Inhumane

033

PAIGE

The sound of the shotgun cocking is ingrained into my mind. Five feet to my left, Damon was still on his belly, stretched out from his fall. The scent of his blood made me want to gag with the sharpness of it. My eyes trailed up as I desperately tried to push myself up with limbs that still felt poorly reassembled.

Tye was standing over him, pressing the barrel right between my mate's shoulder blades. Damon's eyes were on mine, agonized, but I couldn't look at him yet for fear I would break down. He looked helpless and furious, leg trapped in the metal clamp, his arms flexed to keep his torso above the snow. Damon's teeth were clenched, but something told me it wasn't from pain.

"What do you want?" I snarled at him, my voice hoarse. "Haven't you had enough?"

"I want to live, and I likely won't if you two are still around. It's a shame that I found you this way. Seems almost unfair how easy it was."

"You don't deserve to live with how many lives you've taken. Including my mother's," my voice is a cry at the end. But the thought of her gives me strength. Slowly, arms shaking so badly I feared they would give out, I pushed myself up. Our eyes were intent on one another's, I needed his full attention. Otherwise, he was unpredictable, and the barrel of his gun was shoved into the skin of my mate. 

Every second, dawn crept closer and the woods got lighter. I imagined rising with the Sun, drawing from its power. My legs took too long to stabilize underneath me and left me wobbling, but I stood. My insides felt like they turned inside out, my skin burned hot, but my soul was alive. A desperate need was growing inside of me, and I realized for the first time in my life I was fighting for something. Not just one thing, but many. I was fighting for Damon, for my mother, for the new family that was welcoming me, for my mother's mate... For the first time in my life I had a cause that I could truly get behind. The feeling gave me more strength, it made me wild with adrenaline.

My father was right, you can't change who you are. But I knew I was a fighter, and I was also a liar.

Tye's eyes are locked on mine and I didn't know why he was hesitating. Though he looked briefly shocked that I was even standing.

"It's not him you want to kill," I softened my voice, catering to him as I did in the cell. "It's me, isn't it?"

I saw the gun slouch slightly in his grasp, his mouth twitched down into a frown.

"You're so angry with me. I betrayed you all, I left you behind, I never told you where I went. I hurt you, didn't I, Tye?" Slowly, I inched closer to him, my legs still wavering. He didn't protest, I kept moving. Tye's eyes remained locked on mine and I knew he was breaking. I could see it.

His hand tightened on his gun as I stepped within three feet of him. Our breath was still puffing into white clouds that hung in the air.

In those moments I tried to recall who I once had been, for one final occasion. One that would grant my mate life when it was too late for my mother.

Delicately, I placed my hand on Tye's arm, hyperaware of Damon profusely bleeding below me. "You hate me so bad you want to kill me but you can't do it. So you'll kill him, because he's my mate. Because my father killed your mate and now you have nothing except for me." My hand trailed down as he began to shudder so badly his whole body rocked. "But does that make us even? What am I to do then?"

His lower lip was wobbling.

I lowered my voice to a whisper, sweat breaking out on the back of my neck. "You expect these things to happen... But you took what you weren't supposed to take." Images of my mother's life, my body, my livelihood, my time in the pack came to my mind. He took so much for me without even realizing it. Tye was just another monster in my life.

"I just have to know one thing, Tye." My hand took his, right over his right hand which rested on the gun. I squeezed his hand tightly. "Why did you do it? Why did you kill my mother?" After whispering the words into the night air, I felt the center of my chest squeeze so tight I nearly couldn't breathe.

And then he told me.