She Is Mine
~Lyra~
“Damon… please…”
I whispered it before I even meant to. My throat was still burning.
My knees were still on the floor. My pulse was still sprinting like it didn’t know if I was dying or just barely
surviving.
But I said his name.
Because I saw him.
I saw his body shaking, shoulders pulsing beneath his shirt like his skin was tearing from the inside.
His claws were still buried in Camilla’s neck, his lips curled back over his fangs, and his chest was rising in
hard, heaving waves like he couldn’t catch his breath. Like he wasn’t trying to breathe at all.
He was growling.
And honestly, I knew what happened to people who stood too close to an Alpha caught between forms. I
knew what happened when they lost control. When the beast inside them woke up and didn’t know the difference between prey and punishment.
“Damon… please,” I said again, louder now, dragging myself up from the floor, one trembling hand reaching
out toward him like I could touch him back into himself. “Let her go. You don’t need to do this. I’m right here.”
His head turned slightly.
Only slightly.
His eyes flicked to me. Just for a second. But in that second, I saw it.
The war.
The man I loved–my mate, my Alpha–he was still in there.
But something else was clawing through. Something older.
And then he spoke.
Or they did.
“No!”
The word came out in two voices.
One was his. Damon’s. Husky, furious, low like it scraped the bottom of his soul.
The other?
It was deeper. Louder. Hollow and ancient and echoing in a way that made my skin crawl and my blooc
to ice. It wasn’t just a growl. It was a presence. Something inside him had spoken.
Something other.
Camilla screamed.
< She Is Mine
I don’t know if it was from the sound or the pressure of his claws digging deeper, but it was real. Not manipulative. Not fake. Real. Raw. Terrified.
Damon’s hands shook.
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His chest was heaving faster now, every breath sounding like a fight to stay human. His jaw cracked. His neck popped. He was twitching like he was trying to control himself.
His claws curved sharper. His shoulders twitched. His veins bulged so hard it looked painful.
Camilla’s hands scrambled against his chest, smacking, begging, clawing like a desperate animal trying to escape a fire it started.
“I didn’t mean it!” she screamed, sobbing. “Damon, please! I was–I was scared–she was taking you from me!
“She is mine!” Damon snapped, both voices speaking at once now, layered and booming through the room.
She was given to me by the Moon herself. You are a f*****g contract. She is my mate. My Luna. My breath.”
He slammed her harder into the wall, and I swear to God the whole house shook.
“Damon,” I gasped, stumbling toward him, my voice cracking from the fire in my throat. “Look at me. Look at
me!”
He didn’t move.
Camilla’s legs twitched where they dangled. Her mouth was opening and closing. Her eyes were rolling.
“Damon!” I shouted louder, grabbing his arm now. “Let her go. I’m right here. It’s me. It’s Lyra. Your mate. Your
kitten. Your girl. You don’t need to do this. She’s not worth it. I’m right here.”
His whole body shuddered.
Then his head snapped toward me, eyes pitch black, canines bared.
I froze.
But I didn’t flinch.
“I’m not scared of you,” I whispered, voice trembling but honest. “Even like this. I’m not scared of you.
Because I know you.”
His claws twitched.
Then his fingers loosened.
Just enough.
Camilla dropped like a sack of bones to the floor, coughing, gasping, sobbing in broken, wet, ugly sounds that
didn’t move me at all. She curled into herself. Tried to speak. Failed.
But I didn’t look at her.
I only looked at him.
Damon was shaking. His breathing was ragged. His claws were still out. His fangs still gleamed. His muscles still pulsed with power. But he was looking at me.
Not through me.
She is Mine
At me.
“Come back,” I whispered. “Please, Damon. Come back to me.”
“Come back…”
I whispered it like a prayer, like his name was the only spell I had left in me. My voice still trembled, hoarse and torn from screaming, from choking, from pleading.
My throat felt like it had been wrapped in smoke and barbed wire, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care how broken I
sounded.
I didn’t care how small I was compared to the beast rising in front of me. Because I knew it was him.
Even with the claws and fangs and blackened eyes.
He was still mine.
And I needed him to remember that.
I stepped closer, swallowing the pain, the fear, the leftover terror still crawling across my skin like ice. My hand reached for him, slow and open, not to fight him–never to fight him–but to anchor him. To remind him.
He didn’t blink.
He just stood there, fists clenched at his sides, claws still wet, chest heaving like he couldn’t decide whether to breathe or roar. The gold in his eyes was gone. Just black now. Pure black.
But he was listening.
1 could feel it.
He hadn’t moved toward me. But he hadn’t moved away either. And that meant something.
“You’re still here,” I said softly, my voice shaking. “You’re still Damon. You’re still mine.”
He growled.
“I know you want to tear her apart,” I continued. “I know what she did. I know how close I was to dying. I know what it did to you. I felt it. But I don’t want her blood on your hands. Not for me.”
His jaw clenched.
His shoulders jerked once, like something inside him didn’t agree. Like the beast didn’t want to listen. Like it wanted vengeance. c*****e. Death.
But I kept talking.
I had to.
“You didn’t lose me,” I whispered. “You didn’t. I’m still breathing. I’m still here. I’m yours, Damon. I never
stopped being yours. And I don’t want the first thing you do after saving me to be something that haunts you.
”
His claws flexed.
I took another step.
My hand finally reached his chest. The moment my fingers touched him, he let out a sound–somewhere. between a gasp and a growl. His skin was burning hot beneath his shirt, his heart pounding wild and furious
She is Mine
against my palm.
I kept my hand there. Steady. Firm. Letting him feel me. Letting him know I was real.
“She doesn’t get to have this,” I said. “She doesn’t get to break you.”
His lips parted.
For a second, no words came out.
Just that rough, ragged breathing.
Then slowly–so slowly it felt like watching a glacier melt–his shoulders began to relax. His fingers curled in toward his palms. His claws retracted, not fully, but enough. His jaw eased. His chest rose and fell in a
different rhythm. Less deadly.
And then his eyes began to change.
It was subtle at first. A shimmer. A flicker of gold bleeding into the black like sunlight trying to pierce through ink. But it grew. Gradually. The gold returned. The beast receded. The man I loved–my Damon–was crawling
back to the surface.
I felt his hand close around my wrist.
Not hard. Not possessive.
Just enough to hold on.
His eyes finally locked on mine, and this time, they saw me.
“Lyra,” he rasped, his voice rough with strain. “She almost-”
“She didn’t,” I whispered, my eyes stinging. “Because you didn’t let her.”
He dropped to his knees.
Right there. In front of me.
His arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me into him, his head pressing against my stomach, his whole body shaking. Not from the shift anymore. From everything else. From the weight of almost losing. From the relief of.still having…
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, burying my fingers in his hair, holding him like he was the most fragile, furious thing in the world. His breath was warm against my belly. His grip was tight. And for the first time since I whispered his name-
He trembled.
“I thought she took you from me,” he said, his voice cracking. “I felt it, Lyra. I felt it.”
I knelt with him, dragging him down with me, pressing my lips to his temple, rocking with him on the floor like we were the only two people who existed.
“I’m always yours,” I whispered into his skin, my lips barely brushing the side of his face, and for the since this whole thing started, I felt him exhale.
st time
Not like he was calming down–but like he was finally breathing again. Like the beast inside him had stepped back, and the man I loved was holding me instead.
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She Is Mine
His arms stayed around me. His face stayed buried against my stomach like he didn’t trust the world enough to lift his head yet. And I stayed there, stroking his hair, holding him together even as my own body was
trembling.
Until I heard her voice again.
A rasp. Wet. Weak. But still loud enough to ruin the air between us.
“So it’s true,” Camilla coughed from where she was crumpled on the floor like a broken doll.
Damon tensed.
I froze.
My heart lurched into my throat.
She coughed again, her voice cracking, her chest heaving as she tried to pull herself upright.
I turned my head and saw her–smeared makeup, trembling hands, blood on her neck where his claws had
scraped.
But her eyes… they were filled with something that wasn’t just pain. It was hatred. Not the loud, dramatic kind she’d used to fake it. This was deeper. Wilder. The kind that couldn’t be reasoned with.
“What Tasha told m about what she heard in school…what happened at school…” she rasped, eyes flicking
between us. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
Damon didn’t move.
I could feel his jaw tightening against my skin.
“You really did it,” she spat, louder now. “You really told an entire school filled with teenagers that she’s yours. That she belongs to you. That you’re claiming an eighteen–year–old like she’s some f*****g prize to wave in
front of your pack.”
I blinked.
My stomach dropped.
Camilla’s eyes snapped to mine, venom flooding her voice now.
“Who the f**k do you think you are Lyra!”
“Camilla-“I tried to speak, but my voice cracked again.
She cut me off.
“What the f**k is so special about her, Damon?!” she shouted, staggering to her feet, pointing at me with
shaking fingers.
“Why do you always protect her? Why do you defend her like she’s worth anything? Why did you tell the whole school she’s yours? She’s eighteen, Damon. You are like a father figure to her! You bastard! That’s child abuse. That’s sick. You’re a f*****g pedo!”
And then he looked at her.
Right at her.
“I am not a father to her,” he said, low and clear.
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< She Is Mine
“You wanna know why she is so important”
“She is my mate.”
Camilla froze.
To be f*****g continued.
Royalty Writes
Thank you so much for all your support. I appreciate you all
