Coal
“Shit!” I snap at myself, pushing my hands into my wet hair, Delilah’s honeysuckle scent still clinging to me. Things got way out of hand today. Fucking Jessica. Fuck knows what Quil is out there doing to Delilah.Fucking her against your bed, without you.
I drop my hands to the sink, gripping it tightly to keep myself from going back out there. I stare at my reflection and fight to return my face to my usual scowl. Then I see my hand, and all the fucked up shit I wanted to do to Delilah swims in my mind.
If she only knew…
Hurt me…Fuck, the sound of her voice, demanding me to give her what she wanted. Thank fuck, Quil showed up when he did. He has more control than I do. I’m a loose fucking cannon, and he knows it. Delilah’s not as scared of me asshe should be.
She thinks Quil is the cruel one. He’s not. He’s just constantly covering for me. Saving me from myself.
He’s only lost control once. The night Delilah turned eighteen. That had been my fault too. I know his weaknesses, and I still pushed. Then she saw us.
“Delilah!” Quil shouts from behind the door, and I grab the handle, about to rip the door open. I pause, waiting for, fuck, I don’t know. A sign he’s about to fuck up worse than I was. I’m still naked, so I pull on a pair of gray basketball shorts from the basket of dirty clothes.
What should I do? Quil took one fucking look at me, and just knew I was about to fucking destroy everything we’ve done for the last ten years.
I hear something slam, and my self-control falls away.
He’s nothurtingher without me.
Delilah
“I’m not leaving,” I insist because even though he has his murder eyes in right now, I need fucking answers.
“Yes, you are. Now get out, before I bend you over my knee again,” Quil threatens, and I tilt my head to the side, looking over his shirtless body. I shrug, getting off the bed, dropping his shirt at my feet, and walking up to him.
“I’m running out of patience. This is your last warning.” Quil undoes his leather belt, and at first, I think he’s about to take his pants off, and instead, he wraps the belt around his hand and lets it hang beside him. This frightens me a bit because that will probably hurt like a bitch.
“You’d leave Coal out of your fun?” I taunt, and he closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. I take the opportunityto press my body against his. My breasts brush against his bare chest, and his eyes snap open.
“Delilah!” he shouts loud enough to startle me, but the smirk on his face falls away when he catches the change in my scent. I’m not scared.
I should be. Every interaction we’ve ever had has been bad since that fateful day when I was six. But I realize I was only seeing this from my side of things. I never asked what I would do if I was them. What would I have been willing to do, to protect someone I cared for?
“You think you know what this is, but you have no fucking idea-”
“You hurt me because if you don’t, someone else will.” I cut him off, and he freezes. The anger in his hazel eyes transforms into something I haven’t seen since we were kids. Fear.
“No.” He moves away from me and walks toward Coal’s bed. His back is scar free, and I wonder if that means the Alpha only hurts Coal.
“You chose Coal. That day. I saw it in your eyes. I don’t blame you. You’d only known me for a few weeks, and I’m a Human. Coal is your best friend. You love him, and you didn’t owe me your loyalty.” I’m about to ask him to tell me the whole story when he grabs the lamp off the nightstand and throws it against the wall beside me. It shatters, and I flinch away, but it doesn’t hit me. He’s panting, his eyes wild and full of hatred, but not for me.
Coal bursts through the door and back into the room, now half dressed.
“I want the truth. I want answers,” I demand, but the tension in the air shifts. Coal rushes me, wrapping his large hand around my throat, and pushing me back against the wall. He cuts off my air, and I panic, clawingat his skin.
“The truth? The truth, Delilah, is that we hate you. We hate how defiant you are. We hate the way you challenge us, even though you’re weak and physically no match for us,” Coal growls, and Quil steps forward.
“We hate that you constantly step out of place and test our self-control. We fucking hate the scent of you creaming your panties every time one of us gives you even an ounce of attention. The way you throw yourself at us… We hate you,” Quil snarls, and Coal loosens his grip. Tears fall as I suck in air.
“I hate the way you lie, the way you fucking tease me, the way you try to act like you aren’t just as desperate for me!” I snap back, staring Quil dead in the eyes, my ultimate sign of challenge and disrespect. “Tell me you aren’t hard, Quil. Tell me your dick isn’t begging to be inside me right now. This bullshit won’t work on me anymore.” My voice is strained, rough from Coal’s hand. “Hurt me. Fucking hurt me. Go on, do your fucking worst!” I scream, and Coal drops me, backing up.
“Fuck!” Coal shouts, throwing his hands up, his eyes burning red, tears filling them. “Why can’t you just fucking listen, Delilah?! Do you think these scars are a fucking joke?! Do you think Quil’s back wouldn’t look exactly the same, if an Alpha had been the one beating him, instead of a Beta?! Was us beating the fuck out of you once, not enough?! Do you want us to be forced to fucking kill you!”
“No! I want you to fucking admit that you never wanted to fucking hurt me in the first place! I want you to tell me the truth!”
“We can’t! Don’t you fucking get that? If our fathers think, for even one second, that we have a greater weakness for you, do you think that you’d still be breathing? The only thing keeping you alive is the fact that we’ve convincedthem that we hate you. That torturing you makes us happy. Makes us just like them!”
