Page 71 of Damien’s Mate

Brandon had been looking from one of them to the other, and now he turned on Remy, growling. “You knew Lila had Draken relics here, and you didn’t think it was important to tell me?”

“Um…”

Brandon raised his eyes to the sky. “When are you fuckers going to start telling me things?”

Titan returned from the shed with two bottles of whiskey. He handed one to Brandon, winked at Damien, and handed him the other.

“I asked him not to tell,” Damien said. “I shouldn’t have even told him. I promised Lila I wouldn’t, and now she’s pissed at me for betraying her.”

“Oops,” murmured Callie sympathetically.

“I figured it didn’t matter,” Remy said to Brandon. “No one knew she had the artifacts except Damien, so it wasn’t like they’d bring Draken down on us.”

“Except that she was magically talking to the Lion Guard from my guest suite.”

“Uh, yeah. Except for that.” Remy glared at Damien.

Brandon shook his head and took a slug of whiskey. “I knew I should have moved to Bali instead of becoming an alpha and trying to corral you yahoos into a crew.”

Damien said, “I didn’t think they’d answer. It’s been twenty years since her father left.”

Brandon said, “But now they want her back. And she wants to go?”

“She says it’s her duty. Her fucking father raised her to be nothing but a soldier, another relic hunter like him. All her life he dangled this dream in front of her, of going ‘home’ to a fucking tickertape parade and a ready-made lion family. While he took her childhood away. Then he fucking went and died, leaving her to finish his damn obsession.”

They all went silent at that. Damien opened the whiskey bottle and took a long swallow. The liquor warmed his throat and lit a fire in his belly, but the glass shards in his chest were still as cold as ice.

“I guess you couldn’t talk her out of it?” Callie said. Damien didn’t even bother to answer. They began passing the whiskey bottles around the circle.

Remy asked, “When is she going?”

“Tomorrow.”

Colt said, “I take it she didn’t ask you to go with her?”

“A hooman? No. I found her packing her things. I think she was just going to leave without saying anything.”

Jaeda said, “Oh, Damien, I’m sorry.” She hugged his arm again.

Brandon asked Damien, “You really love her?”

Damien took a bottle from Kitty and took another drink. “Isn’t it obvious?”

There was a lot of eye-rolling, and a chorus of yeses.

Brandon gave a huff of laughter. Then he said, “She love you?”

That got more eye-rolling. “Of course she does,” Jaeda said. “That’s totally obvious too.”

Damien snorted. “Clearly she does not, or she wouldn’t be leaving me.”

Brock said quietly, “It’s hard to give up on something you’ve believed in since you were a little kid. And it’s really hard to turn your back on what everyone expects of you.”

He should know.

The rest of them were silent.

Damien said, “Yeah. I get it. This is all she knows.”