Moon Bound (Glorious Darkness Book 1) (16 page)

(29) Small Acts Of Betrayal

|Scarlet's POV|

The creak of the door leaves me small and scared in that house of torture. I am back, once again alone to face my own demons. The door behind me closes with a click, one that sounds like finality, before I manage to pull myself together and descend down the stairs into my own private purgatory.

I won't be hiding in his room. I will face them. Regardless. Or perhaps exactly because they are who they are to me.

This time, I won't run.

The pack is clustered around the dining table, my friends, even Jaz and Hunter who are supposed to live outside of the packhouse, assembled amongst my former pack mates, chatting with them jovially like old friends brought together. 

Taking a minute to inspect the scene, bizarre as it is to see my family accepting of that pack of walking and talking disease, it is much more to me. Festering and acrid like a back stab wound you become aware of only once it starts to ooze out. The caged inside me beast is growling in pain as I watch my family be lured in the pretense like spellbound children. Don't they see it, don't they understand it's all a show?

I let out a small sigh, knowing I can do nothing about it but wishing I could with all that's vile and bitter inside me. I know I shouldn't do that. I can't cause a scene, I can't turn my family against those people who are now our only protection, however, I can't deny the internal itch to do just that. No matter that this is beneath me or that I've made a promise.

A bargain with the devil I must honor.

Glancing back, it was either the sound or the bond that alarmed him of my presence. Fixing me with these soulful green pools of his, his sadness is still there, the hurt still staring back at me, it's just him who doesn't allow it to show for all there are to see.

Their pain caged inside just like their beasts are, in something that's proven to be one highly combustive concoction over the centuries, Alphas rarely let themselves be seen as weak but, perhaps, in some kind of grand gesture on his part, I'm allowed to glimpse it now. Just for a heartbeat before he directs a nod my way, his hand flicking in beckoning and then pointing to the empty place next to him.

With intent to place me where his Luna should sit, his gaze is offering me a silent dare to challenge him, the ruler back on his throne after bending the knee.

There's just one seat beside his Queen's that I can take.

"She's not our Luna yet. This isn't a place she can take, Alpha Regan." 
She is unworthy, 
she never says the last out loud, but it's there - hanging in the air like a never spoken curse. Eyes reflecting her hate for me, Sasha's waiting for me to decide on a course of action. Accept her judgment or submit to my shame of being defeated by him. At last.

Everything is quiet - from the clatter of dishes being prepared by the motherly women to whom the task has been transferred to the hushed conversations on the table. All eyes are on me, waiting, anticipating my rise. 

I focus my attention on my former friend. Her platinum blond hair has grown longer for those couple of months I've spent away from the house and is now hugging the oval of her pretty face and reaching her shoulders. She has styled it, making it wild, curly and voluminous like a mane. Similar to my own.

Dark brown eyeliner is coiled around her hazel eyes, making them look bigger, mysterious. To me, they hold no such mystery. Nor does the lopsided smirk on her voluptuous lips. Before ShadowFang's attack, we have been best friends, as close as sisters, sharing dreams and aspirations. But after, she has made sure to show me her true face in each and every possible way.

That same face now has been caked with make-up, her skin missing that healthy tan glow and instead pale, almost as pale as mine is.

"What did you just say?" I grit out, tasting it on my tongue, feeling it beading over my skin, the driblets vaporizing into heat. Anger. "And FYI, you should try harder to accomplish the right look."

"I wasn't talking to 
you
," she snaps venomously, turning her notice towards the one she deems worthy of it. "Alpha?"

Pretending I'm not even there, it's that simple but tremendous act that turns the tables. Rage riles up and takes over. 

Suddenly staring at her, my face is inches away from hers, hand gripping her bare, inviting neck... claws breaking the skin.

A few drops of blood streaming down under sharp fingertips, the scent of her fear is wafting to my nostrils mixed with the aroma of her blood, the fragrance teasing on my senses and testing my self-control.

She is struggling under the weight of my hold. Fists hitting me as she gives out angry growls my way, breath fanning over the skin. Her scent, the one I've been associating with friendship and comfort, is now causing me to roil with repugnance.

"Alexandra," I breathe out, my voice husky and low, the temptation in it audible. "You need to understand. I am no longer the weak girl I was six months ago. I can kill you with a snap of my fingers. I can drink you dry. I can tear your flesh in pieces and consume it... feed off a hunger you know 
nothing
 about... and... 
I will enjoy every second of it,
" I hiss, flashing her a grin, showing her what she needs to see to understand.

My canines have descended. They are aching just like the need to taste and consume her is.

I watch her, my eyes flickering to that trail of red, streaming off wounds I am inflicting, tempting me, calling on me... drawing me to itself like a treat I am unable to refuse, a need I am unable to deny.

I should've known better for now I am enthralled. I cannot stop myself.

Arms pulling on me, I can hear shouting.

"What's happening to her?" Alpha's voice rising to a crescendo, even if I understand my mate's words none of it matters.

Singing to me, it wants me to take it. Already corrupted to its unique taste, one I know only too well, I can't refuse. I need... I want this.

"Snap out of it, Scarlet!"

"Scarlet, Scarlet, Scarlet,"
 repeating like an echo, the need is deafening the words. Leaning closer to her frame, she's screaming in protest, battling against my advance.

"SCARLET!"

I'm being pulled off my prize. The haze is dissipating, disappointment washing over me.

A promise not fulfilled. A need not satisfied. A hunger not fed.

"Why? Why can't you fight it like the rest of us, Scarlet?" Cole's crestfallen words reach me. As I look up towards his form, hunched over mine, I find an equally forlorn expression on his face.

"You never taught me how."

Expecting guilt, it's puzzlement, shock and, finally, fear that replaces his disappointment. "What the hell is wrong with your eyes?"

I don't know if it's the question or something else but, suddenly, I become aware. Everyone is staring at me. And then, they are stepping away from me.

Terrified.

(30) Heartthrob Or Not

|Scarlet's POV|

At first glance, there is nothing strikingly unique about that girl. Her eyes are a dull gray, the same color the sky takes on a rainy day. The sunshine is hiding under the layer of dark gray, cocooned in darkness that makes you despair. They are bleak just like that sky.

Her hair consists of a waterfall of curls, tangled together in a heavy mess that will never be tamed, will never look as fancy or beautiful as other girls' hair. It falls around her face, dark brown only to make her already pale face look even more ghostly than it is. Her skin is almost translucent, the small veins underneath visible if you stand close enough to her.

Her body is small, much resembling a child's figure with just a few, barely there curves to suggest she's anything but a child. Fragile, innocent, not holding the strong, healthy appeal that most pack females do.

Childbirth will be difficult for her with her small frame. Perhaps, she'll never carry up to term because of how weak she is. She will struggle with it. She will die from it.

As hard as it is for the she-wolf to conceive and bring to the world more of our kind, it's harder when it comes to giving birth. Most females with a body, as unfit for the task as mine is, never do. They just don't make it. 

In a world where everything is determined by straight, frail looking female, such as I, are considered a burden. They have no worth since they can't fulfill their purpose in life and provide the future they are supposed to bring in.

Males fight, protect and provide. Females bring up the future generations and if they can't they are simply forsaken. 

The girl staring back at me has always known that being a mate, becoming a mother someday was not in her future. She has been trained, has accepted her fate once. It was her only way to find purpose in her life since there couldn't be another.

She dealt with the cards fate threw at her and learned how to live without the hope of a future to grow inside her but, now, looking at the monster hiding underneath all that childish appearance, sleeping, waiting, biding her time, staring back at her from inside the mirror...

She's not the girl I thought she was. She's different. A special breed of monster. Truly an aberration.

Eyes that are bright red, like drops of blood surrounded by white, skin that's eerily pale, veins that pulse thicker underneath, painting a map on her face, who is that monster?

Is it me?

Pulling my wild curls into a ponytail, I lean closer to the mirror in Alpha's bathroom. I can see them slowly changing back to their normal gray, the skin smoothing over. 

"Will you come out or are you planning to hide in the bathroom all night, Scarlet?" Alpha shouts from behind the locked door, persistently knocking as he urges me out. 

He's been on and off with the demanding attitude for a while now. Wanting to talk. Talk about what, though? There's nothing I wish to discuss with him. He may be my mate, my protector now, whatever, but he's certainly not going to understand. He's the one who's told me I am an abhorrence time and again, he isn't my friend.

My friends deserted me, too freaked out to actually face me. Perhaps, later they will. Perhaps, they will talk to me and not leave me just after I've found them. They can't be like the rest of the people in my life. They can't just give up on me because I am different. It's not what family does.

"I'll stay here," I shout back in answer, my breath fogging up the reflective surface. "Go away."

"Please, baby girl, we need to talk about what happened. You can't just lock yourself and avoid facing it." Like he actually cares.

Go fool someone else, Alpha. "I can and I will. Besides, there's nothing 
we
 
need
 to discuss. You're not my keeper."

"Scarlet!" Anger is laced in that single word. Now, I know how to deal with that.

My fingers curling around the edges of the sink for support, I breathe in much-needed air, trying to calm my already stranded nerves and hoping to avoid another scene. Just ignore him and he'll go away.

"Step away from the door, Scarlet. I'm getting in," he announces with a growl.

He's not going to bust the door. He doesn't care. It's just the bond talking.

"You hear me, Scarlet? Move away from that door."

Am I deaf? "Fine! I'll go out," I call out to him before he can actually burst in here through the door or with it, most likely.

"Five seconds."

Jeez. "How generous of you," I mutter unlocking the door.

I find him waiting for me in just a pair of boxers, hard planes on display and fine hairs trailing to his waistband.

Fingers twitching, I can almost feel the trace that line. The one I should never get near to.

Breathless, "Let's get one thing straight, Alpha. If this is what you have planned for tonight, better not get your hopes up 'cause there's no way in hell for this to happen," the words come out in a stutter.

Eyebrow arched, the corners of his lips turn up, a dangerous gleam in those eyes of green. Stalking closer, like a predator on the prowl, every fiber of him exuding dominance, his nostrils flare up taking in the air, poised with my scent.

I can smell it as well as I can feel it. Liquid excitement pouring out from me. And he can too.

All that it took has been peering at his nakedness. A drool-worthy specimen of a male, a man who can twist your panties in a knot and make you pant while breathing that hotness in... He is that man, deceiving in appearance as he is so much more inside.

A monster. A tormentor.

Mine.

Heartthrob or not, I can't forget he is the one who chased everything good and pure out of me.

"Don't pretend you don't like it." With a smug look on his face, he's puffing out that chest as if wishing to make it bigger than it already is.

At 6'1'' he's towering over me, his large and strong frame placing him in the advantage one too many times. I know what these muscles of steel can do. I know how these sculpted arms can hurt others. There is an appeal but will it ever be enough to make me forget so many hard-learned truths?

Hoping he will see the bitterness in me, I flash him a smile.

"Bond or no bond, nothing's changed between us, Alpha," I tell him, watching the smirk melt off his face and being replaced by hollowness. No sadness. Certainly not hurt. Just plain nothing. Like he no longer feels my words burn him. "I guess you probably expected me to be out of my panties the moment I set my eyes on your hot bod but, see, that's only going to happen when hell freezes over."

Giving said body one last, lingering look, I sidestep him and go to sit on the bed. "You said you wanted to talk. By all means, do talk."