Page 34 of Howl For A Kiss
His hands stilled for just a moment before he resumed cleaning and dressing the wound. "Enough to know courage when I see it."
She didn't respond immediately, and the silence stretched between them like a bowstring pulled too tight. When he glanced up from his work, her blue eyes were fixed on his face with that same careful scrutiny.
"Beta Gray," she said quietly, testing the words like she was tasting something foreign. "That's what he called you."
The bandage in Damon's hands suddenly felt heavy as lead.No more running. No more lies.
"Elena—"
"Are you the Beta of Silvercrest pack?"
The question hung in the air, sharp and inescapable. Damon's hands continued their work automatically, securing the dressing around her wound with movements that had become second nature. But his mind raced through a dozen different ways to answer, all of them inadequate.
Tell her the truth. All of it. She deserves that much.
"Yes." The word fell from his lips like a stone into still water, sending ripples through everything they'd built together. "I am."
FIFTEEN
ELENA
He's really the Beta of the Silvercrest pack.
She sat frozen against the stone wall, her tactical gear suddenly feeling like a costume in some elaborate charade she'd been too blind to see.
The shock wasn't like Tyler's death—that had been sudden and brutal. This was worse. This was a slow poison spreading through her veins, tainting every memory of the past three days. Every gentle touch, every moment of vulnerability she'd shared, and every second she'd allowed herself to trust this man who'd been lying to her face the entire time.
"You're a Beta," she whispered, her voice barely audible above the crackling fire. "You're everything I've been fighting against."
Damon remained kneeling beside her, his hands stilled on the bandage around her thigh. The cloth wrapped around his waist did nothing to diminish his imposing presence and the undeniable authority that radiated from him like heat from the flames.
How had she missed it? The way he carried himself, the tactical knowledge that went far beyond any rebel fighter, and the intimate understanding of pack laws and Council structures.
Because you were a fool. Because you let yourself believe in fairy tales.
"Elena—"
"Don't." The word came out sharp. "Just... don't."
Her mind raced through every interaction and every conversation, reframing them through this devastating new lens. His evasiveness about his past, his reluctance to share personal details, and the way he'd deflected her questions about his life at Silvercrest territory. She'd thought it was loyalty to his rebel group, maybe some inter-territorial rivalry. She'd been so pathetically naive.
He played you like a violin.
The hurt was building now, a tidal wave of betrayal and rage that made her chest tight and her vision blur. This wasn't just about the lies—though those cut deep enough. This was about trust. About the fact that while she'd been breaking down her walls, exposing her fears and vulnerabilities, he'd been calculating exactly how to manipulate her.
"Three days," she said, her voice growing stronger with each word. "Three days you've been lying to my face. Watching me make a complete fool of myself. Watching me promote you to second-in-command. Watching me trust you with my life."
Damon's jaw tightened, guilt flickering across his angular features. "It wasn't like that."
"Wasn't it?" Elena's hands clenched into fists, her nails digging into her palms. "Then what was it like,Beta Gray? Were you gathering intelligence? Reporting back about the rebel operations? Or was this all just some sick game to you?"
"Elena, listen to me?—"
"Listen to what? More lies?" The dam burst then, fury flooding through her system like molten lava. "You knew exactly what you were doing. You knew I'd never have trusted you ifI knew who you really were. So you played the part of the mysterious rebel fighter and let me believe you were one of us."
She thought of their passionate kiss that morning, and the way her heart had raced when he'd looked at her like she hung the moon. The way she'd fantasized about him in the shower, and imagining a future with someone who understood her cause, someone who believed in what she was fighting for.
He's the enemy. He's literally the embodiment of everything you hate.
