Shielding the Beast (discontinued)

Seventeen | Restraint

He protected her.

He restrained me for someone else.

My claws drag across the ground, leaving marks in the dirt.

Bastard. Bitch. Both of them.

Water runs down my arms, filling the minuscule, newly carved trenches. Rain pours down, splattering the mud around me. Thunder shakes the earth, distant lightning cracking the angry grey sky. My hair sops, a large strand plastered diagonally across my face. Not an inch of my skin is dry, and not a thread of my clothes are clean.

My insides scratch at themselves, the yearning to escape this body growing. The control held over my eyes begins to slip, the silver flooding my irises.

A threat. That's all I am to them. A liability they can't afford. A risk they won't take.

I want her cast back into the wild, Kaizer's words play through my head, like the fucking monster she is.

A monster. That label still exists. And it's still pegged on me, like a tattoo across my forehead.

The first people I've given a chance to, the first people I've not wanted to kill just for simply looking at me, and they're just like the rest of them.

But they're right. My presence here is nothing but a danger totem. I don't belong here and they don't want me here.

Not even Asher.

My only reason for staying here is gone. I've restrained myself for him. I've listened to their bitter words, and put my life on the line just by allowing these people to see my face. All for him. And now he's chosen his side.

A twig snaps, pulling me from my thoughts, audible even through the roaring of the storm.

Immediately I force the silver of my eyes into hiding once again, looking up to meet Asher with a sharp emerald gaze.

Before my mouth can form a response, he's running to me. Before my body can react, he's lifting me off the ground.

For only a second he holds me in his arms, for only a mere second do I let him. And then I push him away, breaking from his contact and stepping away with a bitter snarl.

The look in his eyes crushes me. In my chest, I can feel his heart break with the stinging feeling of rejection. The guilt of hurting him bites my guts once again, but this time it doesn't win. This time my irritation subsides it.

His hand grabs for mine, but my wrist is jerked away before he can grasp it.

I take another large step back, giving him a hard stare as if to challenge him.

His striking blue quickly turns to simmering gold, and his relief into vexation.

A growl comes from his chest, traveling up to his throat to stay. "Come. Here."

It's not a request, not a statement. It's a command-- one that doesn't encourage defiance. His charm is gone, and in its place is the Alpha his father thought he wasn't.

My feet don't move.

"You protected her," my voice is chilled, the surprise for his sudden change of attitude hidden.