Chapter 12
I felt as if all of my muscles had a cramp in them. I could barely peel open my eyes to look around Hayden's room, it hurt so bad. Stretching through my body's screams of protest, I stood up and managed to walk downstairs where I found Gemma walking in through the front door.
She smiled widely, "Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing," I shrugged and even the simplest movement had me wanting to curl up and never move again. Thankfully, she couldn't tell.
"Cool," She glances down at her phone and back up at me, "Hayden is out doing Alpha business so he should be back within the hour. I'll be upstairs trying to coax Olivia out of bed. Wanna join?"
I chuckled, "As inviting as it sounds, I'll have to pass."
She laughs and starts up the stairs, "Your loss!"
As soon as she's all the way up, I silently creep over to the back door where I strip my clothes and toss them out of the house. Without a sound, I exit the house and stand beside my pile of clothes. Closing my eyes, I felt my body make the natural shift from my human form to my wolf.
My pitch black, large wolf.
The second I shifted, I could feel the tenseness in my muscles begin to evaporate. Gripping my clothes in my teeth and being careful not to tear them, I took off at a trot down a worn path through the woods that surrounded Hayden's house.
It feels so good to finally be able to run. It had been a week since I last shifted to fight that rogue, but that wasn't enough. I didn't even get to run-- it was a quick shift and wasn't a long enough time to please the animistic side of me.
Picking up my pace, I was sprinting now, enjoying the feeling of the wind bristling through my fur. Something in the back of my mind continued to pester me, but I blocked it out. I was having a peaceful run right now; nothing was going to ruin my serene moment.
Well, nothing except for an ear splitting howl that made my heart clench.
The nagging in the back of my mind hit me full force like a wall of bricks-- Hayden.
He thinks we left him, my wolf informs me as I skid to a halt. He let out a roar and I was shocked I could hear it from this far. Shifting back to my human form, I slipped on my clothes, my muscles feeling loose as ever.
Mentally swearing a string of words that not even a sailor would know, I began sprinting back to the house. After about a fifteen minute run, I slowed to a jog as I reached the backyard. Chad stumbled out of the back door, scratches on his arms and his eye was currently harboring a black eye.
I gasped, "Chad-- di-did Hayden--"
"You'd better go in there and calm him down," He suggests, his voice and face stoic.
"I'm sorry, this is all my fault," I tell him, pausing next to him as I pass him to go into the house.
He shrugged, "We were getting spoiled."
My eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?"
Chad remained nonchalant throughout the whole thing, "Well, he'd normally get set off by the littlest things. It stopped as soon as you showed up. He was bound to go off again, though."
My breath hitched and I couldn't see straight. Him hitting Gemma the other day wasn't a one time thing. He hurt all of his pack all of the time. Bile rose up in my throat but I held it down, nodding curtly to Chad before cautiously opening the back door and walking through the dining room and kitchen to get to the living room.
Well, you couldn't recognize it as the living room.
The coffee table was in pieces, the couch was completely ripped and torn to shreds. There was a crack in the TV as if someone had punched it out of anger. Picture frames on the walls were tilted crookedly, there was broken glass littering the floor.
Eyes wide from shock, I took in a deep breath and tried to settle myself down. Following his scent, I checked his office.
Books were strewn all over the place, a lamp lay shattered on the ground and papers covered the floor. There were several spots of pools of blood in the office and there were fingerprints on the desk, like someone had gripped it so hard and left an impression.
Leaving the room, I tried upstairs; specifically his bedroom.
The bed was stripped plain, the wooden posts that normally stuck up on all four corners of the king-sized bed were cracked and on the floor. His bookshelf was tilting and the books were littering the floor. The blankets and pillows were torn and shredded on the ground. There were claw marks that scraped off the paint on the wall next to the bathroom door. Drops of blood splattered the wall there.
What concerned me most, though, was Hayden, who sat on the bed with his hands in his head, blood splattering his face, arms and chest.
"H-Hayden?" I offered meekly.
His head snapped over to look at me, a livid expression on his face, though his eyes remained dark and cold. He growled at me, taking me aback, "I thought you left."
I stumbled over my words, "I-I h-had to g-go for a-a run."
"You mean you were running away!" He bellows, standing up, meaning to be accusatory but it wasn't spoken as a question.
Furiously, I shook my head, telling him he was wrong and I wasn't running away, "I just needed to go for a run, to stretch my legs."
"Liar," He snarled, taking a step towards me.
"I'm not lying!" I shouted at him, snapping.
He growled slamming me into the wall, pinning my hands above my hand, tightly gripping my wrists-- gripping them so hard that they were beginning to hurt. I tried to wriggle out, but that was a bad move on my past. He pressed on my wrists harder, his eyes fully black and his face only angry, and that's when I realized his wolf had fully taken control of him.
Closing my eyes, I tried to calm myself down first, taking in a deep breath and then exhaling slowly. I cracked open my eyes and looked up into Hayden's cold, dark, empty eyes and spoke soothingly, in a soft and quiet voice, "Hayden, I know you're in there, please calm down. Take control, please. Hayden, you're hurting me, please."
My voice cracked at the end and tears escaped from my eyes, dripping down my cheeks. His claws had extended, embedding into my flesh.
Slowly, tortuously slowly, the expression dropped off of his face and his eyes regained their normal color. In a flash, he let go of my wrists and I slid down the wall, cradling them to my chest, not looking up at him. They were healing, but it hurt so much more because it was my own mate that did this to me.
Not even bothering to comfort me, he swore and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him, making me jump.
Leaning my head back against the wall, I let the flood gates break as the tears streamed freely but silently down my face.
Oh well for changing to make me choose him.
~
a/n: so... what do you guys think of Hayden's little flip out?? Well, not really little... but you get the gist ;)
QUICK QUESTION: Would you be interested in a chapter from Hayden's point of view? Let me know what you think in the comments.
I'm updating today (Tuesday) instead of the normal day (Thursday) because I'm busy this week, but the next update will be next Thursday as scheduled. :)
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