Athena

Chapter 12.

Athena

C h a p t e r    T w e l v e

 

 

 

          Everything just happened in slow motion. Colton lunged for Jason, pushing him onto the floor from the sofa. Straddling him, he began punching every bit of Jason he could get his hands––or rock-like fists––on.

Jason didn’t do anything. He laid on the floor, taking everything even though he had done nothing to deserve it. In fact, he was the person trying to persuade me into not making things complicated with Colton and mating him without overthinking anything. He was the one trying to talk some sense into me, siding Colton, yet Colton had turned on him.

“Colton! Stop!” I shouted, hoping that for once he’d actually listen to me. I could tell Jason was bleeding quite a lot as his eyes began to droop but he still didn’t lift a finger up to defend himself. He didn’t make a single sound, even though I was sure that Colton’s strikes weren’t light at all.

“You fucking bastard! I told you to look after her! Not fucking touch her!” Colton screamed in Jason’s face along with a very long string of profanities to follow.

“Colton, stop it! Jason did nothing wrong!”

Colton continued to ignore me, battering the hell out of Jason with an exceptional amount of speed and power. He was lucky he was a werewolf, or he would’ve been knocked out a very long time ago.

“Colton, stop!”

He pulled Jason up by the collar like a rag doll, pushing him against the wall, causing it to disintegrate into cracks. I could see Jace’s face more clearly now as Colton’s humongous form was no longer obscuring him. I bit my lips to stop the tears of guilt from making their way known. Thick, red blood was oozing out of the multiple cuts and there were several dark blue patches concealing his tanned skin. His clothes were ripped into shreds, doing nothing to hide the dark bruises and cuts.

He looked horrible.

A strong feeling of guilt washed over me as I drank in his beaten form, completely opposite to how he looked when he first came in. He was so full of energy and he was so alive, and now . . . he could barely stand up. He looked drained, so tired that he couldn’t even stand up straight.

“Colton, stop, please,” I whispered, my voice breaking in the middle.

Immediately, his body tensed up and he stopped punching the daylight out of Jason. I knew he’d forced himself to stop because he heard the hurt and pain in my voice.

“Colton, please,” I said in a soft voice, barely inaudible. I was on the verge on crying and my voice reflected that. I sounded broken.

Colton punched Jason one last time in the jaw, receiving a crunch in return before dropping his body onto the floor like a pile of books. Struggling, Jason stood up but I could tell that he was about to drop anytime soon. Blood gushed out of his wounds as he, with as much effort as he could, tried to take a step forward. I winced as I took in the damage just on his face; swollen black eyes, blood cascading down from his nose onto his lips and a huge black bruise on his jaw.

“Jace, go home,” I ordered. I wasn’t asking; I was demanding. He needed help right away otherwise he was going to take a lot longer to heal than he was supposed to.

Jace gingerly looked at Colton, as if asking him for permission. But Colton didn’t do anything. Instead, he stood facing Jason with his back to me. But even with his back to me, I could tell that he was angry with how tensed his body seemed.