Chapter 116 - We all have scars

HADRIAN

Her blue eyes widen and show the display of colors making up their beauty. Dark stormy ocean, bright blue sky and polished shining silver. “You mean…”

I nod at her and Emma turns her wide eyes to the unconscious girl before her. “How did she get here?”

“I don’t know, I was hoping that she would wake up before we reached the town.” I wanted to wait, but her heartbeat was too weak. She needed a doctor fast.

“Did you find Alex?” Emma asks as she gets up from the chair next to the bed. She walks up to me and her words are a low whisper.

I listen to the sounds coming from the hallway and conclude that there is no one lingering near the room. I shake my head. “She knows how to confuse her trail.”

Her scent was abundantly present in the forest and Alex used it to her advantage. The long hours in the night have put a strain on my body. Normally the strain would not last this long. The exhaustion weighs down on my muscles and my arms and legs feel heavy.

“Are you okay?” Her brows knit together.

I shrug my shoulders and cross my arms. “I’m fine.”

A grimace pulls at the corners of her mouth. “You don’t have to pretend, remember.” Her annoyance is clear and I pull her towards me before she can move away.

I sit down on one of the chairs and rest my head against her chest. I shackle my arms around her small waist and take deep inhales of her scent. “I’m tired.”

Emma runs her fingers through my hair and her nails over my scalp. The sensations create gooseflesh on my skin and I basically purr like a fucking kitten. “It’s not weak to need sleep.”

Her nearness makes my eyelids heavy. Emma is here, therefore she is safe, and only then I can rest.

“Go sleep, Hadrian.”

I run my nose over the exposed skin of her chest before I pull away. “I can’t, I first have to find her first.”

Two minutes near Emma invigorates me enough to soothe the strain in my muscles. I can push through the exhaustion.

“It wasn’t a question.” There is a harsh, demanding edge to her voice.

I search her eyes with a scoff. “Are you ordering me?”

Emma gives me a firm nod. “I am.” She fails, however, to hide the squirm. I can feel her thighs tense in my lap.

I’m struggling with the need to teach her a lesson and bow down to her. And that makes me want to teach her a lesson again. “Be careful, Sweetheart.”

“Or what?” Emma bites her bottom lip.

My eyes fixate for a moment on how her teeth sink into the tender flesh. Her eyes are hooded and the blue storm in her eyes darkens. She wiggles in my lap and I bite back a groan. *I’m definitely awake now.*

Her defiance causes blood to surge downward. It swells my dick at a rapid pace. “Or you have to deal with the consequences.”

Emma gasps and lifts her ass from my lap in order to move away.

I pull her back and run my hands over the curve of her hips. “Where are you going?”

“You need sleep.” The tease is gone and her concern is palpable.

The emotion flows through me. I don’t want my mate to be concerned for me. “Fine.”

I let her move away and I turn to the door.

“Wait.” She grips my shirt and pushes herself to the tips of her toes. My head automatically follows her down when she pecks her lips against mine.

Maybe she only intended a kiss that was short and sweet, but I cannot help myself when I have a taste of her lips. I cup her backside to pull her closer to me. I kiss her deep and thoroughly until her lips are swollen and her eyes clouded with lust.

—————————

Sleep seems redundant in a time like this, but I made her a promise. I intend to always keep a promise to my mate.

The reinvigoration of energy has only been for a short time. The moment I left her presence the exhaustion seeped back into my bones.

The house is empty when I get back and I’m grateful for the lack of questions. When I walk up the stairs the energy changes. I’m not alone anymore and the hint of pine lingers in the hallway.

It’s the scent I’ve been following all night.

Alex sits on the edge of my bed. Her eyes have deep, dark shadows beneath them and are devoid of emotion. The unadulterated fear is gone and replaced by stark determination.

“You’re back,” I grumble when I walk further into the room.

“I’m not one to give up, ever.” She simply replies.

I keep an ear out for any sounds of life coming into the house. “Why did you come here?”

“I want to settle this, bury the hatchet if you will— or silver dagger in this case.”

There’s a prominent amount of silver emanating in the room. She didn’t come in here unprepared. “I don’t believe you.”

“You should say ‘thank you’, it’s the polite thing to do.” Alex keeps her face stoic, but can’t hide the sourness in her eyes.

I’ve lived with my sister most of my life. Watching for the little signs of deception is second nature. “I’m not one to trust anyone so easily, ever.”

“You seemed to trust Emma blindly when you decided to come here.” Alex lifts the corners of her mouth. Her guarded smile would be believable, but she hasn’t perfected it.

“I didn’t when I met her.”

“Until you decided to claim her as your property?” The sourness seeps into her voice.

Alex is projecting her own version of the truth. I’m a possessive creature who enforces my will on Emma as if I’m entitled to her. Alex doesn’t want to hear my truth, but she will get it anyway.

“No, until I fell in love with who she is.”

Alex scoffs and crosses her arms. “A werewolf prince falling in love with a human. It sounds like a joke.”

“Maybe, but I don’t care what you think.” I bite back the growl and cross my arms as anger simmers in my chest. Emma would probably say that getting angry is also caring.

Alex chuckles as she watches me. “Hasn’t anyone ever taught you the power of persuasion? You know, sucking up to someone you want forgiveness from.” The hate she holds sears through her facade. The judgment is clear.

“No, I never needed to persuade anyone,” I tell her honestly.

“That’s egocentric.”

“In our world, we listen to the one with the stronger wolf,” I explain. I don’t know why I even bother. Alex has probably a mountain of assumptions about who I am and what werewolves are.

“What about Emma? Do you listen to her?”

I’m surprised to hear an inkling of curiosity in her voice. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s my mate.” The explanation rolls off my tongue with ease. Her grimace doesn’t bother me this time. Nothing will ever affect that truth, It cannot be tainted by judgment.

“And if she wasn’t?”

I gave away my soul to Emma before I knew she was my mate. “I would still do anything she wants.”

“Would you kill your father if she asked?” Alex raises a brow and leans forward for my response.

I hold her questioning gaze and need her to understand at least one thing. “I would, regardless if she asked.”

“But he’s your father. That’s a cruel thing to say.” Alex feigns shock and disgust at my words. Although some of the shock is not pretend.

“I know what you’re trying to do.” I’m done playing her game and move through the room and pull two daggers from the various hiding places around. I throw them in front of her feet. I know she has at least two more plastered to her body.

Alex looks from the daggers to me, confusion knits her brows together. “Don’t you love him?”

Now it’s my turn to scoff. “My father is a heartless monster that would beat down his own son to ensure his reign.”

Her eyes prick at my back when I pull the last dagger from its hiding place. Alex sighs and pulls a dagger from behind her back and two smaller ones from her boots. She throws them with the rest, unlike what I expected. “I’m not going to tell anyone.”

I search for deception but only find honesty. “Why?”

“Because you’ve been damaged like the rest of us.”

“What makes you think that?” The statement isn’t false and Alex doesn’t show a grain of uncertainty this time when digging for the truth.

“We all have scars. Some are visible and some are not. I’ve seen the scars on your back. You have both, just like me.”

The air quiets around us as a heavy blanket of darkness settles over her. “I received mine five years ago when I was barely eighteen.”

Her eyes cloud over with that darkness. “My parents were killed during the first attacks and my younger sister had to hide. She didn’t see the sun for two years. Eventually, they found her too. Her death was quick and I couldn’t protect her.”

I feel hatred and anger towards my own species. Her fear of werewolves runs deep and I stay rooted in place. I don’t want her to be afraid of me, even if that might never change.

“I had no one left in this world, but *he* decided that I hadn’t suffered enough.” Alex stands up and turns her back to me. Her hand trembles when she reaches for the hem of her shirt.

“First he gave me these scars…” Alex pulls her shirt off and drops it on the bed. Claw marks run down her right shoulder and over her left hip.

“And then I gave myself this one.” Alex turns around and places her hand on her stomach where scar lines deform the skin of her abdomen.

Acid turns in my stomach as Alex lays out her story. She doesn’t have to say every grueling detail. Her scars tell the story for her.

“You were pregnant…” I say as my mind connects the dots that she lays out. “With a werewolf pup.”

Humans are too weak to carry a werewolf. It’s a known fact. There have been stories of female werewolves conceiving a pup with a human. Emma’s mother is an example of that. But the other way around is unheard of. Or so I thought.

“If that’s what you want to call it.” Alex reaches for her shirt and pulls it back over her head.

“You could’ve died.” Judging by the scar, I would say she’s lucky to be alive.

“That was the point. I tried to kill myself and the monster that grew in my stomach. The dagger should’ve done the trick, but Dex found me instead.”

“And the pup?” There is a pang in my chest for the innocent life.

“Dead, together with its creator.”