Page 55 of Defiant
I follow cautiously, my eyes taking in a cracked wall, a broken television, a ping pong table snapped in half. A fight clearly happened down here, a big one. I even see blood staining the carpet.
Fuck. I hope that's not hers.
The hairs rise up on my neck as I take in the scene. As a beta, my wolf hates fighting. As a guy, I've been in plenty. And this one definitely looks like two shifters battling it out. Human fights don't last that long, despite what tv producers think.
Is Elena okay? Did her wolf go wild?
Her scent fills the air as I step off the bottom step and onto the plush carpet. I inhale and take it in, noting it's mixed with a few other males', plus a nasty cologne.
She's here. But was she here during that fight? Or—
My questions cut off as Black pushes open a bedroom door and I see a figure sprawled out on a mattress.
"Wake up, princess," he says softly, in a tone I've never heard from him before. But I recognize it. It's exactly the tone my dad uses with my mom.
My throat suddenly doesn't have enough room. My shirt's gotten small, the collar too tight. I can't get enough air.
Elena stirs, mewling. Black walks over to her and I watch her bat his hand away. He just grins and climbs up to straddle her on the mattress.
I turn around and walk farther into the middle of the rec room, away from them.
But it doesn’t help. The walls feel too close. They’re moving in.I can't. Fuck.I shut my eyes, but that only makes the sounds in the other room double.
Elena gasps when she wakes up and Black laughs.
"You ass—" Her typical snark is swallowed up…by a kiss, I imagine. That silence rakes across my back and digs into my skin painfully. I don't want to watch, but I don't want this fucking silence to drag on as my imagination fills in the blanks.
God, why did I come down here? What am I doing here?
"I'll just—"
"Jonah?" Elena's voice is a rope and tugs my feet around before my head can tell them to stay put.
Black's on top of her, his mouth on her neck but her face is turned toward me. Her expression mirrors the terrified horror I feel.
I spin back around, chest heaving, cursing myself for looking.
"Get off! There are people here, you pervert."
Black chuckles and I hear bedsprings shift.
One second later, Elena has rushed over and is standing in front of me. Her entire body is draped in this massive shirt that I'm certain is Black's. She's wearing sweatpants too. She's basically swallowed up by him, consumed. Their scents mingle in my nose as I struggle to breathe.
My wolf gives a broken howl inside my head.
I try to forge a smile. I don't think I pull it off. Instead, I cough and offer, "I brought your phone."
Elena blinks up at me.
Black slides in behind her and hands it to her before wrapping his arms around her waist the way I’ve always dreamt of doing. She pushes him back, but not hard, it doesn’t look like she’s really resisting.
I glance to the side and quickly start talking, trying to disguise the vicious longing in my chest. "I have your backpack in the car too, since you ran out of class. I don't know if you care about assignments … but I wrote those down." Fuck me. I sound like a fucking nerd.
"Ran out?" Black grins. “So eager to shift, weren’t you?”
"Black!" Pluto's yell echoes in the hall upstairs. "You coming or what? These betas are waiting."
"Be right there!" Black shouts back. "Got you some bodyguards, little wolf."
