Kaylee and Damien (6th in werewolf series)

Chapter Two

Darkness had fallen by the time the storm ended. Kaylee walked out onto the back porch and looked out at the yard, lit up by the glow of the porch light. She looked down the long porch and saw Jake and Angela cuddling on the porch swing. Kaylee walked with bare feet down onto the wet grass and across the yard to the swing set. She sat down on one of the swings and suddenly the urge to become a little kid again came over her.

She began to turn around and around, twisting the chains until they could not be twisted any more and then with a laugh she lifted her legs and held on tight as the swing spun quickly and her red hair was sent flying around her. Her stomach flipped and her adrenaline rose all as she laughed happily.

Things were so much simpler as a kid... Back when the hardest thing she faced was a ticked off uncle Jake in the mornings when her yelling would wake him up. Back before the wars and the killing. Back before chasing after murderers and thieves. Back when she still had her parents and she hadn't yet given her heart to a demon she could never really have.

She was just about to twist the chains of the swing again when a body suddenly appeared in the grass at the edge of the porch light. She heard Jake growl and jump to his feet and she stood as well and took a deep breath to catch the scent of the newcomer.

It was familiar and smoky and it made her heart race. 'Damien?' she thought and the next word to flash through her mind had her knees buckling and her grabbing onto the swing for support.

'Mate!' the wolf inside her screamed. 'The mate is hurt! Help the mate! He is bleeding. He is in pain! Save the mate! Comfort him!'

Damien was her mate? He couldn't be... Surely the wolf in her must be mistaken. She had known Damien for almost twenty years... If he was her mate she would have realized it before now!

"Damien!" Kaylee screamed loudly as she ran across the yard toward him.

"Stay away Kaylee!" Jake warned as he walked off the porch.

"Jake, that's Damien!" Kaylee replied. "He's hurt! I have to help him!" Jake stopped walking suddenly when he caught both Kaylee and Damien's scent join together on the breeze. They were mates. He had not noticed it before and he wondered why... A demon in the family? This was going to be interesting.

Kaylee fell to her knees beside Damien. He was laying on his stomach, face down in the wet grass. His long muscular body was naked and covered in blood. She rolled him over and gasped when she saw the shape he was in. His body had been ripped apart. The flesh and muscles all ripped through and mutilated across his stomach and chest. Kaylee was not a woman who fainted or panicked easily but the sight of Damien looking so pale and near death had her coming nearly undone. It did not help that the wolf in her was panicking that the mate was in pain.

"Damien, wake up..." she said gently as she laid her hand on his pale, face that was drawn tight with pain. He gave no indication that he heard her or that he was even alive.

"Angela, save him." Kaylee said looking up at her aunt with helplessness. Angela nodded and stepped forward but Jake grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"No." he said.

"Yes!" Kaylee exclaimed. "You can't just let him die!"

"He will not die, Kaylee."

"Let me heal him, Jake." Angela said, even though she wasn't sure just what she could do... His body was a mess.

"No, Angela. Demons do not like accepting help from anyone. He would not want you to heal him because he would not like feeling as if he owes you."

"Jake, he needs help!" Angela argued with her hands on her hips. Jake nodded.

"We'll take him inside and put him in a room. He'll heal on his own... I'm not sure why he hasn't healed already." Jake bent down and picked Damien up, tossing the bloody demon over his shoulder. He carried him into the house with Angela and Kaylee on his heels and up to the spare room that Vanessa had used before fully mating to Kayleb.