Page 167 of We Are Yours
Julius.
The moment I realized it wasn’t just a feeling I’d been experiencing all day, his fist was already in Kraven’s jaw.
“No!” I shouted, instantly standing. “Don’t do this!”
Neither heard me.
Rage quickly took over every last fiber of their beings. Kraven took off, hauling ass toward Julius, confirming my suspicions that this wasn’t going to end well.
This was a fight to the death. There was no denying it.
No pretending.
It was right there in front of our faces, the betrayal.
I screeched, “Kraven, stop!”
He rammed his shoulder into Julius’s chest, slamming his back against the wall behind him. The impact of his assault sent drywall crumbling to the floor.
Julius didn’t waver, attacking him to the ground to get on top of him.
“You don’t fucking touch her!” he seethed. Using his own momentum, his fist connected with Kraven’s jaw again.
Kraven’s face snapped back. I was over to them in one stride, grabbing Julius’s collar as he continued to beat on Kraven. Delivering a blow to his stomach, then his ribs.
“Julius, please stop this!” I shouted.
Kraven locked his legs around him, flipping Julius over, spewing, “Fuck you! You left! You fucking left her! You fucking left me!”
“And that gives you the right to fuck what’s mine!”
Kraven hit him in the face, taunting, “She’s mine now!”
“Oh my God!” I cried. “That’s enough! Both of you!”
Kraven hovered above him, panting until Julius reacted. Punching him back. They were like this for a minute as I cried out for them to stop. This wasn’t going to fix anything. It wasn’t solving shit.
It was making everything worse.
“How could you do this to me?” Julius shoved him away. “After everything I’ve done for you!”
Kraven stood. “For fuck’s sake, Julius! You left! What part of that do you not understand?”
With one foot in front of the other, Julius abruptly got into his face. “You’re my fucking brother, Kraven!”
Inhaling deeply, it was my turn to snap, loud and clear. “Who the hell do you think you are, Julius?!” I stepped between them, glaring at him.
“You did leave! Let’s not forget that!”
Vindictively, he replied, “Yeah… and it didn’t take you long to find comfort in my brother’s arms, did it?”
“That’s not fair.”
“None of this is fair, sweetheart.”
“News flash,” I reminded him. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t left me.”
“You don’t think I know that! You don’t think I have to live with this! Do you think it’s been easy for me to leave you? That I haven’t been thinking about you every moment of every day…? I left because I couldn’t stay. It was all too much, Isla. But how about you ask me why I came back?” he finally confessed. “I came back because I can’t live without you. You mean everything to me. You’re mine. No matter what, you always will be. All I’ve wanted to do is protect you and keep you safe. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to make you turn to my brother, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life. Do you have any idea how hard it is to know that? How hard that is to accept?”
