Winter Wolves Series
Dark Wolf Chapter 10

Damian tore through the forest,his human mind in torment. He couldn't believe he had let Venus see him like that. The curse had taken over him, returned him to the darkness of his feral state.

This was the truth of who he was. He couldn't deny it or pretend that she could save him. He was meant for death and destruction and nothing else. He howled out his torments, gnashing his teeth and r!pping through the woods. If he found the scent of prey, he knew he would r!p it to shreds. But the angry, hulking predator sent a wave of fear through the forest, warning any creature in his path. He ran for miles and miles, not knowing where he was going and not caring. This was the end of him. A fitting end indeed. He could never face her again-not after what she had seen.

He ran and ran until he came to a steep cliff that dropped off into nothingness. He looked at the hole in the world, and all the sorrow and sadness in him told him to jump. End it. Release the woman he wanted so desperately to love.

Then he heard footfalls behind him, the sound of another predator rushing through the forest toward him. He turned on the approaching creature with a snarl and found his brother Rex standing before him. He growled and snapped at his alpha, but Rex stood strong and firm before sending a wave of dominance over his younger brother.

Damian snarled and cowered under the pressure of his brother's alpha strength. Then he did something Damian could not do himself. He shifted into a man and stood naked in the forest before his brother.

From a pouch at his waist, he retrieved a small vial of potion and approached his younger brother. Damian turned and looked down into the void below. He imagined flinging his body over the edge and falling hundreds of feet to the rocks below him, his body crashing and crushing and breaking, releasing him from his curse.

"Venus is waiting for you. Don't do this to her. Don't do it to yourself. It's so close to an end, Damian. You have to see this through."

Damian threw his head back and howled out his pain. It echoed through the forest and across the canyon. He heard his brother approaching behind him and he spun again. This time, instead of greeting his alpha with aggression, he collapsed in sadness. Rex stepped forward, the dropper in his hand.

He dropped the potion into Damian's mouth, and it slid into his bloodstream immediately. His pain and torment slid away, and he knew that he could shift back into his human form. But he didn't want to be a man. He didn't deserve his human form. He didn't deserve her. Rex knelt beside him, stroking Damian's fur.

"Come back to me, brother," Rex said softly. "It's always darkest before the dawn."

Damian shifted with a cry and found himself on his knees in front of his older brother.

"I am such a fool. I scared her away. She deserves so much more than this."

"You have to let her decide for herself Damian," Rex said as both men stood.

I know," Damian said. "Venus is a strong, beautiful, intelligent woman. I won't take the choice away from her, even though I know what choice she should make." "And what is that?"

"She should run away from me as fast as she can."

"You are selling yourself short. I can tell the girl cares for you. She might even love you if you let her."

Damian shook his head and scrubbed his hands over his face. He covered his mouth as he took a shuddering breath.

"How could she love a man like me? I have nothing to give her. Only darkness and pain."

"You have much more than that. You have your heart and your love, and that's worth more than anything in this world."

"How can I love her like this?"

"The curse can be broken. I am proof enough of that."

"Even if the curse is broken, I will have still lived with this for seventy-five years. I am a man who was once the walking dead. Nothing can change that, Rex. Nothing."

"Damian. It is time for you to grow up. Leave this foolishness behind you and claim what is yours."

"I don't need to hear your placating words, Rex. I know what I lived. What we all lived."

"The curse has torn you apart. Are you going to let the Snow Queen win?"

Damian turned back to his brother, growling and clenching his sharp teeth. He wanted to lash out and fight him, but he knew that he wouldn't win.

"She's already won," Damian said. "Pretending otherwise is a fantasy."

"You are living in a fantasy, brother. A dark, depraved fantasy where there's no hope. In reality, hope and light and love are all standing right in front of you. You would deny it so that you could stay in your own dark little world." "Don't lecture me, Rex. Maybe you can get over this; maybe you can put it behind you, but I can't. She saw what I truly am. All the potion in the world won't change that."

"If you claim her, the curse will be lifted. I don't need the potion anymore. My mind is clear. My heart is beating. I am in love with the woman of my dreams and we're going to have a child. How can you turn your back on that possibility?" Damian sank to his knees and covered his eyes as he sobbed, naked and cold in the early spring forest. The chill nipped at his skin, but he didn't feel it. All he felt was pain and confusion.

"I love her too much to give her this," he said. "I am a broken man. Little more than a beast. I don't even know who Damian is anymore. I am a cursed wolf, a monster. How could I curse her with this?"

"And have I cursed my beloved Luna?" Rex asked, standing above him.

"It's different for you."

"No, it's not. It's time to be strong-to be a man and to leave this childish behavior behind you."

"I can't. I can't. I can't bring her into this cursed world."

"Don't you understand, Damian?" Rex said, kneeling beside him and gripping his shoulder. "Her light will break the curse. Your love will chase away the darkness. You can have the life you deserve. Fate is on your side."

Damian felt himself crack and shatter into pieces. He wanted to weep but he had already shed all his tears.

"I want to love her. I want to give her everything. I just don't know what I have to give."

"Yourself, Damian. Your heart. Your love. It's enough. I promise you."

The brothers stood and quickly embraced. He felt his brother's strength and resolve, and it bled into him.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I've been a child all this time. Maybe it's time to stand up and be a man."

"That is the Winter wolf I know," Rex said with a smile.

The two of them shifted and ran through the forest back to the trailhead where warm clothes and shoes were waiting. They changed and Rex drove him down the mountain towards Selkie.

"Do you want to see her?" Rex asked. "Or should I take you back to the Doolittles' ranch?"

"I can't face her right now. I need time to think, to get my head clear."

Rex silently turned towards the road that would take them to the Doolittles and drove along the winding road up to the bear shifters' property.

They parked outside and Rex cut the engine before following Damian back into the house. The brothers were gathered in the kitchen, the Doolittles nowhere to be seen. Thorne was pacing by the sink, angry as ever, while Blake moped, and Felix was reading something from a printout.

"What's going on?" Rex asked.

"We have an offer on the property," Felix informed them.

"We will finally be free of that place," Tate said, rubbing his hands together. "Think of all the fun things we can do now. It's the best news we can hope for."

"We can't sell it. We can't," Blake moaned.

"We've already agreed to. I'm sorry but majority rules," Rex said.

"All those years we stayed because you wanted a unanimous decision. Why have you changed your mind now?" Blake asked.

"Because I know now for sure that leaving was the right choice. It makes it clear to me that selling is also the right choice. I'm sorry, Blake, but it's five to one. You're overruled."

"This is bullshit," Blake said. "It's our land. I don't want to sell it."

"Why would you want to go back there?" Thorne said. "So the witch can kill you once and for all?"

"I will kill her," Blake said with a growl.

Thorne threw his head back and laughed. "I'd like to see you try. The witch is more powerful than a thousand shifters. You are a fool and you always have been. You haven't grown a day in seventy-five years."

"Stop it now," Rex said. "Blake, I'm sorry, but we're selling. Thorne, don't antagonize him. We will each get our share and then we can move on with our lives. Two of us now have found our mates. My beloved Luna is carrying our child. The next generation of Winter wolves. Would you deny fate, Blake? Would you deny my happiness and the happiness of my mate for your own selfish need to maintain the dead land of our ancestors?"

"It's where mother died. It's where we buried our father. How could you give that away?"

"We aren't forgetting. They are still with us in our hearts and minds. That's what matters. Not a gravestone. They've been gone a long time, little brother. You need to let it go."

"I will never let it go," Blake said, growling before he left the room and slammed the door behind him.

"Idiot," Tate said. "We're each going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars. We can do anything we want. The world is amazing now. I want to go to Hawaii."

"That's nice, Tate, but let's cool down on that for a moment. Blake has a point. We buried our parents on that land. We have to respect his feelings."

"I can't believe you're letting him get away with that," Thorne spit out.

Damian didn't want to listen to his brothers argue. He didn't care. He was done with the land, and he was done with that place. His parents were dead and so were the rest of them.

He had to decide if he wanted to go on living. The only thing that kept him here was the possibility that Venus could love him. That they could have a good life together. That he could make her happy.

"What about you, Damian?" Felix asked.

"I don't care. I want rid of it, like the rest of you."

"He found his mate. She's a beautiful fashion model," Tate said, making faces at him. "Why haven't you claimed her yet?"

"Don't talk about her," Damian said threateningly. Tate took a few steps back, putting his hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender.

"I'm just asking. You don't need to bite my head off."

Rex cut in. "Damian, go take a shower and relax. Luna is going to come pick me up from town. She'll be here in a few minutes. And after you have a chance to cool off, you should contact Venus. She is a strong woman, and she cares about you. There's no question in my mind. Don't screw it up."

Rex left the Doolittles' house several moments later. Damian watched him from the upstairs office. He kissed Luna's forehead as she climbed out of the car. The two of them seem so happy. So perfect.

Damian rubbed his temples. Maybe he could have that with Venus. If there was even the smallest chance in the world that they could have what Rex and Luna had, then it was worth a try. The worst that could happen would be her rejecting him. And he would accept that.

Part of him believed he deserved to be rejected. But the other part of him knew that he had to give Venus the option. His love for her was so deep that it hurt. It was like a long asleep limb finally coming back to life.

The tingle of the blood circulating hurt at first, but it was the only way to wake back up. That's how he felt right now. Maybe soon, he would be able to walk again and forget that it had ever happened.