The Last Heavy Door

Gretchen's heart pounded against her chest as she heard Damien's door open and footsteps coming towards her room. She closed her eyes tightly and prayed Daniel hadn't changed his mind about killing her. Given the way he looked as he laid there bruised and naked, Gretchen thought he let her off easy.When her door opened she caught the smell of lemon and sage and her eyelids instantly parted. "Jesus, Damien," Gretchen said as she ran into his open arms. "Oh God, I thought I killed you. Are you alright, baby?"

He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face into the top of her head as he smelled her hair. "I'm alright. It'll take more than a little love bite to end me, my love."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do it, my wolf just took over and I couldn't control it." Damien smiled as he huffed through his nose, then he pulled away and looked down in Gretchen's face.

"I need to show you something, Gretchen. You've been kept in the dark for far too long." Damien drew his fingertips down her tear stained face. "Do you remember in the library, I told you that there was more you needed to know?"

Gretchen nodded quickly. "I remember."

Damien motioned towards the door with his head. "Come." Damien took her hand in his, then waited for Gretchen to step through the door.

Gretchen fanned her face as they walked. Her cheeks were burning from the collection of salty tears on her skin. "You're really not angry with me?"

Damien pulled Gretchen against his side as they walked the hall. "No, of course not. Though, this was a bit unnecessary," Damien said as he dragged the back of his hand down his neck.

Gretchen rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. "I feel so disconnected from my wolf. It's like she's just living out her own life now and I'm not in the drivers seat anymore."

Damien smiled as he remembered how she tried to attack him twice since they met. "Yes, she always has been quite ill mannered, hasn't she?" He looked over at Gretchen and thought for a moment. "Haven't you ever wondered why you saw this place in your dreams? Or, the shack in the woods for that matter?"

Gretchen glanced at him before shaking her head. "They're just dreams. I've been having weird ass dreams my entire life."

Damien looked down at the ring on her finger. "No, my love, they aren't just dreams, they are gifts. The Fates are revealing their plans to you, you have to open your mind and heed what they're offering."

Gretchen sighed while she considered what he was saying. " How am I supposed to do anything helpful when my dreams are just a bunch of disjointed nonsense that doens't make any sense?"

"Gretchen, they do make sense. You're just being too stubborn to admit the truth to yourself."

As they got to the library door, the ancient male voice returned in Gretchen's head. Damien looked down to her and pushed his lips out in amusement. "Well."

Gretchen pulled her lips to the side as she shrugged."Well, what?"

Damien nodded at the rounded wooden door. "Answer him, he's waiting."

Gretchen glanced at the door then back to Damien. "I don't know the password."

Stepping closer to her, Damien rubbed the pad of his thumb down her lips."Yes, you do."

Gretchen licked the taste of him away. "You said it was some old family secret. How the hell am I supposed to know what that is?"

He leaned into her to look straight into her eyes. "It is a family secret, Gretchen. You're family, he already knows you. Just say it. Say my name."

Gretchen looked back to the door. "Damien." Gretchen flinched as the bolt unlocked and the door slowly popped open. Damien placed his hand on the center of the door then pushed it all the way open and let Gretchen through before he closed it behind him.

Gretchen's palms were nearly dripping wet with perspiration as the fear gripped her chest. Her last time in the library didn't go as planned and she was terrified at what it might have in store for her now. She blew out through her mouth as her heart raced. "What are you going to do to me this time?"

Damien turned Gretchen to face him and put his hands on her shoulders, then he blew out through his mouth as he tried to think of a way to begin. "Gretchen, I'm not doing this. It's your mind that controls this place. It wants to be set free from the little room you have it forced into. Let it out. Open the door." Then, he licked his lips and closed his eyes. "You asked me about my wife and son, Gretchen" He opened his eyes and cupped her face in his hands. " I want to show you everything, you need to see how it all began."

As the room around her began to spin, Gretchen could see trees and smell the scent of burning wood in the fireplace. When her focus returned, she stood in the one room, stone shack from her dreams. She and Damien stood together watching over the young couple as they laid cuddled up on the ground by the fire, their newborn asleep between them.

Damien smiled at the couple as the father kissed the baby's head and the mother gazed lovingly at him. "We were just children when we met, barely even sixteen. In those days, the Great Evil was just coming into power. He decreed that there would no longer be blood mixing, it didn't matter if they were your Fated mate or not."

Damien walked to the window and stared outside. "He set forth a mass extinction effort to rid the world of all halfbloods, just like that monster who killed you on Earth. When Mara and I found out that we were expecting, we had no choice but to run away. We both knew it was dangerous, but what we knew would happen to our child if we stayed made us desperate."

He placed his hands on the door and shook it causing it to fall from it's top hinge. Damien laughed at the ridiculously terrible construction of the hovel. "I built this for us to hide away in." Damien looked around the room. "There wasn't much time. I was a prince, not a mason. I did the best I could."

Gretchen smirked and wiped away the tear falling down her cheek as she looked around the room. "It's not that bad. You can't be devastatingly handsome and a good builder. It wouldn't be fair."

Damien chuckled out for a moment, then bit his lip. He took another look around as he walked back to Gretchen. "It didn't take them long to find us. We fought them as best we could, Gretchen, but I wasn't much of a warlock then. It's taken a few lifetimes to get it right."

Gretchen swallowed hard as she realized what he was implying. "What are saying? How long ago was this, Damien? You told me that you were 200."

He looked in her eyes and said, "I am. This time. This young couple lived over a thousand years ago."

Gretchen looked over the couple and began to breathe faster. "He doesn't look like you."

Damien raised his brows. "No. I like to think I've improved over time, but it's me just the same."

Damien stepped closer to Gretchen and took her hand. He looked down, then took a ragged breath as he slid his thimb across her ring. "Come now, Gretchen. You knew it at the ruins. You saw who I was until you shut the door. Your wolf, she remembered. She reclaimed me to show you the truth. This is not our first lifetime together and this isn't the first time you've worn this ring on your finger, my love."

Tears streamed down Gretchen's face and she swallowed the truth down hard as she shook her head no. She had shoved it away into the very darkest corners of her soul and she didn't want to know.

Damien sighed then let go of Gretchen's hand and stooped down to look closer at the three huddled together by the fire. "I saved every scrap of metal I could find for months.When I finally had enough, I melted it down to make that for you. I gave it to you the day you gave birth to Drago." Damien sucked back the tears coming to his eyes then he looked up to Gretchen. "Look at him. See how beautiful he was, Gretchen. Don't you remember our son?"

Gretchen's lips quivered and her whole body trembled as she shook her head. "No. That's not possible."

Damien closed his eyes and wiped his tears away before looking them over again. "See them Gretchen. Look past the faces. We didn't look the same back then. Our bodies were different, but our souls are the same. Those are just shells, look inside them."

Gretchen tried to back away from Damien, but he stood suddenly and grabbed her hands as he pulled her closer. "You need to remember now, my love. I didn't want to do things this way, but you're not being cooperative. So much hangs in the balance. I'm sorry." Daniel took her hand then placed it on the ancient bite mark on his neck.

Gretchen gasped and collapsed to the floor while the memories of her other lives were released from the dark corner of her mind when the last heavy door burst open. As she knelt there on the dirt floor on her hands and knees, she sucked back a pained breath and screamed, "Drago! No! Not my baby!"

Damien dropped to his knees and pulled Gretchen to his chest. As the nightmare of losing her son returned to her, Gretchen grabbed at Damien's shirt and wailed against his chest. He kissed her head and rocked her in his arms as a millenium's worth of pain flowed from her eyes. "I couldn't protect you both then, my love, but those days are over. We've learned so much in our other lifetimes, this time around will be different. Nothing will ever part us again."

He pulled her away and leaned down until their eyes met. "You had to remember, Gretchen. You're a strong wolf, there's no doubt, but you need your powers back. Every trick and move you learned over a thousand years. They were a gift to you to help us fight off the Evil. It will return soon and we need everyone to be at their strongest when it does. I told you that all of us were bound together for a reason. That is the reason.The purpose of all our suffering. It's why your father and Tessa were raised by Haldir. It's why Ben was cursed to lose Imara and Eliza over and over. Why some lucky country boy married a magical princess. Why my father traveled through space and time to meet my mother. Why you marked me a thousand years ago and bound us together for all eternity. Every horrific loss we've suffered, every life we've taken and every bond we've formed were to teach us a lesson to serve the future. They made us stronger and wiser. We will save this whole world, Gretchen. Our family, every last broken and wretched one of us, we will defeat the Great Evil together."

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