Chapter 30 Chapter Thirty - Lover's Quarrel II
Chapter 30 Chapter Thirty - Lover's Quarrel II
“Next I found out you've basically been stalking me for seven years, funding my whole entire existence, and manipulating every aspect of my life like some kind of obsessed puppet master pulling all the strings from the shadows.”
His hands shook with fury and tension, “The only reason why I left in the first place was because I wanted to get away from you, because you’re a horrible person who made my life hell, but it’s like you just didn’t care so you more or less came along with me."
His chest heaved, his eyes burning with a mixture of rage and tears he refused to shed. "And I'm supposed to just... what? Accept that? Be grateful that you've decided to lock me away somewhere for my own good?”
He hissed at Dallas “Do you expect me to thank you for saving my life by nearly killing yourself? Do you know what it would’ve meant to me if I found out someone else had died for my sake, I would never forgive myself!”
He laughed, the sound bitter and slightly hysterical. "I can't tell what's real anymore, Dallas. I can't tell if I'm losing my mind or if the entire world has gone crazy around me.”
His eyes narrowed into slits, “And now you want to hide me away somewhere 'for my protection' for how long? What happens the next time another one of your insane family members comes along to kill me because they hate the fact that I’m with you and I’m a man instead of a woman?”
The doctors and doctors' assistants awkwardly cleared their throats and looked awkwardly around the room, trying as hard as possible to disappear into the background.
Dallas swung his legs over the side of the bed, his movements slow and pained but filled with determination.
His face was still too pale, his hands trembling slightly, but his eyes burned with that familiar intensity. "Forget about your complaints. You're in danger, my brother won't stop until you're dead, until our child is dead. He made that perfectly clear."
"Then let me go!" Carter's voice broke completely, his words coming out as half shout, half plea. "If you really cared about me like you claim you do, if you actually gave a damn about what I want instead of just what you want, then you'll let me leave. Please."
His hands were shaking now, his whole body trembling with the force of his emotions. "I won't tell anyone about you people. I swear it. You can all stay here together and do your werewolf things.”
He continued, “I don’t know if this is some weird government experiment or what. I don’t know if I actually saw the things I saw, I don’t know how I survived with barely any scratches. I don’t know anything at all anymore.”
He put one hand over his face and sighed deeply “All I know is you guys can cut each other up if you want, you can fight over territory or mate or whatever the hell else werewolves do in their free time.”
“But I'm just an ordinary writer. I can't fight, I don’t know how to constantly be on guard all the time… I’m simply not cut out for this life. So please… please let me go.”
Dallas reached out his hand to hold him, but Carter backed away instinctively, his back hitting the wall behind him with a soft thud.
"Seal the doors and windows," Dallas ordered without looking away from Carter's face, "My mate can’t be trusted around exits. I can't have him running away again.”
The doctors exchanged nervous glances but moved to obey, and Carter heard the click of locks echoing through the medical wing like prison doors slamming shut.
Each sound made his heart race faster, made the panic claw higher in his throat.
"Dallas, I’m begging you—" Carter started.
But Dallas was already standing up, slowly rising from the bed like death itself coming to claim what it was owed.
His movements were predatory despite his obvious weakness, each step he took was deliberate and purposeful as he stalked toward Carter until he had him cornered against the wall with nowhere left to run.
"Be reasonable, Dallas. Please, for once in your life just listen to me." Carter begged desperately, trying to make Dallas understand through his fear and frustration.
He asked, "How long until another one of your enemies decides that I’m a convenient target? Or when Marcus tries again and you're not there to save me? What am I supposed to do then?"
"I am Alpha of this pack," Dallas said, his voice low and absolute, allowing no argument. "I will protect you. It's my job, my duty, to protect everyone here. And especially you. Always you."
"Don't you get it?" Carter's voice rose till he was practically shouting, his composure finally going to shit.
“I don't want your protection! Half the time I can't even stand to be around you. You make me feel things I don't understand, things I don't want to feel. And there's this strange, indescribable pull that keeps me here despite the fact that I want out more than anything else in this world."
His fists clenched at his sides, frustration and fear and confusion all tangling together in his chest until he couldn't tell where one ended and another began.
"I want things to go back to the way they were. I want my apartment in London with the broken heating and the neighbor who plays violin at three in the morning. I want my boring job writing copy for corporate websites. I want my normal, ordinary, predictable life where the biggest danger I face is beating traffic in the rain."
His voice dropped until it was quieter and more desperate, his rage and adrenaline dimming in the face of despair “I want to wake up and have all of this be some terrible nightmare that I can laugh about over coffee. But I can't, can I? Because this is real. You're real. And I'm trapped."
Dallas leaned in close, one hand braced against the wall beside Carter's head, caging him in.
The Alpha said, “You're not a little kid anymore, Carter. You can't run away from reality just because it gets uncomfortable or scary or difficult to process. This is what your life is now. You, with me, building something together despite the odds. That's all there is."
His dark eyes bore into Carter's with an intensity that made it hard to breathe, hard to think, hard to remember why he was supposed to be fighting this in the first place.
He wished he had mosquito repellent, so he would spray it in the air to disguise the intoxicating, all-consuming scent of his enemy, of the man— or werewolf— who’d save his life.
The scent that made him want to drop to his knees and abandon common sense, that made him yearn to be told what to do, only to disobey in response.
He was sick in the head, sick with need, and Dallas was the only cure.
"The sooner you accept that truth, the better off you'll be. Hate me all you want. Fight me, curse me, try to escape a hundred more times if that's what you need to do. But understand this… I'm never going to let you go. Never."
Carter's eyes narrowed, his defiant and furious nature sparking back to life beneath the fear and exhaustion. His jaw set in that stubborn line that matched Dallas’s own, refusing to back down.
"Fine. If that’s how it’s going to be," Carter said quietly. “Then challenge accepted.”