Chapter 2 She's family

Elena's POV

He crossed the distance in a few long strides, grabbed Kyle by the collar, and drove his fist into his face without mercy. Every punch carried his full strength. Kyle's face was a mask of blood; he couldn't even beg.

"What are you?" Damian's voice shook with fury.

His eyes were red, his teeth bared. "Even if I don't marry her, she's still my stepsister. She's family. You think you get to want her?"

I stared at him. He'd humiliated me in public an hour ago — and now he was beating a man bloody for me.

A reckless hope rose in my chest. Did he still care?

Beside us, Vera's eyes went wide. She'd never imagined the cold, controlled Damian losing it in public over a woman he'd just thrown away.

Several people rushed in to haul him off. That was the only reason Kyle kept his life.

Damian shook them loose and strode straight to me.

His eyes were bloodshot, fury churning in their depths. He seized my wrist. The instant his skin touched mine, something like an electric current shot through me.

The strange numbness that had locked my body began to recede, and my limbs were finally my own again. I opened my mouth to speak, but he didn’t give me the chance. He hauled me down the corridor to the far corner, then shoved me back against the wall.

"Pleased with yourself, Elena?" He planted both hands on the wall, caging me in.

His voice was ice. "I reject you, and a second later there's a man lining up for you? You think that'll get to me? Make me jealous?"

I looked into his furious eyes and felt something close to disbelief.

For those few seconds he'd held my wrist, the numbness the wolf had left in me had started to fade. Now that he'd let go, it was creeping back.

"You just stood there and waited for Kyle to kiss you, didn't you?" When I said nothing, his voice rose.

"I didn't." I finally found a thread of strength. "I couldn't move."

"You're lying." He didn't believe a word.

"Something's wrong with my wolf." I met his eyes. He was the only one I could turn to. "I couldn’t control my own body back there."

I was an orphan. I lived on the Alpha family's charity. I had no one.

Even after I'd decided to give up on him, he was still my stepbrother in name — the only person I had left to ask for help.

Something clearly startled him. His eyes changed.

He stared at my white face, and at last his expression cracked. He lifted a hand, as if to check on me—

"Damian!"

Vera’s voice cut in. She ran over and wrapped both arms around his, her face all worry. "Are you okay? That whole thing scared everyone half to death. Kyle was only joking around. He was about to apologize. Everyone’s waiting for you. Go on back. I’ll stay and look after Elena."

Damian glanced at me, brow furrowed. But Vera kept pulling at him, and in the end he let her lead him away.

But Vera came back soon.

Once she'd made sure Damian was out of earshot, she stepped up to me.

The worry and softness vanished from her face, and pure malice took their place.

"See that, Elena? Everything you want, I'll take. Damian is mine. The Luna title is mine too."

I looked at her, the numbness worse than before. "What did you do to me? Did you make me like this?"

Vera let out a cold laugh and didn't answer.

Then she shoved me, hard, in the shoulder.

I lost my balance and fell into the room behind me. The door slammed shut, and the lock clicked home.

"Don’t worry," Vera’s voice drifted through the door, sweet as sugar. "Someone will be along to keep you company soon."

The ball hadn't stopped for the fight at all.

Music thundered outside.

"Damian! Vera! Kiss!" the crowd cheered.

"Isn’t Vera way cuter than Elena?" someone shouted, laughing.

The voices kept coming through the door.

I lay on the cold floor, trying to get up, but my fingers were shaking too badly. I opened my mouth, and nothing came out.

Ever since Damian rejected me, my wolf had gone quiet and my whole body had turned numb, useless.

The air in the room turned sweet.

It was the scent that had always been in my blood, the one no one else had.

I'd hidden it since I was a child, the way my mother told me to, under heavy perfume.

But now the perfume did nothing. That thick, sweet scent poured out of me.

My body grew heavier, my mind more scattered.

Dimly, I heard a sound in my head.

A deep sigh. My wolf.

Then, right after, a completely different sigh.

Why were there two?

One was my wolf. Who was the other?

I don't know how long passed before the door opened.

A tall man walked in, reeking of alcohol. He bent down, scooped me off the floor, threw me onto the bed, and came down on top of me, kissing me.

I remembered what Vera had said before she left, and on instinct I thought it was Kyle.

"Get off! Don't touch me!"I pushed at his chest with everything I had, thrashing wildly.

I turned my head and forced my eyes open, and my vision finally, barely, focused.

I saw the man’s face, and my gaze crashed straight into those silver-grey eyes. I went completely still.

Not Kyle.

Damian.