Page 95 of Alpha Chase

She shakes her head again with a look of disgust and a little piece of me dies.

“You’d believe him over me?” I choke, my throat tight, the sting of betrayal burning through my bloodstream. The way she’s looking at me right now would be enough to break me if I hadn’t spent years building my emotional defenses when it comes to this woman. I’ve always given her a pass, excusing her indifference toward me as her grief. Now I suddenly see her for who she really is, and I’m done making excuses for her. She’s let her grief make her weak, but I’ve used my own to make me strong. And now I’m finally strong enough to walk away.

I hear the distant sound of someone crying out in pain, my mom wincing in response.

Chase.

My own mother may not believe me, but he did; he risked everything to come here to defend my honor. I turn away and bound down the hall toward the bedrooms, the sound of muffled moaning growing louder with every step.

Levi suddenly ducks out of the doorway of my bedroom with a box clutched in his hands and I damn near collide with him. “Vee?!” he exclaims in surprise, but I don’t have time to stop and ask what the hell he’s doing here. I just shove past him, grinding to a halt when I reach the last room on the left; the one Clint claimed as his man-cave.

I swear my heart ceases to beat for a few moments as I take in the sight before me. Chase is standing over Clint, pinning him to the wall by a fistful of his shirt and beating the living daylights out of him while Brock stands aside, just looking on and not lifting a finger to intervene. Clint is bloody, crying, begging for Chase to stop, but he’s unyielding, punching at his face and chest and ribs, blood spurting and bones crunching. All I can do is watch in horror as Chase throws Clint’s limp body to the ground, delivering a swift kick to his ribs that has him wheezing and spitting blood.

“If you ever go near my girl again, I will fucking end you,” Chase snarls, looming over Clint with a feral look in his eye. “Do you understand me?!”

Warmth blooms in my chest in response to hearing Chase refer to me ashis girl. When Clint doesn’t readily reply to his question, Chase rears back his boot and kicks him again, causing him to cry out and curl into the fetal position.

“Yes!” Clint screams desperately, covering his head with his hands and choking on a sob.

A sick smirk of satisfaction curls at Chase’s lips and he turns to Brock, who gives him a single nod of assent, then ticks his head in my direction. Chase wheels around to look at me, his eyes widening in surprise as blood drips down his face. “Vee…”

Part of me wants to turn around and run, but I’m frozen in place, my heart pounding at a chaotic rhythm. Chase crosses the room to me swiftly, blocking my view of Clint with his large frame and enveloping me in his arms.

“C’mon, babe, you shouldn’t see this,” he murmurs, moving forward in an attempt to steer me out of the room.

“No,” I whisper, pushing back against him. He releases his hold on me, furrowing his brow in confusion as his eyes meet mine. I step around him, striding purposefully toward Clint’s quivering form on the floor. I stop right beside him, staring down at the pathetic remains of the man who struck fear into my heart so many times; the man who made me feel unsafe in my own home.

Before I even know what’s happening, I hear a blood-curdling scream ring out, my foot slamming into Clint’s shoulder. I kick him again and again before I realize that the scream is coming from my own throat, all my fury rising to the surface as I unleash it on the monster curled on the ground. I deliver a blow for every bruise he left on my skin; for every time he tried to take from me. For the anguish in my heart at my mother’s refusal to believe it. I keep kicking even after he goes quiet, pouring my rage into his battered body.

“Vienna.” A hand lands on my shoulder and I whip my head up to see Brock staring down at me, his jaw tight and his expression stoic.

I swallow past the lump in my throat, taking a step back, colliding with Chase’s hard chest. His arms wrap around me from behind, steadying me, and only then do I realize how hard I’m trembling. “I’ve got you,” Chase murmurs, pulling me in tight and backing us away from Clint’s crumpled form on the floor.

I spin around in his arms, staring up at his face smeared with blood that isn’t his own. Something about the sight of him like this calls to the darkness in me- I grab his face with both hands, yanking him down to meet me as I rise up on my tiptoes and slam my lips against his. He looks like a fucking savage and tastes like pure brutality, but for a moment, I lose myself in all of it, my demons coming out to play with his.

Chase’s large hands curl around the backs of my thighs, lifting me into his arms and I wind my legs around his waist instantly, my body completely in tune with his. He spins me around wildly, slamming my back against the wall and trapping me there, devouring my kiss like he’s starved for it- and fuck, I am too. I lose track of where my tongue ends and his begins, completely swept away in the pain and rage and lust of the moment; the raw, carnal emotions blocking out everything else- the man on the floor bleeding out; my Alpha standing across the room.

My darkness rises up to meet Chase’s, and I willingly let myself drown in it.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Vienna

AsIleavemyhouse with Chase, a lot of strange looks are cast in our direction.

Brock looks at us like we’re nuts, andyeah, we basically are.

Astrid peers at us with this smug little smile like she knows something that we don’t, which is basically par for the course with her.

My mom’s eyes are glassy with tears and burning with scorn, but I don’t even lift my gaze to meet them as I confidently stride past her. She doesn’t fucking deserve my pain or my pity.

When we walk outside, we’re greeted by more strange looks.

Levi glances at us wistfully, looking a little butthurt like he always does when he sees us together lately. Must be a male ego thing since Chase won their little tug-of-war over me, but it was never really a competition in my eyes.

Callum is grinning from ear to ear, probably delighting in the blood smeared on our faces.Sick fucker.

Miles looks confused as hell, and Alec and Dare are sporting matching raised brows and curious expressions on their faces.

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