Danger Zone

It took everything in Damien to control Yukon's and his own emotions when they heard what Safira had to say. When he brought Safira back, they had to remove her clothes to dress her wounds.

Her injuries were extensive, but the scars of her past littered her body too. It was gut wrenching to see. It had to be much worse to be the person who experienced it.

"Who did that to you?" He struggled to piece his words together without allowing his anger to seep into them.

He curled his fingers and scrunched the sheets tightly in an attempt to hide it. But Safira saw it all. She was a little surprised by how affected he seemed to be by what she was telling him.

For too long, others had been dismissive of her struggles and pains. She had forgotten just how much she had suffered.

"Some wolves who didn't like me much, they saw me as a nuisance and a plague. Since I managed to beat them during sparring sessions, they wanted to level the playing field," she chuckled a little as she spoke. It was her way of making things a little more bearable. A little more bearable for herself.

She didn't realise she had clasped her hands together as she spoke. Fiddling with her fingers nervously as she relived those painful memories in her mind. The horrible names they used to call her, the things they used to do to her.

One of the worst marks they left on her was not the scars that littered her body, but the engraving they seared onto her lower back.

"Was the burn mark on your lower back part of their sick game?" Damien asked in a quiet voice.

Safira shivered. She brought her knees close to her chest. It was something she had kept bottled for years. Even Greyson didn't know about it. She knew he would have tore everyone apart.

"You… you saw it?" She asked, her voice was almost a whisper.

Damien clenched his jaw as he nodded. Tears fell from Safira's eyes. Long ago, she had decided to carry this shame, this pain, for the rest of her life. To the grave, she used to tell herself. But now that Damien knew about it, she felt a sense of relief.

It was like a burden she no longer needed to carry. The weightlessness allowed her long suppressed emotions to overflow. She recounted how it happened.

She has just turned 16, one of the first few milestones in a werewolf's life. This was the age most werewolves gained their wolves or shift for the first time. Safira was so excited, as her birthday coincided with a full moon. But Greyson wasn't there to celebrate it with her. He was called away to accompany the Alpha and Beta for an Alpha council meeting.

"During the Full Moon Howl, some wolves cornered me. They were drunk out of their minds on starwine. They thought it would be fun to hurt me."

Damien's gaze never left her. He tried his best to remain silent, to let Safira tell her story. Her body was trembling as she continued to speak. She turned to look at him, with fresh tears welling up in her eyes.

"They wanted to see how fast I could heal without a wolf."

Damien could not believe what he was hearing. Yukon was going wild with anger, calling for the destruction of those who dared to harm their mate.

"But some things can't be healed, with or without," Safira cried.

He wanted to tear those who hurt her apart. But there was something more important he had to do first. Damien reached over and pulled Safira into an embrace. He didn't know what else to do.

If he could take away the pain she felt at that moment, and all the moments before, he would do so in a heartbeat.

"They can't hurt you anymore," he whispered in her ear as she cried even harder than before. He could feel her heartbeat against his own.

The initial wave of anger he and Yukon felt was washed over by heart ache. Yukon was howling in pain in Damien's mind. They could feel the emotions in Safira's heart as though it was their own.

"I'll never let anyone hurt you again, you have my word, Safira," he swore as he planted a soft kiss on the top of her head.

That night, Safira wept in Damien's arms. All that she had suffered was ingrained in her soul. She had done her best to suppress the emotions, worked hard to grow stronger and build walls around her fragile heart.

The moment Damien hugged her, all those defenses melted away. All that was left was her fragile glass heart, engulfed in a flame of comfort and love. She pressed her cheek against his chest, listening to the sound of his rhythmic heartbeat through her sniffles and tears.

Nothing else mattered to her at that moment.

She was safe in his arms.

Despite the skepticism the wolves of Nightmoon had, Safira's words proved to be true. After a few days, Damien made a full recovery from silver leaf poisoning. He felt stronger than he had ever been.

To the surprise of the healers, Safira was recovering quicker than expected too. But there was an air of awkwardness between the Alpha and Safira. There were things left unsaid between them, things they had yet to disclose to each other.

Safira didn't want to bring it up in fear of interfering with Damien's recovery, while he didn't want to bring up her bad memories. Though they still shared the same bed, they slept facing away from each other. Safira appreciated his respectful ways but a part of her yearned for the warmth of his embrace.

That night was the best she had ever slept in a long time.

Now, she was on her feet once more. Laying in bed all day had made her soft and weak. She was happy to get back outdoors, although Damien had insisted she didn't go too far.

"As long as you're close enough for me to catch your scent, you can go anywhere you please, Sunshine," he'd told her the morning he left to attend to some Alpha duties he had nearby.

She could see it in his eyes as he cupped her face. He wanted to kiss her. But he didn't.

She secretly wished he did.

Since he left the morning before, she hadn't been able to keep him out of her mind. Safira desperately wanted to think of something else, worried what this could do to her. Distracted, she unknowingly crossed the border of the Obsidian Howl packlands.

She was in neutral territory, dangerously close to the borders of another pack. When the sense of familiarity hit her, a cold shiver ran down her spine. Looking all around, a sense of dread washed over her.

"This… no…" she whispered to herself as her voice began to shake.