Unconditionally, Inevitably, Forever Yours.

A Speech That Bites.

--Chapter 44--

Grayson's POV.

If there was one thing that Grayson hated more than being woken up from a nice indulgent slumber; it was being woken up by some assholes dragging him along a floor in chains and binds like some kind of feral dog. Don't comment on that. And his knees were in pain, the floor wearing them thin of their first couple layers of skin.

C'mon, Grayson complained in his head. Would it really be too much trouble to carry me instead?

Apparently so, and the bag over his head wouldn't even allow him to see the perpetrators or reward them with a death glare. It didn't even matter to him how he'd got in this position- it wasn't exactly new to him to suddenly wake up, gagged and bound, undoubtedly facing his impending peril. Grayson had grown accustomed to waking up to that sort of thing.

And people still wondered why Grayson preferred not  to sleep.

He remembered heading to April's apartment- after watching his favourite place burn down before him, yada yada - to, at the very least, spend the night there. Of course, Grayson had been against the idea, but April had her genius methods of persuasion. Or maybe it was just that his mate's cute and Grayson's already whipped as hell.

Yeah,  he thought, that's probably it.

So they'd arrived at the grotty, dilapidated apartment which, just the thought of, almost brought Grayson to tears. They'd shared April's old, cramped bed after she'd given him a thorough warning of what sexually-transmitted infections could potentially be waiting for him if he'd chosen to take the couch in the living room instead. Looking back now, it was a pretty weird conversation- and it kind of reminded him of what'd he once overhead his mother tell Cohan, which just made it even stranger. But, honestly, Grayson would never have denied sharing a cramped bed with April. Getting as close to her as possible without it being unnecessary and/or just plain creepy was a personal goal of Grayson's. Whipped, and  creepy.

April had fallen asleep first, whilst Grayson did some, even more creepy, Edward Cullen shit and had watched her sleep, then before long, BOOM- Grayson was out for the count. He'd then woken up to muffled screams, and Grayson could've sworn his heart had stopped. He'd fucking lost it when he saw three strange-looking men in the room, none of whom he recognised but, unfortunately, Grayson knew that April did. And they knew her too- on a very, very personal level that made Grayson want to strangle himself.

He'd flipped out, which was to be expected of him, and then was beaten the shit out of and knocked out with a syringe to his neck. That was also kind of expected. Grayson realised he was quite prone to making dumb, rash decisions when it came down to April. And once again, this was justified with Grayson being whipped as hell.

But, in the back of his mind, when he thought back to that night- however long ago it was, Grayson didn't know how long he'd been out for- and remembered having the living crap beaten out of him. He knew what April must've thought of him. She probably thought he was a coward for letting them treat him that way. She must've felt betrayed, or at least thought that Grayson was pathetic scum, for not tearing those three D-bags apart after what they'd done to her. After all he'd said to her, and how vengeful Grayson was to make them to pay for what they'd done to his Cherub: he'd just laid there, taking every blow like he deserved it.

Well, he probably did deserve it. But that's beside the point.

He didn't fight for her, in the moment that it mattered, Grayson did nothing. The way he acted, April must've felt lonesome once more- alone, fending for herself again. Just like she had before Grayson had met her. God, he was such a piece of shit. It'd driven April to resurface her wolf to gain control of the situation, and they would've had no idea how bad that could've turned out. And, by doing so, April had unintentionally brought her and her wolf that little much closer together. Grayson had seen the look in his mate's eyes, along with the rest of the differences that had graced her features. He still believed her to be the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid his eyes upon; but her face made him undeniably unnerved- threatened, even.