Chapter 283: A predator in human form

Moving closer across the mattress, he slowly slid his broad palm farther up my leg, until it rested against my thigh.

"You did wonderfully, my little mate."

I closed my eyes, barely managing to suppress the moan threatening to escape my throat as his warm fingers continued exploring my sensitive skin.

It was absolute madness. Every sensation seemed amplified by the fact that I couldn’t see his hand beneath the blanket. I could only feel each movement against my skin, and all I could do was surrender to the delicious warmth spreading through me.

With a shaky breath, I lowered my trembling hands onto his bare, muscular shoulders and held on tightly.

I wanted this. Goddess, I’d wanted it for so long.

A shudder ran through me, a fierce, overwhelming wave that seemed to ripple through every part of my body. Damian pressed me gently against the soft pillows, his lips finding mine with the hunger of a beast that had been forced to wait far too long.

Time seemed to lose all meaning, giving way to something far more intoxicating. With every kiss, the worries and fears that had haunted me faded further into the background.

We broke apart only to steal another impossibly brief breath before finding each other’s lips again.

I couldn’t even tell who initiated the first kiss. Me or him. And, honestly, it didn’t matter. I wanted this madness just as desperately as he did.

It could have gone on forever, this sweet, dizzying insanity, if not for one particularly loud interruption.

The unmistakable sound of shattering glass.

Only belatedly did I register it through the thick haze clouding my mind. A second later, Damian’s lips abruptly left mine.

"Damian Rainn. Would you care to explain why you’re not at the university, but instead making yourself comfortable in our guest bedroom?"

A woman’s voice rang through the room.

Clinging to Damian’s shoulders as tightly as I could, I peered over his broad frame.

A dark-haired woman stood in the bedroom doorway, her arms folded across her chest. Right at her feet lay an overturned serving tray and the scattered remains of broken crockery.

"Looks like you’ll be meeting my mother today after all," Damian whispered with an amused chuckle.

Then he pressed a warm kiss to my flushed cheek.

***

The fact that Damian’s mother simply turned around and quietly left the bedroom, closing the door behind her, was almost unbearably kind.

I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to look her in the eye after that.

The realization of just how compromising our position had been finally caught up with me. My cheeks burned as though I’d been holding my face over an open flame.

I was mortified. Utterly, hopelessly embarrassed that she’d walked in on us like that.

Damian had barely pulled away from me, breaking our heated embrace, before I scrambled beneath the blanket. I curled up like a guilty child caught doing something forbidden, desperately trying to hide from the world.

"This is all your fault!" I hissed, my voice muffled by the fabric. My fingers clutched the edge of the blanket as the Alpha attempted to pull it away.

"I didn’t do anything," he replied, his voice dripping with mocking amusement. "Not a single thing."

Not exactly how I’d imagined my first meeting with his parents.

Within seconds, panic was creeping up my spine, and my imagination was already running wild. His family was undoubtedly going to think I was some shameless, horny breeder.

And after nearly having my clothes torn off in front of his mother, I couldn’t exactly blame them.

I’d barely escaped one humiliating situation when I’d immediately managed to create another.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

I abruptly threw the blanket aside and began scrambling toward the far edge of the enormous bed, desperate to put as much distance between myself and Damian as possible.

"Where are my clothes?" I asked, nervously licking my dry, chapped lips. I scanned the bedroom, searching for my dress.

"I threw the old ones away. Rose brought you some of hers. You’re roughly the same size, so they’ll fit."

Damian rose smoothly from the bed and walked over to an enormous wardrobe. He retrieved a T-shirt and turned back toward me.

Against my better judgment, I found myself staring.

He was built like a fucking tank. His broad back and powerful shoulders were covered in muscles that shifted beneath his tanned skin with every movement. Everything about him screamed strength.

A predator in human form.

Then I glanced down at my own legs and arms. Thin. Bruised. Covered in fresh marks. Compared to him, I felt like a fragile little matchstick that could snap in half between two fingers. The contrast was almost depressing. I was practically invisible beside him. And my breasts were tiny, too...

Anxiety began building inside me, one miserable thought following another. As if being humiliated in front of his mother hadn’t been enough, I was now finding entirely new reasons to feel inadequate.

Before long, I was pulling on a pair of soft sweatpants, a loose hoodie, and a thick coat that smelled faintly of flowers.

And then I couldn’t hold it in anymore. A miserable sob escaped my throat.

"Tell your sister I’ll stop by and see her later," I blurted out, hurriedly pulling the hood over my head to hide my tear-streaked face.

"What are you talking about?"

Damian crossed the room in seconds and mercilessly pulled the hood off my head. Then, wrapping his warm hands around my waist, he drew me back onto the bed, settling me across his thighs.

"I’m going home," I announced, desperately wiping the tears rolling down my cheeks with the long sleeve of the hoodie.

I tried to climb off him, but his arms tightened around my waist.

"You’re not going anywhere," Damian said firmly, tightening his arm around my waist. "You’ll stay here, under my protection, until we’ve caught every last bastard who poses a threat to your safety."

"Then at least take me home yourself. My home is safe, too..."

Turning away from the displeased Alpha, I caught a faint reflection of glass in the frames hanging on the bedroom wall. There were so many photographs. I wanted to look at them properly, but my eyes were still so swollen from crying that everything blurred into indistinguishable shapes.

"Why are you crying, Amelie?"