“I tried to call you a few times already,” mentioned mother.
“I was at the office.” Shit. The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
“Until this time?” He didn’t answer, because nothing he said would convince his parents he was all right. “Dear…” And there was that tone she put on when she was about to hand out unwanted advice. “It has been years. Isn’t it time you moved on?”
“I have moved on.” But he hadn’t, had he? His family had never mentioned the incident again, never made him feel he was to blame, but he couldn’t get over it. Linda should have graduated by now and built a career, but instead, she’d been too scared to start living. Because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut all those years ago.
“Have you heard from Linda?”
He’d been unable to call her as often as he should, because their relationship had never been the same. And it never would be, not as long as she resented being a wolf…longed to be human…
“She’s settled in well and is making friends. She mentioned bringing a few of them over one weekend. She’s not the only mature student in the college, you know.” An unnecessary detail, accompanied by a blasé tone that hinted at a wolf mother’s connivance. “Perhaps you could visit at the same time—she would love to see you.”
“I’d rather come over when her friends aren’t there.” Would his parents never stop trying to set him up with females? He had had affairs, but they never lasted long. What he shared with Iris…he’d never found it with anyone else, and his beast wouldn’t settle for anything less.
And now his mother was hesitant as she spoke. “Your father and I…we spoke. It’s been years, but we’ve never seen you as happy as you were with…her.” She couldn’t even bear to speak her name, could she? “I know at the time, we told you to stay away from her, but well, things have changed since then. You’ve gone up in the world. Have you ever thought of looking her up? I heard her father’s also in Boston—”
Damien was almost tempted to tell her he had met Iris again. Instead, he said, “I never want to see her.”
He’d had it with humans. Yes, he hired them in his office, but that was as far as his dealings with them went. He had his family, and a few friends from the other kind, and that was enough. If he ever mated, it would be with someone of his own species. All those people who said different species should never mix? They were right all along.
After hanging up the mobile, he went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of wine. It was a relief that Linda was making friends…it eased some of the guilt that buried him over the years.
Not for the first time, he tried to see the good that had come out of how he fucked up years ago. If not for the need to prove himself, his family would have remained underdogs, forever shamed by its economic and shifter status. At least now, they had enough money to buy others’ approval.
If only he could stop thinking of her.
She still pulled his beast, but that soft innocence was replaced by a tough shell. It made him want to pick up the phone and call her…take her in his arms and ask her what she’d been through since they last met. But no, any emotion and she would go straight to daddy, to plot how they could use Damien’s weaknesses against him.
Her damn father…why did she go running to him instead of speaking to Damien about her fears? If he had opened up to her about what he was, could she not have given him a chance to defend himself before she went to the fear mongering Bill?
Returning to the sofa, Damien took a few sips of wine before placing the glass on the table.
He had never behaved like a wolf around Iris, but a lapdog. Never good enough for her, the blonde, blue-eyed daughter of the affluent human mayor. It wasn’t just because of a promise to his parents that even as they fucked, he had denied his true nature, made sure that no signs of his beast came forward. But that night, when she declared her love for him, he had weakened…
And his family was never the same again.
It was a Sunday the next day. He remembered that detail because mother had gone to church in that blue cotton dress she wore to join the congregation each week. But she returned earlier than usual…and she’d been crying.
Damien said nothing, his instinct telling him the reason for her tears. But father and Linda fussed around her.
“What is it, mother?”
“Dear, please tell me. Are you sick? In pain?”
It was only when father panicked at being unable to console his mate that mother admitted the truth. “They wouldn’t allow me inside the church.”
Father had wiped her tears, his big hands gentle. “But why? You wore your best dress.”
“They know…” she whimpered. “The mayor called an emergency meeting in the church this morning and told them. About us.”
Their secret was out.
Damien had clutched the sofa, claws extending until they nearly tore through the material. No, Iris could not betray him. Yes, she’d been horrified to learn his truth, but she loved him…
“But how?” asked father. “We’ve been so careful…”
His words trailed away, replaced by a silence that hung around them. His parents had guessed that Damien was the one who had destroyed their chance of settling in the town they had grown to love, but they didn’t mention it. And they didn’t treat him differently—they didn’t treat him as if he had betrayed them…
And that somehow made it worse.
The next day, when father and mother returned from the factory with their smiles missing, Damien didn’t ask them what had happened. They had already been there before, in the last city, hadn’t they? He could imagine it—nobody talking to them, workers refusing to sit next to them as if their beasts were contagious, or they had no control over them and would suddenly transform and rip others apart.
I should have stayed away from her.
Mother and father had warned him many times that it would come to nothing. Different species aside, she was the mayor’s daughter…and he? He told them she was different to other humans, but if he’d looked beyond his feelings for her, he would have wondered why she hid their relationship from her own father. He had been the dirty secret of the mayor’s girl, someone she used to slake her lust until she found someone who would make a worthy partner. Hell, she probably only wanted him because her friends did…she had to have the prize.
And to think that Damien had begun to hope she might be his mate…
Not all humans are the same…
Yes, they fucking were. They had it in for beasts like his family and him, and would turn on them at the first chance.
And one day, she suddenly phoned. Tried to apologize. But he wouldn’t listen to her. Not anymore.
“My biggest regret is falling for one of your kind, Iris. I never want to see you again.”
It was the last time he spoke to her.
Damien had gone back to looking over his shoulder, freezing when he had to pass a group of youths. Once again, animal noises followed his family wherever they went, accompanied by shouts demanding that they leave. His family had already known they couldn’t live in Iris’ hometown any longer, even before what happened to Linda.