Darkest Wolf

XXVI

Eve's POV

The music flowed through the room. I rolled my head around my neck and moved my shoulders and hips and arms to the beat of this sultry song I had never heard before. It was hypnotic like a snake song and it spoke to me in a language I could only understand when feeling all those wrong feelings.

I could faintly hear someone telling me to turn it off but didn't bear any mind to them. I was happy to listen to Nathaniel's cassette player all night.

"I said turn it off!"

Before I could react Nathaniel had stormed into the livingroom and turned off the music. He looked incredibly annoyed. His jaw ticked as he stared at me and I felt my eyes flood with deep anger at this slight inconvenience. 

"I was listening to that."

"I don't give a damn," he wiped his hands on a hand towel he had carried in from the kitchen. "Dinner is done. Go eat."

I scoffed but turned to make my way to the kitchen. It was later in the night than I normally eat but had gotten used to this routine over the last few days. Nathaniel had left the pot of stew next to the burner with a pair of bowls waiting. I poured myself a bowl and went to stand at the counter. He came in and joined me.

He paid more attention to the way his spoon swirled his liquid meal than he did to me- his mate, mind you- standing next to him. I set the bowl down on the counter and jumped up to sit on the cool, wooden surface. The counters were probably older than Luna Catherine and in the back of my mind I could hear her chastising me for sitting on the counters in the pack kitchen and feel the hand towel swat at my leg. 

Maybe she's getting annoyed at Gemma for doing the same thing. She and I liked to hang out in the kitchen with her while she cooks dinner for all of us. It took nearly a decade before my father was allowed back in the pack house for a party or dinner. Catherine likes to tell stories about the way the pack was years ago.

"My favorite story is about my Alpha's parents."

Nathaniel stopped spooning soup but didn't look up right away. Instead he raised an eyebrow and set his bowl down before looking at me.

"They were a bit unconventional when they met but they fell in love somehow. They raised a family together and led a pack for decades."

"How inspirational," he said dryly. His amusement obviously didn't come from love stories.

"I think it's hopeful. At least it gives me hope."

He scoffed and pushed off the counter he had been leaning on. Nathaniel is impossible to resist watching, even when his behavior gives the heavy air of ass. I can't tell if its a mate thing or a him thing.

"What?"

"I just can't figure out what a broad like you needs with hope. We met and you'd been leaving a trail of destruction for miles then you shot me with ten ccs of everything in your arsenal. Lust. Lust is what you're made of. Lust and anger. Hope has nothing to do with it."

I stared at him with my mouth agape. It was the most honest he had ever been with me and one of the set of words he had stringed together in a row. And it hurt like a silver bullet to the soul. 

Honesty.

Blatancy. Rude and unabridged blatancy.

It's truth, Eve. You aren't made of hope and blessings and such. You are darkness.

Stop.

"Your wolf agrees with me. I can feel it."

"Shut up."

"You can't hide from the truth, Eve. No one can."

"Yeah? What's your truth? Tell me, Nathaniel or Cain or whatever you want to be called? What's the truth that you feel can be thrown in your face at anytime?"

"My truth is that once centuries ago I was desperately in love and she died. The huntress sent me a pathetic little American pup as a replacement for the greatest woman to ever live."

"You're wrong. The huntress sent me a mate that would stop the end of the world but you have your head so far up your sorry memories of a she-wolf fro-"

A growl ripped through the kitchen but I would have sworn that it rang through the entire world. His hand wrapped around my throat and I was pinned against the cupboards in milliseconds. I looked up into his black eyes, a snarl twitched the edge of his lip upwards in the most cruel look I had ever seen on another wolf. I struggled with the fear this position put me in but my wolf purred with some sick admiration I can only associate with Stockholm syndrome.

"Never speak of my Sorcha like that again."

"Get your hands off of me."

When he didn't move anger began to swirl inside me. I yearned to use my wolf strength and push him away but he is a lycan. It would do no use. Nonetheless the anger grew and grew as he squeezed, our own separate rages filling the room like two bubbles trying to figure out who would pop first.

My eyes went red and my face flushed.

I popped.

Slowly, like a lethal snake I let the emotions flow through me. Leaking into his finger tips Nathaniel felt fear. I watched his pupils as the adrenaline kicked in. Fight or flight ran through his brain but he squeezed my throat tighter. A smart wolf would stop with this game of cat and mouse we were playing. Fear didn't work on a man who lost everything. Fear doesn't work on a wolf who's already afraid.

"Let me go. I don't want to do this to you."

He didn't listen.

My wolf begged me not to but I couldn't help it. 

He fell to the ground. Pain filling every inch of his body in a blast that I can only compare to Hiroshima for one.

And I ran. 

My clothes ripped away from my body as I thundered out into the dark night. I felt the grass die beneath my feet and struggled to keep it all in but I saw the moon. I saw her in all of her white glory staring at all of us- her so called children.

I felt angry. 

I wanted her to know.

I howled a mournful, enraged howl. You could hear it for miles I'm sure but I couldn't be paid to care. I hoped my brother heard it. Or my mother. 

My father. 

I want my Dad. 

But he isn't here so I turned and went to the nearest populated city I could find.

Let them feel what I feel.