33

DAMIAN’S VIEW

Exhausted, I went into the bedroom and closed the door with a quick squeeze of my hand. With my eyes half closed I could only hear footsteps approaching and two hands on my face. I sighed in delight. Alina laughed softly, but then said worried: "You shouldn't have worked so hard today. You need your full strength tomorrow."

"That's why I'm here," I replied, "I'm replenishing my energy with your presence." "That's no joke." Alina was audibly indignant. I opened my eyes and looked into Alina's face. It was just as beautiful as it was several hours ago.

"We've been apart for far too long." Instantly, concern vanished from her blue eyes, replaced by amusement. She grabbed my hand and led me to the bed. I smiled to myself, glad she got my message. But then she just sat down next to me and took my right hand in hers. I looked at her confused. Alina responded with: "I know exactly what you want, and I'm happy to be open to it later, but first I want you to talk."

My confusion kept growing. She laughed. "Are your hormones making you unable to think? Sometimes it helps to just talk. I think it's better if you open up completely. Just tell me what happened today and I'm sure you can better sleep." I snorted. I really didn't want to do that, but maybe she was right. At least I could try. So I nodded in agreement and wondered where to start. "I presented our plan to the Alphas. Eriens agreed immediately. Zabrina made a few suggestions for improving the distribution of the warriors." Alina didn't ask what exactly we had changed in the plan. She wasn't interested in that, nor was it important to her right now. Instead, she watched me, nodding now and then, which encouraged me to continue. I began to suspect that Alina wasn't just a goddess because of her powers. She was the heart of an entire race and yet she had worked for the good of humanity.

Furthermore, her gift was not only in her power and responsibility, but also in what she did for us personally. She solved problems and always had an open ear for everyone. She probably didn't even realize it, but the werewolves around her appreciated her for always having advice, or even just listening. She cared about her fellow human beings.

That was exactly what made a Luna. But I wouldn't tell her that at first. Thinking back to how she had reacted once when Jack had said something like that to her, it must have been a good decision. "Karl didn't have a problem with it either, but indicated that we could be glad that Egbert wasn't there. He would certainly have had something to complain about." That was definitely a stroke of luck, given that the Alpha had often disagreed with me. Alina was also aware of this. She asked, "Does Karl know anything about Egbert's return?"

"No, he said he hadn't received any information about this." Alina looked to the side thoughtfully, then she looked back at me and I already knew what she wanted to ask. "How did Sam react to the plan?" I wrinkled my nose. Yes, that one good Sam." He asked a lot." This confused her. "Well," I explained further, "it seems he doesn't really trust us or doesn't trust our procedures. Samuel asked so many questions I had the feeling he was only doing it to annoy me." I understood her look and what it meant.

"Don't worry. Someone also noticed my mood and rushed to my aid." "Who?" A person I wasn't expecting it from. Maybe I really needed to reconsider my opinion of him. "Niklas." I took a deep breath and reported on it in more detail.

Niklas had explained our plan so precisely that I could already see myself fighting in my mind's eye. He described it in detail and answered every question with impressive correctness. The boy really was smarter than people thought. And he had a certain survival instinct that intrigued me. He always seemed to be on guard.

He kept a close eye on his surroundings and observed. I wondered what he had noticed that the rest of us had overlooked. When I noticed something like that, I automatically asked myself what memories Alina had seen of Niklas at the time and whether they could explain his behavior. "After that I went to my people." That meant my fighters. " As soon as I entered the house, I was pulled into the living room and forced into a guys' night out." I laughed at the memory of the things we had told each other. "Only Connor wasn't there. He's probably with Celine." "I haven't seen her since Benjamin died," Alina murmured absently, but then composed herself. "What did you talk about?" I laughed again, this time more subdued. "You don't even want to know , but we asked Ethan about Lisa." Alina grinned and moved closer. She was also interested in this topic. "He didn't really say much, just said he didn't tell Lisa what was going to happen tomorrow." "Why not? she said indignantly.

"He doesn't want her to worry. Should something go wrong he also wants her to live on and not grieve for him." Lerhome was clearly bothered by that. He hadn't understood why Ethan couldn't just be honest, but I could kind of understand him. He only wanted the best for the woman he was How could I not understand him and his situation when I was so concerned. I had even toyed with the idea of leaving Alina at home, but I was sure that she definitely wouldn't like it besides, I didn't want to start a fight on that quiet night while everyone was getting ready for tomorrow. Our time was too valuable for that.

"We drank quite a bit. I think Drokor wished he could get drunk and just go to sleep first, so he wouldn't worry so much." I had known Drokor for a very long time, so I knew that he had never really loved anyone. His parents had abandoned him long ago for not wanting a child, and he has never dated anyone since approached him in such a way. Still, he loved his life beyond measure and didn't want it to end.

"Now I can understand why you're so exhausted." Alina giggled. "I guess I would be too." "You would tell me something too? How was your visit to Amelia?" She pursed her lips. "Could have been better." Alina turned her head and looked out the window at night. Only after a while did she look back at me. "But I want something else for you tell.”

ALINA’S VIEW

Indeed we were. As crazy as it sounded, we hadn't acted like them at all. Damian didn't say anything, just looked at me calmly. He waited until I was ready to continue.

"His father's pack had made their home in a forest, hidden away so that under no circumstances would the humans who lived far away find them. For although Case was a true tyrant, he wanted to avoid unnecessary complications as he was particularly concerned with his people at the time had to keep busy."

Even then, a group of people had decided that case art was not a good thing to rule. They wanted to overthrow him and Case got wind of it. So he was totally occupied with overcoming this problem. Luckily for me.

"I was living in the city of men during this time and had made friends there. Of course, I heard about the arrival of a new pack and wanted to scout them out." I smiled sheepishly. "Unfortunately I wasn't quite as skilled at that point as I am today and someone noticed me."

"Samuel," Damian stated. I nodded in agreement. "I couldn't reveal my powers and therefore couldn't defend myself, so I begged him, persuaded him to just let me go. He did, but only on one condition. He wanted to learn how people lived."

Sam had always been curious and interested in other cultures and ways of life. "I agreed, knowing that I could defend myself if something went wrong. It also gave me a closer look at the inside of the pack. We exchanged ideas. I reported on the people, how they lived, what they believed, and Sam in return told me about the werewolves and his pack too."

"Is that how you found out about Sylle?" Sam's best friend. "Yes. Eventually we had achieved such trust through our regular conversations that he even told me about her. His most precious treasure." I smiled at the memory of Sam calling her and Sylle smacking him in the upper arm. "He introduced her to me and I could understand only too well why he only ever spoke highly of her."

"Were they ever...?" He didn't finish the sentence, but I still knew what he meant. "No," I giggled. "Definitely not. They were like siblings. The sister and the brother that the other couldn't have."

"And what happened? Why were you like that to each other before?" "One day a group of about thirty people were walking in the woods. They had no intention of hurting anyone, they just wanted to get out of their town." Which was perfectly understandable, considering that at the time, going out of town was considered rather dangerous and as a result people rarely left their homes.

I had found out about her plan too late to stop her. "I ran to them as fast as I could. I followed their footsteps and I wanted to... I just wanted to chase them out of the forest. Because although Case had been holding his tongue until now, I was sure that he wouldn't let something like that get away with him would."

I swallowed hard and looked out the window again. "I was too late. I could hear their screams from afar, but when I got there they were all dead and the last of the wolves were just fleeing. I chased them. There were three of them and they were still a long way from their village I killed them too. After all, Case had had so many innocent people killed and they just followed the order."

I stopped and Damian asked cautiously: "What happened then?" "I stormed into their village, knocked the werewolves aside and confronted Sam." I paused again. "He knew. He knew and didn't do anything to stop it. I was totally stunned and didn't understand why he hadn't even told me. Sam was overwhelmed and kept saying there was nothing he could do ."

Thinking back on it, you could think I'd overreacted, but I knew everything I said was based on my true emotions and was definitely right. At least for me. "He didn't defend himself in any other way. Just over and over again he couldn't do anything. So I hit him. I was so angry that he just let these innocent people die. That's probably when they noticed my supernatural strength. After that I left ."

Everyone had looked after me in bewilderment and didn't know what to do. "Sylle followed me and told me more about it. She just wanted to defend Sam. His father had noticed that he was spending more and more time with a human and called him a weakling. He hit him in front of everyone. In this pack that was it a huge exposure."

I looked back at Damian, who was stroking my back with his hand to comfort me. That encouraged me to keep talking. "Case demanded that Sam help and work more with the pack in return for this. He deliberately told his son about their plan. But Sam cared more about his standing in the pack than thirty innocent lives."

I sighed and my shoulders sagged. "Sylle wanted to calm me down with her words, but had achieved the opposite. I was so furious that I ran right back." I looked aside in shame. "I was no better than his father at that moment. In front of everyone present, I called him a coward and a selfish man." I had yelled at him for five minutes.

"Case heard everything. I think everyone heard everything. The fact that Sam still managed to carve out a position as an alpha is unbelievable. But Sylle probably pushed him to it. Albeit in a different way than would have been good."

I felt a tension drain from my body. I hadn't shared this experience with anyone for so long, which bothered me more than I'd admit. Because I felt guilty too. Not only had I killed three werewolves that I was responsible for the existence of, but I could understand Sam in his position, but in this situation I hadn't been able to see that. Then when I saw him, everything came back up and I couldn't control myself. Not really mature, but it just had to come out.

"Like Sam said, it was both our fault that we broke up like this. But he's making it up to us now and I think we probably just need to talk about it." Damian and I didn't talk for a long time and just let what I had just revealed sink in.

I broke the silence by saying, "Thank you." Damian laughed and looked at me in amusement. "What's that for?" "For just listening to me. You didn't say anything, just made me speak up. And I didn't realize how much I needed it."

"Well," he replied, smiling, "no problem. I'll always do that if you need it. Besides, it was actually your idea. So you have yourself to thank." I laughed and buried my face in his chest. "Promise me we'll make it tomorrow." "You know I can't do this. But I promise I'll do whatever it takes to make sure we survive."

"Okay," I whispered, "I can live with that." I raised my head and kissed Damian. Gently at first, but then I sat on his lap and pushed him back. He laughed breathlessly after tearing himself away from my lips. "What is the?" "You have something good with me," was the only thing I answered before sliding down his body and stopping at his waistband.

He looked at me wide-eyed as he realized what I was about to do. I smiled cautiously and whispered, "Relax." And he did. The tension left his body and he put an arm under his head. Damian looked at me waiting. I gave him a challenging smile as I undid his pants and freed him from his clothes. Directly following my first touch, Damian groaned beneath me, closing his eyes and savoring my thanks for his words.