Page 77 of Claiming Xan
My heart going wild in my chest, I shifted back first, my hand clamped around Sky’s throat.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?” I screamed into his face. “THAT’S MY MATE! THAT’S MYSON,YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” Anguish and anger filled my words, turning my voice raw.
Sky shuddered beneath me, his shift receding and leaving him human once more. Tears filled his eyes to cascade down his cheeks, but I didn’t have time for his fucking waterworks.
“Well? Don’t you have anything to say?” I demanded.
He gripped at his chest, as if I’d stabbed him straight through the heart. “What aboutus?”he cried, and the words pissed me off more than they probably should’ve.
I laughed, sharp and bitter in the cold. “Us? Us?! Thereisno us, Sky. There never was!”
“YOU’RE LYING!” he screamed back at me. “What about our babies?” His eyes were wild, darting over my face, searching for something. I don’t know what. “We hadbabies,River!”
“Our babies?” A growl burst free, anger burning hot through my veins. I wrapped my fingers around my brother’s thin throat. “Our babies were a terrible mistake. They were genetic fuckups, Sky! Our babies were monsters that never should’ve existed, forced upon a couple of messed up teenagers who had no choice but to procreate. They never should’ve existed, and you know what? I’m glad Dr. Thompson did whatever he did with them. I’m GLAD they’re dead! At least now, they don’t have to suffer.”
It was cruel. The cruelest thing I could’ve said to my twin, who was still grieving the losses, but I was so fucking angry at him, I didn’t care.
Sky sobbed brokenly, like I’d just ripped his heart out and torn it from his chest, still beating. “You chose Xan over me!”
“YOU’RE MYBROTHER!”I shouted. “NOT MY MATE!” I slammed my fist into the snow beside his head. He flinched away with a soft gasp. “God! Why can’t you see that the facility warped your damn mind!”
“RIVER!”Xan wailed from behind me, reminding me that he was wounded, and I was here, wasting time on a waste of space like my brother when I needed to be with my Omega.
I cursed. “Fuck!” Looking into the identical eyes of my twin, my expression twisted into one of disdain. “Yes, I chose Xan, and I swear to fucking god, if anything happens to him or my son, I will hunt you down and gut you like a fish. Get out of here!”
I rose to my feet, and Sky all but scrambled away from me, his cries broken things that would haunt these woods, but in that moment, I didn’t care.
Panic settling in, I rushed to Xan’s side and my stomach lurched at all the blood. Oh god…
“Xan. Xan,” I uttered, sinking to my knees beside him. I brushed dark hair out of his pale, pinched face.
“R-River… It hurts. I’m scared,” he whimpered, reaching for me with blood-sticky hands.
“Hold on, baby. I got you.” I gently looped my arms around him and picked him up despite his whimpers, then hurried back to where his car was parked in the middle of the drive. It was still running…
I knocked the packages off the passenger seat and set Xan down, then got behind the wheel of the car. Xan cried softly, tears streaming down his cheeks.
“It hurts,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “I-I think the baby’s coming, River. It’s too soon! I can’t lose him! I can’t! I’ve w-waited so long to f-finally meet him and now?—”
“Shh,” I crooned, stroking the backs of my knuckles over his cheek as I gunned it down the road. “Everything’s gonna be okay. We’re only a month away from our due date. The baby will be okay.”
Please, god, let the baby be okay…
The problem was, with Xan’s puffy blue coat, I couldn’t tell how much damage had actually been done. But I wasn’t sure Iwantedto see what my brother had done to him.
I drove, my nerves shaken to their core. Somehow, I managed to fumble my phone out of my pocket with my free hand and call Gracie. She picked up after two rings. I could hear dogs barking in the background.
I wasted no time. “Sky attacked Xan. He’s hurt, I don’t know how bad. We’re on our way to the hospital. Meet us there,” I told her. “He needs you.”
“Oh god,” is all she said before I hung up and focused on the road.
Xan gripped my hand all the way there. I didn’t let him go, not until my Omega was put on a gurney and quickly wheeled away. He cried out my name, sobbing hysterically, sending my heart into a panic.
My whole body was shaking by the time I sank down in a chair in the lobby of the ER. My stomach churned with worry and leftover anger, and my heart ached. I dropped my head into my hands.
Fuck! How could things go so wrong, so fast? Tears burned my eyes, and I let them fall. A soft sob broke from my chest and this time, I didn’t even try and stop it. I simply sat there and cried openly in the middle of the room.
I didn’t realize Gracie was there until a warm hand squeezed my shoulder. I jerked to alert, my head snapping up as I swiped at my face.
