Damien’s POV
She was awake.
The realization hit like a physical force, even though I’d been watching her from the shadows for the past twenty minutes. Watching her chest rise and fall. Watching the way her fingers twitched in unconscious distress. Watching her like so kind of obsessed stalker because I couldn’t bring myself to look away.
Three years.
Three fucking years of searching. Of wondering. Of lying awake at night imagining every possible scenario. And now she was here. Real. Breathing. Alive.
And already trying to escape.
I watched her stumble toward the door. Watched her try the handle once. Twice. Three tis with increasing desperation. The panic in her movents was almost painful to witness.
Almost.
Because underneath that panic was the sa instinct that had made her leave in the first place. The sa drive to run that had kept her away from our children for three years.
She was going to bolt. Again.
"Going sowhere?"
The words ca out harsher than I intended. But I couldn’t help it. Couldn’t soften the edge when every cell in my body was screaming at to grab her. Chain her. Make sure she could never disappear again.
She froze. Then turned. So slowly it was almost comical.
Except nothing about this was funny.
The mont our eyes t, I saw it. That flash of recognition followed imdiately by terror. Like seeing a ghost. Or maybe a monster.
Was that what I was to her now? A monster?
The thought made sothing dark and vicious twist in my chest.
"You—" Her voice cracked. "How did you—"
"Find you?" I stepped out of the shadows. Watched her flinch. Good. Let her be afraid. Let her understand that running was no longer an option. "Does it matter?"
Her eyes were huge in her battered face. Those erald eyes that had haunted my dreams for three years. Now they looked at like I was a stranger. Like I was dangerous.
Maybe I was.
"Damien." My na on her lips after so long made my chest constrict. "I can explain—"
"Explain?" The word ca out as a snarl. I took a step forward. Watched her press back against the wall. "You’re going to explain three years? Three years of silence? Of absence? Of our children crying themselves to sleep wondering why their mother abandoned them?"
Each word was a weapon. Each sentence designed to hurt. Because I wanted her to hurt. Wanted her to feel even a fraction of what she’d put us through.
"I didn’t—" Her voice broke. "It wasn’t like that."
"Then what was it like?" Another step. My control was slipping. The wolf inside clawing to get out. To claim. To possess. To make sure she could never leave again. "Tell , Sera. Make understand why you left. Why you chose this." I gestured at her ruined face. "Why you chose to get beaten bloody by strangers instead of coming ho to your family."
"You don’t understand—"
"You’re right. I don’t." I was close now. So close I could sll her. Blood and sweat and underneath it all, that scent that was uniquely hers. The scent I’d been searching for in every crowd, every street, every fucking corner of this city. "I don’t understand how a mother walks away from her children. How a wife abandons her mate without so much as a fucking goodbye."
Tears spilled down her cheeks. Silent. Devastating.
But I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t hold back the three years of agony that were pouring out of like poison.
Her knees buckled. She slid down the wall like a broken puppet.
I was crouching in front of her now. Close enough to touch. Close enough to see every tear track on her battered face.
Her pulse hamred under my palm. Rapid. Terrified.
My hand at her throat finally made contact. Light. Barely there. But possessive in a way that probably should have terrified .
It didn’t.
"You’re mine, Sera." The words ca out guttural. Almost inhuman. "My mate. My wife. The mother of my children. And you think a few years apart changes that?"
Her eyes were huge. Locked on mine. I could see her pulse jumping in her throat. Could feel it under my palm.
"So you can stop running." My voice dropped to sothing dangerous. Sothing unhinged. "Because I will follow you to the ends of the earth. I will hunt you through every city, every country, every dark corner you try to hide in. There is nowhere you can go that I won’t find you."
My hand tightened slightly on her throat. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to make my point.
"Do you understand what I’m saying?" I leaned closer. So close I could see the gold flecks in her green eyes. "You. Are. Not. Leaving. . Again."
I reached into my pocket. Pulled out the handcuffs I’d been carrying since the mont I realized who she was. Cold steel that glinted in the dim light.
Her eyes went to them. Then back to my face. Widening in shock.
"You’re not leaving," I repeated. My voice was calm now. Too calm. The kind of calm that ca before a storm. "Ever."
I snapped one cuff around her wrist. The click echoed through the silent room like a gunshot.
"You can’t—" she started.
I yanked the chain. Hard enough to make her gasp. Hard enough to pull her forward.
My smile felt wrong on my face. Dark. Almost cruel. "Actually, I can do anything I want. You’re still my mate. Still my wife. Still *mine*."
Her lips parted. To protest. To argue. To say sothing that would probably break what was left of my sanity.
I didn’t give her the chance.
My mouth crashed against hers.
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