Chapter 26: You
1029 Words
He pulled his shirt off, and I took it in, grimacing. He rivaled Nico in size, big muscles and all. I was lying there, panting, trying to spit the gunk and grime out of my mouth. He tied the fabric around my leg so tightly I screamed out, and his beautiful light eyes danced at the sound. f*****g evil. And my brain reeled, it was terror, mostly. What would he do with me? He saw me as something gross, less than an animal. Something that sometimes I saw myself as. I tried to back up, tried to escape those wicked eyes, but I was trapped by my busted leg and his angry gaze.
There was something about him that drew me to him. Maybe it was all the self-hatred, maybe it was the spark of black in me that enjoyed being treated like garbage. And further, there was a mystery to him. He had loved Nico at one point, maybe he had motives for that, but still, he experienced love. He did not have a heart of ice, as much as it seemed to. There was something there.
"You want to know what I'm going to do with you?" he asked.
I'd planned to spit in his eye. To pull him close and give one last hurrah of dignity, to go down with the ship. But what he'd said about the bakery stopped my cold. I'd do anything to protect it, and unfortunately, 'anything,' meant a lot of things. It meant putting my safety over pride. So, I just lied there, nodded my head against the cold floor. My wolf growled, faintly. But he was too weak to do anything to fight him, just like me.
Seth grabbed me from the neck of my shirt--Nico's shirt---and I lied there, limp in his hands like a scruffed kitten. I didn't want to think. Not about what he would do to me, where I would go, or that this had taken place here, on the floor of my dad's bedroom. He loved me too much for something like this to happen; if he could see this, it would rip him open raw, but here I was. And when I looked at my battered reflection in the mirror, I had to look away.
"You're my bargaining chip."
I blinked sleepily. I wanted to say something smarmy, I wanted to be loudmouthed. My friends had always known me as a small guy with a loud mouth and a brash personality, I wanted to put up some kind of fight. But I knew better, as crazy as that might sound coming from me. Me? Know anything about anything? I needed to look as weak and frightened as possible, I needed him to do the thing I hated the most.
I needed him to underestimate me.
My wolf stirred, a faint familiar warm smell drifting toward me. A musky cologne I'd inhaled earlier as if it could save my life, my hands instinctively reached toward the direction of the door, the smallest whimper passing through my mouth when I looked for the only person who could save me now.
Seth smiled at me, all teeth now. If he wasn't holding me by the shirt, if he hadn't caused my scalp to bleed from how hard he'd yanked it, you'd think he was friendly, how boyish and charming he looked in that instant with the light bouncing off the closet mirrors. "Look, its already starting to work."
"WHAT. HAVE. YOU. DONE." Reader, I don't like typing in all-caps. Just a stylistic tic, if I may say so. But that's the only way I can communicate to you the sound of his voice, how bellowing and angry it came. Like the sound of a cannon going off. The door flew off the hinges, smashed into a thousand splinters when it hit the other wall. "SETH!"
I'd never seen Nico like that before, never seen his eyes alight with pure fury, never seen his chest swell and fall so quickly. His tee shirt could hardly contain him. His hair ran down the back of his neck in wild black feathers. When he looked at me, his lip curled back and an animalistic snarl tore out of him. Unlike me, Nico and his wolf were one and the same. His beast was human-like, and his human form could be beast-like.
Seth threw back his head, pressing me up against the hard planes of his chest. "Oh!" he said, laughing. "This is what you've been waiting for all those years? This useless little slut? And you tell me that the Moon Goddess didn't make a mistake?"
This is what I'd been trying to tell Nico, that I wasn't worthy to be his mate, that I couldn't be. That the Moon Goddess f****d up constantly, our destiny together definitely being one of those giant f**k-ups. But when Seth said it, said it and the smallest part of me couldn't help but agree, it hurt me so bad I thought I would break.
"NO! Seth, get it through your goddamn head, I never want to see you again. I don't love you. f**k you. I reject you with every scrap of will power in my being. And thusly, my soul doth hopes you rot." He'd never mixed his English up like that, never gotten the old flourishes tied up with his 'f**k's and 'goddamn's. His voice softened. "Dimitri, talk to me, are you okay?"
I opened my mouth, but Seth slapped his hand over it, adjusted his hold so he had his arm pressed against my throat. I was a human shield. I wheezed, a frustrated tear sliding down my face. I'd chased away the pther wolves, I'd kicked Seth's ass before, but here I was, checkmated. The king had been captured, and now Nico had to stand there, staring down at a losing board.
"What do you want," Nico, said, grinding the words out through his clenched jaw. "What ever you want, I don't care. you can have it. Ransom, name your price. Just take it and get out."
"Well, that's a shame," said Seth, "Because I want you."
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