Heart of a Beast

Chapter 13 | Part 1 - Crystal

Song: "I can't breathe" by Bea Miller

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Shame pressed down on Crystal's shoulders for the rest of the day when she returned to work. Shame that she was so weak and pitiful and embarrassed for breaking down in front of Tiberius. He had to think she was so weak and pathetic now.

She couldn't even look him in the eye after that.

He was always trying to comfort her. Why couldn't she be stronger? Braver? With each day he got to know her, he would only see more of just how pathetic she was.

Then she would remember the way he'd look at her and she hated herself even more.

He didn't look at her that way. He didn't look down at her, curl his lips up at her, glare or snarl at her.

He gazed at her. Gazed at her in such a way that made butterflies dance in her stomach and her heart to beat a little harder. Gazed at her the way no one had ever gazed at her before.

He needed her.

Why was she such a pathetic mate?

They spent a quiet evening with her family before her father and sister headed out for the nightly hunt.

Their pack's territory covered several neighborhoods in Chicago beyond the gates and they patrolled the streets in human form.

Tonight, they were also meeting with the vampire slayers, who were given the heart of downtown Chicago, with Alpha Jackson to discuss the Underground Market and arrange a guide for their trip Friday night.

After they left, Ma asked her to go out to the Nursery and settle the dogs for the night. Usually, Ma tended to the dogs, treating them like pups of her own, and struggled to give away each litter they bred to a loving home. She only asked Crystal or Brooke to tend to them when she was too busy to do so herself.

The Nursery was a small kennel with one main communal room and four separate rooms for the four females they bred. Two were already pregnant and their two males stayed with them in their own space away from the other two females. The males were usually kept separate in another kennel on the other side of the house, but when females were pregnant, they let them stay. The males got lonely and testy if they were kept isolated for too long.

After spending half an hour with the dogs, petting them, cuddling them, playing tug-of-war, then feeding and watering them, she left to find her mother and Tiberius in the backyard, hunched over a patch of cleared dirt next to the deck.

Her brows furrowed as she walked closer and Tiberius wiped away his message before she could see it.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked.

The summer sky was darkening, the sun splashing bright colors over the clouds as it dipped lower on the horizon. Long shadows covered their faces, making it harder for Crystal to interpret their expressions.

"Just talking, sweetie," Ma said before turning and climbing up the four steps of the deck and entering the back door of the house.

Tiberius stayed next to the cleared earth, and although half of his face was covered in shadows, she could feel his eyes lingering over her before he looked away.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, she tucked her hair behind her ear and rubbed her arms as she padded toward him.

His eyes were looking up at the sky as she sat next to him. She waited, expecting him to write something in the earth, and when he didn't, she raised her eyes to his face. He was still looking up at the sky, so she turned her gaze upon it as well.