Inhumane

035

DAMON- PRESENT

I know Paige is going to cry before she does. Like smelling a storm and rain on the wind, I can smell her disquiet all the same. But as Tye's words continue to recount the day he killed her mother, it's not just tears I can sense from her. It's complete and utter heartbreak. Devastation. I can feel the ground trembling under her feet, ready to swallow her whole.

I'm sharing her pain deep in my chest, where his words eat away at our hearts simultaneously.

As if I'm stuck, I can't stop looking at her and seeing visions of her caught beneath the grizzly that was eating her alive. I'm smelling her blood on the wind from miles away, helpless and terrified.

The trap is digging into the bones of my leg. I want to scream out in frustration. I try to focus, it's hard between Tye's words, the agony on Paige's face, and the pain of the clamp's metal teeth that have bitten deep into the flesh of my leg.

My hand sifts through the snow and dirt around me. The chain is there, but it stretches ten feet to my left. Which means the release key for the trap is far out of reach. I am left with the hard way out. I try to be quiet in order to keep their attention centered, as I wrestle with the contraption that tore all the way through my calf. Every second I am stuck is one Paige fights on her own. I remind myself over and over.

The metal is gouged deep enough to make my vision spin, and my blood is everywhere, it's hard to think of anything else. The pain is intense. But my mind is stuck on Paige, fighting a war on her own, pinned under the grizzly, pinned under her father, pinned under Tye's words. While I stand by. I am horrified that I won't get out in time to help her.

Desperately, I reach out to Cody. He's tied up, the whole pack is tied up at the moment.

Tye's story is gouging deep inside Paige. I can feel the agony in her heart.

"You killed her," Paige is whispering over and over. The fact rips her apart and devours her strength piece by piece until she's stripped to nothing.

"I'm sorry," Tye responds. It's an insult, she stumbles back and onto the ground. The gun is on the ground. Why did she drop the gun? Pick up the gun, I beg her.

She wants so badly to give up but I know she won't beg for her life. Her energy has left her. I can taste her ruin in my mouth, it's sour, I gag on it. She's on her knees, looking up at him. Paige won't meet my eyes. I watch the muscles of Tye's back tighten and bunch in anticipation of what he's about to do.

"Get up, Paige," I snarl as I lock my hands around either side of the clamp and begin to pull. She ignores me. The veins are bulging out from my arms and neck, the blood is gushing from my leg, staining the snow around me crimson. A groan of frustration rushes out of me.

"You can't." I can hear the cry in her voice, as she calls him a fucking coward.

I pull harder. My anger is growing in my chest so strong I could explode from it. I can taste Tye's blood in my mouth I crave it so badly.

"Shut up," he snarls.

"You are a coward who turned on your own pack. You are a coward who couldn't defend your mate and in turn killed someone else's. You put another male in the same position you are in. You are the selfish greedy coward not her!" Paige screams.

I am watching when Tye's hands encircle her neck and lift her up. Paige's hands clamp down on top of his, but there's no use. Whatever he shot her up with has left her too weak to fight him off, let alone stand. Every fiber in my body is shaking as I roar out, throwing every last ounce of strength into breaking free.