Page 38 of Howl For A Kiss
And getting more dangerous by the day,his wolf added grimly.
"The more Kieran and Maya push for change, the more extreme the High Council becomes," Damon continued, his jaw tightening. "Using human operatives to hunt hybrids, implementing kidnapping orders for anyone who questions their authority. And now we discover Council elders like Thorne are employing these human operatives as personal guards?"
Elena shifted closer. "You're caught in the middle."
"Exactly," Damon agreed. "Everything's becoming more volatile, and I don't much like being Beta these days. The position feels like a prison instead of an honor."
You could walk away,his wolf suggested.Stay with our mate.
"I can't imagine the pressure," Elena said softly, her voice carrying genuine sympathy. "Having to obey orders you question and enforcing laws you know are wrong. The impossible position you must be in."
Her genuine understanding hit him with sudden force. No one—not Kieran, not his fellow pack members—had ever acknowledged the internal conflict that had been tearing Damon apart for years.
"I never realized how trapped I truly felt until I met you," Damon admitted, his eyes meeting hers across the small space between them. "Now I have something worth questioning everything for."
Their conversation suddenly shifted into deeper territory after Damon's confession. Elena's walls crumbled before him as she began speaking about her half-sister.
"Fiona was forced to mate the abusive son of the Tidewater Alpha," Elena said, her voice barely a whisper. "After the ceremony, I tried to help her escape. We almost made it."
Damon's entire body went rigid.No. Not another forced mating story.
"The Tidewater Beta caught us," Elena continued, her hands clenching into fists. "He put a gun to Fiona's head and told me if I didn't walk away and leave her there willingly, they'd shoot her dead while I watched."
"Christ, Elena."
"I had no choice but to abandon my sister to protect her life." Tears began to track down Elena's cheeks, but her voiceremained steady. "That's when Tyler and I decided to start our own rebel group. And that's what drives my need to destroy this system."
Damon felt physically ill. He'd interacted with the Tidewater Beta a few times during Council meetings, and he seemed like a reasonable man. The thought of him threatening to execute a woman in front of her sister while protecting her abusive mate made Damon's wolf snarl with rage.
You've enforced similar situations,his wolf reminded him ruthlessly.How many forced matings did you witness and do nothing to stop?
"I would never..." Damon started, then stopped. Because the truth was, he had been present at forced mating ceremonies. He'd done nothing to intervene, following orders like the dutiful leader he'd been trained to be.
"I've helped enforce situations just as cruel," he said quietly, the confession tasting like ash. "I never realized how bad it could really be for the women involved. I was so focused on duty, on following orders, that I didn't see the human cost."
Elena watched him with those piercing blue eyes, and he felt stripped bare under her gaze.
"Tradition has been twisted into something cruel instead of protective," Damon continued, his voice gaining strength. "I wish I'd stayed true to the traditional warrior values my grandmother taught me, but becoming Beta so young—I felt pressured to conform to the pack leadership ways. Too naive to know I should stand up for what was right."
"It's never too late to change," Elena said gently. "Or to step down from your position."
The suggestion hung between them like a lifeline he wasn't ready to grasp. Duty and loyalty were too deeply ingrained, too much a part of his identity to simply abandon.
But for her,his wolf whispered.For our mate, we could try.
SEVENTEEN
ELENA
Elena sat by the fire trying to process everything that had happened and been revealed in the past several days, let alone the past several hours. She realized with startling clarity that the years of building emotional walls to protect herself hadn't really created a fortress around her but had actually trapped her inside a prison of her own making.
And somehow impossibly, Damon had managed to dismantle those walls in just three days, revealing the vulnerabilities she'd buried deep. Before his honest confession just now about his life, she had felt like a fool for exposing herself so openly to him. But now, as she processed it all, she felt a sense of connection with him—like they were finally on the same page.
She glanced at him where he sat a few feet away, his muscular frame illuminated by the firelight. The makeshift cloth tied around his waist did little to hide his alpha presence, and she found herself drawn to him despite the whirlwind of emotions still churning inside her. His honesty had been a double-edged sword—cutting deep but also freeing her in ways she hadn't expected.
"Damon, I didn't join the rebellion or become a rebellion leader because I wanted a civil war," she said, her voice steadybut laced with the weight of her convictions. "I did it because I can't bear to see our world torn apart any more than it already is. I can't watch anyone else suffer under these traditional pack laws." Her gaze found Damon's face. "I fight because I have no other choice."
Damon's eyes locked onto hers, intense and unyielding. "Elena, you always have a choice. And maybe running from your past and abandoning all tradition isn't the answer. Those parts of you—your family, your mistakes, your pain—they're what made you who you are. You can't just erase it and start over. You have to embrace all of it if you want to truly change anything."
