Chapter 11
Henry
My hand smoothed overMaya’s hair as her soft breathing evened out, despite the dark bruising on her neck still not healing. Because she had to break skin for that to happen. I felt a snarl break through my lips as Bella looked up from where she was sleeping on top of Maya’s head.
My hands were shaking with anger and my eyes fluttered over to where Lorn’s blood was splattered across her pearl-like wallpaper. Asshole wasn’t dead. He was going to wish he was because his father was a mean son of a bitch and we were even worse. Either way he was going to suffer. I clenched my jaw still feeling the punch I’d landed on him, knocking out several teeth, which felt far better than it should have. I shook my head and I was glad I’d chosen to stay up here, not trusting myself not to kill him.
Just like the night she’d woken up from the nightmare, her panic was clear as day with that high pitched sound pushing my dragon forward. I’d been searching for her as it was, the three of us caught up in a security breach that we now realized was Lorn. Something we wouldn’t have expected since his father had arrived minutes later.
As far as his father was aware, Lorn hadn’t planned on coming tonight. It didn’t matter anymore, we’d shut the party down immediately without explanation. Only Jordan and the other alphas had been made aware of what was going on, their concern authentic. It didn’t make me feel any better.
I took off my glasses and ran a hand over my face, feeling exhausted and murderous. It was an unhealthy combination. When I closed my eyes, all I could see was the vision of Maya trapped against the bed, looking terrified and Lorn threatening her. My fists clenched as I breathed out, standing up because I needed to fucking do something.
I went into her closet and pulled out her bag because we were going on this damn trip we had planned. If I didn’t stop looking at the blood on the wall I was going to lose it. Better yet, I think we should just replace her entire fucking bed. I opened her suitcase on the small end bench and began to pack things up for her. It was pretty easy considering we were only going for two days. I turned to see Anani standing in the doorway looking concerned and stressed out.
Neither of the twins did well with violence, but Anani was far worse. When we first found them, Ledger was more likely to inflict violence and Anani flinched from it. Now I wasn’t positive about what would happen. I think both of them teetered on that edge of snapping and keeping calm.
“How is she?” he asked. Maya shifted, letting out a small sound.
“Hasn’t woken up yet but I haven’t tried to wake her either,” I admitted, “I’m not sure I am in the best state of mind to handle this correctly.”
“The others are out back with Lorn,” he said softly, his voice edged with anger. “Well, Ledger is coming up here, but if you want to go, we can pack her up so we can leave right away.”
The jet would be ready in about an hour. “What about his father?” I asked quietly.
“Essentially left him to deal with the mess he made,” he admitted as I inhaled and walked around the bed, kissing her forehead before nodding to Anani. I shrugged off my suit jacket as I made my way downstairs and rolled up my shirt sleeves, feeling my temper boiling over. As I stepped outside, I walked towards the forested area surrounding our house. Atlas offered me a head nod to where he and Croy were watching Marco and Lorn fight. If you could call it that.
More like Marco beating his ass. His attempts to fight back were weak but still, he was allowed to. Marco’s shirt was splattered with blood and he looked fucking furious. Sai sat against a tree, blood splattered as well. and hadn’t looked any better than before where he almost lost his shit. Marco stepped back sneering at Lorn’s crumpled body before going towards the house.
“We sure we can’t kill him?” I voiced, as Atlas chuckled.
“Not this time,” Croy admitted clinically, something he was quite good at, but I could see the anger right under the surface, “too many people would know.”
“I don’t care if they know,” Sai offered, taking out a pack of cigarettes. He rarely smoked so if he was it meant he was fucking livid.
“Stand up, Lorn,” I spit out as the bear shifter groaned and his dark eyes met mine.
“You coming to get your piece also, Henry?” He sneered as I chuckled, shaking my head. The man was a shit talker even when he was no doubt suffering brain damage.
As someone who had been trained to practice medicine, I had made a promise to never harm someone. But that was in the human world. I lifted Lorn’s collar and made sure he was looking me right in the eye when I spoke to him.
“Lorn,” I rasped, “let me make something painfully clear. The only reason you are alive right now is because others know. If I see you after today, I am going to kill you.” His eyes widened and I was glad I’d made my point.
Just to make sure, I started to beat him, I didn't stop until he was unconscious.
***
“WE HAVE BEEN IN THEair for how long?” Maya asked in a confused sweet voice as she sat up, responding to Anani’s answer to‘where are we?’
“About seven hours,” I looked at my watch as I took a sip of my coffee, “but we should be arriving fairly soon. I don’t think any of us took into account that the time change was so distracting, so you may have to miss school on Monday.”
Maya’s lips tilted up, “Oh no. That’s terrible.” I almost chuckled at that, seeing a hint of sarcasm peak out, no doubt due to Sai if I was going to guess. I still felt tense but you wouldn’t believe the wonders beating the shit out of some asshole would do for the temperament.
Then her face went serious, “Wait, where are we going? And when did we...oh.” Realization hit her, having only woken up minutes ago, as her eyebrows went up and Bella pawed at her hair seemingly trying to distract her. Her voice was soft and worried when she asked the question everyone was dreading.
“Lorn?” Her voice had a slight tiny rasp to it that I was blaming on him. Those bruises were driving me crazy on her neck but what would drive me even more insane would be to see her bleed, so for now she would just need to try to heal normally. Although, her healing was rapid compared to humans as it was.
“Unconscious,” I answered and without thought continued, “should be dead.”