I wasn't running in fear or shame or even to hide. This time I was running head on towards the problem. I ran up the stairs as fast as my legs could take me. My ears were ringing, and more than once, I had to use my hands and the walls to steady myself but damn it, I was going to catch him. We weren't dragging this out any longer. What did I have to lose anyway? My life was already at risk always.
Just as he was leaving the last step and walking across the landing to his door did, I manage to catch him finally. I grabbed him by the back of the shirt and yanked. We were doing this out here. I didn't want the security of his closed bedroom door to provide him with more confidence than he already had.
For security reasons, the Alpha floor had cameras in case anyone decided to attack them. If he was going to kill me, his parents could at least see the monster he was quickly turning out to be.
He must not have heard me coming. He should have, at the very least, caught my scent. Maybe he didn't think I would be able to catch up to him. Either way, he wasn't very good at hiding his surprise. I wanted to slap that stupid look off his arrogant giant ass face. If he knew anything about me, he knew how hard I pushed myself every day. He would see that I was more than capable.
“Faith, I-” but I cut him off. This was my show right now. I'd had enough. If anyone was in control of this game right now, then it was me.
“Shut up, Declan!” his face was angry and hard, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.
“Unless you're going to tell me what the hell you meant back there. Then I don't want to hear it.” I snap
“If you don't want to hear it, then why did you follow me all the way up here?” he crossed his arms across his chest and stared me down. It was kind of hot, actually.
'Sapphire, stop it.' I warn her. It wasn't me feeling attracted to this black heart. It was my wolf. She doesn't say anything. She simply recedes quietly to the back of my mind.
“Because you are going to tell me what the fuck you meant back there.” I shoved his chest before I could think better of it. He swayed in the slightest, it was so small that the average human eye wouldn't have caught it, but otherwise, he didn't react to it all.
“I don't know what you're talking about.” there was no way I was about to let him play this game.
“What the hell were you talking about?” I snap, “What did you mean when you said you hate me because you can't have me? That makes no sense.”
I was losing my temper, yes, but I didn't care. I never rejected him. I was going to now, but not at first. Even after I caught him with Samantha, I was willing to forgive him. If he had come to me, explained, apologized, and promised that he would be faithful to the bond, I would have accepted the ass hat.
“Connor.” spit hits my face. I am disgusted. I quickly wipe it away but stop when I see how he is glaring at me.
“Who?” who the hell was Conner? If some dude had been making up lies about us being together, I was going to be pissed. I was a virgin. I had never even had a boyfriend. I wanted to save all my firsts for my mate.
He punches the wall repeatedly beside me. His broken, bleeding knuckles brush past my ear as he pounds the brick behind me over and over again. I am too afraid to move. Despite all my earlier bravado, I am rooted to the spot.
When did this man become so volatile? He wasn't the boy I thought I knew. Why did that keep making me so sad? It almost felt like my friend had died, but he hadn't. He was standing right in front of me, and I didn't recognize who he was anymore.
Red dust crumbles to the floor at our feet. I don't want to touch him, but I need to calm him down before that's my face.
I brushed my fingers gingerly across his cheek before cupping the side of his face with my hands. To my great surprise, he nuzzled in a little deeper. He turns his nose into my palm and inhales the scent.
I can’t hold it in anymore. I hate that I am doing this in front of him, but that one gesture broke down the wall I had built between us, and I was crying. Why was he torturing us like this? This may be my only chance to get all of this off my chest. I was going to take it. Hopefully, he would remain calm now that my hand was on his skin.
“The doctor said.” his eyes darted to meet mine. His soft ocean blue eyes. My breath caught for a moment. I couldn’t lose myself in those eyes. Not right now.
“The doctor said that if you continue to cheat on me that I’d die. Did you know that?” There was no way to prepare my heart for what was coming next.
“Yes,” he didn’t even flinch. He was destroying every last piece of me, and he didn’t even care.
“Why?” I sob.
“Connor.” he repeats like I should know who that is.
“I don’t know any Connors.” I should wipe away the tears. To see me hurt was what he wanted after all, and here I was giving him the satisfaction, but you know what, I needed too, I needed to cry, so I was taking this moment for me, to feel what I needed too. I’d been fighting it, and it hadn’t helped me. Maybe the only way out of it was through it.
“Exactly. You don’t even know his name. You took something from me. Something from my whole family, and you don’t even recognise his name.”
I have never felt so confused in my entire life.
“You should be dead. I don’t want you.”
A pain cut across my heart. I knew exactly what it was, I haven’t acknowledged it yet, but I’ve felt these pains since my birthday, another tear in the mate bond. There couldn’t be much of it left at this point.
“But,” he goes on. “But my mother says I have to accept you. She doesn’t want me to either. But she accepts that it’s what will give me the strongest heir. Children conceived outside of the mate bond, if they even survive, are sickly and weak. We can’t have a sickly Alpha. I’ll stop cheating until you give me an Heir but only until then. You mean nothing to me, and I’ll move on. I won't even wait until your out of the hospital.”
I thought back to only an hour ago when I was getting all dolled up for this. Even then, I didn’t know it would go like this, but here I was, about to sever the bond. If it killed me, I was okay with that, but the way he plans on using me? No way. I was not going to let that happen. I had to get out. I had to get out now.
“Not unless I reject you.” I was stupid to threaten him. I should have just rejected him. He was unhinged. He had proved that time and time again.
He was so strong I saw him move. I tried to dodge him, but I was too slow. Air was already whooshing all around me. My body hit the stairs, and all I felt was immense pain.
“You will be MY MATE!” he roars.
Like hell I would be, I promise myself, I don’t care how much he yells, screams, demands, or even begs at this point. I wouldn’t demean myself like that for the worthless abuser. I don’t know why the moon goddess would pair me with this nut job, but I didn’t have it. I didn’t have him. No way, no how. I can’t believe there was ever a time when I looked at this man and thought he had any good in him.
I want to stand and look him dead in the eyes when I tell him as much, but it’s a little more than I can manage right now, considering the dislocation and all.
I think I may have even broken a rib or two, I can barely suck in air, and I hope someone finds me soon and gets me the help that I need. I was a wolf, and I would heal fast, so I needed to have my hip set before that happened; otherwise, it could be really bad.
“I Faith Ashley huntress daughter of beta Mitchell Alaric huntress of crescent moon reject you, Declan John Smith future Alpha of crescent moon as my fated mate.” I grit out through clenched teeth, I'm trying to hide the pain from my voice, but it is futile. Still, I feel a rush of pride mixed with the excruciating pain from the rejection.
I didn't cave into the mate bond, no matter how much I wanted to. It’s unfair that it should hurt this much given all that I’ve already been through these past few days; I hope Declan is hurting just as much as I am right now; thankfully, it’s not long before I am finally blackout.