Chapter One Hundred and Fifty
I tried pulling away from his hold, but Thane was really strong–maybe even stronger now.
Thane pulled me closer to him, close enough that his breath fanned my neck, close enough that I could see how pained those completely black eyes looked. There was something different with the way he stared at me.
I should be scared; I should have struggled harder, but I didn’t, and at some point I gave up. I would never be able to fight him off; there was no use trying, and finally he let me go, his eyes returning to their original color.
“Riley… what happened?” He asked, seeming lost.
“You are burning up; I need to go get Axel,” I said to him, and before he could ask anymore questions, I darted out of the room.
He couldn’t remember what he did. I knew how guilty he would feel if he knew what he had done, and so I made a decision. He was not going to know.
1 pounded on the door to Axel’s apartment; it was late and very rude to wake a person up this way, but I was panicking.Axel pushed open the door; he was in nothing but a pair of shorts; his jet black hair sprang out wildly; I had clearly woken him up. I tore my eyes from his body. “Do you realize how late it is?” He questioned, and for the first time, he didn’t read me as easily as I had expected. If I were here at this time, then it meant something was wrong; should have known that.
“Something is going on with Thane.”
“No,” he disagrees.
“What?” I question dumbfounded.
“If anything was wrong with him, I would have felt it.”
“You listen to me; Thane is not alright!”
Finally, he seemed to see the urgency in my tone; he quickly followed after me, and we returned back to the room.
Thane wasn’t on the bed but on one of the cushions, and he looked perfectly…fine.
“So?” Axel questioned.
“His temperature had gone up,” I said to Axel.
“Are you okay?” Axel questioned Thane, his voice laced with genuine concern.”
“I am,” Thane answers.
he
I joined them, gently placing my hand on Thane’s forehead, but his temperature was back to
ביד
+25 BONUS
normal
“It hadn’t been like this when I went to get you,” I said to Axel, but he didn’t seem to believe me; it made sense that he trusted the ‘bond‘ more. The question was, why didn’t he feel it?
“Axel, she is right; I had this strange feeling…” Thane trailed off, and I noticed his gaze on my wrist. “Riley, let me see your wrist,” he says, but held my wrist to my chest, taking a step. back.
The injury on my wrist was all the evidence I needed; all I had to do was to show it to Axel, he would finally believe that I wasn’t just ‘making things up‘, but I didn’t want Thane to discover that he did this.
“It’s fine; it’s just a bruise.”
“Riley,” he called warningly, and 1 inhaled deeply. I stretched out my hand, giving him a look. “You see, just a bruise.”
He was silent for a few seconds.
“I did that, didn’t I?”
“No, you didn’t,” I say, but my voice faltered, and that gave me away.
He closed his eyes, as if trying to recall what had happened. “You gave in; you stopped fighting; why?” he questioned, the intensity of his gaze on me.
“I didn’t…”
“Why?” he asked again, cutting me off.
“I knew I couldn’t fight you, so I just… didn’t.”
“What if I did worse than this?” he says, referring to the deep gash on my wrist.
“I didn’t think you would.”
“I was not in my right senses,” he says.
“What happened?” Axel finally questioned, puzzled.
“I had woken up to notice that he was burning hot. I tried placing a wet towel on him, but that didn’t change anything and he wasn’t opening his eyes. I had been worried and about to call for you when he finally awoke, but his eyes were completely black. I don’t know how to explain it, and he kept on snarling at me; he was like a totally different person,” I said, unable to hide the slight shiver.
“I had done that,” Thane says. “I remember now.”
I didn’t want to tell him, but he had wanted to know, and now I could see the guilt in his eyes; his gaze never left my wrist. “What caused it?” I asked him.
“I… I don’t know,” he says, furious at himself.
+25 BONUS
Chapter One Hundred and Fitt
“Hey… this is not your fault.”
“Don’t. I had hurt you and would have done worse.”
“But you didn’t,” I added.
Axel had been silent, lost in thoughts and finally he spoke up. “I hadn’t felt a thing–I should have felt it if Thane was troubled,” Axel said to himself, and that explained why he hadn’t believed me earlier.
“Maybe he wasn’t exactly troubled,” I offered, but that had been a lie, and Axel knew that.
“Riley, if this ever happens again, could you promise me that you would fight me as hard as you can?”
“But…”
“No buts, promise me.”
“It won’t happen again,” I assured him.
“You don’t know that.”
“I promise you that I would ‘try‘ fighting you off, but we both know I would lose in that.”
“Still better than giving up; now let’s go get that cleaned up,” he says. The bruise on my hand was only a small cut; it didn’t need any special care, but Thane was having none of that.
