Blind Wolf (A Werewolf BBW Shifter Romance #1)(19)

"What do you mean?" Julia asked. Goosebumps rose on her skin.

"I'm engaged to someone who has the same condition," Damien said. "We're not in love, but—"

Engaged. Damien kept talking, but Julia could not hear his words. The sound that came out of her was halfway between a cry and a whimper. She scrambled to her feet, trying not to slip on the wet planks of the dock. Engaged. She had to get away. Had to leave. She felt so embarrassed, so taken in.

"Julia, wait, please—"

"No!" No, no, no! The cry that echoed through her mind came out of her as sobs as she gathered her clothes up to her chest. He couldn’t be with her.

"Julia, please let me explain!" Damien stood to face her.

"No, you don't need to explain," Julia said. He was just the same, after all, just the same as all the other guys who thought she would be a quick, easy lay. The guys who just wanted to play with her for a while before going back to someone they could take seriously.

"Julia, please—" he said, reaching out blindly.

"Don't touch me!" she cried out, backing away from him. "Don't—don't ever touch me again!" She turned to flee, wild with the agony of this revelation. How could he have broken her heart so carelessly?

"Don't leave," Damien said. He stumbled after her as she moved away from the lake, back to the trail, trying to put her shoes on without falling over. "Please, let’s talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Julia said. “You came here and flirted with me, kissed me, all while you’re engaged to someone else?”

“It’s just because of my condition—”

“I don’t care about the reason! You’re engaged!” Julia thought of the other woman, the one Damien had probably lied to before coming to spend time at the lake. Her heart broke for both of them.

"I'll call someone to come get you," Julia said, her voice cracking. He seemed so desperate. How could he be so cruel and seem so sincere? She felt as though her emotions, her judgment, had betrayed her just as surely as he had. "Just stay away from me!"

Tears streaming down her face, she turned to the path and screamed.

Standing directly in front of her on the trail, not twenty feet away, was a huge gray wolf.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Damien

Damien felt Julia's heart wrench as much as if it had been his own, and it gutted him. He had to be honest with her; he couldn't sense her feelings without a sense of guilt coming over him every time he remembered Katherine. But it was too much. How could he explain that he was a shifter, that he wasn't supposed to mate with humans. Her pain ripped through him in a black and red agony as she screamed at him to stay away from her, and the air he breathed felt too hot for his lungs, poisonous. His hands shook as she backed away. He could not lose her. Could not lose his mate. She was the one, the true one—

Upwind from the trail and so preoccupied with Julia, he did not smell the wolf until it was already in the open. He heard Julia's scream at the same time he smelled the wolf, and he ran forward without a thought, almost tripping over his own feet as he stepped between Julia and the wolf.

It was a shifter. Even in his human form Damien could smell the distinctive scent, sense the intelligence radiating from the animal. Another pack in these woods? How? Jordan had scouted the entire territory. Then the wolf growled and stepped forward, the sand crunching under its feet.

"Damien, no, get back," Julia whispered, tugging on his arm. He could feel her fear and he tried not to let the terror overwhelm him as he stood there. He could not fight the wolf in human form; it would be suicide.

"Damien, please!" Julia said, and as she touched him he felt a stab of fright go through his heart. The shifter sensed it, too, and growled again.

"Let go," Damien said, shaking her hand off. "Julia, you need to leave."

"No—"

"Leave!" The wolf snarled at the sound of Damien's voice, and he could hear the claws digging into the sand.

"No, no!" Julia sobbed, and Damien turned toward her. He wished he could keep her from seeing, but he had no choice.

"I'm sorry you have to find out like this," he said.

The shift only took a second to happen, but the second felt like an eternity. His energy focused inside, on bringing out the wolf part of his being, Damien let the power take him over. His muscles changed, stretching and contracting, his bones snapping with a crackling sound into the new skeletal configuration. His snout stretched and pushed out his face as fur sprouted through his skin, feeling like a million pinpricks all over his body.

"Another shifter," the wolf growled. "Why are you here?"

As if from a distance, he heard Julia screaming, screaming, oh god he felt her screams shatter through his mind. He fought the terror back, putting up a separation between them. He could still sense her, but as he gained control over his wolf form he was able to distance himself from her emotions. The wolf was in front of him. That was the most important thing.

"My pack is traveling," Damien snarled, trying to seem intimidating. He hated to fight if he could avoid it. "Let us go through."

"You're blind," the shifter said. "You have no chance against me. And she is not part of your pack."