Chapter 81

I'd asked Damion a few times when I'd get the chance to meet this side of himself. I'd been wondering if I'd get the chance to see his shifter form the way that I'd seen Arden's, Xavier's, and even Leif's. And while I'd had a glance of his transformation earlier, right before I'd run off into the mountains to meet with the elves, this is the first chance I've had to really take in the extent of this side of Damion.

As Damion whips his head over his shoulder, my eyes are immediately drawn to his eyes which are still shaded in the darkest amber I've ever seen them. Deep black veins spider out from his eyes and his usually pale skin is now something else entirely. It now borders on a darker shade of gray, shadowed and leathery. There are spatters of blood splashed along his prominent brow which is furrowed in a harsh dark line over his glowing eyes making them stand out in sharp contrast. The cutting lines of his cheekbones pierce out even more sharply than normal, creating indents in his cheeks.

Damion's muscles continue rippling around where black deadly spikes pierce from the skin on his back. His beautiful, familiar lips are pulled back from the sharp points of his elongated teeth. Black claws protrude from his knuckles, piercing into the skin of the Unseelie King where he has him around the neck in a death grip.

He's terrifying and beautiful and monstrous and perfect all at once.

The berserker.

Whenever Damion had spoken about his berserker side, he'd always spoken of it as if it were a part separate from him. *A possessive greedy bastard*, he'd referred to it on more than one occasion. Seeing this side of him now, I can't help but recall the conversation we'd had the night I'd returned to the mountain castle after being in Elfhame.

*"When am I going to get to meet this berserker side of you in person?" I'd asked him as he fed me forkfuls of food in his bed.*

*"Hopefully not for a good long while." He'd admitted with a wary smirk. *

*"You don't want me to meet him?"*

*"It's not that I don't want *you* *to meet it," he'd explained, "It's that I don't trust *it* * with meeting* *you*."*

Whatever reservations Damion had had about this moment, there was no turning back from it now.

The berserker tilts his head into the air, breathing in deeply- breathing in *my* scent, I quickly realize- and those amber eyes flash more brightly than before. A thunderous purring growl emanates from the berserker's chest and it's nothing like the murderous growling from before, but more like the rumbling purrs from a happy cat.

I take that as something of a good sign.

"Damion," I say, taking another measured step his direction, "Everyone's safe now. You can put the Unseelie King down-"

As soon as the words leave my mouth, the berserker does just that. His claws retract from where they've been embedded in the Unseelie king's throat. He drops the sputtering and gasping male to the ground where he collapses into a heap at his feet and groans loudly.

I blink in surprise.

*Well, that was easier than I thought it was going to be.*

The berserker turns the rest of the way around to face me head on. Those bright amber eyes flicker over me with an intensity that has my breath catching in my chest. His gaze is potent enough that it's like I can feel the weight of those eyes as they trace over my skin. Gods, I've never seen anything like him before- brutal and wild and breathtaking.

Without thought, I take the last few steps separating us, closing the remaining distance between us.

"Are you alright?" I ask him, my hands reaching up to trace over his black fighting leathers, "Did you get injured at all in the fight?"

There's blood soaking through some of the dark material, but after running my fingers over the areas, it doesn't appear that any of it belongs to him. The pleased vibrating purr in his chest deepens, growing louder as my fingers trace over him and my heart skips a beat. His head cocks to the side, every inch of him a predator eyeing his prey. A surprised thrill runs through me.

Satisfied that he's unharmed, I start to pull my fingers back. Before I can pull back too much though, his own clawed bloody hand shoots up with lightening speed to stop me. He grabs onto my hand in his own, pulling it firmly back against his leather clad chest. *Well, then*.

In a move very reminiscent of that morning in his bedroom when Leif had barged in, his other large palm comes up to grasp my other wrist- the one not being pressed into his chest. Holding it firmly between his callused fingers, he tilts his head to breathe in deeply along my wrist and leaning in, face going slack as he soaks in my scent. Distantly, I notice a few shifter soldiers cautiously moving around us to grab hold of the fae that the berserker had been threatening only minutes ago. For the moment, everyone else is all but forgotten to the berserker, though. He continues dragging his lips up the sensitive skin of my wrist and inner arm, working his way up to my shoulder.

A blush heats my cheeks when his wild face dips into the crook of my neck breathing deeply. A shiver wracks over my body as the hot slick press of his tongue drags along my racing pulse there. The rumbling purr in his chest only growing louder. My mouth goes dry and a flash of heat shudders through me.

Then, one of the shifter soldiers makes the mistake of letting one of the Unseelie soldiers they're transporting for questioning take a step too close. Damion's hulking frame freezes as the unseelie steps in what he must consider to be a threatening distance. Sensing what he considers a threat, the berserker's head whips up from where he's had it buried in the skin at my neck to let loose another monstrous, murderous roar that has the fae tripping over himself to move away.

In the next moment, between one breath and the next, the berserker has me thrown over his massive shoulder and is tearing his way up the mountainside away from the surrounding group of soldiers. The landscape turns blurry around us as he carries me away into mountainous wilderness.