Page 93 of Ronan

What if he’s going in there for a quick meaningless fuck while he can use this as an excuse?

What if, aftereverything, he leaves?

What if you were never worth staying for?

Images of Ronan’s sculpted, naked body play like a reel before me, taunting eyes on mine as he thrusts into Khuth, while his hands roam skin that isn’t mine. Adoration is replaced with a mocking sneer, any traces of affection erased from his expression. Those soft planes of his face are hard once again.

It’spoisonas it steals my breath—bitter acid that corrodes my insides as it spreads.

In that moment, it’s all so real.

The shredding of my flesh as he rips my heart out. The dampness of the ground soaking my jeans as I fall to my knees and beg him to come back to me. The desperation in my voice when I tell him it doesn’t matter, that it's okay... that I’ll forgive him if he’ll juststay.

The crunch of tires as he drives away, and the screaming silence of abandonment.

Pitiful.

Pathetic.

BROKEN.

He could do so much better than you.

Tears flood my eyes as the voices that have been quiet for so long speak up again, blaring inside my head until it feels as though it might explode with the pressure. “Stop it,” I mutter to myself, trying to rub away the pain in my chest. The insecurities I’ve been ignoring so well spin like a venomous web in my mind, and I fight against the toxic thoughts.

He loves me.

Ronan lovesme.

He loves me… he loves me.

He does.

He promised

Memories push to the forefront of my mind, images of the sincerity in his eyes as we clung to each other in the forest. And his words…

They left me as nothing more than ruins, surrounded by a pile of useless wreckage. Piece by piece, he took that rubble and rebuilt this damaged heart. It’s sewed up and patched, a piecework of everything life has thrown at me, but it’swhole.

And it’s his.

He loves me.

One breath after another brings me back to the present, and slowly, the grip on my throat loosens. I’ve barely gotten the panic under control when a noise makes my head whip towards the obscurity surrounding my cage.Footsteps in the dark give me pause, and the moonless night causes fear to creep in, crawling beneath my skin as I stare off into the nothingness. My worries take a backseat as the crunch of grass moves closer, my hair standing on end with the awareness of being watched.

“Such a pretty little caged bird,” a throaty voice says, and I turn towards the sound as a body materializes from the shadows. Scales reflect the dim lighting, the color of a midnight sky. He flashes me a threatening smile, his eyes and razor-blade teeth shining with an unnatural luminescence against the darkness. “Do you think we can make it sing?”

Another monster appears beside him, the lanky one that had been in the backseat of the car. His pale, pinkish-tan skin is unremarkable; you’d walk behind him on the street and never give him a second glance. Sure, his limbs are a little… stretched, but it’s nothing inhuman. But if he turned around…

Well, the three eyeballs certainly betray him.

I tuck myself into the furthest corner as their eyes—all five of them—rake over my frame. “I’ll make you sing real pretty, little bird,” the dark one taunts, a barbed tail whipping behind him. As he reaches into his pocket, I realize he has a key. My mind clears, shoving my anxiety into a box to be dealt with later as an idea starts to form.

Maybe this is my ticket out of here.

Sure, they’re a lot bigger than me, but they seem kind of dumb.

“Oh, please no,” I whimper, pushing as much panic into my voice as I can muster. “Just… just let me stay in here until it’s time for us to leave.”

---