Page 87 of Wolf Queen Ruin
The artifact’s glow dimmed as the vision faded, leaving me clutching it with white-knuckled intensity, as if I could physically pull my daughter and best friend back through the connection.
The dam broke.My forced composure, with too many cracks in it to last for a stretch of time, collapsed under the weight of what I’d just experienced.The tears became sobs that racked my entire body.
Damien didn’t hesitate.He drew me against his chest, one arm wrapping securely around my back while his other hand cradled my head.His touch was sure, protective, as if holding me together was the most natural thing in the world.
“They’re not totally gone from me,” I finally managed between sobs.“They’re trapped.This whole time, I’ve been telling myself they were just sleeping, that they couldn’t hear me when I talked to them, but they’re…somewhere.Conscious, in some way.Waiting.And smiling.”
His thumb brushed away a tear from my cheek.“They know,” he said, his voice low and fierce.“They know you’ll move heaven and earth to reach them.And you are.”His gaze dropped to the Shadow Fang piece still clutched in my hand.“We will find the other pieces, Luna.I swear it.”
We.Wewill find the other pieces.He’d said it not as calculation or obligation but as shared purpose.That helped steady me, and I nodded against his chest.
“Tell me about them,” Damien said, guiding me to sit beside him against an enormous tree root.“Your daughter and Jade.”
Carefully returning the Shadow Fang piece to its container, I took a deep breath and did something I rarely allowed myself—I talked about Aria and Jade without the protective layer of humor or deflection I typically used.
“Aria’s three, but sometimes I swear she has an old soul,” I began, the words coming easier than expected.“She had these moments of perfect clarity, where she’d look at you, and it felt like she was seeing right through to your core.Jade called it her ‘wolf wisdom,’ this innate understanding that had nothing to do with being a toddler and everything to do with her heritage.”
Once I started, the stories flowed freely—Aria’s first word (moon), her favorite stuffed wolf she called Pack because it was her constant companion, her serious little frown when concentrating on building block towers.I told him about her fascination with stars and how she would point to the night sky with absolute confidence, naming constellations in her toddler babble.
“She was just starting to show signs of shifting,” I continued, the memory simultaneously precious and painful.“Nothing full, of course.She’s too young, but her eyes would flash gold when she was excited, and sometimes tiny claws would appear when she was frustrated.Her pediatrician said she was developmentally advanced for her age.”
Damien listened with complete focus, as if memorizing every detail.There was something almost reverent in his attention, as if he genuinely enjoyed hearing about two of the most important people in my whole world.
“And you fear she’ll lose that connection to her wolf nature the longer she remains in a coma,” he said, not a question but an understanding.
I nodded, unsurprised by his insight.“The longer she’s like this, the more I worry that even when we cure her, she might not retain her abilities.Obviously I don’t know how her wolf is reacting to the coma, but if she’s cut off from it during these formative years…”
I couldn’t bring myself to voice one of my deepest fears—that Aria might suffer the same fate as me, unable to shift, unable to fully embrace her dual nature.It had been torture for me.I’d do anything to spare her from that kind of pain.
“You don’t want her to experience what you did,” Damien said, his voice gentle.“The severance from your wolf.”
I ran a hand through my tangled hair, dislodging bits of crypt debris.“Ironic, right?Me, the outcast who can’t even shift anymore, desperate to preserve my daughter’s wolf heritage.”
“Not ironic,” Damien countered, his hand finding mine in the gathering darkness.“It’s the most natural thing in the world to want your daughter to have the life you were denied.”
The simple observation struck me.He’d cut straight to the heart of my fears for Aria with disconcerting accuracy.
“And Jade?”he asked.“What’s she like?”
“A force,” I said without hesitation.“The strongest person I’ve ever known.Fierce and loyal and stubborn as hell.She knows everything about me, and somehow, she hasn’t run away from me yet.”
Damien smiled.“She chose you and Aria over her pack.That kind of loyalty is rare in any species.”
“She did.And I don’t know what I did to deserve that,” I admitted.
“Maybe you underestimate your own worth,” he said simply.
Something in his tone made me look up.Our camp’s lamplight illuminated his face, casting shadows that emphasized the sharp angles of his cheekbones and jaw.But it was his eyes that caught me.There was a depth of emotion there, unguarded and raw.
“What about you?”I asked, partly to deflect attention from my own vulnerability, partly out of genuine curiosity.“Why is saving Elliot so important?Beyond the obvious maker-progeny bond.”
Damien went still in that vampire way of his, not just motionless but seemingly divorced from the need to breathe or blink.
“I found Elliot right before my lowest point,” he said.“I lost everything that made me…me.My kingdom, my family, my purpose…all destroyed.”
I blinked in surprise.“Kingdom?”
He grimaced.“I was not always what I am now.Before Elliot, before becoming vampire, I had another life as a fae prince.”His jaw tightened.“One I abandoned.”
