The DarkNess Within Him | ✔

Chapter Thirty Six

Light fingertips brush away the satin lace material of my dress to the side to expose my collarbone while I squeeze my eyes shut and inhale deeply. Kian's intense yet subtle scent of pine and citrus invades my lungs at the same time his lips fully meet the hollow of my neck.

I keep my eyes sealed shut, Matthew's eyes completely burnt into my memory as I feel them terrorise me.

Despite the fact that my heart shatters in two at the realisation of what I have just done, I force myself to remain unmoving. I stand completely still.

I can't go back now.

It's a long wait. I expect to feel his canines pierce into my neck, causing me to scream in searing pain but I feel nothing. Absolutely nothing except a gentle kiss on my neck.

When he pulls away, I take a moment to myself before I open my eyes.

It's Kian's big brown eyes I see staring at me. His lips are a plump pink and then he shakes his head hard when he says, "I can't, won't do this."

Alpha Brian yanks his son's arm slightly, causing Kian to turn. I look at the two thin lines coated in blood that stretches from the middle of his cheek down to the side of his jaw. He looks at his son sternly and I understand that they're communicating in their respective minds.

Kian shakes his head adamantly and I watch Alpha Brian's eyes blaze the angriest shade of gold. A shade that is so startlingly familiar to Jayce's. It causes me to quiver slightly.

I am taken aback further when Kian screams, "I won't mark her!"

It echoes loudly and shocks me. I realise now that I always tagged him as a weakling. Despite him being the first son of an Alpha, I never really saw the Alpha blood in him. I only saw a pushover. A gentle person. Seeing this side to him shocks me into silence and rounded eyes of inquisition emerge.

"You will!" Alpha Brian grits out distastefully, his command a loud bellow when he stands to his full height. His waistcoat suddenly looks too tight for his body.

"I. Will. Not." Kian reiterates firmly and his words suddenly come out with a depth of anger that I've never heard from him.

This earns him a punch in the nose from his father.

His face flies to the side with brutal force and that's when my body regains its power. I rush to his side now, my eyes unable to narrow at Alpha Brian so I refuse to look at him. I just look at Kian. Blood runs in a slow line down the left side of his nose. When he turns, his eyes are their own lustreless black. His jaw twitches and his bicep in my hand is shaking.

Before anything he just walks away, rushing out of my house to outside. The door bangs loudly when he slams it and Alpha Brian makes moves to go after him but I quickly grab hold on his arm just in time. The muscles are taut and I know that only a miracle will keep him from shifting if he goes after his son.

His turn to look at me is sharp, eyes deadly but he calms to a degree when he feels my hand wrapping around his.

"Leave him," I speak, my words louder than expected. "You can't force him to mark me. It's his choice, not ours."

Through narrowed eyes of gold, Alpha Brian says, "I'm his Alpha and father, he will do as he's told."

I narrow my own eyes. "Well, he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do. He doesn't want this." I pause, not wanting to add 'and neither do I'. I realise at this moment that Matthew is right behind us. He saw everything. He's seeing everything.

I refuse to turn afraid that his sight will knock what's left of my impoverished will right out of me.

Alpha Brian's sudden movement in my hand has my thoughts realigning themselves.