Blind Wolf (A Werewolf BBW Shifter Romance #1)(24)

Julia saw the sorrow in his eyes, and she knew that he was telling the truth. Her heart ached.

"I can't, Damien," she said. "Not after you lied to me about so much. Your girlfriend. Wanting to buy my house. Are you even blind? How do I know that's not a lie too?"

Damien cringed at the word girlfriend.

"Please," Damien said. "Ask me anything. I'll answer honestly. Ask me any question in your mind and I'll tell you the truth."

"How can I ever trust you again?" Julia whispered.

Damien was silent for a moment. The breaths between them were filled with heat.

"You have to choose to trust me," he said. "It's a hard choice to trust somebody. Always. Every day is another choice, and you will have to decide again and again whether or not to trust me."

"You lied."

"From now on, I will never lie to you. You have my word on that."

"You lied about your...your condition." Julia shivered, thinking about how he had changed form. Thinking about how rabidly he had come between her and danger.

"I didn't want to scare you away. I'm sorry. Everything I've said I said to protect you."

"I don't want you to protect me," Julia said. Her mind echoed with the unspoken next sentence: I want you to love me.

"Whether you want it or not, I will protect you. You are the one I'm supposed to be with," Damien said. "You're my true mate."

Without warning, he stepped forward and took her hands in his. Julia gasped at the touch. Passion thundered through her nerves and for a moment she was dizzy with the thought of the two of them embracing. Damien reached up and caressed her cheek softly, and his fingers traced lines of desire across her skin. Every one of her senses was jumping at the slightest touch, and around them fireflies danced and winked in the darkness.

"I know you're scared of me. You're scared of all this. Who wouldn't be? But I know I'm supposed to be with you."

Julia struggled to argue against him. "If you were supposed to be with me, then why would you already have a...a mate?"

"We're not true mates," Damien said firmly. "She was bound to me because it's my pack. She was the only female we had."

Julia thought that she might go insane just thinking about what all of this meant. His pack. Mates. This was nuts. One hundred percent crazy. She thought that bring crazy might be preferable to the truth here.

"I can't just let you go," Damien said. "You're mine and I'm yours. Can't you feel it?" His thumb stroked her cheek and she leaned into his touch involuntarily. She wanted to pull back but couldn't, as though a magnetic force held them together.

"Yes," she said quietly, trying to piece together her thoughts. "I feel it. I didn't know what it was when I first saw you, but I feel it too. Is it possible?"

"You're what I've been waiting for my entire life, Julia," Damien said. His hand traced the line of her neck, and a small gasp found its way between her lips. "I know we're meant for each other."

"But I'm not like you," she said, her eyes flickering down over his body, thinking about the way he'd shifted into something else. Something animal.

"That's true." Damien paused. "I don't understand it. Maybe we'll figure out someday, but if we don’t...I understand. The way I am." He shrugged. "I'm blind. I'm broken. And I'm not human."

Julia wanted to scream that it didn't matter, to throw her arms around the man in front of her and promise that everything would be alright. Her entire being was pulled towards Damien. His eyes locked onto hers, and for a second she swore that he could see her. Damien brushed a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. His fingers continued to move across her face, and he sighed.

"I don't know if one of us will outlive the other. I don't know if we would be able to have children. Or if we did, if they would be like you, or...or like me."

"Children?" Despite the seriousness of their conversation, Julia laughed. "Isn't that a bit, uh, premature?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that you don't feel the way I do."

"Damien, I am attracted to you. I am. It's just—"

"It's not just attraction," he said. "I feel your emotions. I sense them. Like radio waves I can pick up on. We're connected."

Julia's jaw dropped.

"You're saying you can read my mind?"

"No, not really," Damien squeezed her hand. "Not your thoughts, not unless you're feeling them very intensely. Just your emotional state."

"How?"

"I don't know how it happens. I've heard about it but I've never felt it before. Not until I met you," he said.

"What exactly do you feel, though?" Julia frowned. The idea of having someone able to sense her mental state was a little disquieting.

"I can feel your presence as something in my mind. When you're angry or happy, I feel it too. Like now, you're confused. A little scared. Curious. I feel it all inside of me, like the emotions are radiating outward from you."

Julia swallowed. It was hard to think when you knew somebody was thinking the same thing right along with you.