The Blessed And The Beast

Seven: Damien

Damien P.O.V.

I hated not having control over my actions. I told myself repeatedly to let the delusional and breathtakingly beautiful wolf go and to mind my own business. Whatever misguided feelings she had for me were just lust. Not a mate bond.

Bears didn’t have mates.

Most of them didn’t even settle down. When one did, it was a huge deal to my people. They would migrate from all over the world to witness the union.

Most of them would enjoy the company of strangers during their travels. It was common for them to reproduce, but the two parties would separate and go their own way once they had enjoyed each other. Very few mated for life.

I didn’t even know who my sire was; not many bears did. I would smell our relationship if I ever crossed him, but my father leaving my mother wasn’t traumatic or hurtful the way other species experienced it. There were no abandonment issues under the surface. It was just a part of our life and culture. Our mothers would raise us for the first thirteen to fifteen years of our life, and then we would leave the den, old enough to wander.

I hadn’t wanted to live that way, though. As a teenager and in my early twenties, I did my traveling and exploring, but now I was ready to settle down. I built my cabin and wanted to spend my life here.

The occasional woman would pass through my land, but they were always just looking for someone to fuck, perhaps to impregnate them before they went on their way, taking the baby with them whether the man wanted them to or not. Most men didn’t even know the women were pregnant

when they parted.

I never had, nor would I let them put me in that situation. I would only fuck in my skin and always wrapped myself up. Even then, I would pull out, trying to be as cautious as possible.

I had planned to make a home. Maybe one day, I would settle down with another bear, fall in love, and have the cubs that my mother pestered me about whenever I visited her. I wasn’t going to choose some wanderer who didn’t want monogamy and let her take my cubs away from me.

My mother knew my stance on it and was over the moon that her grandchildren would be close enough to visit her.

was confused

her soulmate. As much as

her men leaving without her. Before I knew it, I was at the edge of her camp, watching her carry in a deer and drop it down on an old torn piece of fabric in front of

to a

knew she had caught my scent, but she didn’t turn.

When I returned to my home the night before, I still felt her. I was dreaming about the sweet way her skin had tasted and the sound of her soft moan as she rubbed herself against

Had they not been soaking wet from the river, I would have slept in them. As

from marching back to her camp and giving in. I wanted to take her lips with mine. I wanted to know if her tongue, among other places, tasted just as good as

had in a long while. I dreamt of her, of Charlotte. When I woke up, I

explore this feeling. I wanted to understand it even if I couldn’t act

in response to her greeting, and she glanced over her shoulder, her hypnotizing green eyes widening when she saw me in my fur. Clearly, she hadn’t been expecting me to

were never wanted by other creatures. The only place I ever felt comfortable and safe was

she began walking my way. She wasn’t dressed the way I had seen

toned and looked like they could go

just above her waistband,

her here, dressed for a day around camp instead of trampling through the woods, she was in her element. It

Charlotte whispered, moving slowly

and I knew she could tell I was smiling at that comment. Her words had been innocent enough, but after a night of dreaming about how she would feel pressed naked against me, I couldn’t my mind from going down

it.’ Her finger pointed in my face as she stopped before me. She was so close I could bend my head forward and touch my nose against her breastbone. Did I want to touch her? Would she even let me after how many times

thoughts cut off as she placed her hand on the side of my neck, her

attracted to a woman. After how crazy she drove me last night, I was ready to shift to my skin, back her into a tree, and slam deep inside her. While my body screamed for me to give in and enjoy her, my mind told me

a soul mate. While I felt drawn to her and more than attracted to her, I couldn’t get in the way

but I didn’t know her or if she was the one for me, even though she claimed she was. If she wasn’t, it would be cruel for me to claim her as mine and take away her chance to find her other half. Plus, her kind didn’t like mine, and mine didn’t like