Damon looked at his tea.
Damian was right. He usually was about things like that.
"What’s going on," Eve said.
He looked at the grounds.
At the dark treeline and the quiet estate.
"Do you know what I was before all of this," he said.
She looked at him.
"Before you ca," he said. "Before the petition and the claim and Malachai and everything." He paused. "Do you know what I did? Who I was?"
"Tell ," she said.
"I trained," he said. "Pack security. Border patrols. I handled the physical protection of the estate and the pack mbers and everything that required soone to be fast and strong and willing to put themselves between trouble and the people they loved." He paused. "I was good at it. That was my thing. That was who Damon was." He looked at his cup. "The one who handled the physical stuff. The one who moved fast. The warm one who made rooms feel safer."
"You still are those things," she said.
"I know," he said. "But those things were defined by what I was protecting against. There was always a threat. Always sothing I needed to be ready for." He paused. "And now...." He stopped.
"Now there isn’t," Eve said.
"Now there isn’t," he said. "And I keep waiting to feel relieved and instead I just feel....." He looked for the word. "Empty. Like I built my whole identity around being ready for sothing and now that sothing is gone I don’t know what’s underneath it."
The estate was quiet around them.
Eve looked at him.
"Can I tell you what I see," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"I see soone who drove to a primary school to watch a little girl with a fox backpack walk ho safely," she said. "Because he needed to know she was okay with his own eyes. Not because anyone asked him to. Not because it was his job." She paused. "Because he has a heart so large he can’t help it."
Damon looked at the grounds.
"That’s not a job description," he said.
"No," she said. "It’s better than that." She held his gaze. "You’ve been defining yourself by what you protect against. But what if you defined yourself by what you care about instead? Those are different things."
He was quiet.
"You care about Rosie," she said. "You’ve never t her. She’s the daughter of a man who betrayed us. And you drove to her school because you needed to know she was fine." She paused. "What are you doing about that?"
He looked at her.
"What do you an," he said.
"Callum is still on estate grounds," she said. "Cooperating. Restricted. He has a daughter he’s been separated from for months because he can’t leave." She paused. "You asked for her na. You drove to her school. You’ve been dealing with this for months." She held his gaze. "What do you actually want to do about it?"
Damon was quiet for a long mont.
He had been dealing with it since the east wing.
The na. The fox backpack. The Thursday walking route used as a weapon.
He had been thinking about it without doing anything about it.
"I want her to be okay," he said. "Not just safe. Actually okay." He paused. "She’s eight years old. Her father has been restricted to an estate for months. She doesn’t understand why she can’t see him." He looked at Eve. "That’s not her fault."
"No," Eve said. "It isn’t."
"Callum did what he did," he said. "I’m not excusing it. But he did it because soone found his daughter’s na and used it as a weapon." He paused. "She was a victim of this before any of us."
Eve looked at him.
"So what do you want to do," she said.
He thought about it.
Really thought about it.
What did he want.
He wanted Rosie to have her father back. He wanted Callum to have made different choices. He wanted a world where that didn’t happen.
"I want to talk to Callum," he said. "Not about what he did. About his daughter." He paused. "And I want to talk to Damian about what cos next for him. Whether there’s a way forward that isn’t just....indefinite restriction."
Eve was quiet.
"Damian has been thinking about it too," she said. "He hasn’t said anything because he’s waiting to know what you think."
Damon looked at her.
"He’s waiting for ," he said.
"He always waits for you," she said. "On the things that matter emotionally. He trusts your judgnt on people more than his own."
Damon sat with that.
Damian. The most controlled man he knew. Waiting for Damon’s read on a person.
"I didn’t know that," he said.
"He wouldn’t tell you," she said. "But it’s true."
He looked at the grounds.
At the dark and the quiet and the estate that had always been ho and was now sothing bigger than it had been before, not just pack territory but the place from which a reform that would change the supernatural world was being built.
The crisis hadn’t created it. The crisis had just given it a direction.
"I’ve been looking for sothing to protect against," he said. "But that’s not actually what I am."
Eve looked at him.
"What are you," she said.
"Soone who takes care of people," he said. "Not because there’s a threat. Just because...." He stopped. "Just because that’s what I do."
She looked at him and said "Yes, that’s exactly what you are."
He looked at her.
At the woman who had walked into his estate with nothing and had beco, everything. Not just his mate. Not just the heir to a throne. The person who sat with him on the back step at seven in the evening and asked the right question and waited for him to find his own answer.
"Thank you," he said.
"For what," she said.
"For not telling I was fine," he said.
Eve smiled and said "You’re not fine," she said. "You’re figuring sothing out. That’s better than fine."
He bumped her shoulder.
She bumped back.
They sat in the there for a little while longer, Then Damon stood up.
"I’m going to talk to Callum," he said.
"Tonight?" she said.
"Tonight," he said. "Before I talk myself out of it."
She looked up at him.
"Tell Damian," she said. "Before you go."
"I know," he said.
He went inside and he walked down the hall towards Damian’s study.
He was at the desk but he wasn’t working. He was sitting with a cup of coffee looking at nothing in particular.
He looked up when Damon ca in.
Damon sat down across from him.
"Callum," Damon said.
"I know," Damian said.
"I want to talk to him," Damon said. "About his daughter. About what cos next."
Damian was quiet for a mont.
"I’ve been waiting for you," he said.
"Eve told ," Damon said.
Damian looked at him.
"She’s good," he said.
"Yes," Damon smiled and said. "She is."
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