Chapter 83 Chapter 0083
•DANTE•
When I woke up on the day of the full moon, my head was buzzing, and having the ring was just pointless.
I took it off and dumped it into the trash bin when I got to the bathroom. I couldn't even see clearly without feeling as if someone was poking needles inside my eyes.
"Hey, babe," Cassandra's voice came from behind me. "Are you alright?"
I turned and looked at her, trying not to show her how hard it was to keep standing. "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't think I'll go to work today."
"Oh, you're sure you're alright?" Her brows furrowed.
She didn't know I was a lycan. To her, I was just a normal werewolf she had never seen shift before.
Not that she wouldn't accept me if she found out, but I didn't want her to see that part of me.
It was ugly when I shifted, and I did horrific things. I didn't want to put her life or Alena's at risk during a full moon when I lost control entirely.
"It's nothing, babe," I answered. "Probably the flu."
"Well, I can stay home with you—"
"No!" I snapped before she could finish.
She went quiet.
"I'm sorry." I took her hand and exhaled. "I'm just tired and need the day off. We can have dinner when you get back. Just the two of us."
She smiled at that. "Fine. Dinner sounds good."
I kissed her forehead and turned back to the sink. She stepped into the shower and I kept my eyes forward and focused on brushing my teeth, which became significantly harder when I caught her reflection in the mirror.
I rinsed my face and walked out before I did something that would make her late.
Outside the bedroom door, Alena was waiting with a drawing in both hands. She was holding it up already, presenting it before I had even fully opened the door.
"I drew this for you, Uncle D!" She said proudly.
I took the paper and crouched down to her level and wrapped my arms around her without looking at it first. "Thank you for the wonderful gift, Alena." I kissed the top of her head. "When Mommy leaves, you and I will have ice cream. And that stays between us."
I pulled back and she nodded with enormous enthusiasm.
"I heard that," Cassandra called from behind me, amusement clear in her voice.
Alena giggled and ran back down the hallway.
Cassandra came out of the bedroom twenty minutes later, dressed for work, her bag over her shoulder and her keys already in her hand.
She stopped in the kitchen doorway and looked at me.
"I meant to tell you," she said, her voice casual. "Mason is coming by this morning. He wants to take Alena out for breakfast."
I looked at her.
"I know," she added quickly, before I could speak. "I know it's complicated. But she asked for him and I can't keep saying no every time." She held my gaze. "Please don't be upset about it."
I said nothing for a moment. "I'm not upset," I replied.
I was upset. Mason was a fucking pain in the ass.
"I love you, baby!" She exclaimed as she walked to the front door. "See you later!"
'She is letting another man take what is ours.'
I stopped moving. The voice hadn't come from the TV playing in the living room, but it had come from my head as if it were my deep thought.
I turned and walked to the living room where Alena was already sitting on the couch with her cartoon playing and her bowl of cereal balanced carefully on her knee.
"I'll be right back," I told her.
She nodded without looking away from the screen.
I walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind me.
I stood in front of the mirror and stared at my reflection for a long moment.
My eyes looked different. The color was slightly deeper than usual.
"Who is there?" I muttered, feeling completely ridiculous saying it aloud to a mirror.
'You already know who I am.' The voice again. It felt so strange hearing it inside my head.
"Who are you?"
'I am you, Dante. The part you locked behind silver and guilt for eighteen years,' he groaned. 'Your lycan, but you can call me Zorath. I like that name.'
I gripped the edge of the sink. "You've been there the whole time?" I scoffed.
'Every single day,' he replied. 'I have been here since the night you first shifted in that factory. I have never gone anywhere.'
I looked at my reflection and said nothing.
'Come on,' he chuckled. 'We had fun yesterday, so don't pretend as if my presence here has brought you nothing but misery. You liked what you became, and I liked the freedom.'
"You know what happened the last time you were free," I sneered. "People died."
'People died because you were eighteen years old and terrified and had no idea what you were. That is not the same as who you are now.' His voice dropped. 'I am not your enemy. I never was. You made me one because it was easier than accepting that we are the same.'
I straightened up from the sink and looked at my reflection for a long moment.
Down the hall, I could hear the faint sounds of Alena's cartoon.
"We will discuss this further," I answered. "But right now there is a four-year-old eating cereal in the living room and her cartoon is going to end in twenty minutes and she is going to come looking for me."
Zaroth was quiet for a moment.
Then, with what I could only describe as reluctant approval, it settled.
'Fine,' he answered. 'But this conversation is not finished. I still need to lay some ground rules with you so you won't think of chaining me up again.'
"No," I agreed, and straightened my shirt. "It isn't."
I unlocked the bathroom door and walked back down the hallway to Alena.