Heavenly Poison

Damien Gray

“Everything is looking good,” I said.

Sebastian and I had taken over the rounds for most of the day. Ever since the pack saw my wings, I’d been flying more out in the open.

I liked that I didn’t have to go so far to be able to stretch out my wings. It also felt good that I didn’t have to hide what I was anymore. Keeping my wings a secret had been second nature to me.

It wasn’t until I had the freedom to actually let them out whenever I wanted that I realized how tiring it had been to keep my wings hidden all the time.

The idea of hiding them now scared me.

Although Sebastian had messed around most of the flight, we had been keeping tabs on everything around the land. I couldn’t get over how big Mountain Peak territory was, even though the space wasn’t for too many people.

“No Rogues or trespassers,” Sebastian shrugged, just as we landed in the back patio of the mansion.

“You’re leaving?”

“I’m going to pick up Tania,” he replied, while slipping on the black t-shirt he’d left outside.

“Alright,” I said, making my way inside.

“Laters,” Sebastian waved.

“I have a meeting with Wayne in an hour,” I called after him, bringing him to a halt.

“Do I need to be present?”

Sebastian had been there every time Wayne called me for a meeting, and we had been having one almost every day.

“You might want to know what we discuss, but I can update you later at night.”

Sebastian wasn’t going to be happy. I already knew what Wayne wanted, and it was something that had upset me the moment he brought it up.

“Cool, I’ll see you later,” Sebastian said, as he rounded the corner of the mansion.

“You know that won’t be possible,” I told Wayne, shaking my head.

We had been in the meeting room at the pack building for almost fifteen minutes, while Wayne tried to convince me to let allow daughter Lilly into our territory. There were a few problems with allowing Lilly to enter Mountain Peak land.

Lilly was mated to a Wolf named John, who Wayne told me was Dylan’s third in command. Dylan, Alpha of Midnight Moon and the Wolf Layton, Zeverus, Sebastian, and I were going to fight very soon. There was no way I could allow them into the pack, yet I had Wayne practically begging me for it.

“Lilly hasn’t visited in quite some time, Damien. You have to understand that she is still my daughter.”

“When Anthony was alive you said that the pack came first. This subject was brought up and you assured him that Mountain Peak would be your priority,” I reminded him.

“Things have changed,” he said.

“How so?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

I felt the tension building up in my body. My wings wanted out and I had the urge to growl at Wayne. Sebastian was right— I had been hanging out too much with the Wolves.

“Anthony is gone. We need to think about the pack,” Wayne said, bowing his head at me.

I frowned at his words. It hadn’t been what I expected him to say.

“I am thinking about the pack. That is precisely why I am not allowing the enemy to step foot in our territory.”

“John is Dylan’s third in command. He might be useful. We could still form a treaty with Midnight Moon. There doesn’t have to be a war.”

“Our pack isn’t going to fight.”

“You will fight and you are the Alpha now.”

“The packs fighting won’t affect Mountain Peak in any way,” I assured him.

“But it will affect every Werewolf in general. A lot of Wolves will die during that war.”

He had a point, although what he was asking for was beyond my power. The war between Dylan and Layton was theirs, not mine. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I was simply joining them to support Layton.

“John is part of Midnight Moon therefore your daughter Lilly is considered an enemy. I will not betray Layton, and I won’t go behind his back.”

“What if we informed Layton that Lilly and John are coming?”

I narrowed my eyes at Wayne when he asked that.

I didn’t entirely understand his motives. Lilly was his daughter, but she wasn’t going to be fighting. There was no reason for him to be worried for her safety. However I did think that Dylan could have asked Wayne to join his pack.

I trusted Wayne. He had been loyal to me, and most of all, he had remained loyal to Emilia throughout it all. But as he had clearly stated, Lilly was his daughter. I didn’t want to think he was going behind my back, but I couldn’t discard the possibility that he was.

“Are you okay?” Emilia asked me when I arrived at the mansion.

“Huh?” I distractedly asked, as I read through documents Wayne had given me.

They had more names, more packs, Alphas, Beta’s, and third in commands of the past century. According to Wayne, those were things all Alphas should know. I had to learn who had been strong, which packs had been the biggest and the smallest, who had alliances with whom, and which Alpha had fought, won, or lost which battles.

“Just thinking,” I told her, as I snapped the black binder shut.

“It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?” Emilia asked me, nodding at the binder.

“Too many technicalities,” I replied.

“Too many rules and laws,” she said, wrapping her arms around my waist.

I leaned down and pressed my lips lightly against hers, while brushing her hair away from her face.

“This feels good,” I whispered against her lips.

“Mhmm…” Emilia murmured, while deepening the kiss.

Her hands tangled in my hair, and she was standing on her toes. I smiled against her lips, and picked her up. She easily wrapped her legs around my waist while I held her up against me.

“You missed me?” She asked, breathlessly.

“You have no idea,” I said, as I walked us upstairs.

I had just laid Emilia down on the bed, and settled myself in between her legs, when I felt her pushing me away.

At first, I ignored it. I didn’t break the kiss, and I put some pressure on the hold I had of her thigh. When Emilia noticed I didn’t move, she shoved me away harder.

I had discovered something about her the wrong way.

Emilia was stronger than me.

I barely had time to steady myself, but I landed on my feet a few feet away from the bed. It took me a second to grasp what had just happened.

I frowned at her. She had an apologetic look on her face, but she was fixing up her clothes, which I had been in the process of removing.

“You should go get some groceries from town,” Emilia said.

I cocked an eyebrow at that. Her comment sounded like an excuse.

“Sebastian isn’t here to take me and I doubt you’ll let me go alone,” she finished saying.

“Groceries,” I repeated, confusedly.

We had been in bed, about to mate, and she stopped me to tell me to go and get groceries.

“Right,” Emilia said.

She jumped off the bed, and started making her way towards the door.

“I have a list. I’ll go get it,” she told me, hurriedly walking out of the room.

Although I did have the list in my hand and I was in the grocery store, I was distracted by what had happened with Emilia.

She was usually the one who pushed us to go farther. I’d been the one who had to stop because I didn’t think either of us was ready to be intimate. The day I decided it was time— she was the one to push me away. It didn’t make sense to me.

I was mindlessly putting things in the shopping cart when I picked up a familiar scent, which had no business in our area.

“Roderick,” I stated, because I could feel him close by.

“Alpha Damien,” Roderick said, bowing his head as he made his way down the aisle and towards me.

“Just Damien,” I told him, not sure if he’d called me Alpha to mock me.

“Damien,” Roderick repeated.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“I needed to speak with you,” Roderick said.

He looked at the cart, which was filled with random things, before his eyes trailed over to the grocery list in my hand.

“Uh, my mate’s orders,” I shrugged.

Roderick smirked at me, and snatched the list from my hand.

“You haven’t gotten any of the items in the list,” he commented, looking down at the things I had in the cart with disapproval.

“So what are you doing here?” I asked, taking the list back from him.

“We need to talk,” he replied, his face returning to his usual stoic self.

“I need to do this,” I said, motioning at the shopping cart, “but we can go back to the mansion as soon as I’m done.”

“Not in your territory. We’ll talk somewhere in town, in public,” Roderick said, scanning the area around us a few times.

“Paranoid?” I asked.

Roderick shook his head, and looked around again.

“No, just cautious,” he said.

“You don’t trust me?”

“I trust you enough, but I know not everyone is happy with having me on board.”

“I am the Alpha now.”

“Like I said, I trust you. I would rather keep our talk away from your pack for now.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him, and Roderick gave me a half shrug.

“I need to protect myself,” he said.

I respected that. Sebastian would have done the same thing if we were making a deal with someone we weren’t sure of.

“My apartment in is the middle of town. Is that good?”

“That will do,” Roderick replied, leading the way towards the exit.

I looked down at the shopping cart. Roderick had been right. I didn’t have anything that Emilia asked for. I groaned at the thought of having to return. Roderick was patiently waiting for me at the end of the aisle.

I looked at the grocery list one last time, before shoving it in my back pocket and following Roderick outside, leaving the shopping cart behind.

“I’m forming a pack,” Roderick stated.

I was surprised by his words.

“I want to combine it with Mountain Peak,” he started to say.

“Layton wants the same thing. I said no to him.”

“I’m aware,” he said.

“How do you know?” I asked, suspiciously.

“I’ve been keeping close to your territory. I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t try to kill me. I heard some of your pack members talking about Layton’s offer,” Roderick told me.

“I have swiped the entire area. You’re scent isn’t around Mountain Peak.”

Roderick’s words sent me into alert. The pack had been running more rounds, most of which Sebastian and I took care of. Roderick’s scent had not been around the area.

“I don’t go into Mountain Peak territory. I keep to myself, mainly on the outskirts of the town. I only go into town when I have to.”

“Why didn’t you show yourself?” I asked, distrustfully.

I was getting myself ready to fight. Roderick had been loyal, but I knew at the moment, there were only a handful of people I could really trust. He wasn’t exactly one of them.

“I needed to know if I could trust you, and that you wouldn’t try to kill me. It is just me against your entire pack. You and Sebastian are a forced to be reckoned with. I wouldn’t try to attack you,” Roderick slowly said, keeping his voice steady and serious.

“Alright,” I nodded.

“Like I said, I am gathering Wolves, fighters and outcasts for the most part.”

“If they can’t be trusted then they aren’t useful to me,” I told him.

“They have been running with me for years now. A few members of my pack survived the attack,” Roderick said, lowering his head.

I pitied Roderick, although I was sure that was the last thing he wanted. Roderick was strong, I knew that. I had witnessed firsthand how strong he was when he took care of a lot of Wolves on record time.

He was young, in his early twenties probably. It seemed unfair that he had lost so much already. I understand that, because my home had been taken away from me as well.

“Where did you go? Layton said you were hiding,” I curiously asked.

“Years ago, I had enemies.”

“You still do.”

“Yes, but now I have the possibility of gaining allies,” Roderick said, his silver eyes shining brighter when he spoke those words.

“What exactly do you want from us?”

“I want to form a pack and settle right next to Mountain Peak. I want our packs to join, but you lead yours and I lead mine.”

I gave him a confused look, trying to quickly run through my mind some of the pack laws about territories.

“Layton and Zeverus have a similar arrangement.”

“We have a war to win first,” I told him.

“I have no doubt we will be triumphant,” Roderick said, and I caught the growl that rumbled through his chest after he finished speaking.

I arrived at the mansion to find Emilia and Tania lounging around in the kitchen. I smiled when I heard Emilia laughing.

“Hey,” I whispered against her ear.

She giggled when I kissed her cheek, while Tania started booing me for interrupting their ‘girl time’.

“Where did Sebastian go?”

I couldn’t feel him anywhere in the house. Other than Emilia and Tania, there were no other sounds anywhere in the house.

“I think Wayne called him up. He took Luke with him. The poor puppy hadn’t been outside in so long,” Tania replied.

“Did you go to school?”

“Unfortunately, we mortals have to go to school,” Tania sighed.

I grinned at her, and shook my head.

“Human,” I said, mocking her.

Tania threw popcorn at me, from a bowl Emilia and her were sharing.

“You’re just jealous,” Tania said, as she took a drink of soda.

“Of what? Slow reflexes?”

“Em…” Tania whined, giving Emilia a sad look.

“Stop being mean, Damien,” Emilia scolded me.

“Ah, fine,” I said, smiling at Emilia. “Anyways, I have to go and get the groceries.”

Just as I passed Tania’s chair, I poked the sides of her waist, causing her to yelp and squirm in her chair. While I ran out of the room laughing, I could hear Tania yelling something about getting back at me.

I opened the front door to find Sebastian heading towards me. He seemed lost in his thoughts, and his features were hardened.

“He told you?” I asked.

“About Lilly?”

“Yes.”

“What did you tell him?” Sebastian asked me, just as Luke ran past me and into the house.

I heard his paws lightly pounding against the floor. He was making his way towards the kitchen. Lately, he and Emilia had become inseparable. I couldn’t even believe it. She had hated the puppy ever since Sebastian had shown up with him at the apartment.

“I said no. I didn’t think he’d talk to you about it.”

“He asked for you but I told him you were gone. I pressured him into telling me,” Sebastian shrugged.

He was helping me get the groceries from the car. We had them in tow, but neither of us made a move to walk back into the house.

“I think we should let them come,” Sebastian said, but he sounded unsure.

“You know we can’t do that.”

“Tell Layton and Zev about it. I bet you they will agree. It’s better to know what type of guys we’ll be fighting against. John is supposed to be Dylan’s second best. Can you imagine that? We’d practically be scoping out our opponents. It sounds like a sweet deal to me.”

The way Sebastian explained it— inviting John and Lilly did make sense. The only thing that worried me was letting John scope us out as well. He’d be getting as much insight about us as we would of him.

When I brought it up to Sebastian, he shook his head at me.

“Wayne swore he didn’t tell him what we were. According to the enemy and all the other packs, we are just weak humans,” Sebastian said, grinning at me.

Emilia was sympathetic with Roderick’s situation, but that didn’t mean she trusted him. I tried not to bring him up too much though.

Talking about Roderick opened up wounds that were just starting to heal. Roderick had lost his pack, and we had almost lost ours. Roderick’s mate had been killed, and Emilia had lost Anthony. It was because of that that Emilia wanted to give Roderick a chance, but I could tell she was hesitant about it.

In the end, we decided to put off the conversation for later. Like I had told Roderick, we still had a war to win.

Sebastian had taken off with Tania late in the afternoon and he wasn’t back yet. I didn’t think he’d make it back that night, so Emilia and I went to bed early.

I was only wearing a pair of boxers, and my laptop was over my lap. I’d been focused on some documents about Mountain Peak, but Emilia’s enticing scent called to me.

She’d just stepped out of the bathroom and was heading my way. Once I caught sight of her, I couldn’t look away. She was wearing one of my white t-shirts, and just that. Her long black hair was down. She’d combed through it, I could tell. Her cheeks were flushed, and she seemed slightly nervous. Her icy blue eyes were shining bright, and they were staring back at me.

“Hey,” I mumbled, barely able to get the word out of my mouth.

“Busy?” She asked.

Slowly, seductively, she made her way towards the bed. I distractedly shut the laptop and placed it on the nightstand.

“Not anymore,” I replied, my eyes roaming down her shapely body appreciatively.

I could feel the electricity between us even though we weren’t touching yet. I wanted her. I wanted her so much it hurt.

“I like you in my clothes,” I told her once she climbed into bed.

Emilia was about to settle into her side, but I grabbed her waist and placed her over my lap. She yelped at the sudden movement, but began giggling while she wrapped her legs around my waist, straddling me.

“Your shirt is comfy,” she commented, nuzzling her nose against my cheek.

“Mmm…” she moaned, when I massaged my hand on her thigh.

I brought my lips down on hers, kissing her forcefully when she tried to pull away. I could feel the smile on her lips. She was teasing me.

I groaned when Emilia’s teeth lightly bit down on my lip, but I used that to deepen the kiss. I could feel her grinding against my hard on, even though I wasn’t sure if Emilia realized what she was doing to me.

Her hands pulled on my hair, which made me move my lips against hers hungrily. She felt so soft in my arms, warm even.

I was left dumbfounded when Emilia suddenly pulled away from me. She didn’t move away from my lap, but she did move slightly away from my reach. I got to kiss her cheek, before Emilia placed her hands on my chest and pushed me away.

“We should stop,” Emilia said, breathlessly.

“I don’t want to,” I told her, digging my fingers into her waist and grinding her core tighter against me so that she could feel what she was doing to me.

I didn’t think I could stop. I wanted her too much, and I was already imagining what entering her would feel like. I wanted to be inside of her.

“No, we can’t,” Emilia firmly stated.

She tried to push me away. I had learned my lesson. When she used her Werewolf strength to fight me, I kept her in place using my mind.

I grinned when I noticed the annoyed look on her face.

“Let me go,” she said, attempting but failing to move her arms.

“Not until you explain,” I told her.

“Explain what?” Emilia huffed.

“I want to mate,” I stated.

I released the hold I had on her, but Emilia didn’t shuffle off my lap like I expected. She placed her hands on either side of my face and pecked my lips. Just as I was about to deepen the kiss, she pulled away.

“We can’t mate. We’re not ready yet.”

“I thought this was what you wanted?” I asked her, softly running my hand over her cheek.

A part of me wanted to throw her in bed and kiss her until she changed her mind about mating. I could see in her eyes that it wouldn’t take a lot of convincing on my part. She seemed like she wanted to complete the mating process, I just didn’t know why she was stopping.

“I do,” Emilia whispered, looking up at me with teary eyes.”

It physically hurt to see her about to cry, especially because I was pressuring her into mating. I didn’t want that. I wanted her to want me too.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, just as a tear rolled down her cheek.

I quickly wiped it away, and wrapped my arms around her, crashing her against my chest. I was surprised when Emilia sniffed, and nestled her head in my neck.

I could feel her inhaling my scent and it seemed to help calm her heart, which was beating erratically.

“I just think we’re not ready to mate yet. We can wait a little bit longer,” Emilia said, unsurely.

I frowned at her words. I wanted to ask her why, or if something was bothering her. But I couldn’t bring myself to disturb her again. I didn’t want her to cry, especially because of me.

When she pulled away from me, Emilia seemed to have calmed down. Her blue eyes were looking at me worriedly. When I smiled at her, she let out a sigh in relief, which made me chuckle. Emilia gave me a soft smile in return.

I placed a kiss on her forehead, knowing she wouldn’t want anything else. At the pace we were going lately, I was going to be living off of cold showers.