“I was shocked,” he said, his fingertips hovering over his lips like he was a damn teenage girl. “I’d takenGrayson’spinky bone and gave it to her without realizing that she’d feel the pain.”
“What do you mean?”
His face fell before he shook his head. “He hurt her so I hurt him. Which indirectly hurt her but she wasn’t upset.She fucking kissed me.”
I blinked a few times as he rambled on about how soft her lips were. “This Grayson is the guy who hurt her? The one you were searching for last time?”
He stopped talking before his shadows snaked around him and his horns grew from his head. “Yes. That’s the fucker. Remember how you mentioned her not having met a mate, well, that information you got was false. She met one and the bastard rejected her.”
Irrational anger surged through my veins, and I clenched my fists together. “She was rejected?”
The beautiful shifter with flowing white hair and big innocent eyes popped into my head, and the anger only climbed.
“He’s a nasty fuck. Kept hanging around Wren, so I taught him a lesson.” Damien’s lips curved into a twisted smile.
“Good,” I muttered. “Rejection is spitting in the Fates’ faces, and I don’t happen to agree with that.”
“Right,” he drawled with a twinkle in his eye. “That’s what pisses you off about it. Just admit that you like her.”
“I don’t know her,” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him. “And women are untrustworthy. I figured you, of all fucking demons, would get that.”
His grin dropped, and his shadows reached out to curl around my hands that were on the desk. “Don’t ever fucking mention that. You don’t know everything that happened.”
Regret dumped into my gut as I pulled my hands back from the heat of the shadows. “You’re right, Damien. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t care what you meant to do. Wren isn’t like that. Wren is a fucking angel,” he growled, and the room got hotter.
Sweat beaded on my temple. “She’s an arctic shifter, yeah? Don’t your shadows make her body temp increase?”
His lips flattened into a line, and his fingers dug into the arms of the plush chair. “They did, but when I’m around her I make sure to make them cold.”
“You can do that?”
“They’re my shadows. I can do whatever the fuck I’d like.”
His demon form was fully on display, and the hurt swirling in his eyes was a punch to the gut. I shouldn’t have said anything. “Damien, I—”
“Maybe Wren doesn’t need another demon as a mate. Especially not one so fucking blind to his own baggage,” he hissed before fading back into the shadows.
“Fuck,” I slammed my fists onto the desk.
Damien had been through more than I knew. The entire Demon Capital knew what had happened, but nobody knew the extent.
I knew better than anyone not to push someone about their past, but when he brought up Wren, I—
Knock knock knock.
“Rhett, you busy?” Rowan called from the other side.
Clearing my throat, I shifted in my seat. “Come in.”
Rowan opened the door and stepped in with his comforting smile. “Good evening.”
“Evening.”
“Was that Damien I heard in here?”
Of course, he’d been eavesdropping. He was the kindest motherfucker in Kalista, but the dude has trust issues for days.
