Chapter 51 The Confrontation
Malia's POV
The sound of shattering glass wakes me.
I jerk upright in bed, heart pounding, blinded by darkness. For a moment I think I dreamed it, but then I hear voices—loud, angry, clearly Aiden and Rowan.
"...you had no right!"
Aiden’s voice echoes through the walls, sharp enough to cut.
I am out of bed before I even think about it, grabbing the first thing within reach, one of Aiden’s hoodies and sliding it on as I make my way out into the hall.
The door to Rowan’s room is ajar, light spilling through. I can see them in there being two wolves ready to rip each other apart.
“No right?” Rowan’s laugh is sharp. "She’s not your property, Aiden!"
“She's mine!” Aiden’s fist rams into the wall next to Rowan’s head, the impact creating a small hole in the plaster. "We've got a bond. A real bond. Not some sad little greenhouse fantasy!"
My stomach drops.
He knows. Of course he knows, he probably smelled Rowan on me the second I walked through the door.
“You think buying her fancy clothes makes her yours? " Rowan pushes Aiden back, enough to make him stumble. "You think spending money on her is the same as getting things for what she needs?"
"Don't you dare." Aiden’s voice turns to something menacing. “Don't you pretend like you know her better than I do.”
"I know she came to me this night!" Rowan’s eyes blaze. “I know she kissed me back! I know the bond wants me as much as it wants you, and that’s the thing you can’t stand!”
Aiden is so quick I hardly catch it -- one moment they’re yelling at one another, the next his fist is smashing into Rowan’s jaw with a sickening crack.
Rowan staggers but doesn’t falls. Instead, he throws himself at Aiden and they slam into Rowan’s desk with the impact causing books and papers to fly.
“Stop!” I’m running toward them, but they’re not hearing me.
They’re a punch-happy, entangled rage, smacking each other too efficiently. Blood bleeds out — whose, I don’t know. They slam into the bookshelf and it tips, books rain down, sheets of paper flying all around.
“You’re confusing her!” Aiden has Rowan cornered against the wall now, his forearm to his throat. “Making this harder than it needs to be! She was fine until you started filling her head with your ‘my suffering is nobler’ routine!”
Rowan slams his knee hard into Aiden’s gut. Rowan breaks loose and shoves him back as Aiden doubles under.
“Because you think you own her!” Rowan’s breathing is labored, there’s a cut above his eyebrow bleeding freely. “Because you can’t stand the idea that maybe she doesn’t want to be owned! Maybe she wants to be loved!”
“I do love her!”The room shook with Aiden’s roar. "More than your pretty words and romantic gestures! I’d light the whole fucking school on fire for her!"
"Then why not give her some space to breathe?" Rowan fires back. “Why not let her see what she wants on her own, without all of you pressuring her and claiming her and marking her as yours every time you get?”
Aiden’s eyes flash bright blue, his wolf emerging from his human shell. "Because if I don’t,you’re going to take her away with your bleeding heart and greenhouse speeches and your ‘I love you’ confessions!"
"Stop!" I yell again, but I'm drowned out by their fury.
They collide again, and this time when they hit the floor, I hear something crack. Aiden’s on top, fist drawn back, and for a horrible second I think he’s actually going to put me in the hospital.
But Rowan spins, using Aiden’s momentum against him, and suddenly they are switched.
Rowan’s fist slams into Aiden’s cheek, sending his head snapping to the side.
"She deserves better than this!" Rowan shouts. “Better we fight over her like she were a prize to be won!”
“Then why don’t you just get out of the way?” Aiden tastes blood, spits to the side. “Why don’t you let us be happy?”
“Because she's not happy!” Rowan's voice breaks. “Can’t you see that?” She’s being pulled in two directions because the bond won’t allow her to make a choice, and we’re forcing her to do that.”
They are now both gasping for breath, bleeding, fatigued but still entangled in their brutal ballet. Aiden catches Rowan's shirt and pulls him in.
"If you want me to share her—"
"You're already sharing with me, you idiot!" Rowan's hands ball in fists on Aiden's collar. "The bond chose all of us! Not just you! And the sooner you accept that, the sooner we can figure out how to make this work!"
"I don't want to make it work!" Aiden rasps. “I could've had all the cheap thrills.”
He slams Rowan hard, and they break apart, disoriented, both trying to stand. They circle each other like predators—wolves—readying for another round.
"Please!" I'm crying now, but their anger deafens them. "Please stop!"
Aiden lunges first again this time. They collide with the night stand, and the lamp falls, shattering the bulb. In the dim light of day, they are all it is just shadows and rage and sound as skin slapping flesh.
I do not consider it. I just act.
As Aiden pulls back his fist once more, I leap between them.
"Stop! Both of you!"
For one second it seems as if all is still. Aiden's eyes go wide as he realizes how close he came to hitting me. Rowan grabs my shoulders and pulls me back, away from the danger zone.
“Malia, get out of here,” Aiden says, voice trembling.
"No!" I break away from Rowan's hold. "I'm not! Not until you both grow up!"
"This is not your fault," Rowan says softly. Blood trickles from his split lip. “We really shouldn’t have—”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t have!” I speak more sharply than I mean to. “You shouldn’t be killing each other over me! “I’m not worth this!!!”
“No.” Aiden steps forward, but I step back. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not?” I am crying. “Look at you! Look at what I've done to you both!”
They’re too far gone to hear. Aiden’s eyes are still silver, his wolf barely contained. Rowan’s hands shake with tightly coiled violence. The space between them buzzes with simmering rage.
“She needs to choose,” Aiden says, not looking away from Rowan. “This ends when she chooses.”
“But what if she can’t?” Rowan challenges. “What if the bond won’t let her?”
“Then we make her.”
Aiden’s voice was cold enough to freeze me to the bone.
Before either of them move, the door slams open wider. Cian is standing in the doorway, and there’s a sudden chill in the air. His eyes are now a very light gray and are angled down at me as he takes in the room—the wrecked room, his brother bloody and furious, me between them in tears.
“This ends now,” he says quietly.
Now his voice had the command in it which could brook no refusal. It’s not yelling, it’s not aggressive, but it’s authoritative and like it or not you listen to him that kind of alpha heir who nobody would ever disobey. Aiden and Rowan both stiffen, but neither moves. Cian enters the room, and I sense rather than see the power emanating off him. It's not Aiden's raw dominance or Rowan's soft strength. This cold, calm, ruthless.
"You two," he says in that same lethal calm tone. "Out. now."
"Cian—" Rowan begins.
“I said out.” Cian's eyes are flashing. "Before I make you leave."
For a long moment, everything is frozen.
Then Aiden stands, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. He looks at me and the hurt in his eyes nearly kills me.
“This isn’t the end,” he tells Rowan.
He pushes by Cian into the hall without another word.
Rowan hesitates, appearing as if he needs to say something to me, but Cian is a barrier between us.
“Go,” Cian says softly. “Cool off. You both need to shift and run it off before you kill each other.”
Rowan clenches his jaw, but he nods. As he walks past me, his hand grazes mine, just for a moment, just enough to send warmth through the bond.
Then he's gone too, and it's just Cian and me in the wreckage…