BLACK

(29) Agony

EDITED

-Oren-
PART TWO

"Cassandria."

The short girl turns, green eyes squinting with confusion at me. "Alpha."

Her neck and hair were still sweaty, her clothes still stunk from the ring she had just left, and she squeezed her hair into a bun with no shame in the shine under her armpits.

"I assume you have questions."

"Where is she?" Black isn't calm as he yells this, a foot away from her. His fists are rock solid at his sides, waiting to lash out at anything. Noire wasn't there when he returned, crazily enough, so he followed her scent all the way to Cassandria and nothing bothered him more than this.

"Noire," Cassandria states. "Just left. Back to the trailer, you're welcome."

This starts to calm Black, and he finally stops seeing the red spots in his vision. His body starts to cool down, and his knuckles uncurl.

'Don't tell me she fought.' Black retracts to his abilities to keep from yelling any further. His logic and reason are lost, resorting to the only certain communication he was guaranteed of her hearing.

"You worry too much—"

'Tell me.'

"No," Cassandria sighs. "Noire did not fight, nor did she have any trouble at all."

'What did she want?'

Her left cheek twitches, and she moves around in her loft to wipe her neck with the towel again. "Advice."

'Really.' Black glares. 'What kind of advice?'

"Take a guess." Spitfire.

'I have a million.'

Rolling her eyes, Cassandria straightens her back. "Your shift this morning just spooked her. She needed comfort, so I gave it to her."

Lightly growling, Black says, 'That wouldn't be enough to make her walk two and a half miles. I've seen her writing things, do you know about this?'

Her head shakes, "No."

'You're a good liar, but you know how much that makes our relationship difficult. I want the truth this time, the real reason she came to you, and the reason I can smell her scent on those envelopes on your desk.'

It takes seconds of silence for Cassandria to finalize her thoughts. "Noire confided to me in confidence, and I can't betray her like this. How exactly would you feel, Alpha, if I told her everything you stress about every time you come after me?"

'No lies.' Black leaves no room for negotiations.

Cassandria sighs. "She wanted to leave you."

My hand stung so deeply I felt it even as I wasn't in control. A hole pushed the wooden planks in the wall until they broke through the other side, blood already started to drip down my wrist. Black's chest heaved up and down rapidly, Cassandria no longer in view as we stared at the wall with that returning, rich irritation.

"But I talked her out of it," Cassandria talks over the ringing through my ears. "She's not going to. Like I said, your shift this morning just gave her cold feet."

Slowly, Black removed his fist from the hole in the wall.  Turning back around,
his chest regained a normal breathing habit. In his heated vision, Cassandria comes into view with the same towel from her neck, but the gesture was outspoken. Taking Black's clenched fist into her hands, she gently wipes the blood with the damp towel, the salt from the sweat a second stinging reminder.