang a little false.

"I could keep myself closed off from it and just tell myself that they were trying to buy my affections, which is what my mother always told me-not that she minded my affections being bought. She just didn't want me to settle for anything but the highest bidder." "All I have is some sandwiches and a borrowed truck," Damian said.

She laughed and threaded her arm through his.

"That's not all you have, Damian," she said softly, looking into his eyes. "You have your heart. And that's worth more than all the money in the world."

Damian had been so consumed by darkness for so long, it was hard for him to think of himself as having much of a heart at all.

"You are a very kind, sensitive man. I think the darkness you see in yourself is just an expression of that."

"Maybe you're right," he said, looking out into the distance.

A thin strip of cloud hung on the horizon out at sea. He felt his heart widening to encompass the entire scene. Venus gave him that. She gave him the sense that he could open himself up again. He could feel again and allow life into his heart when he had been so closed off to it before. "I feel like I'm thawing out after a long cold winter," he said. "Because I'm sitting beside your fire."

"I feel the same," she said, looking up into his eyes. They gazed at each other and then their lips touched softly. He caressed her face and held her close as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"I want to stay like this forever," she said with a sigh.

"I do too."

As they started back down the mountain, Damian felt the pain slice through him. He pulled the potion out of his pocket, and it slipped from his fingers, crashing onto the rocky ground. It shattered into a million pieces and the potion he needed so desperately in order to maintain himself leaked out into the soil. He fell to his knees and gasped, clutching his heart.

"No, no, no."

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Was that your potion?"

"Yes," he said through clenched teeth.

He was in desperate need of another dose. He shouldn't have waited so long. He should have brought a backup vial with him. His inner wolf howled in torment as the pain worsened. He groaned and tried to push himself back to his feet.

"Are you okay?" she asked, grasping his shoulders and trying to meet his gaze. He gritted his teeth and patted her hand.

"Let's get you back down the mountain," he said. "I think I will make it that far."

"It's going to be okay, Damian. I'm with you. I'm here. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Her reassurances were so comforting, but he knew there was nothing she could do short of giving herself to him right then and there on the forest floor.

There was no way he would take her now like this. He had to get her home. It was his only choice. He only prayed that he would make it that far.

They hurried down the hill, each step more painful than the last. By the time the trailhead came into view, he was panting and barely able to keep himself in human form.

When he saw the truck, he fell to his knees, growling in pain. His inner beast was thrashing and biting at the backs of his eyes. The wild rage that ran through him was desperate and uncontrollable as the pain sliced through his belly. He pulled the keys from his pocket and shoved them into her hands.

"Please get yourself back to the hotel," he said, his jaw tensed, and his fangs descended in his mouth. He looked up at her as the wolf inside him began to break through the surface.

"Damian. I can't leave you like this."

"You need to go now, Venus," he roared. She stood back, her eyes wide with shock. Shame ripped through him. He crumbled to the ground into the fetal position as his entire body burned, his mind awash with the blackest shame. "Please, Venus, go," he begged her. "I don't want you to see me like this."

She took the keys, ran to the truck, and unlocked the door. Her terrified eyes were the last thing he saw before the beast tore from inside him, shredding his clothes to tatters.

The angry, dark wolf emerged from the man she had believed so kind and sensitive. All he could see was darkness, and all he could feel was death. He howled into the air. Venus turned on the truck, rolled down the window, and shouted to him. "I'm going to get you help," she said before turning around and driving off in a cloud of dust.

Damian howled his torment and ran frantically into the forest. He had lost her. He was cursed and there was no one and nothing that could save him.