Everything happens in slow motion then. I see Luke charge forward, Ethan’s wide, horrified eyes glued to my arm,
Luke’s hand pulls back and then his fist hits Ethan square in the face, blood gushes out of his nose.
My eyes fly to my mouth, holding back a gasp. My senses come back to me again.
Luke holds Ethan by the throat, slamming him against the wall. I see his feet dangling in the air.
“If you touch her again,” Luke growls, his lips curled in a feral snarl “I will rip you apart, limb to limb.”
He pulls his other arm back, pointed fingers fisted tightly. My eyes widen as I stare at him, petrified in place.
Ethan meets my eyes for a split second. I’m sorry, they seem to say. Luke’s fist hits his face again. He doesn’t retaliate. Oh, moon, Luke’s going to kill him and Ethan’s going to let him. Because of me.
“Stop!”
Luke’s fist stops centimeters from Ethan’s face. His eyes meet mine and instinct tells me to run as dark pools of stormy rage stare at me.
No, I tell myself, Luke wouldn’t hurt me. I force my feet to move, reaching him almost carefully.
“Let him go,” I raise my hand to lower his fist, he doesn’t budge “Luke, please, this isn’t you.”
Luke keeps his gaze locked on mine for a moment, then I don’t know what he sees on my face that makes his eyes clear, he drops his hands and steps away from Ethan.
Ethan collapses on the floor, breaking into a coughing fit. Big, ugly bruises on his pale neck. I almost step forward to help, but then stop. Now is not the time for this. I glance at Luke.
He looks away, his jaw clenched but his eyes aren’t outraged anymore, just frustrated. To whom, I don’t know.
Luke takes my hand in his with a gentleness I didn’t imagine him to be capable of. We walk in silence towards our room. He guides me to the bed and I sit down as Luke shuffles through our bag.
He takes out a small glass bottle and nods towards my arm. Without a word, I hold it out. Luke bends down on one knee and spreads the cool cream over the bruise. I sense the tension in his frame, his clenched jaw.
“Luke,” I say softly, my hand already on its way to touch his cheek “I’m okay.”
He lets out a breath, leaning into my palm, and looks up. I’m taken aback by the sole intensity of his gaze, a livid
storm in his blue eyes.
“I’m going to kill him.”
“He didn’t mean it,” I say quietly, dropping my hand from his face
“His intentions may go to blazes for all I care,” Luke growls out lowly
He turns his eyes to the fading bruise on my arm, holds my hand in his own, his grip gently reassuring.
“This will never happen again,” Luke promises
Small smile tugs at my lips “You can’t protect me from everything, Luke.”
He looks up, his face is all angles of determination but his gaze softens when it meets mine as if staring at a precious treasure. He brushes my hair away, his warm hand slipping behind my neck. I feel the air around us shifting into something that makes my heart flutter madly.
“As long as I have breath in my lungs, I will protect you.”
His lips fall against my own.
Every sensible thought, every logic, every moral goes out of the window as my eyes flutter shut. What am I doing
What am I doing What am I doing?
My mind falls shut, my sense goes out of the window, but my heart beats hard, fast, overwhelmed as if giving me an answer.
What I want to, what I should’ve done long ago.
I feel Luke stand up, his knee forming a dip in the mattress against mine as he leans forward, his other arm slides around my waist, pulling me closer. In his arms is a strange sort of surety, a strange belonging in the way his lips move against mine.
Of their own volition, my hands slide into his hair and pull him down harder, letting out more emotions and frustration than I would ever admit.
Luke doesn’t seem to care about that, a low growl rumbles through him to me as he tilts my face, deepening the kiss. The dire need for air makes me tug at his hair. Grudgingly, he let go of my mouth, but I can't catch my breath when
his lips start trailing my jaw, my neck.
My head is swimming with sensations I’ve never felt before as I drop my head back. His lips are a million degrees hot against my skin. I feel the remains of my breath hitch in my throat, his teeth scrape my skin making a thrill of panic go through me.
Then his lips move, forming a searing word against my skin that slaps me right back into reality.
“Mine.”
My eyes snap open, without thinking twice, I shove him away.
More from shock than from force, Luke stumbles away, his face flushed, pupils dilated. Silence descends on us, thick and heavy, only broken by my shallow breaths.
The realization of what just happened dawns on me. I sit still, wide eyes trained on the floor, unable to breathe.
What have I done?
“Hazel,” A warm hand touches my cheek “Elise, I—
I flinch away from Luke, a flash of something raw and primal crosses his face, pain as if I’d just stabbed him.
I swallow thickly, my throat parched like sandpaper “T-This wasn’t, I didn’t mean to— I’m sorry.”
Words wither away on my tongue, my eyes dart in every direction, I feel them burn with tears of frustration, guilt, and hurt. Thoughts swarm in my head, each making me guiltier than the last.
I’ve been getting too comfortable with a man who’s not my mate. I let him kiss me. I kissed him back.
A part of me doesn’t regret it.
A familiar deep voice pulls me out of my thoughts;
“I’m not sorry.”
My head snaps towards him, my vision blurry but I see Luke move towards me. Slowly, quietly he settles down next to me. He takes my face in his hands, so carefully, as if I’m spun of glass.
“I want you.”
I think I have a bullet through my heart.
“Luke, no.” I’m shaking my head
“I want to mark you.” He says, looking straight into my eyes, my soul “I want to live my whole life with you by my side.”
I wish I had a bullet through my heart.
“I want you to be mine.”
I pull away from him and stumble back. I’m shocked, petrified, frozen in time by the wrongness of this hour, this moment.
“That’s not possible,” I find my voice, a mere whisper
“Why?” Luke closes the distance between us, his eyes searching my own “Tell me the reason, the problem and I will fix it.”
My face crumples “This is against the law, against nature.”
I close my eyes and turn away from him. I want to shut him out, shut my heart out, shut my mind out, shut out everything in this whole universe. Benumb, simply exist and be teleported to a time when everything’s back to the way it should be.
Two familiar arms wrap around me from behind, holding me in an embrace that should not comfort me, but it does, it does and I hate it with every fiber of my being.
“Once I’m the Alpha Supreme, the law will bow to me,” Luke’s words caress my ear “Will you chose me then, Elise?
If I make sure no one can take you away from me?”
Some fragile barrier I’d put against the chaos in my head breaks. I turn around sharply in his hold, wrenching myself free of it.
“Can you change fate?” My words sound sharp to my ears “Can you fight the hate that will follow me to my grave after the filthy omega ‘traps’ the Alpha Supreme into being with her? Can you promise that when we stumble upon our true mates, we will not end up desiring them more?”
“Maybe you didn’t think my words through, Elise. I want you, wholly, completely.” Luke says, his face set in stone, stormy eyes determined more than ever “And for you, I will do whatever it takes.”
He holds out a hand for me.
“Be my reason to fight, and let me be yours.”
He’s standing three steps away from me but the distance is impossibly long. His eyes hold so much longing, so much hope it's cutting through me. To know that I can never close this distance, that I can never rest my head against his chest, run my hand through his hair or bare my heart to him because he’s not mine and nor am I his, is like the strongest silver cuff holding me to the bottom of an ocean.
“I’m tired, Luke.” I whisper, the lies burn my tongue “I’m tired of fighting.”
The flash of unadulterated pain that crosses his face is forever burned in my memory. His fingers curl and he drops his hand, eyes firmly shut. When he opens them again, they’re blank, hard as stone.
“Very well,” Luke’s voice is the coldest, hardest metal that’s ever ripped through my heart “I will not bother you again.”