Chapter nineteen
“Lucy,openthegoddamndoor and stop ignoring us!” Ace yelled, forcing me back to my surroundings. My hair stuck to my face as I broke out in a cold sweat, goosebumps covering my arms.
I was on the cold, gray, tiled floor. I shakily got to my feet before trying to compose myself, trying to convince myself they weren’t my memories as I shoved them away, back in my box, locking them away where they couldn’t get me. I opened the door to find Ace and Tyson in the hallway. Ace looked livid, while Tyson looked concerned, standing behind him. Ace towered over me as he glared down at me, taking up nearly the entire door frame.
“Lucy, come here,” Tyson said, waving his hands forward, wanting me to go to him. I was tempted until Ace spoke, his arm blocking the doorway when I tried to move through, effectively blocking me. I looked up at him. I only reached up to his chest as he stared down at me intimidatingly.
“Explain! You hate me being with Melana, yet we are supposed to be okay with you lying to us and sleeping with your teacher? A FUCKING TEACHER?” he screamed at me.
“I never lied. Now move, so I can leave, Ace,’ I told him, becoming sick and tired of the accusations, everyone always pointing the finger at me.Haven’t they realized I usually own up to the shit I do by now? But that, I won’t own up to that! Because that wasn’t me.It was amazing how carefree and blinded you were before something like that destroyed your world, turning everything on its axis, showing you with brutal clarity how easily you could be destroyed. How vulnerable you could become. The shame that came with it, the what-ifs, the guilt when you realized how powerless you were, shoving the blame inward. I questioned every action, every word I ever said, wondering if I had somehow asked for it. I didn’t need others doing the questioning and accusing me of something I never dreamed could have happened.
In the facility, they broke our bodies, killed my wolf. But it was nothing compared to breaking your own tormented mind, sharp edges pricking and slicing at your memories, constantly waiting for something to trigger it back to the forefront of your mind. The anxiety that came with trying not to remember when it did, certain scents, certain noises. Shit, even in my adrenaline-filled fear, I still remembered the song coming through the PA systems softly as I escaped the classroom. A body can be fixed, but a mind? Not so much. That remains tortured, looming over you, tearing at you piece by piece until there is nothing left but hopelessness and despair. A mere longing for who you used to be before your world turned upside down.
“No! Not until you tell me who it is! I want to know who my mate was fooling around with! You come home and attack Melana when you are just as bad! Shit, not even I fucked my teachers, Lucy! Have you no limits?” Ace snapped at me.
Yet I was stuck on one word, one that was supposed to signify your other half, signify safety,mate.
“What did you just say?” I asked him, needing him to repeat it. Surely I didn’t imagine it.
“You heard me, Lucy. Now tell me who he is! I won’t have our mate lying to us!” Ace screamed at me.
“I never slept with my teacher…” I tried telling him when he cut me off, grabbing my arms, and ripping me closer to him. I finally realized what the sparks were and why I got them when they touched me. But that just infuriated me. If this was what mates were, I wanted no part of it.You don’t declare someone to be your mate, then hurt them.
“Don’t fucking lie to me!” he screamed, his claws sinking into my arms as his canines elongated, his face twisting in his anger. Tyson grabbed him, only for Ace to move quickly, elbowing him in the face. Tyson’s blood from his busted nose sprayed across my face while Ace was on the verge of shifting, his entire body trembling with rage.
“I never fucked him, Ace…” But yet again, he cut me off, growling at me. His grip tightened, and I lifted my hands, shoving him with all my strength and making him stumble backward.
He smacked into Tyson, and I ran for the door, only for him to try to grab me.
His arm snaked around my waist as he jerked me backward, but I threw my head back, feeling it connect with his jaw. He grunted, and I turned on him, my fangs slipping from my gums as my vision turned red.
“I never slept with my teacher, you mutt! He tried to rape me!” I screamed at him as he regained himself. Tyson shoved him off, trapped beneath him.
Ace just stared at me. My breathing was heavy as hot tears of anger rolled down my cheeks.
“I never asked for it! Never seduced him, you sick bastard! That’s why I burned his classroom down! That’s why they kicked me out of school. Not because I was a disobedient bitch like you think! But because I had a pedophile for a teacher! But thanks! You truly showed me how little you think of me. What a great mate you will be.” I told him before gripping the front of his shirt and shoving him back on the ground as he tried to stand.
“Lucy, no!” Tyson yelled, trying to get to his feet.
“I, Lucy Anneliese Black, reject you, Ace Kasen Black, Alpha of the Blackmoon Pack!” I told him.
Ace growled, and I shoved him back, letting go of his shirt, my chest heaving painfully as I felt something within me falter. My heart was aching and thumping rapidly when Ace suddenly lunged at me. I tried to step back but instead fell and hit the floorboards as he tackled me, landing heavily on me.
“I, Ace Kasen Black, reject your rejection.” he growled before sinking his fangs into my neck. I screamed, feeling his teeth tear through my skin, his canines embedded in my flesh hitting bone, when he suddenly got ripped off me, his teeth tearing from my neck. I clutched my neck, trying to get to my feet, when I felt the bond snap into place. The room tilted as I tried to hold myself up using the wall before suddenly seeing the floor rush toward my face, my eyes rolling in the back of my head as I was swallowed by darkness.
Chapter twenty
Tyson
She rejected him. And Ace, blinded by his own ego, launched himself at her, knocking her down. Tyrant was pressing beneath my skin as he watched him attack her, forcing me to my feet. I tried to get him off her when he sank his teeth into her neck. I grabbed him, ripping him off her, her scream making me enraged, and I punched him.
He growled at me, but he just fucking hurt her! He hurt her. He took away her choice. This was never meant to go down like this. She was never meant to find out like this, and he ruined everything, making me hate him for it. Ace tackled me, slamming me into the wall. I punched him in the ribs, making him grunt, letting Tyrant forward to help me shove him off.
Tyrant wanted to kill him. We accepted the fact we had to share her, but I did not accept what he had done, as I repeatedly rained blow after blow down on him. How could he? She was our mate! How could he hurt her like that?
Hearing her gasp, I looked up to see she had gotten to her feet, she was swaying, clutching her neck where his mark now lay on her delicate flesh. I watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and I tried to reach her before she hit the floor when Ace gripped my ankle, ripping me back and making me fall face-first on the floorboards. I turned, using my other foot to kick him in the face, making his head snap back as he clutched his bleeding face. I heard the sound of her body hitting the floor with a hard thud, the sound of her head bouncing off the hard floor.
“Lucy!” I gasped, rushing over to her, her head bleeding where she’d hit the corner of the wall and spilling onto the floor. I turned her over, pulling her into my lap, and Ace came over still full of rage. He tried to grab me before stopping as he peered down at Lucy bleeding everywhere. She was healing, but damn. That gash was deep, her blood smeared down the wall and all over my legs and chest. I glared up at him.